tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61286247795688939932024-02-21T07:55:38.605-05:00TravelblogueMeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-46988039687580909982017-09-29T10:30:00.000-04:002019-04-20T10:34:44.953-04:00A MOTHER AND DAUGHTER'S TAKE ON TURTLE CONSERVATION IN COSTA RICA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is an old post that never made it to my travel blog. My daughter and I went to Costa Rica in 2017 and stayed in a really gorgeous though remote part of Costa Rica, on the Pacific Ocean side, working with a turtle conservation group. The location was in <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Junquillal,+Guanacaste+Province,+Costa+Rica/@10.1594408,-85.8255175,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x8f9e4689e155f2eb:0xfac654717cb076be!8m2!3d10.1590319!4d-85.8063794" target="_blank">Playa Junquillal</a> and the organization was <a href="http://verdiazulcr.org/" target="_blank">Asociacion Vida Verdiazul</a>. We wanted to do a volunteer project somewhere (no particular destination in mind) and decided to go through a company called <a href="https://www.volunteerhq.org/" target="_blank">International Volunteer Headquarters - IVHQ</a>. We had a great time and did some good work. This is a post I wrote for IVHQ.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "source sans pro", arial, sans-serif, "apple color emoji", "segoe ui emoji", "segoe ui symbol"; font-size: 17.6px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">
<span style="color: #274e13;">Here’s what to expect on a Turtle Conservation volunteer project with International Volunteer HQ: Meg Stewart and her daughter Tillie recently joined us in Costa Rica and they’ve decided to share their experience…</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #274e13;">My daughter and I wanted to do an international volunteer project together this summer. I am a teacher and I have summers off and my daughter is 16 years-old so couldn’t go on one of these volunteer programs alone. She is fluent in Spanish so I was set on going to a Spanish-speaking country. We looked at all sorts of volunteer organizations and kept coming back to IVHQ, with the primary reason being a wealth of well-made videos showing what projects are available and what we might want to do. We decided on turtle conservation in Costa Rica.</span></blockquote>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "source sans pro", arial, sans-serif, "apple color emoji", "segoe ui emoji", "segoe ui symbol"; font-size: 17.6px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">
<a href="https://www.volunteerhq.org/blog/mother-and-daughter-experience-turtle-conservation-in-costa-rica/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #274e13;">Read more...</span></a></div>
Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-62503502120301741652015-07-10T20:50:00.000-04:002015-07-19T18:57:36.560-04:00Orchard Beach at Pelham Bay Park<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We met bright and early at Orchard Beach. The day was very warm. You drive through the sprawling Pelham Bay Park - with horse stables and bike paths and picnic benches - to get to the beach. Parking is $7. The field trip was led by <a href="http://www.amnh.org/our-research/staff-directory/george-e.-harlow" target="_blank">George Harlow</a> and we walked north along the beach towards Twin Island.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This field trip provided another view of the local NYC geology, with all its complexity. Because we were not given a field trip guide ahead of time, I looked up some information about the site and what's there. Here are the links: <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><a href="http://www.geo.sunysb.edu/reports/ny-city/" target="_blank">Bedrock Geology of New York City: More than 600 m.y. of geologic history</a> and <a href="http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/nyc/parks/loc6.htm" target="_blank">6. Pelham Bay Park (USGS)</a>. Don't you love going into the field knowing what you might find? I do.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's what I saw: the Bronx section of the Fordham Gneiss, loads of folding, partial melting (we've seen that on all stops thus far), a patch of garnet sand, tourmaline, epidote, beryl, biotite and muscovite (sometimes intergrown with each other) and kyanite blades (see below)! Sillimanite? No, I don't think so.</span></span><br />
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And a dinosar:</div>
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Bring on the Black Rock Field Trip!! That'll be all week, the week of July 27. Just like old times and field camp at CSU Hayward in the Sierra. Ha!</div>
Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-19006425343941582652015-07-02T22:57:00.000-04:002015-07-19T18:17:48.995-04:00Field Trip to Inwood Park<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Today was more like a <i>real</i> field trip. Though we met in upper Manhattan and walked and looked at a great outcrop right in a community, we scrambled around in mostly lush Inwood Park, poison ivy and all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The field trip leader was George Harlow, <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Curator, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at <a href="http://www.amnh.org/our-research/staff-directory/george-e.-harlow" target="_blank">AMNH</a>. We ambled around, first in the city, along Cooper Street and then into Isham Park. Then we went to Inwood Park. The aerial view map below is where we went in Manhattan, but not the Bronx. As you can see in the simplified geologic map and cross-section below, the geology is quite complex. It is also almost completely covered with vegetation, which is very often poison ivy. It is <i>nuts</i>. I longed for a western or southwest field location where all the outcrops are exposed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">The first very cool thing we saw was a great example of </span><a class="" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudinage" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">boudinage</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">. See the image below (try squinting - they're there). The boudins were in the Inwood Marble and are a result of a more resistance or rigid layer (probably proto-sandstone) within a more plastic layer (possibly proto-limestone) undergoing compression.</span><br />
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We saw some good-sized garnets with eye-shaped feldspar growths:</div>
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Tramping into the Inwood Park, we saw "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant%27s_kettle" target="_blank">potholes</a>," which I have seen elsewhere but did not know that they were created from glacial meltwater, with a rock or two swirling around and down, carving out a deep hole. The opening on this one - in Manhattan Schist - is about a 2-foot diameter.</div>
