Inquiry 3

Google Maps- Lesson Plan Idea

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My Lesson Plan:

I will be setting up a Global Scavenger Hunt for my second graders at Hiawatha Elementary School in Okemos. I will give each student his/her own "map" and then they will have to follow the directions on the map in order to see all of the sites in the scavenger hunt. Students' maps may not all look the same as they have choices for some of the destinations in the hunt. Here is an example of the map that each student will receive.

1.) Find our starting point on your google map: your school, Hiawatha Elementary in Okemos, Michigan.

2.) From Okemos bring your camera along and go take a picture of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France! Learn how to say "hello" in French while your here!!

3.) For your next destination, bundle up and go to a place where you think penguins live! Write about an interesting fact about penguins in your travel journal.

4.) After visiting with the penguins, put on some sunscreen and head over to any island in the world. How do you know that this place is an island?? What is the name of the place that you are at?

5.) Your last destination should be where you think you will find Pyramids. What do the pyramids look like? Draw a picture of what you see in your travel journal!



I think that this activity will be beneficial in that it allows for students to explore the geography of the world. They have the opportunity to choose their own countries to visit at times, but will also have to follow a few directions to arrive at a certain destination on the map, as well. This type of activity is helpful in allowing a child see how they fit in globally, and also to explore places they are interested about around the world. I also created lines on my map that show the direction from place to place. On the last trip from an island to the pyramids, I left the line off so that students can try and figure out the path on their own.

For gifted students I can ask them to tell me directions they traveled (east, west, south, north) or even give them prompts about latitude and longitude.

Students will all be able to follow my example map, but will then make a google map of their own. They will have a "travel journal" with them so that they can write down their experiences at each destination and also draw pictures of what they see.

Students that may struggle with this activity may use the Internet as a search guide. For example, if a student doesn't know what type of climate that penguins live in...they may use a search engine such as google to do some quick research in order to figure out where to travel for their scavenger hunt.

Inquiry 3 thoughts and today's activities

Today I was fortunate to attend some technology seminars put on by the Year 2 students here at Plymouth. They were great and very informative! Today I learned how to make an iPortfolio, how to incorporate gaming into my lessons, and also how to use Jive to do some screen capturing. Overall, it was a great day and I feel that I learned so much about different technologies that I can use in my classroom next year!

My thoughts about my inquiry #3 project are still in the process of developing fully, but I'm pretty sure I have an idea of what I want to do. I am focusing on the aspect of freedom within the UK culture compared to the US culture. I think its very interesting how some individuals in the UK that I've noticed have a seemingly carefree lifestyle; a seemingly large sense of freedom. The US is known as being "the land of the free" yet our lifestyles in America reflect that of regiment, routine, being quick-paced, and more restricted than of the UK lifestyle. This even seems apparent to me in the few schools that I observed. The schooling is reflected primarily on the students' choice (mostly in secondary school). There are numerous routes that a student can take if academics isn't for them, for example, they can always choose a vocational route in their schooling. I have also noticed other various activities, like tombstoning, teens are able to do these dangerous jumps without being reprimanded by their parents. It's a very interesting contrast to America where teens are seemingly constantly being monitored by their parents.

From what I've noticed, the UK has a more laid back lifestyle compared to the US. I'm anxious to look further into my experiences here on this trip to reflect on this concept for my project.


Cheers,
Tara

Scavenger Hunt

The scavenger hunt that I did in London was a fun and interesting experience. I'm glad we had this activity to force ourselves to branch out of the "touristy" parts of London and see the other smaller areas. What I saw from this activity is that these smaller areas are just as important and interesting as the large more populated areas of London. Here is what I found:

1. Royalty: When asked to find something that represented royalty in London, I knew that the easy picture would be something related to Buckingham Palace. I actually saw what would be my picture on the "Original Bus Tour". It's a picture of a hotel that was once double in size than its current height. The reason why it is half as small now is because the Queen didn't want a hotel to be taller than her room in Buckingham Palace. So the men building the hotel made it smaller in order to satisfy the queen. What was interesting to me was that no one even questioned making the hotel smaller, because no one wanted to upset the Queen.

