Joining the 21st century!

PHOTOS: My work spaces-my classroom, and my living room, PLUS the list of agreements that the 6th graders created as their "class culture"...good stuff!! =)

I know, I am about 10 years too late! Actually, I am on an academic quest to encourage fellow teachers and administrators to consider how they can add 21st century "skills" to their core curriculum. These skills include creativity/innovation, problem solving/critical thinking, tool using (technology and other tools), collaboration, and global thinking just to name a few. Click on the above to access a well-written article from Time Magazine about these skills.

During these first months back in VZ, I have focused mostly on academic adventures more than other adventures. I am researching and preparing both a paper and and presentation for the Latin American educators' conference being held in Brazil in March. My topic is the one I described above. Not only have I been reading thousands of pages of research and ideas about this subject (on both sides of the issue), I have also been learning a slick new digital presentation program called Prezi. You can check it out by clicking on the word. I feel very Tech Savvy now (even my son declared that I was after watching my prezi-complete with embedded videos!!!!).

Another academic project I have tackled is co-writing a full year curriculum for pre-AP English students in Colombia-which has already been adapted for AP language students there AND for AP literature and World Literature students here in Venezuela. My friend and former colleague has documented our work on her blog. Click here to see the masterpiece and supporting materials titled "The Collection". Our discussions via email and Google Docs have been one of the most amazing experiences in collaboration for me! Our ongoing exchanges about the actual implementation are augmented by the fact that my friend/colleague, Laura, is also implementing the curriculum right here. So we discuss student motivation, depth of learning, roadblocks that come up, assessment, and so much more-in real time.

True to my nature, I couldn't leave well enough alone so I am also revamping my entire curriculum this year for grade 6. Take a tour around the website (click there) I have created for the class- complete with calendar of due dates, links, rubrics and many "extras". I am trying to go to a "paperless" classroom where students communicate with me by email, submit assignments by emails, get learning help online, and access assignments online. I am not completely there yet, but am having fun exploring the possibilities.

So, if you need me...I'll be learning some new techy tool, researching, blogging, collaborating across nations, and generally being an "education geek". Oh,....and enjoying every minute of it!! Let the adventures continue!

My first summer on the run

I left VZ the day after school was out and began two months of travel.

My first month took me "home". In the USA I chose to spend my summer in CO with my daughter and sister (and her family-and my son who flew out to visit=OH, and "the moms"), in Ft. Collins area at the end of the CO time with good friends I met here in VZ and my cousin, in Wisconsin with my dad and his wife, in GA with my lifetime great friends, and in FL at a wedding of a dear HS friend (which turned into a mini reunion with people I should have been BETTER friends with in HS-but am thrilled to be great friends with now thanks to Facebook.) While in FL I got to see the sea turtles (loggerhead AND green) come on shore and lay their eggs...amazing experience!

Truthfully, I will never do that again. I was 20 pounds heavier (from all the special home cooking and visiting everyone's favorite spots to eat and all the "fun".) I was yearning for a routine; and I felt that I had not done justice to anyone through my "buckshot" approach to the summer. I know there is no perfect way to live overseas and then please/see everyone when I am home a month or so each year. BUT, I do need a better plan...and am up for options and advice as you see fit to give it =). I will be in ATL for a conference the week after Thanksgiving, in CO the 19-26 of Dec., and possibly in NYC or that area at the end of Dec. Then, I will have about a month in the USA again next summer...who knows where. Find me=)!!!

SO after that whirl across the USA, I flew back to VZ for two days of Un/Re packing. Then I flew to Ecuador for 3 1/2 weeks of Spanish lessons in the surfing paradise of Montanita. My luggage got lost and it rained every day...BUT...I LOVED IT. I learned so much about Spanish and gained the confidence to begin putting together sentences and making myself understood to people here. In addition, I saw humpback whales playing in the warm waters off shore that serve as their mating grounds. On a trip to Isla de la Plata I saw blue footed boobies and a funny bird with a red balloon thing on it's throat (Doug, my birding friend, will kill me for not knowing that). One of the 10 bloody Marys (statues who have cried tears of blood) is there as well- and I saw it. My days were filled with studying, practicing as I wandered the muddy streets of town lined with handicraft vendors, and going to class. Now and then I tried my luck at surfing the 6 foot waves....you had to be there! On the way home I had a night in Guayaquil, Ecuador (I walked and explored it!), and 8 hours in Bogota, Colombia (I left the airport and wandered the old town....even ate a bowl of traditional potato soup with cheese biscuits for brunch!)