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By walking north and crossing the Henry Hudson bridge, we ended up in the Bronx, looking at the Fordham Gneiss. At this outcrop, we saw more garnet, amphibole, pyrite, and <a href="http://pages.uoregon.edu/millerm/ptyg.html" target="_blank">ptygmatic folding</a> in the gneiss. A very good trip, all in all, and we were finished by 2pm.</div>
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Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-78472528305626405202015-07-01T20:47:00.000-04:002015-07-19T18:19:15.900-04:00Summer Practicum Activities - #NYCgeology along 5th Avenue<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUMEFs9bm7MDGqf8-g-4En5uziF-IO9gI_JDmoAnMmgjm_TzcnSnSbdGm4JJaQmeF9b57nzliiB-wd_WBYsQz9dOonns3_euB18hBN215zCvjfyz8mi0-9jRSUY5l9ypEvjmWEoVNZK6hP/s1600/Building+Stones+Meeting+Place.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUMEFs9bm7MDGqf8-g-4En5uziF-IO9gI_JDmoAnMmgjm_TzcnSnSbdGm4JJaQmeF9b57nzliiB-wd_WBYsQz9dOonns3_euB18hBN215zCvjfyz8mi0-9jRSUY5l9ypEvjmWEoVNZK6hP/s320/Building+Stones+Meeting+Place.JPG" width="320" /></a>It's all starting now! My summer will be spent doing research in astronomy at the museum and going on field trips with curators and post-docs affiliated with the MAT program.<br />
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Today, I went on a "field trip" to see some of the building stones of a part of Manhattan, New York. Led by <a href="http://www.amnh.org/our-research/staff-directory/denton-s.-ebel" target="_blank">Denton Ebel</a>, the trip went from the lower Central Park area to 5th Avenue and 45th Street. We saw an array of rock types, many of which came imported from Italy. Building stones are a great way to teach geology when you a) don't have a budget for a real field trip and b) don't have access to real geology right in the neighborhood.<br />
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Here are some shots from inside the Apple Store, where we saw the "special" rock that Apple loved so much that they purchased they whole mine so they could brand their stores. We also saw some lovely partial melting migmatites.<br />
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Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-28380582113704493212015-06-11T00:38:00.001-04:002015-06-11T00:38:22.620-04:00Exhausted!I met one of the new MAT students, a Cohort 4 student, the other day. She bounded up to me and said, "hey, I've been meaning to talk with you. I found your blog and that was great, but it just stopped." She told me she was worried that meant something like, I hurt myself, I gave up on blogging, or I was overloaded in the program and it was too much. She was dying to know what happened and what she had gotten herself into! Here's the scoop...I have not had one single minute to do too much more than stay on top of my AMNH school work (lot's of it!), go to my school residencies (Monday to Thursday from September to mid-June), commute an hour and a half (minimum) each way, everyday, and see my family once in awhile. ha ha I live with them but they usually just see the back of my head while I'm working away on my school work and class prep. There is no time to blog! Sorry 'bout that. If I can muster the strength, I will try to write an update about my experiences. There have been a lot of experiences!Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-84474794198752120812014-08-22T15:08:00.000-04:002015-06-12T07:18:23.960-04:00Nice Place to Visit But...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white;">New York City is so...invigorating, eye-opening, contemplation-making. There is a stark contrast between the community of my life in Poughkeepsie and that community that I see here. As I make my way to the Museum, I walk through rich and poor neighborhoods, some people walk their dogs and take up lot's of space on the sidewalks, some are asking for money with a sign, some have on work uniforms as they hustle to catch the subway. There are young kids walking with huge backpacks to get to summer day camp bus pick-up, there are babies in strollers who look nothing like the women pushing the prams, and there are stinky streets everywhere. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white;">New York, it's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white;">And do people even pay their parking tickets in NY?! I find one or two each morning walking in through Central Park.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-38024889397462256542014-08-22T14:13:00.001-04:002014-08-22T14:13:59.336-04:00More About the Master of Arts in Teaching Program at AMNH - Videos!I stumbled on these videos today and thought I should post them. What they present about the MAT program is pretty close to my own experience.<br />
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Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-9912115340618170622014-08-11T23:32:00.000-04:002014-08-17T16:49:13.179-04:00Three weeks of Co-teaching<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We wrapped a three-week stint of co-teaching in the <a href="http://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/grades-3-5/amnh-lang-science-program" target="_blank">Lang Science program</a> at the Museum. Lang is a unique program that brings kids from all around New York City to learn a science topic (or multiple topics) over three weeks. But it's not just one and done. There's an application process and the program starts when kids are going into the sixth grade and they stay with it until they graduate from high school. Every summer. For seven summers. Wow! Not only that. The Langsters commit to coming to the Museum for 18 additional Saturdays throughout the school term. That is a lot of science and a lot of love for science learning on the part of the young people in Lang. The MAT program is incorporated into the Lang program by having us co-teach lessons (that's me teaching about chemical weathering and stratigraphy), guide Lang students on research design, work with the lead Lang instructor on activities and whatever other way we can see ourselves jumping in to help out.<br />
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The following is a blog post that I wrote in <a href="https://moodle.org/" target="_blank">Moodle</a>. Moodle is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_management_system" target="_blank">learning management system</a> and no one, outside of my classmates, my instructors, and maybe the MAT program administration, can see these posts we make and the comments to those posts. I do not like Learning Management Systems, but I have used them as a student, I have used them as an instructor, and my children have had to use them, so I can see the efficacy of using one. I just don't like them. So I am freeing some of the content that's hidden away. This post was more of a comment to a thread on class and privilege that I felt compelled to respond to and then felt I wanted to share with this blog.<br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So, the week with the Lang 7th graders has come and, sadly, gone. What a wonderful group! I will miss them and will be more than glad to take a position as a middle school teacher.