2. A couple hours in the park: I spent some time at a park in Westminster and sat on a bench to observe people in the park. I saw a variety of activities. Lots of families were picnicking (it was a perfect day for it) and spending time with each other. There were also many people reading and even taking naps on the benches. What I also found interesting was that there was a small stage set up inside of the park with lounge chairs all around it so that live music could be enjoyed by park goers. I took a picture of the bench that I was sitting on while I observed people.

3. Favorite Lunch: I had lunch at a small cafe within the park that I spent a couple hours at. It was a very cozy and scenic place. The backside of the cafe faced the Thames river while the inside was within the Westminster Park. Many people recommended this cafe for a relaxing lunch, and it definitely was. I especially enjoyed the feeling of being at "home" while I was there. Once I ordered my food (a "jacket potato") I was given a wooden spoon with a number on it. This was for the wait staff so they would know where to deliver my food. The wooden spoons gave me a feeling of being at home at my grandmother's house. I loved it. I took a picture of these spoons.

4. Children: From what I saw, the children in the London area aren't very different from the children in the US (as far as activities go). I took a picture of a group of children on a merry-go-round; a sort of "touristy" activity.

5. Class and Culture: I took a picture of a newspaper stand to depict what I saw of diversity in the city of Greenwich. The newspaper stand sold about 10 different newspapers all in a different language. I thought this was an excellent depiction of the mix of cultures within just one town.

6. Technology: I took a picture of a sign that read "Easy Internet Cafe" to show how technology was used in London. These Internet cafes were frequently found on the streets of London. I thought these were great as it allowed people who maybe don't have a computer to stay connected at these cafes.


Overall it was a great experience!!!


Cheers,
Tara

Scavenger Hunt

London Weekend

My weekend here in London has been packed as I haven't had a lot of time to see everything. Needless to say though, London is completely amazing.

Today was probably the best day. I went inside the Tower of London and saw the Crown Jewels; which were SUPER impressive. After that I went to Abbey Road and actually walked down the crosswalk!! Just knowing that I was where the Beatles had been was enough to make me freak out and act like a total tourist. After Abbey Road....oh wait I forgot! In the morning today I saw the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. What a spectacle!!! I took lots of great videos and pictures, they should be posted here soon!

Tonight I saw Wicked- which was of course amazing. The show included a free two course meal at a really fancy restaurant, too! After the dinner and show some girls and I walked back down to see Big Ben on the Thames River one last time. Everything was lit up and Big Ben reminded me of the scene in Peter Pan when they all fly off to Neverland. We sat there on a bench in front of it and just took it all in. As we were sitting there I heard some girl singing with an acoustic guitar. She had an absolutely amazing voice. I ended up talking to her for a while and bought her CD. She's from Brazil and totally rocks. Her name is Carla Peccorelli. What a great souvenir, eh?

Tomorrow morning we only have a couple of hours before we have to catch a train back home so we're going to stay close by our dorm and finish up some souvenir shopping.Gosh, I've done so much this weekend its so hard to write it all down here!I

finally worked up the courage to ride the London Eye. The London Eye is a HUGE 450 foot tall ferris wheel that overlooks Big Ben and the Thames River. I took pictures from the top....from my seat... where I was clutching the arm rests until I had white knuckles. But alas- I survived to tell the tale here on my blog! Yay me!

I also rode one of those cool double decker tour buses. We sat on the top level (which is all open without a roof) and got a great tour of London. I got most of my pictures from this experience.

London is such an amazing city. It's SO diverse. We watched a bunch of people underneath the London Eye playing songs or juggling or breakdancing. The air is also so full of soot that it turns your white shirts grey. I also blew my nose today and found a lot of black boogies from the soot, yuck.

Alright, I should be getting to bed now. I have to wake up early again for a long journey back to Plymouth tomorrow.

Cheers,

Tara

Inquiry 2

Inquiry 2:
inquiry2.mp3

Tamarside Community College

Hey it was a sunny day today!!!! It's a miracle, hehe!

Today I got to observe at Tamarside Community College (which is really a high school). It was a really interesting experience. All of the teachers were great and so were the students. I spent about a half hour talking to an 8th grade class-pretty much having a Q&A with them about things they wanted to know about America. The questions were pretty ridiculous, ha ha:

"Have you ever seen anyone get shot?"

"Do you know any movie stars?"

"Do you live by Run DMC?"

