Trip to Beijing: Day 3

This day was a much more relaxing day. More and more people are starting to make their way into town for the Flat Conference, so our little group enjoyed the addition of teachers from New Zealand, New York and Malaysia. It was very interesting to talk with them about their teaching experiences in their part of the world. We toured an amazing school called Western Academy of Beijing. If I was single with no kids, I would apply to work in their school in half a heartbeat! They are a 1:1 school and doing amazing things with technology and project based learning.

Then, in the afternoon we had our first presenter meeting for the Flat Classroom Conference. I had goosebumps listening to the presenters talk about what we were going to be doing, what the students were going to be accomplishing and what the teachers were going to spend time doing. It was truly an honor to be working with such an amazing group of educators and could not wait to experience the conference for the first time. Hopefully, I will be bringing back groups of West Des Moines student for years to come.

Trip to Beijing: Day 2

This was an amazing day!! We began our morning tours at the Tienanmen Square. The whole area is a vision to behold. On one side of the square, a grandiose mausoleum houses the preserved remains of Mao, the first communist dictator. We arrived early in the morning and already there was a massive line waiting to go into the great hall to see the body. Then at the other end of the square is the infamous building with the massive picture of Mao.

You didn't dare mention the incident at Tienanmen Square, but I could still just imagine that fateful day, envisioning the tanks and the protesters. Soldiers could be found everywhere constantly patrolling the very sacred square. As we passed through the first gate, the Forbidden City loomed ahead of us and I was completely enthralled by its beauty and grace. Each stone, each door, each statue has a sacred meaning and was placed in that specific spot for certain meaning. We walked the expanse of the Forbidden City, making our way deeper and deeper, into more and more sacred sections of the city. I was very overwhelmed by the symbolism of the Forbidden City. An emporer, being so selfish, to take all that land, resources and beauty for just himself. It is no wonder the people of China saw communism as their only way out. Their government was a constant reminder that they were not equal nor would they ever be considered equal to their leaders.

After the tour of the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square, we ate lunch at local favorite. I must say that I am truly starting to miss American cuisine. What I wouldn't give for a nice, juicy steak or a cheeseburger. However, rice was served with this lunch and I was very appreciative to eat that instead of more noodles. After lunch, we were given time to do some shopping in the oldest shopping area of the city. I find myself feeling very guilty about the bartering system when I shop in these areas of poverty. I know the people in these shops are doing everything they can to support their family. I tend to offer a low price, but not much lower than what they asked for because what they are asking for is already a great deal in American standards and with what I consider very little money, could feed their family for days or even weeks.

We then visited the Lama Temple, home of the world's largest Buddha statue. A part of me felt odd walking into a temple and staring at people participating in their daily prayers, but at the same time, I did not come to stare at an oddity, I came to learn more about Buddhism and take this knowledge back to my students for my world religions class. The Buddhist religion is such a beautiful religion and this temple was a definite symbol of its beauty. Out of respect for the temple, I only took pictures on the outside of the temple and never took any pictures of the actual Buddha statues.

We spent some time shopping in the Pearl Market and again, I was very concerned about the bartering system. This quickly changed in the market though due to the aggressive nature of the shopkeepers. I do not believe I am exaggerating to call it a very cut throat business. Being an American, I instantly stand out and it is assumed that I have tons of money to spend. By their standards, I do have tons of money to spend, but only because I have been saving up for this trip, not because I am wealthy by any means. Many times, the shop keepers would grab my arms to get my attention. I even had a moment where I was physically frightened when two shopkeepers would not let me out of their store, physically blocking my exit and cornering me in their shop. I left the market feeling exhausted and very agitated. I did make some purchases and did not feel one bit of guilt for talking them down from their outrageous prices. I even felt a sense of pride when I was able to make a good deal and barter for much less than what they asked for. There are parts of me that are very relieved I can go back to the states and while, yes, I pay much more for an item than I would have at the market, I would make that purchase not feeling harassed or having to get angry to make my purchase.