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">About the socio-economic dynamics much discussed here…I didn’t really see it. I mean, I did not see it being a problem in the learning environment. Sure, there were the kids who were all aflutter about going to one of the other kid’s country house. (It was probably in or near Poughkeepsie, BTW.) It was only the girls who got to go, so I felt badly for the boys. At least one of the girls was not going ("my mom said we have something to do that day") and I felt badly for her, too. But, frankly, I don’t think I’d want my daughter going (by limo!)</span> <span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">to a country house so she can feel like she has a life that is less-than or more suck-ish than this kid’s life. </span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">OK, that aside, I feel like almost all of the learners spoke up in Lang 7th grade. I did not see the "rich" kids speaking more than the "financial aid" kids. </span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">(And I did not see an economic divide </span><em style="background-color: white;">at all </em><span style="background-color: white;">in the 9th to 12th research group.) </span></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I mean, how do we really know who has money and who doesn't? I did not get that list. We could make major assumptions, but perhaps the kid who talked about walking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon was not really bragging, she might have been lying or she might have been a </span><i style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">college professor’s</i><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> child. Or her family is middle class and they know that trips like that are good for kids' development.</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So much of what a kid goes through in life is dependent upon the zip code he or she is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-is-a-hard-life-inherited.html?_r=0" target="_blank">unlucky (or lucky) enough to be born into and those economics are passed along through the generations</a>. The pull-yourself-up-by the-bootstraps American ethos is a myth, IMO. We need to treat all kids like they are born into the high-rent district and teach like all kids belong in a program like Lang. That is our challenge.
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a>What is clear is that, if I imagine myself teaching in the high-needs school in my neighborhood, I will see in my classroom kids mostly from low-income families. Some of them will be homeless. But there are pockets in my area, in that school district, that are middle class and upper middle class. Some of those kids will go on summer trips to The Shore or will have passports with stamps in them, but some will have never left Poughkeepsie. I want all of them to feel like they can raise their hand, add their thoughts and observations, and know in their hearts that I think that what they have to say is important and matters.</span>Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-48333396103517122542014-07-26T16:57:00.004-04:002014-08-22T14:14:59.565-04:00Some Photos, What's Been Going on at the Museum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I've gotten to see and do a lot of interesting things at <a href="http://www.amnh.org/l" target="_blank">AMNH</a> so here are just a few photos of those things.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxaH557wSIPYblbQrjLL__9URTO9q3-D48dgSRvs_ttF-q_9JIm8vUin9tsf3ino1XSms40z_UhKNy3eWBkqiPv8tw-sFDdX9EUfXXQZhDX-ZwRoYBY7N8hYZZN_KVlnvAUw0ACkqt45dA/s1600/DSC01101.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxaH557wSIPYblbQrjLL__9URTO9q3-D48dgSRvs_ttF-q_9JIm8vUin9tsf3ino1XSms40z_UhKNy3eWBkqiPv8tw-sFDdX9EUfXXQZhDX-ZwRoYBY7N8hYZZN_KVlnvAUw0ACkqt45dA/s1600/DSC01101.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We got the inside look at he AMNH Library. <br />
They have a large rare book collection (but I didn't see it). </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF9BxUf-3eDH7cFi9Af7Nb8_tsc1PAOtR1hbpavCn_n792vH1gW6mPSyicWixklTPGxTEUhE4CsBKphzxSvbVqskJx6KSmNy6McvCrymGYxFdyZV-3tb9285kooenjhlBMIEq6Fc96mpqs/s1600/DSC01092.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF9BxUf-3eDH7cFi9Af7Nb8_tsc1PAOtR1hbpavCn_n792vH1gW6mPSyicWixklTPGxTEUhE4CsBKphzxSvbVqskJx6KSmNy6McvCrymGYxFdyZV-3tb9285kooenjhlBMIEq6Fc96mpqs/s1600/DSC01092.JPG" height="240" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Also in the AMNH Library, an extensive collection <br />
of paper photographs like this one. This photo<br />
was taken in Barbados in 1919.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrmi7pjyWW8uSv6OSlesaf0mXuPAPt2jvZ5yCWA6SSJ-UPAY9G9yrtgpWYaU8ec0O0ZhdMBBTxMm1SJbDcFs_TEt_sikl2lW1rro_fY_42y0e7Hx0UY0ySDjumSvG6CUEcQbVcbXJB7c5J/s1600/DSC01173.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrmi7pjyWW8uSv6OSlesaf0mXuPAPt2jvZ5yCWA6SSJ-UPAY9G9yrtgpWYaU8ec0O0ZhdMBBTxMm1SJbDcFs_TEt_sikl2lW1rro_fY_42y0e7Hx0UY0ySDjumSvG6CUEcQbVcbXJB7c5J/s1600/DSC01173.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Behind the scenes with an ichthyologist. <br />
These are two coelacanths.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTMaOj44-YkH23spdiVjL_z5IY6ETzcEGqM07-XK4fVL1f4Kc4urxu0lVdClgoGahEvSAGd_uutSqCsO_EeCZfpj1QnoaPyQ7BxYpYt2Ki92wv3uiwiPVUKe23_7LM97lGBl4_F65jh27l/s1600/DSC01176.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTMaOj44-YkH23spdiVjL_z5IY6ETzcEGqM07-XK4fVL1f4Kc4urxu0lVdClgoGahEvSAGd_uutSqCsO_EeCZfpj1QnoaPyQ7BxYpYt2Ki92wv3uiwiPVUKe23_7LM97lGBl4_F65jh27l/s1600/DSC01176.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some skinny, long fish of some sort.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg95_WJPVVSlghO7bNZvndqHGgzLV0J58D5-BVJMA_Wqdw3qZOv0YaclOMAqCMdn7IMFSlNJNNG-VYzr30h7ldiGll9pmHFmgeQtuu41oBQ4rChcx2fVD7CYyK2njpLZwowaVKlzQL9fgj/s1600/DSC01161.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg95_WJPVVSlghO7bNZvndqHGgzLV0J58D5-BVJMA_Wqdw3qZOv0YaclOMAqCMdn7IMFSlNJNNG-VYzr30h7ldiGll9pmHFmgeQtuu41oBQ4rChcx2fVD7CYyK2njpLZwowaVKlzQL9fgj/s1600/DSC01161.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is one of the classrooms. Our regular Davis classrooms<br />
have been used for summertime teacher professional <br />
development workshops.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM2bdYp1LGT0O8OkRlNN1u7Wkaz6MFxV-FLWq4b_9f4Qo4CSzwsWnoqU32txx7YaXpbKXpbayTwix8_MjDqgWIDuVlpmv6Wl2eVnR2bYr1h5x3RuQBJGhks3EwOdGwx4lC_57CPOsklD05/s1600/DSC01199.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM2bdYp1LGT0O8OkRlNN1u7Wkaz6MFxV-FLWq4b_9f4Qo4CSzwsWnoqU32txx7YaXpbKXpbayTwix8_MjDqgWIDuVlpmv6Wl2eVnR2bYr1h5x3RuQBJGhks3EwOdGwx4lC_57CPOsklD05/s1600/DSC01199.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now we're working with a summer program called Lang, and<br />
the project for the next two weeks will be to study <i>Cnidarians</i> or<br />
Sea Anemones using a CT scanner.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkXqVT_WiMCmsgyhNw9KT97Szn8IVmi2JD755gjuWa9uumBHEfGGDaDwjVJUct0OJ_CuuQiH3dnWoSfMMc48Zm-SiU3k_y4y2evvVZYaKc4onPWL7Kk_0jYTdmDcXKOpUCOe4HuYE9Ngaz/s1600/DSC01194.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkXqVT_WiMCmsgyhNw9KT97Szn8IVmi2JD755gjuWa9uumBHEfGGDaDwjVJUct0OJ_CuuQiH3dnWoSfMMc48Zm-SiU3k_y4y2evvVZYaKc4onPWL7Kk_0jYTdmDcXKOpUCOe4HuYE9Ngaz/s1600/DSC01194.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here a Lang student is getting a little background<br />