It was a blast talking with these kids, and I hope they learned some things about America; maybe I even cleared up some stereotypes or common disbeliefs! The kids were great today. I had a blast. Seeing these schools makes me consider teaching abroad one day in the future...I don't know- but it's been running through my mind as of late.

After being at the high school all day then having class, I decided that I needed a shopping break with Kailey. It was lots of fun and I got a lot of cute clothes. The clothes here are way more fashionable than back at home!

Alright, I have to get working on some homework!! I will blog tomorrow-though it might be kinda late because tomorrow night is "80's Prom" with all of the MSU people here! It should be great fun! I'll keep ya posted!

Cheers,
Tara

PS. The picture is of me touching the waters at Bath! I'm a rebel, what can I say? :)

Phew what a day! The day started at about 5:30am. Everyone in my group took a 3 hour bus ride to see Stonehenge. It was awesome! The only downfall to the day was the TORRENTIAL downpour that never stopped. The pictures seemed to come out okay though, so that was good news!

Stonehenge was better than what I expected. Just knowing that where I stood today was where so much history has happened was insane to me. It was so rainy when I got there that I dropped my camera on the cement in front of Stonehenge but no worries it still works fine!

It's so crazy how all of those stones got there. It's still kind of debated as to how they did but that's the cool part! It was a very mysterious place. I also learned that across the field from Stonehenge are a bunch of massive grave sites. It was just a crazy very rememberable experience.

After Stonehenge we drove another hour to the city of Bath. Bath is where the Romans used to ...well bathe. It was kind of like a huge social gathering place for them. The city was full of buildings dating all the way back to the 1400s. It was amazing to see. The baths themselves were actually in really great condition. I took some great pictures and videos of them and even touched the water (even though I wasn't supposed to)! The water was really warm! Overall, it was a really great day. It's so hard to explain my experiences at these places because they are just so historic and incredible...it's very hard to explain it when I could hardly believe I was standing there myself!

Tomorrow I will be observing a high school class in Plymouth. Should be pretty interesting!! I also have to get some work on my second project done so my blogs today and tomorrow will probably be a little shorter than normal!
I hope everyone had a great day!

Cheers,

Tara

Day 9: Flowers and Bumble Bees

Hello!

Sadly, today was my last day at Chaucer Elementary. It was such an amazing experience to be able to step inside a school in another country and be able to compare/contrast it to schools back home in America. I have learned so much from this experience!

I participated in a fourth grade classroom today and learned a new way how to teach children how to divide called "chunking". Here is an example:

24 divided by 3=?

-ask yourself "how many lots of 3 will go into 24"?

-a child may guess 7 lots of 3.

-you then multiply 7 times 3 to equal 21

-you then subtract this 21 from 24 to get 3.

-then ask yourself "how many lots of 3 will go into 3?"

-then answer is 1

-1+7=8

-so 8 "lots" of 3 will go into 24

It's kind of confusing when it's written out like that. The vocab is also pretty different ("lots"). It's almost like the word "lots"="groups". Nevertheless, it was interesting to see the children try this method.

After my experience with the fourth graders I got to watch the end of the school year play put on by the k-2 grade levels. The play was great and the children were all dressed as flowers and bumble bees. The play was about acceptance, and being friends with everyone. It was very cute!

I had a great experience at Chaucer and I wish we had more time there. The students were so polite and well mannered. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly as well. It will be interesting to see how my experience at the high school (community college) compares to this!

Tomorrow is the Bath/Stonehenge trip. I can't wait!!

Cheers,

Tara

Chaucer Elementary

Getting the opportunity to visit Chaucer Elementary School today was such a great experience. I really didn't know what to expect before I went to the school but there were definitely both some striking differences and also some similarities to US schools.

There are only 7 classes at Chaucer with 7 empty rooms in the building. A new Chaucer is currently being built and will be up and running by next September. The morning began with an assembly with the whole school present. The principle talked about sports and the importance of coaches. The children all raised their hands and said why a coach is important to athletes. The whole school then said a prayer and thanked God for giving them coaches in the world to help athletes stay mentally and physically strong.

