Conference about Argentine history

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Just to follow the American trend, in the morning I bought tickets “on line” to travel by AMTRAK to the VATESOL Conference in Fredericksburg, Virginia, next  Friday.

In the afternoon, we attended a lecture delivered by Dr. Cristina Scheibe Wolff, a Brazilian Fulbrighter who is investigating about gender resistance and the struggle for memory in the countries of the Southern Cone, in which Argentina is included. After that,  our Methodology course, as every Wednesday, started.

Social Security numbers

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

In the morning, part of our group was taken to an office of the state of Maryland to get our Social Security Numbers. This is a state requirement due to the fact that we are getting a grant from the U.S. government and it must be carefully documented. In the following days a Social Security card will be delivered to us. In that office I came across a notice urging people to get on line instead of going to the office, yes, here everything is “on line”.

I got a package with some personal stuff from Argentina this afternoon, it took a week to get here, and during this week I was able to trace the stages the package went through, of course “on line”.

Positive interviews

Monday, September 27, 2010

The day started with rain again and we set off for school very early in morning, once at school, a series of interviews alternated with classes. Joyce, my mentor, had prepared me a busy schedule for the day, and I was able to interview some teachers, some interns and Paul Gordon, a person who is conducting an investigation about the parents of students at MLK school  who are immigrants and non native speakers. One of the main issues here  is to help them to be able to learn what  is going on at school because, sometimes, they cannot understand English and consequently they are not fully involved in the education of their children.

Interviews were very positive because this face to face interaction gave me the possibility to learn about teachers´ different points of view about technology used at school and the role of the principal of the school  who fully promotes the use of it.

Nothing special

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Today the day was rainy and reading was  the best option available, in the afternoon some walking along Baltimore Avenue.

Attending classes plus a "moonlight tour"

Saturday, September 25, 2010

This Saturday was not a usual one, very early in the morning we departed from Mazza to attend a class in Benjamin at UMD, really it was a meeting between Dr. Roberta Lavine and her group of students who are presently working at schools in Montgomery  and Prince George´s Counties. These people are Spanish and French teachers, so they shared  their experiences with us working as Teachers to speakers of other languages. This characteristic matched our role as Teachers of English in Argentina due to the fact that in the States they teach a  language that is not used as a second  but as a foreign language. It was a valuable opportunity to exchange mails for future surveys related to my capstone project and to learn about  useful sites that they use to teach  English.

After this meeting, the group participated in a videoconference with an Argentine artist who delivered a lecture on Visual Arts about reading images.

 Before leaving the campus, a magnificent view of the stadium caught our attention, the Terrapins were playing American football surrounded by the  wonderful display of a band and multiple performances. 

 

 Later this night, eight of us took a “Moonlight Tour” of Washington, parting from Union Station and visiting the most famous buildings of the city, which were amazingly displayed under the light of the moon and some of them beautifully mirrored  in the reflecting pools, lakes  or rivers  surrounding them. 

Friday´s seminar

Friday, September 24, 2010

This morning as every Friday, we had our weekly seminar and  the whole group met again after so many days of individual work. This time Dr. G. was not present, so Letitia took the lead and made clear some technical issues related to a required social security number, fingerprinting and other bureaucratic  demands. This  morning Dr. Jennifer Turner presented her research about Cross curricular learning in K- 12 schools within the U.S. She urged us to be    aware of reading  material that is supposed to promote mutual understanding including characters that emphasize stereotypes. This fact  may  segregate even more classmates that belong to different cultures. Interestingly, she proposed to involve the students into interactive activities at the beginning of each class to reduce the lack of communication between teammates.

Capstone meeting

Thursday, September 23, 2010

At 1 p.m. I had a meeting with my mentor about the progress of my Capstone project. Roberta suggested me to come on Saturday morning and meet a group of advanced students who are conducting research because they are working in two different counties, Prince George´s and Montgomery. They could supply valuable information about the use of technology in their schools.

"This I believe"

Wednesday, September  22, 2010

In the morning we had a study group meeting in the backyard at Mazza and we discussed with Marnie, the Thai girl, about some  topics for the Methodology course. At 5 p.m. we attended the course as usual, this time we were asked for next class to prepare an activity called “This I believe” which is taken from a radio program. You are supposed to record for a few minutes what you think about something  that you strongly believe.

Fall day

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Spring day in Argentina, but Fall day in the States. All the red flowers of the big "M" at the entrance of the university were replaced by yellow ones.