information on <i>Cnidarians</i> in the Hall of Biodiversity.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And here are some preserved sea anemones and a jellyfish<br />
waiting for lab investigation.</td></tr>
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Next up, more on Lang which is our second time working with museum visitors but <a href="http://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/grades-6-8/amnh-lang-science-program" target="_blank">Lang is a summer institute for middle and high school students focused on learning science</a>. We will be using the CT scanner, the one used in the <a href="http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/picturing-science-museum-scientists-and-imaging-technologies" target="_blank">Picturing Science exhibit</a>, and making 3D models of sea anemones. Well, the students will be!<br />
<br />Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-32808500858432682742014-07-03T15:58:00.003-04:002014-07-03T16:00:59.001-04:00Carts in the Hall and Posting in a Learning Management System<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Kids in the Hall? No, Carts in the Hall<br />
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We finished up our first segment of curriculum and pedagogical chunk of our MAT program…working on carts in the halls. Carts are an assemblage of artifacts or rock samples or minerals from a hall that are setup for interacting with museum visitors. It’s a “please touch” station. We, as MAT students, worked in groups of three on a cart for four hours at a stretch in one of these halls: Gems & Minerals, Mexico & Central America, New York State Environments, African Peoples, and Planet Earth. We did this on seven different days.<br />
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This was our first dip into teaching with a museum collection or using informal teaching. We were shown how to use inquiry-based discussion with the visitors…’what do you think it is?...how do you think they would use this?...do you think you might have this in your home?’ so that it was setup as a discussion rather then a one-way stream of us, cart people, feeding answers to them, the museum patrons. This inquiry-based style of teaching reminds me of when I worked at a summer camp the past three summers. Camp kids come in knowing a lot already, you guide them, using their brains, to new places to understand new concepts. It was like that on the carts. But with folks from 3 years old to over seventy. And just like camp, these visitors are there because they want to be. The visitors can leave your cart at any moment or not even come over to your cart. It’s a free choice situation.<br />
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One of the great things about this program at this museum is that, because AMNH is a world-renowned natural history museum, people come to visit it from all over the world. On the carts, we got so many vacationers/visitors from everywhere and it challenges a person to try to convey knowledge when there is no common language. This, too, is practice for our school residency and our futures as teachers. A large percentage of students in NYC are not English-language learners.<br />
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Carts were fun. Next informal learning session will be with a group teens who are in a summer enrichment program. I do not know exactly what we will be doing with those young people, but I will report back. So far I know we are engaged with a lot of team-teaching experiences. I haven’t had to fly solo yet and I really appreciate that.<br />
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So, on to the Learning Management System. I am working towards a teaching credential to teach earth science in the New York state public school system. Our first class in the MAT program has been mostly on-line with a small chunk of face-to-face time. I am not opposed to on-line education but I can pretty much guarantee that I will not be doing any on-line teaching with my students so it’s weird. The LMS is the Moodle platform and, though this installation of Moodle is better than the one I had to use at Bard last semester, it is still a closed system. We’re all doing and saying some interesting things but only the 15 of us plus the 2 (or is it three?) instructors get to see it. I am not a fan of Moodle or the LMS environment and only know from being on the teaching end is that it makes classroom management much easier to ask students to upload their document by X time and date, they get an email confirmation, teacher knows they uploaded it and at what time (is it late?), teacher can see how many posts the student did to the forum, and then teacher can do the grades in Moodle. Ugh. It is pretty clunky. Classroom Management and Learning Management make me cringe.<br />
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But the class, even though I’m nagging about it being on-line, has been pretty interesting. I’ve had to be self-directed, but the way the course is set-up, we all can follow paths that we are interested in taking, topics we wish to investigate and write about. Plus some of the assignments have involved visuals like creating graphics and use of Google Maps. The face-to-face aspect of the course is preparation for how we will teach this topic in our future Earth Science classroom.<br />
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First month down, 14 more to go!Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-70357912671754917492014-06-27T07:36:00.003-04:002014-07-03T15:59:35.670-04:00Dropped the Verizon MiFi and Went With A T & T<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was going to go with a <a href="http://travelswithmeg.blogspot.com/2014/06/first-day-back-in-grad-school.html" target="_blank">Verizon hotspo</a>t but Verizon was 1) hard to setup, 2) sucked my data out in a matter of days and 3) is Verizon. I already give Verizon loads of money, I can share the wealth a bit. I went with an AT & T mifi hotspot and data plan and have not had one single problem. I started out the first four weeks of the program on a 6GB plan ($60/month) and found I am barely at 1GB so I dropped it down to 5GB ($50/month) (that's, unfortunately, the lowest plan they offer).<br />
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Will be writing soon about those first four weeks. Lot's to say and no time to say it! Whew!!Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-46001538989995730212014-06-08T15:09:00.000-04:002014-06-08T15:17:53.616-04:00First Week....Exhausted!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Why am I exhausted?! Because I have built my adult life around the ethos "live close to your work." And, after escaping Los Angeles, I always (but for one brief-ish exception) lived close enough to work or school that I could walk, ride a bike or had a short car drive. I'm not <i>used</i> to this lifestyle! Now, I have a LONG train and subway ride but it's for a duration that I <i>think</i> I can handle, 15 months. But for now, wow, I am a tired woman when I get home to Poughkeepsie. This has been my week at the <a href="http://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/master-of-arts-in-teaching" target="_blank">Museum</a>.<br />