I am happy to be back in VZ. After almost a month of only a few hours a night of good sleep due to the party culture of Montanita, I am enjoying unlimited silent sleeping hours. Going out for groceries or on errands is much less intimidating now that I can understand and speak much more spanish. My neighbors keep high-fiving me when I say stuff to them in Spanish-it's encouraging. We have 13 excited and fresh new teachers (out of 23 total) so it is like being at a whole new school this year. Today was the first day of classes-I have 16 sweet 6th graders who named themselves the "Allen Gang" and chose their class color to be gold. Aahhh...it's all good.

I am looking forward to the year ahead.

The glad game...

Top photo: What VZ means to me...friendship. Bottom photo: paradise-a good book, glass of good wine, SKYPE, and a beautiful, secluded pool on Margarita Island...life is not all bad=)

My daughter Tori loved the Disney movie "Pollyanna". After seeing it as a young girl, she would often insist on playing the "glad game" rather than complain about things. As she has grown into a young woman, she still drags out the glad game to deal with tough situations in life-it's like a perspective check.

My Glad Game for this month goes like this:

After enduring messed up traffic patterns due to increasing numbers of police stops as well as ever increasing power and water outages, I AM GLAD I have been able to see first hand what a difference the little things make in the overall sense of freedom for an individual and appreciate the freedoms I have in the USA.

Even though my only five foreign hire teacher friends are leaving this year, I AM GLAD that I will be going to Ecuador this summer to learn Spanish and will have a perfect opportunity (and no excuses!) next year to make new friends with people from this community.

Despite the exhausting preparations for over a month for International Day at school, I AM GLAD that the fact that the FIFA World Cup is being held in South Africa motivated my students to learn about a continent and peoples who they previously would never have even thought about (Africa).

Being far away from family can be really tough, especially during challenging periods of a loved one's life but I AM GLAD that Clark is finishing his first year of college and is headed to Africa in 5 days, and that my sister Tami and family have hired Tori to help run their many businesses-starting with Stagecoach Marina this summer.

Even though our ferry reservation got mixed up and we had to pay for new tickets, stand in line for five hours, and fight crazy, chaotic crowds just to take a dirty, noisy, hot, all night ferry to get home in time for work, I AM GLAD that I live close enough to the gorgeous tropical, windsport paradise of Margarita Island that I can go there for a whole weekend of fun for less than $200.

Really...I AM GLAD to be living the life of a Gypsy...very very glad.

Thanks for following along...I AM GLAD YOU DO!!!

Twirling and tumbling through life

Top to bottom photos: With Terry and Jaycey at Juan Valdez coffee shop in Bogota, Colombia; Sharing a laugh at the monthly cooking challenge(d) club with Melissa and Ama; one of the many BEAUTIFUL views in Bogota, Colombia

We are just finishing spring break and heading into our last 8 weeks of school. In these 8 weeks we have to finish our curriculum, do end of year testing, and say good byes. It is a bitter sweet time for me. I am very very happy in my job-the 6th graders have worked their tails off this year and I am super proud to be their teacher. Yet, the bitterness is in the reality that some of my closest friends here will be leaving VZ for good at the end of these 8 weeks. One heads to Algeria, one couple heads back to NYC, and one family heads to Colombia. The positive side is I know more cool teachers will take their place-it's the cycle of international teaching.

This past month has been a busy one. I spent my weekends learning how to make sushi and Indian food and touring the historic part of town where the school is located. I also started french classes at the Alliance Francaise and found a tutor to help me with my Spanish. On the business side of things, I booked my summer travels all over the USA (CO, FL, GA, WI) in June, my flights home and back to VZ, and my flights to and from Ecuador for my month of intensive spanish language study in July. WHEW-oh yeah, and I taught=).