We ended our busy day with the famous Peking Duck, a very delicious meal, however I could not eat it the traditional way. It requires eating cucumber, onion and using duck sauce, all of which are on the don't east list. The duck itself was very moist and delicious. After dinner, we attended the world famous Chinese opera. This was truly an experience. Chinese opera must be an acquired taste, that of which I have not acquired yet. I was awed by the beautiful costumes and stylized make-up, but could not quite understand the performance. The language barrier and the difficulty translating the Chinese language to English also made it very difficult to appreciate.

Trip to Beijing

Day One:

We arrived in Beijing Sunday night around 6:00, dropped off our luggage at our hotel and then went to an acrobatic show. It was amazing!! Unfortunately I was so exhausted from the flight and time change that I kept nodding off during the show, along with most of my friends. We got back to the hotel, checked-in and settled into my room. I went right to sleep, even on rock hard beds, not exaggerating, like sleeping on a board. The next morning, I got to skype with my family and it was so nice to see them. Gracie made me a flower and was showing it to me, then she put it up to the computer, where my video was and asked me to smell it. So cute!! Today, we visited the Ming Tombs and the Sacred Way. We then had a traditional Chinese lunch, I have only been able to eat noodles. Found out that southern Chinese eat rice, northern Chinese eat noodles. So, no rice here. I did step out of my box and tried a pork dish. I was told the tiny white strips were noodles, turns out they were onions…..you all would have laughed at my face!! They did serve sweet and sour pork, so I was able to eat a little. This evening we watched a beautiful kung fu show. I gave up trying to sleep on the bed and slept on the little love seat in our room, much better than the bed.

Making Connections

This past week, I spent much of my "spare" time online working with the Beijing Babes to get our story completed and on the Flat Classroom Ning getting to know the many people that I will be spending time with in China. With both of these activities, I am reminded of how important our human connections are to our every day life. My cohorts and I have grown very close in the past 10 months as we go through the experience of grad school. I predict that the nine other people flying to China with me and experiencing the Flat Classroom will become even closer after our once in a lifetime experiences. I am also hoping to make connections at the conference for my students. I want to be able to give them experiences and connections that they never dreamed of in my classroom.

Photo retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/betta_design/2782450506/

Heading overseas for the first time!

In 32 days I will be flying overseas for the first time in my life, not only will I be going overseas, but I will be going to Beijing, China. It feels very serendipitous that my first trip over the ocean is to China. I have been enthralled with Chinese culture for as long as I can remember. I even learned a little of the language in college, taking the only semester the course was ever offered. I will only be gone for 10 days and know that I will in no way get to see everything I want to see, but just to be there and soak up the history and culture is going to be AMAZING! Luckily, I am not going alone, I will be going with a group of 10 people from my UNI cohort. We will be meeting teachers and students from all over the world at the Flat Classroom Conference. I cannot wait to be completely submersed in culture from all over the world and see what these high school students will be able to accomplish.

As we prepare for our trip, each participant has taken on a role to help us to make the most of our 10 days in Beijing. Being a history teacher, I chose to take the role of historian. Using what I already know about Chinese history, I have chosen the following attractions as our must-see destinations:

• Great Wall of China (Badaling)
• Forbidden City
• Temple of Heaven
• Tiananmen Square
• Ming Tombs and the Sacred Way

I have also found other destinations that would be great additions to the ones above:

• Ancient Observatory
• Badachu (Eight Great Temples)
• Hutong
• Confucius Temple (Capital Museum)
• Great Bell Temple
• Guangi Temple
• Lama Temple
• Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo Bridge)
• Niujie Mosque (Ox Street Mosque)
• Peking Man Site
• Temple of Azure Clouds (Xiangshan Park)
• Temple of Recumbent Buddha
• Museum of Dabaoti Han Tomb

I found these sites to be the most helpful in finding information for Beijing historical sites:

• http://www.beijingtrip.com/attractions/
• http://www.beijingservice.com/beijingdiscover/historicalsite.htm
• http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g294212-Activities-c5-Beijing.html

Fall 2010 Reflections

In August I started two classes for my UNI Instructional Technology Masters Program: Instructional Development and Technology in Education. Both sounded like very interesting classes, but I had no idea what I was getting into. I have grown so much as a student and as a teacher from these classes and the experiences they gave me.