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<b>The commute</b>: If I hit it just right, I can make it door-of-my-house to door-of-the-Museum in 2 and a half hours...in the morning. At night, it's longer. Hrumph. But I have built-in exercise (walking from subway stop to Museum or riding bike from house to Metro North station) so there's that. And that mifi let's me work on the train.<br />
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<b>Team Building</b>: Our teacher candidate cohort (that's them above plus a couple of instructors) had an afternoon in Central Park where we worked on learning each other's names and team building. The upshot...we are a team...collaborate! Good to get that out there early because, though I have been out of the being-a-student game for a awhile, I hear that learners these days can get kind of competitive and suffer from grade-anxiety. Plus we got to scramble around Central Park.<br />
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<b>Seminars</b>: Over the summer, we will meet with different Museum curators who will give us an exposure to their area of expertise. This week was rocks and minerals. Looking forward to seminars on something I know <i>nothing</i> about like...the solar system!<br />
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<b>Laptop</b>: We each got a Mac. We will have to return it at the end of instruction.<br />
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<b>Chancellor's Day</b>: A day of NYC science teacher <a href="http://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/educators/workshops-institutes-and-courses/nyc-chancellor-s-day-connecting-museum-resources-to-the-science-curriculum2" target="_blank">professional development at the Museum</a> that all of we teacher candidates got to participate in. I got to learn a bit about Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. Also, I heard an interesting panel on encouraging girls to pursue the sciences. What pleased me about the talk and panel was that all teachers were there, male and female. What I found from my technology conference days is that these sorts of gyno-centric panel discussions are mostly women talking to ourselves.<br />
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<b>First class - <a href="http://www.amnh.org/learn/solar" target="_blank">Solar System</a></b>: This course is a mostly on-line class and the curriculum was developed by geologist Denton Ebel and Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. There is some face-to-face time each week with one of the three faculty members teaching the course. I need it. I know nothing about this topic. See Seminars above.<br />
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<b>School visits</b>: Our education involves teaching in in-school residency for the school year and we are visiting the four schools that are part of the MAT program. We visit them all to get a sense of each and then we request the schools for our residency training - a different school for each half of the school year. I saw two schools this past week (one in Yonkers and the other in the Bronx) and I can't tell one from the other in terms of, oh, this one would be way better than that one, so at this point, I'm going to request the schools closest to me to try to reduce my commute. See The commute above.<br />
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<b>Circle Line tour:</b> We wrapped up our very full week with a boat trip around Manhattan on the Circle Line. Before heading out, at AMNH we got a brief geologic overview of Manhattan so we had some geomorphic items to keep our eyes open for. The day was stunning. I love viewing Manhattan from this water vantage but what I enjoyed the most was seeing all the bridges.<br />
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Week number 2, let's go!Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-33888192502946190522014-06-02T05:59:00.000-04:002014-06-02T05:59:15.794-04:00First Day (Back) in Grad School<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Up early! Got my new backpack, my Mifi hotspot (Verizon Jetpack) and my monthly Metro-North ticket ready for my first day as a <a href="http://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/master-of-arts-in-teaching" target="_blank">Master of Arts in Teaching</a> student at the <a href="http://www.amnh.org/" target="_blank">American Museum of Natural History</a>. At this point, I'm planning on taking the train down every day, Monday to Friday, while doing the museum-residency part of my education.<br />
<br />Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-86393479023082490972014-05-17T13:53:00.002-04:002014-05-17T14:02:33.421-04:00A Fulbrighter in Barbados<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Fulbright Scholar, Tasha Souza, was blogging from Barbados while she was there (January to May 2014). Her blog is <a href="http://beinginbarbados.weebly.com/" target="_blank">Being in Barbados: Sabbatical in the Sun</a>. Tasha is a faculty member at Humboldt State University in California (wow, <a href="http://now.humboldt.edu/news/hsu-named-top-school-for-fulbright-scholars/" target="_blank">three Fulbrighters in one academic year</a>!) and her appointment was at the <a href="http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/" target="_blank">University of the West Indies, Cave Hill</a> campus (like mine!). Tasha was affiliated with the Instructional Development unit building faculty development programs and worked with instructional technologist Pat Atherely (on the left with Tasha), who I <a href="http://travelswithmeg.blogspot.com/2010/06/technology-workshops-this-week-at-uwi.html" target="_blank">met and got to work with a little</a> when I was at the UWI.<br />
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My blog gets hits from searchers of all things Barbados and/or Fulbright so I'm setting you out to check out <a href="http://beinginbarbados.weebly.com/" target="_blank">Tasha's blog</a>. Get inspired! She took her two young kids (yes, they went to school in Barbados), met loads of new friends, mastered riding the buses and the left-hand driving, enjoyed a busy life right from the first day, and did important work on an educational exchange. <a href="http://catalog.cies.org/" target="_blank">Where do <i>you</i> want to go</a>?<br />