The second grade classroom that I was a part of was a great experience! The children were SO polite and well mannered. They held a "hot seat" session in which they asked me questions about what schooling was like in America and any other questions that they had. We all had a very fun time with it and the children were very interested in what I had to say. Especially the part about how US children don't have to wear uniforms to school. One boy, Jai, had a particular question for me that I thought was funny. He asked me if I spoke English. I said of course I do that's why we're talking right now and understanding each other. Then he was like "I don't think you do because you sound funny."

Hilarious.


The day was an overall great experience and I'm so glad that I had this opportunity. I can't wait to go back tomorrow and see the school play that they are putting on!


Cheers,
Tara

Inquiry Project 1- Tombstoning/Teen Culture

Tintagel Castle

So if you want to know how I spent my day today I only went back in time to a medieval castle to see where King Arthur was supposedly born.Needless to say...my day was AWESOME.

Tintagel Castle is nestled in the small village of Tintagel, England. In order to get there we had to take a train, then a taxi, then walk about 1,000 stairs up towards the castle. You might think that this is crazy, but it was SO worth it. I'll start with the train ride...

So the train was a cool "Harry Potter-esque" experience as we boarded at "Platform 4". The trains go really high into the air here in England and you find yourself going through bunches of trees that form a canopy over top of the train (almost like a tunnel made of BRIGHT green leaves). Once you make it out of these tunnels you have a panoramic view of the rooftops of England. It was an amazing sight.

Once we got to Bodington Parkway we took a taxi to Tintagel. Our taxi driver was a very nice old man who told us all about the culture of England. Apparently the taxi drivers must go through 2 years of training in order to have superb depth perception on the roads. This is extremely important because the roads are SO small in width and are winding paths in between about 7foot high hedges. It was definitely an adventure. Namely the part when we were stuck in the middle of the road because a herd of cows had broken through. It was nuts! The video was too good to not put it on here!

Once we got to the castle we had to walk (like I already said) about 1,000 steps. It was extremely tiring but once we got to the top of the "castle" (small parts of the castle walls are all that remain now) we got an AMAZING view of the ocean and coast of England, It's easily the most beautiful landscape I've ever seen.From the top of the castle we could see these caves along the shore down below and decided to venture down into them. They were called "Merlin's Caves" and MAN was it an adventure. You can only get to it if the tide is low, and lucky for us it was. Inside the cave was what you would expect...dripping, darkness, and crazy birds that were mad at us for being in there so far. It was an experience I'll never forget.After seeing all of the sights in the caves, shore, and castle we finally climbed ALLLLL the way back up to where the main town was. We went into a pub dating back to the 14th century called "Ye Olde Malthouse" to get out of the rain. We then had the same taxi driver drive us back to the train station and we finally just got home to Plymouth.It was an amazing day. I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it was. I'll post a picture on here, but I doubt it will give the place any justice.

Tomorrow is my first day at the elementary school!!!! I'll let you know about that tomorrow! Until then..

Cheers!

Tara

Fourth of July Weekend!

Happy fourth of July!!


So far it's been a great weekend. Friday night was great as I got to socialize with some of the MSU students here and even meet some new people from England. I met one man in particular who lives and was born in London. I figured I would ask him about great things to see and do there since we will be going there next weekend! I was surprised that he suggested rather "touristy" places to see like the London Eye and the Tower of London. He then told me that if I really want to experience London I should see a football match. I think I'll have to do more research still about activities to do because from what I hear from the locals, the football matches can get PRETTY rowdy!

Today was some pretty awful weather. It rained hard all day and was very windy. Since our planned trip to Tintagel didn't pan out (climbing 100 steep steps up towards a castle sounded a little dangerous to us in this weather), we decided venture around the city of Plymouth. I went to Drake Circus to see how the shopping experience was here. This was particularly interesting for me because back in Michigan I work at a mall. It was very interesting to compare the customer service here to back home. It's strange that sales associates rarely greet customers when entering the stores here in Plymouth. Back at home this is a very important aspect of my job. The sizes were another thing to get used to. Apparently I have a size 5 shoe and am a 10 in tops.

I've also noticed that in credit and debit cards here in England there is a chip embedded in it. There is a machine used at the cash register in which the bottom half of your card is scanned instead of having to swipe your card through. Every time I bought something today I had to explain that my card didn't have a chip in it and that it needed to be swiped because I am from the US.