MLK Middle School TV presentation

Monday, September 20, 2010

Another day at Martin Luther King Middle School.  This morning at 9, our activities started  with a personal introduction to the school  through a close circuit  TV presentation, after  that, a five-hour tour of different classes started and we observed a variety of teachers at work, I also had the possibility to help them and participate in many activities assigned to students. The day ended with a meeting with our mentors to discuss the experience of the day.

Philadelphia

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Today,  part of our group, eleven of us,  departed very early in the morning to Philadelphia, the city that gave birth to the  American nation. We travelled for about two hours by bus, from Chinatown in Washington to Chinatown in Philadelphia, once there, a city tour on a double-decker bus, under a nice Summer sun, made us enjoy a wonderful historical city. The new high-scrapers full of glass and the old red brick houses intermingled with beautifully arranged and colorful parks.

   

A particular party

Friday, September 17, 2010

At 9 a.m. as usual,  we had a weekly seminar about the experiences we went through during the week. This morning we discussed about  “Cooperative learning”, a  strategy that is very much used nowadays to improve learners confidence and consequently to promote better understanding of a subject by means of peer interaction. I had the chance to tell the other scholars about my video conference with my students in Argentina which was held on the previous Wednesday.

After  the meeting,  it was necessary to top up our phone account so  it required a trip to Cricket store, next to Target on Greenbet Avenue. After that I and my roommates bought some beer and wine at a “liquor store”, for the oncoming party at night.

So at 6 p.m. everything was ready for this particular meeting, everybody, including the people from AED, the UMD staff, some people from Mazza and our international group, went on  a tour that started in our apartment with some beer, continued  in the other  apartments downstairs with international dishes and finished in the backyard of Mazza, obviously,  with international desserts.

A successful video conference

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Today , very early in the morning, I was able to have a video conference with my students from ESNº5 in Argentina. Everything has been arranged  beforehand with Tota, the Spanish teacher, who was very eager to achieve this communication. So at 8.30 am of Argentina, one hour earlier in the States, we were connected. Students and teachers were there waiting for the new technology to come into action and I was able to greet them and describe the pictures that are included in  my blog: http//datinmaryland.blogspot.com. Everything was a success and they were delighted  with the event.

This morning, a new printer was installed for us in our room at UMD so now printing will provide us with new resources for our tasks.

In the evening, our course on Methodology was again  very dynamic and productive.

As usual...

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Literature course in the evening as every Tuesday.

First full day at MLK Middle School

Monday, September 13, 2010

Fist full day at MLK Middle School, we took the 86 bus to the North  and after a  fifteen minutes ride we got off and walked along Ammendale Road, bordering the woods, for fifteen minutes more. In the school, Ms. Debbie and Ms. Jennings were waiting for the three of us, Sergio, Raj and me. We were assigned to different courses and different teachers to have a wide perspective of the way they work at school. After four hours observing teachers and students, it was a good opportunity to compare our schools in Argentina to this public school in The U.S. Of course this is the first impression we got, I would like to enumerate some features that were particularly noticeable.

-Students go to the teacher´s rooms which is identified with numbers. The teacher has  his/her own place and the place is arranged and decorated according to the teacher´s subject.

-The room is quite big and classes are not numerous.

-When  students go into their classrooms,  they are welcome on screen because they have close circuit television and after a patriotic poem they are reported  on the events of the day by other students in charge of the TV program for that day.

-Any special announcement is heard in the same classroom by means of loudspeakers.

-Every classroom has a computer, sometimes more than one, and an LCD projector very much used by the teacher to correct exercises on the screen.

-On the board, the teacher always states the goal of the day and the warm up activity, which in Language Arts is usually fifteen  minutes reading a book of their choice and a short

after-reading  activity.

-Students do not talk to each other unless they are asked to interact with their peers to carry out an activity proposed by the teacher.

At four we left the school, fortunately this school is one of the PDS (Professional Developing Schools and there many interns working there, so one of them picked us up to our apartments.

As it was not late yet, Prince George Plaza ( a huge shopping center  with Macy´s and J.C. Penny department stores) was the new finding of the day.

Rainy and disconnected day

Sunday, September 12,  2010

Today is the first day in three weeks that is raining, so a trip to the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts to see a Mexican Show was cancelled. Something curious happened today, we do not know whether as a consequence of the rain or not but access to Internet collapsed. The only alternative to Skype home was Starbucks Café, next to Shoppers.