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These photos are from Tasha's blog.Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-14334423487393244132014-05-15T20:10:00.000-04:002014-05-17T14:05:13.093-04:00Graduate School!<span id="docs-internal-guid-ca7605eb-019d-dcbe-71fe-e4791e40a1b9"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am starting a new adventure very soon. On June 2, I will again be a graduate student, this time in the <a href="http://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/master-of-arts-in-teaching" target="_blank">Master of Arts in Teaching program at the American Museum of Natural History</a>. This is very </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>very </i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">exciting for me and I’ll be posting about the experiences since, after all, I am from Poughkeepsie, and I will be </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>traveling </i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">down to the City for the program.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-ca7605eb-019f-063e-9a1b-f6d6f10c0df5"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">In a nutshell, the program is 15 months of intensive study and teaching experiences that all lead to a New York state teaching credential in grades 7-12 Earth Science teaching. There are two summers and a school term over the 15 month period and the two summers are spent in the hallowed halls of AMNH, working with collections, curators and educators on mastering the art of informal learning. The school term, of course, starts in the Fall, and I will be placed in residency at a school affiliated with the MAT program. In the Spring semester, I’ll be placed a different affiliated school so that I get exposed to a different aspect of teaching. At the end of the MAT program, with my new teaching credential, I will be employed as a teacher in a high needs school somewhere in New York. Somewhere close to my Poughkeepsie home is what I’m hoping for!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">A <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/nyregion/american-museum-of-natural-history-will-groom-school-teachers.html" target="_blank">teaching program at a museum </a>is not so common. I am in the 3rd cohort of students in the MAT program. This video will give some background.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">During his talk,Tyson showed what he called "a 1,000 slides because it was all <i>novel</i>!" It was all behind the scenes, green screen shots, and LOT'S of selfies. He had a very warm and regular-guy approach. There he was getting his hair done and dyed at <i>The Blad</i>e barber shop. Here he is in California, eating his first In-N-Out Burger. "You see that long line of cars behind me in this shot? I said 'I'm not going to wait in a car to get food that I'm going to eat in a car!?! I've got to get out of the car for some time in the day!!' We walked in and there was no one waiting in line. They were all in their cars!" He showed many shots of food. And wine. All highlighting the fact of the <i>novelness </i>of this whole enterprise. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">(The photo to the left is grabbed from <a href="https://twitter.com/gmberrow/status/454118404560261121/photo/1" target="_blank">@gmberrow</a> and though I did not take this shot, Tyson said that someone asked him "Dr Tyson, why are you picking up a white baby in that scene in Cosmos?" Tyson told us that he responded with: The host is black, OK?! <pause>We got this!)</pause></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-ca7605eb-025c-8a14-ffea-e2b88d371266"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The photo of the front of the AMNH at the top of the page is by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/marjorie/" target="_blank">Marjorie Lipan</a> with a CC license.</span></span></div>
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Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-43911773258617555792014-04-29T22:39:00.000-04:002014-05-17T14:04:34.233-04:00I Was a Fulbright Alumni Ambassador<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-a0f71c37-ae09-5c7e-d047-abb283a6844a"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the past two years I have had the great privilege of representing the <a href="http://www.cies.org/" target="_blank">Fulbright Scholar program</a> as a <a href="http://www.cies.org/alumni-ambassadors/meg-stewart" target="_blank">Fulbright Alumni Ambassador</a>. I’m not sure how I was asked to be part of this <a href="http://www.cies.org/alumni-ambassadors" target="_blank">outreach program</a> but I know I enjoyed every minute of it. <a href="https://twitter.com/meg_stewart/statuses/141391070369030145?tw_i=141391070369030145&tw_e=details&tw_p=archive" target="_blank">I heard of it on Twitter</a>. As an Ambassador I've visited over 20 colleges and universities and presented on behalf of Fulbright at two conferences where I tell my own Fulbright story, give some Fulbright Scholar program historical and background information and provide logistical facts like the application timeline and whom to call with questions. The running total of people I met with or who heard me speak was over 500, the conferences helped boost that number. Like during <a href="http://travelswithmeg.blogspot.com/search/label/Barbados" target="_blank">my Fulbright</a>, I did a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>lot</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/megstewart/sets/72157632640330767/" target="_blank">documenting</a>!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Alumni Ambassador outreach program started several years ago with the goal of increasing the number of applications to the Scholar program. Who knew that they wanted </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>more</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> applications!? But it wasn’t just more applications, it was that Fulbright was looking for a broad range of applicants. For lack of a better word, they were and are looking for a diversity of applications and applicants. Applications from across the country, from up and down the academic ranks (from full professors to adjuncts to non-tenure track administrators), and from places of higher learning outside the typical four-year college, places like community colleges and technical schools. Though I said that I don’t know why I was asked to participate as an Alumni Ambassador, I can venture a guess. I’m an atypical Fulbright Scholar in that I was not ever in my career on the tenure track. I do not have a PhD. When I won my award I was in the central computing group working as an academic technologist at a small liberal arts college. The year I applied for the Fulbright, I looked at the <a href="http://www.cies.org/program/core-fulbright-us-scholar-program" target="_blank">eligibility requirements</a> and soon realized that I had the cumulative higher education teaching experiences and enough research papers to be a viable Fulbright candidate and in 2009-10, for 11 months, I lived a dream life as a Fulbright Scholar at the <a href="http://travelswithmeg.blogspot.com/2009/05/next-adventure-barbados.html" target="_blank">University of the West Indies in Barbados</a>.</span></div>
