Cycling

Sunday, October 31, 2010

At Mazza we have the chance to borrow a bike, so I registered on line at webikedoyou.com and then I sent a message to them with the number of the bike I had chosen. Immediately, they sent me back the code to unlock the bike and ride it. Once again we headed for the center of College Park and College Park metro station.

 

The three-mile to campus

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Again this morning, we decided to take the three-mile road to campus on foot. This time to watch a football match from the Cole Building. The whole spectacle resembled the typical environment of a football game played at university. The band and the cheer girls, the fans and the big screen, everything added a colorful scenery to this particular event.

AED offices

Friday, October 29, 2010

This morning at 8, all of us were at College Park  metro station ready to travel to AED offices. The weekly seminar was held there with representatives of the three organizations that support and organize our scholarships, the Department of State, AED and UMD.

All the international teachers were able to talk about their experiences, as well as professional and personal growth during the first half of the Fulbright program. It was another emotive meeting to talk about the relevance of our experiences in the States and the progressive consolidation of the group.

After having “spicy” Indian food for lunch, we took a tour of AED offices and departed for Newseum. This is a really interesting interactive museum, which immerse you in the world´s greatest news stories of all people, places and times. The exhibits include objects related to a specific piece of news and one of the most impressive is a display of several sections of the Berlin Wall that was dismantled in 1989. Another highlight in the museum is a piece of a huge aerial that originally was on top of one of the World Trade Center towers when they collapsed on the 9/11 attack.

The museum closed at 5 pm, we walked with Holly to Union Station and had dinner at Capitol Hill restaurant.

 

The woods behind Mazza

Thursday, October 28, 2010

As everyday in this country a new experience comes up, early in the morning, I decided to take the path behind Mazza that takes you to UMD campus. The path, which is surrounded by a wooded area, offers a  fantastic  and picturesque scenery. The forest is inhabited by deer and of course a lot of squirrels.  

Lecture and Wimba classroom

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

At midday, at College of Education in Benjamin, Mirta Kupfermink, who is a Visual Arts teacher from Argentina, presented Another Language, Image and Meaning, she displayed a series of pictures and gave us some hints to analyze them critically.

In the evening, the Wimba classroom proved to be a successful event, the virtual class was fluent and the communication with Taiwan was very fruitful. The Taiwanese teachers were very much interested in the American educational system and also in Argentina because they learn English as a foreign language like in our country,  not as second language like in The States. The curious point was that they do not follow a communicative approach, their teaching practices involve a lot of grammar translation contents.

Back to weekly courses.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Fall is coming faster and faster, so the landscape is changing permanently into different orange and yellow shades. In the afternoon I took my Literature class after a break for a midterm test.

Back to DC

Monday, October 25, 2010

After the trip to New York we had to go back to work,  so this morning I had many interviews with teachers at MLK. They provided precious information about the use of technology in the classroom for my investigation.

In the evening, the whole group walked to College Park Education Advisory Committee, where the major of the city and his staff  cordially had invited us to a casual reception in our  honor.