Walking around today reminded me of how expensive things truly are here as compared to back home. It's interesting to talk to people here about how the US is having rising gas prices. They laugh about how we are complaining about the price of our gas while their gas here is nearly $10 a gallon!


I feel like I've learned so much on this trip already, and I can't wait until next week when I will get to go into the Elementary Schools!


Cheers,
Tara

Socializing with the locals

Today was a great day! I finally got some GREAT videos and pictures of the tombstoners and even got to talk to a few of them. It's funny that when I was interviewing them, they thought I was from Australia for some reason.

I found out that the cops really don't do anything about tombstoning, aside from posting signs warning them of the "danger of death". The wet suits are worn because of the shock of the water is so intense (both the temperature and force of the water hitting your skin). They jump everyday apparently. I still have yet to find out what their parents think about them jumping.

Later on in the evening a few girls from class and I went to a local pub in Plymouth. We ending up spending about 5 hours chatting with some locals, who were great! We talked so much about how our culture and their culture compares and I feel we all learned a lot from each other. One of the guys we were talking to had even tombstoned before and was telling me all about that. He said the adrenalin rush is the greatest feeling ever; that's why so many kids do it.


Overall, I learned a lot about the English culture tonight and it was nice to finally sit down with some locals and finally have a heart -to-heart!

Cheers,
Tara

Digital Story Test

Tomb-Stoning

I was thinking about what aspect of the English culture that I would like to explore for my inquiry project 1 and I want to do something involving teenage British entertainment.

Before I came here I was under the impression that the pub consumed most of the entertainment for teens in England. I was unsure of what else that they did here for fun.

When I got to Plymouth, I've noticed so many different things that teens do for entertainment purposes; some have been very surprising.

The first major activity I've noticed is skateboarding. There are large groups of teens that skateboard by the sundial and around the shops. Right when school ends, it seems that they are there until sunset. I was fortunate enough to be walking back to the dorm today to see the massive crowds of teens that have just got done skateboarding for the day and was able to take some pictures.

The most interesting thing I have seen in relation to teen entertainment has been tomb-stoning. I heard about it on the first day here and saw the warning signs posted all along the coast, but today I actually got to SEE it happen.

I was walking along the coast taking pictures this evening just before sunset when I noticed a bunch of teens in wet suits running past me. I decided to be touristy and followed them with my camera to a large rock that hung over the water. There were probably 20 kids ranging from ages 8-late teens that were standing atop these cliffs and jumping off into the water!! I couldn't believe it. Not only were the cliffs very high in the air, but the diver had to be sure to miss the jagged rocks lining the bottom of the cliff. I took pictures as these kids jumped off into the water. It was an amazing/scary/thrilling sight to see.

I can't wait to incorporate this into my project and to see if I can talk to some of these people!!


cheers,
Tara

That's "chips" not "fries"

This is my first post of my MSU study abroad trip in Plymouth, UK!!


I can't believe that on only my second day here I feel as if I have learned so much about British culture and what it's like abroad. Overall, the people here have been extremely polite and well-mannered. There isn't a day that I don't hear a "Cheers" or a " 'Ere you go love". I can't help but compare the kind people here to my road rage-filled, workaholic, fellow Americans back at home.

A man I met at a pub even explained to me some of the rules of "football" during one of the games the other night. Overall, it's been a very enriching experience.

One thing that I've noticed that is especially different from America is the food. It's sometimes hard to keep the lingo here straight. For example:

Chips=French Fries
Crisps=Chips
Bangers=Sausage
Mash=Mashed Potato's
Tomato Sauce=Ketchup (which seems to be very scarce here as compared to America. They literally only give you one small packet per meal!)


For last night's dinner I ordered my first official "Fish'n'Chips" from Plymouth. It was a lot different than I expected. First of all the fish was absolutely HUGE and laid atop an enormous plate of fries. I took a bite of the fish and thought it tasted really strong. I'm not sure how to describe it- but I'm sure this is what fish'n'chips is supposed to taste like and I am just used to the bad version of it back in the States. In the end I could only stretch my one ketchup packet for so long and couldn't finish my meal. It was a good experience, though. Even if I did get teased a bit by the couple sitting next to me about how I say the word "tomato", ha.


Until tomorrow, Cheers!


Tara