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<a href="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7297/14013648345_e7f0c15d73_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7297/14013648345_e7f0c15d73_n.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I was asked to be an Alumni Ambassador and heard the mission of the program, my own not-so-hidden agenda was to spread the word amongst people like myself, <a href="http://nowviskie.org/2010/alt-ac/" target="_blank">alternative academics</a> essential to the teaching and learning campus vision but not often on the "faculty" email lists. Sometimes the research librarians are on those campus faculty email lists but almost never is someone in IT, even though that someone is, for all intents and purposes, an academic. As a Fulbright Alumni Ambassador when I was invited to a college or university to come speak about the Fulbright, I would make sure the academic technologists knew of the talk and knew that they were invited to come. I wrote a <a href="http://www.educause.edu/blogs/nhays/fulbright-scholar-program-also-serves-learning-technologists" target="_blank">blog post for EDUCAUSE Online</a> speaking to the community of academic technology professionals (and the CIOs and deans) who are members of that higher ed technology-supporting community. I gave posters at <a href="http://www.educause.edu/events/educause-learning-initiative-annual-meeting/2014/international-educational-exchange-learning-technologist-fulbright-sc" target="_blank">EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI)</a> and at N<a href="http://www.educause.edu/nercomp-conference/2014/2014/academic-technologist-and-fulbright-ambassador-one-it-persons-professional-development-through-i" target="_blank">orth East Regional Computing (NERCOMP)</a> annual conferences, targeting academic technologists and encouraging them to consider a Fulbright as a unique professional development opportunity. As <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/upshot/getting-into-the-ivies.html?_r=0" target="_blank">David Leonhardt recently wrote in the </a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/upshot/getting-into-the-ivies.html?_r=0" target="_blank">New York Times</a></i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, U.S. higher education has become, especially at the elite colleges, globalized. I argue that higher educators benefit enormously from international experiences if only for a critical awareness of a life lived outside of the U.S. but certainly to bring that awareness back home to our students and colleagues.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a0f71c37-ae1c-7977-add4-c146f0d5fd62"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Though I don’t know the outcomes of my presentations and whether some of those folks in the audience will apply for a Fulbright in the future, I hope I helped spread the word about the Fulbright program. And if you are interested in hearing more on your college campus or you are part of a professional organization and you’d like to have a former Fulbrighter come to speak to your colleagues, look at the <a href="http://www.cies.org/alumni-ambassadors" target="_blank">list of Fulbright Alumni Ambassadors</a> and invite one to speak! (All expenses paid!)</span></div>
Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-70030175741198720812014-01-07T16:48:00.000-05:002014-01-19T14:02:42.384-05:00Train Travel in Italy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Train travel is the way to go. We went to Florence, Venice and Milan (for getting to the airport) and took the "slow" train each time. Don't bother with the awkward online interface. Go to the train station and use the ticket kiosk. Click on the Union Jack (if you speak English) and then search for your destination. What you'll find first are all the bullet train fares which are Very Expensive! but click on "search other options" and you'll see the 1st and 2nd class fares and the slower, regional trains. Going from Bologna to Florence takes about an hour and a half (on the regional train). Why would you need to get there any faster? Plus, the price of a regional train ticket is not that low when you factor in a family of four. The stops are always announced and t<span style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">he trains are very clean and comfortable, not at all like our Metro North or Amtrak trains in the US.</span></div>
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The electronic board at the station tells you the track numbers. Before boarding, validate your ticket at the machine located at each of the gates. But don't freak out if a conductor <u>never</u> comes by and takes your ticket. We could have saved even more money if we had just skipped the ticket purchase altogether, if we had only known <i>when</i> we'd get asked for the ticket and <i>when</i> we wouldn't. But you didn't hear this advice from me!</div>
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Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-35881019826525311032014-01-06T21:21:00.000-05:002014-01-19T13:48:08.985-05:00Best Pizza and Food - Pizzaria La Stella<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Go here: La Stella di Spinazzola Gennaro Pizzaria. You will have a wonderful time with happy wait-staff and fantastic food. Save room for dessert.<br />
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Directions: Via Marco Emilio Lepido, 49, Bologna, Italy. Take the 13 or the 19 bus west to Borgo Panigale.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">While here in Italy and looking to travel to other cities, I've read several Tripadvisor reviews for hotels and many of the negative reviews mostly complained of rudeness on the part of a proprietor. I have not see that. If you act friendly, try to speak Italian, and apologize for not speaking Italian "mi dispiace, non ce pusca italiano," you will be met with a better experience than if you start to rattle off your English (or whatever your language s) and wish your server, hotelier, bus driver, shop keeper, etc, knew what you are trying to ask. Be a mensch. Say thank you "grazzie" Greet people "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">buongiorno"</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;"> first then ask your question. There: a life lesson for you. As Patrick Star says: "It's first grade, Spongebob!"</span>Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-87841607046638893092014-01-04T16:42:00.000-05:002014-01-21T13:32:18.392-05:00What to Eat, When to Eat<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">
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In Italy dinner is served after 7pm. If you're walking around town at 5pm and you're feeling the hungries, good luck! Find a "bar" and get a coffee and a sandwich to hold you over until the trattorias, osterias, and ristorantes are <a href="http://voices.yahoo.com/definitions-different-italian-restaurant-types-2830571.html" target="_blank">open</a>. </div>
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Shops close between noon and about 3pm. <i>This</i> is when you should look for a restaurant, sit and eat. People watch. Practice your Italian.</div>