Instructional Development led us through an analysis of instructional strategies and then through a process of developing our own instructional course through the Dick and Carey instructional design model. This process was by far the toughest part of the quarter for me, but only because of all the intricate details involved. I have to admit that I have never thought about classroom instruction in this way, but definitely will from now on. I developed a training module for the staff at WCC to support the integration of a projector and document camera into their curriculum. I have developed and taught training sessions in technology for the staff at WCC before, but never to this level of quality. I am very excited to hold the training session and see the results of all my hard work and planning. I actually feel ready and able to complete the training module.

In our Technology in Education course, we analyzed the impact that technology has made on education throughout the past 100 years of innovations by reading two books, Failure to Connect (1986) by Jane Healy and Teachers and Machines (1986) by Larry Cuban. Being a history buff it was very interesting to read the words and predictions of authors from a specific time period and then to see if their predictions became true in our lives. Our final project for this class was to pick a new instructional technology that has yet to have widespread use in the United States and plan a proposal for integrating it into education. I chose social networking; this topic is one that I am personally passionate about and use in my classroom on a daily basis. In my research I found a report of a 2007 survey of 9-17 year olds that showed 50% of students used social networking sites to talk about school, homework, etc. (Gewertz, C. 2007, Education Week). Yet, schools are blocking these sites at school and ignoring the wonderful possibilities they offer both the student and the teacher.

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, I like to remind my students that not all the information they learn in the history textbooks is factual. Americans, and especially historians that write American history textbooks, have taken the myths of their history and turned it around into facts that we force upon our children every year in an attempt to make them proud of their country. One of my favorite authors, James Loewen, has written a series of history books: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, and Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong, that I use in my classroom instead of the traditional textbook. Both books debunk those myths that are perpetually taught year after year in our classrooms.

One of these myths is the popular idea of Thanksgiving. Every November, elementary school kids make their black and white Pilgrim hats or their Indian headband with feathers, all out of construction paper and reenact the “first” Thanksgiving that happened many, many years ago at Plymouth Harbor. The settlers unfortunately arrived in the early winter months and were unequipped to survive the harsh New England winter. Luckily, friendly Native Americans recognized their hardships and sent aid to the colony supporting them through the winter months and teaching them how to grow their own food. Then when spring came those brave colonists worked their land, planting fields and fishing and hunting, storing for next winter. To celebrate their abundance they invited their Native American friends to a feast, thanking them for their support and teachings, thus celebrating the first Thanksgiving. Truly heartwarming and inspirational, isn’t it.

However, historical evidence shows us that by the time the Pilgrims arrived to stake their claim in the New England colony, most native people had already been killed by a well-known disease in Europe that most Europeans easily survived, but that Native Americans had never been exposed to; small pox. It is believed that this plague wiped out much of the native population in the northeastern United States. It could be possible that the Wampanoag leader allied with the Plymouth settlers because his villages were so weak and they needed protection from their enemies. Very quickly after this thanksgiving celebration, land disputes erupted in New England and the friendly relations between the settlers and native people was forgotten. It is also believed that the Pilgrims were not as unprepared for the “new world” as the story claims. The Spanish had been traveling back and forth for almost 150 years and England had already attempted a colony at Roanoke and established a colony in Virginia. It is doubtful that the Pilgrims had no idea what they were getting into. They established their town right in the middle of the Native American’s village, next to their cleared, planted fields. Historians have also found written accounts of the Pilgrims breaking into native lodges, stealing goods, even grave-robbing as early as three days from landing in the area.

The actual Thanksgiving holiday, as we know it, did not start until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday. The Native Americans had been celebrating autumn harvest ceremonies for centuries. It was not until 1890 that Pilgrims were even included into the tradition. There are many other details in the story of Thanksgiving that have been completely lost with our idealized version; I could go on forever. I recommend picking up a copy of Loewen’s book and reading them for yourself. Please don't think that I am saying to not celebrate Thanksgiving, if anything, I believe Thanksgiving is one of our most important holidays, if we celebrate it as it was truly meant to be celebrated a time to give thanks to the Earth for a plentiful harvest and a time to be thankful for the prosperity of our family and friends.