Argentine supplies

Wine from Mendoza and yerba Rosamonte

Saturday, September 11, 2010

9/11 is a particular day for the Americans and the world of course, the president Obama addressed the Americans from the Pentagon, and you can observe that the flag is not on top of the pole today . On television you can see that the victims of 9/11 are remembered  all over the country.

Meanwhile we embarked on a new exploratory trip! We were told that somewhere around Washington there was an Argentine restaurant and a store where we could get some groceries and have our typical food. The place is called “El Patio” and is located near  Twinbrook Metro Station. After 20 days, it was the first time I had the opportunity to eat Argentine pizza.  In the picture you can see that I have bought some yerba and some wine from my country.

The big M

Friday,  September 10, 2010

The big M

This morning as usual we had a meeting with Dr. Greenberg  and his staff  to discuss about new experiences acquired during the week . During this meeting we also discussed the use of extra funding for professional development and the different possibilities we have to use up to 1000 if this is authorized by the UMD and AED. The money can be used to attend conferences and other events in or out Washington. We are considering several alternatives but we haven’t decided yet. The second part of the meeting was related to the development of the Capstone Project.

After that, Hornbake Library was our next move to borrow and watch the movie “Freedom Writers”,  that film about a teacher who had to deal with a hostile group of students and successfully found the way to involve her class in the writing of a book inspired by the diary of Anna Frank.

Today Best Buy opened a branch at College Park, there the prices of computers and all sorts of technological devices seem to be very attractive.

The Argentine Embassy

Thursday,  September 9, 2010

In the afternoon, we started a trip to Washington, changing from the green line to the red line, was not complicated, this time we visited the Argentine  Embassy not very far from Dupont Circle.

Second course

Wednesday,  September 8, 2010

Second seminar on Methodology, great course and very productive.

Reading day

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Hard work, Literature course in the afternoon and hard work.  Fortunately my Gmail account was restored and my blog is working again.

Labor Day, holiday

Monday, September 6, 2010

The activities for the day were submission of Literature homework plus walking around our neighborhood, along Hollywood street towards Rhode Island Avenue.

Washington, there we go!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Today was a day full of discoveries and new experiences. The trip to Washington started at 10 a.m. approximately when the Metro bus appeared down Cherry Hill and took us to College Park  Metro Station, there we took the train to Arlington Cemetery. The place was impressive, full of tombs arranged in such a way that looked like the pieces of a domino game. Apart from this particularity, there were many monuments in honor to many  people who had been icons in American History.

Arlington Cemetery

From Arlington Cemetery and walking across the bridge over  the Potomac River, one of the most representative memorials could be seen, the magnificent Lincoln Memorial, from where Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I have a dream”  speech, inside, the white marble figure of the former president of the U.S. sitting in his chair.

The reflecting pool

From the memorial and looking towards the city, the Washington Memorial could be seen also on the reflecting pool. To both sides of the pool where Tom Hanks in Forest Gum met his girlfriend, the Korean and Vietnam veterans Memorials can be visited. At the end of the reflecting pool the World War II Memorial, a round pool surrounded by huge marble stones and fountains in the middle, was impressive. After this trip, Metro combinations seems to be getting less complicated.

Lincoln Memorial

Roberta´s barbecue

Saturday, September   4, 2010

During the day, reading and preparing my assignments for the week were my main activities,  in the evening we visited Roberta´s home to have a barbecue on the deck of her house in the backyard, an informal and friendly meeting in which  hot dogs and hamburgers were the main dish,  complemented with lots of different kinds of snacks and drinks. (Just to mention some, nachos, ginger ale, root beer, cuscus and jalapeños).

First seminar in Benjamin Building

Friday, September 03, 2010

First seminar with Dr.  Greenberg, the whole group met in one of the classrooms in the basement of the Benjamin Building on campus. Have you ever seen a Smart board in person? Well, this was the first time for me too.

Interview

Thursday, September 2, 2010

At 11 I travelled to UMD to have an interview, Brent, Rod and other people are doing research so we could provide interesting information about our schools,  the problems we are presently facing in Argentina and  our first perception of the American educational system. The interview was one and a half hour long but interesting.

Second course

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Finger printing was the first activity of the day, yes, the schools of Prince George county needed us to have  fingerprint records  to be able to visit and work at schools. Easy,  63  dollars just for scanning our fingers.

At 12.30 Sergio , Raj and I had a meeting with our school assistants at MLK , they gave us general guidelines about the following weeks when we  have to attend school regularly.

Today I started my second course which is related to Methodology, the professor is Dr.Roberta Lavine who is also one of the members in charge of our program in Maryland.