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The food is great! In Bologna eat the local specialities: tagliata al ragu (above) and tortelloni in brodo. These are <i>not </i>vegan. But you can have any pizza made into a vegan pizza just by eliminating the cheese (senza formaggio e mozzarella). Gelato is from Bologna (at least that's what a tour guide told us, that the university of gelato is IN Bologna). Eat gelato because it is amazing <u>and</u> you can get vegan varieties at the better places. Go to <a href="http://www.venchi.com/us/corporate/store/nome-negozio/" target="_blank">Venchi</a>. See street view and map below. But you should also check out (as we did) <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187801-d1766201-r67608221-Cremeria_Santo_Stefano-Bologna_Province_of_Bologna_Emilia_Romagna.html" target="_blank">Cremeria Santo Stefano</a> which is excellent and has vegan options as well.<br />
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Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-17358205205076909352014-01-03T22:22:00.000-05:002014-01-18T20:37:09.876-05:00Venice is Spectacular<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We went to Venice today and <span style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">first off, bring <i>lots</i> of room on your camera device. Venice is so picturesque you will be snapping every which way you turn. It's that gorgeous.</span></div>
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Get the water bus pass, especially if you're staying overnight (get the the 12 hour one). Venice is a walking city and a boating city. But a single afternoon is not really enough time to see much of the insides of places (museums, cathedrals). The city is very crowded (see the picture of the water bus). This is only chilly January and we saw crowds everywhere, I can only imagine what it's like in high season.</div>
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The streets are not so well marked and what I saw on Tripadvisor was that people had a hard time finding there hotel/hostel. If you can arrive to Venice during the light of day, you'll be in better shape for finding your accommodation than if you roll in at 10pm. Dark alleys are everywhere. During the brilliant light of day, they are charming and romantic. In the chill of night, those alleys can feel creepy and foreboding.</div>
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Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-36550947557358214832014-01-02T20:01:00.000-05:002014-01-19T13:09:13.557-05:00Graffiti<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Bologna had a lot of graffiti which added to the character of the city. There was graffiti in other places too, like on the trains. And there was also some #occupy action.<br />
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<br />Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-62906299942136929632014-01-02T15:56:00.000-05:002014-01-19T12:59:41.652-05:00Bologna's Synagogue - Hard to Find, Well-protected<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The experience of finding the synagogue in Bologna, in the dark, on Shabbat, was one that we hadn't met yet. It was the <a href="http://www.maven.co.il/synagogues/C3402Y41667RX" target="_blank">Comunita Ebraica di Bologna</a>. Difficult to find in the evening, it was a surprise to be asked questions to get in, told to leave the backpack in the anti-room, and see armed guards out front and in the back of the building. Once inside there was a pleasant and small group of people studying Torah and celebrating the Sabbath. We went on another day and walked by in the light of<br />
day. The guards were still there and the only sign that this building was a synagogue was a Star of David viewable at the back of the building, in the alley, and Hebrew at the front door threshold.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Note the Star of David on the peach-colored building</td></tr>
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<br />Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-42675039847133812862014-01-01T18:38:00.000-05:002014-01-18T20:58:42.171-05:00What to do in Bologna if You're Visiting Over New Year'sLast night was New Year's Eve and I thought for certain the windows were going to be blown out on our apartment. It was super loud and almost scary. We're not staying in a busy neighborhood and we're not right in the center of Bologna so I did not expect the spectacle that ensued. But I was, in fact, warned...<br />
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This afternoon we thought we'd take a low-key and leisurely walk up to the "church on the hill" or the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_of_the_Madonna_di_San_Luca,_Bologna" target="_blank">Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca</a> but nearly all of Bologna did the same thing. It was wonderful to see everyone hiking up the portico-covered hill and by hiking, I mean many folks where wearing workout gear. I think this a "thing" in Bologna and that people go to the Sanctuary for fitness (and perhaps reflection). It was a beautiful and cool day and a great activity. Walking up is more strenuous than I expected and coming down took about half the time as going up. On a clear day, the view is probably incredible.<br />
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Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6128624779568893993.post-24000066712489224462013-12-30T21:56:00.000-05:002014-01-13T15:36:09.417-05:00In Florence, Visit the Basilica of Santa Croce, Spy the Duomo, and Eat Gelato<br />
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<a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7380/11839117403_3a5328b5fd_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7380/11839117403_3a5328b5fd_n.jpg" /></a>We were in Florence just for the day but it was so lovely and yet so crowded. We met up with friends doing some work here and that made it even more fun and very negotiable. They knew where to take us and where to eat though we did have a few things on our list.<br />
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The <a href="http://ilgrandemuseodelduomo.it/#cattedrale" target="_blank">Duomo</a>, although wonderful to look at, had a very long line to get in so we just took pictures from the outside and kept walking. Florence is a severe tourist destination.<br />
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<a href="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3817/11839642166_7376bdbf99_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3817/11839642166_7376bdbf99_n.jpg" /></a>We went and looked at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Synagogue_of_Florence" target="_blank">Tempio Maggiore Israelitico Synagogue</a> but did not go in.<br />
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Italian friends from home sent us to Corona's Cafe for the truly best gelato ever. We were not disappointed <i>and </i>they had several vegan gelato options.<br />
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To end the afternoon, we went to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Santa_Croce,_Florence" target="_blank">Basilica of Santa Croce</a> and saw the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli...pretty amazing, really. The Basilica has a Star of David at the top. Odd.
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<br />Meghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06416614287949114736noreply@blogger.com0