For spring break I traveled with the Thomas family to see their new home-Bogota, Colombia. It is nestled in the Andes at 8000 feet so it is a perfect 65 degrees all year round. The city has so much pride in itself-rightfully so-it is forward thinking ecologically, organized, safe, and friendly. The brewpubs and Juan Valdez cafe's kept smiles on our faces for sure! In addition, we took the cable car to the top of one of the mountains and toured the historical part of the city. CNG, the school where they will be teaching, has 1800 students and sprawls across acres and acres on the side of a mountain-it is gorgeous. The classrooms have huge floor to ceiling windows that afford a panoramic view of the city. I am certain I will return to Bogota-it is a place that has captured my imagination.

For now...I am tumbling into summer beginning with these next 8 weeks of fun. I'm off....!!!!

Daily life-a window into my adventure in VZ

PHOTOS: view from nameless bar on happy hour nights, Carnaval parade on Margarita island, Making sushi at CIPLC Ladies' night.

So, after months-well years-of waxing poetic about my journey and my life here, I realized that I have never really told you what "life" here looks like.

On school days, I wake up to the most gorgeous sunrise peeking over the mountains, reflecting off the water, and filtering into my bedroom around 6 AM. I am in my car and navigating the daily driving game by 7. Mornings before school starts are social times-coffee with the VZ staff in the cantina, catching up with yearbook editors to check on deadlines, chatting with parents who have questions, greeting students. Beginning at 8, I either teach two or three 80 minute classes each day. "A" day classes are Social studies, Math, and PE with 19 6th graders and B days are English with 6th grade again and Fitness with 22 high schoolers. There is a 20 minute break each Morning and 30 minutes for lunch. I usually stay in my room for these because the 6th graders love to congregate there to chat, play games, work...and I like to supervise. Then, every day at 1 we have a 30 minute homeroom/advisory-6th graders again for me. Usually there is tutoring, studying, project work, club meetings, and general middle school silliness. Fridays we put on music and dance around the room for 30 minutes, laughing and shouting lyrics while we do conga lines and Michael jackson moves-sshhhhh, don't tell.

My classroom is on the third/top floor in the farthest corner of the building. Noone ever comes up there-it is like a hideout. We have two bathrooms and two storage rooms in our classroom along with a huge amount of space to house computers, desks, couches, and plenty of floor space for sprawling about. There are always projects in various stages of completion and materials for the projects filling every corner, plus posters and completed projects displayed around the room- including on the CEILING!

As for after school hours, well, Mondays and Wednesdays I have done various things such as salsa dancing lessons, kite boarding lessons (that I had to quit for awhile due to a head first crash into the beach, two black eyes, and slight concussion), and now, Spanish lessons. Tuesdays are MEETings...I won't say anything more about those (four letter word). Thursdays several staff members always manage to meet up for a casual dinner out. Fridays, about twice per month, we have happy hours at a nameless beach bar with 80 cent beers. And, well, Sundays look like they will be meeting nights for our accreditation groups from here on out. Once a month we try to have a staff party that ranges from a huge pot luck to a girls' night to learn to make sushi or a bar B Q-it's always a BLAST. Some other things that happen each month are a book club and a cooking club-both more of excuses to get together than anything terribly serious about cooking or reading books-and both hosted on a rotation basis by various staff members and other people from school.

On weekends and holidays we try to have adventures as well. We plan well ahead and usually travel in small packs. My current pack includes Andrew and Melissa from NYC, Fred from France, and the Thomas family of 6 from Colorado. We have been to Ecuador, Margarita Island a few times, Los Altos mountain, and several beaches. We have plans to go to Colombia and Trinidad in the next year. Also, scuba diving is a large part of my life during the first semester until the water gets too cold and cloudy. I dove over 25 times in just under 4 months.

Some things that make life challenging are-

* the ever increasing power outages that disrupt everything including cooking,

*internet outages that make us feel very disconnected from loved ones and "the world",

*water rationing that makes even simple tasks like laundry become complicated scheduling dramas,

*unpredictable and destabilizing central government that has led to protests that close streets and the devaluation of the B resulting in 100% inflation overnight,

*complicated, expensive, and unreliable airline booking to travel in or out of VZ

*food and goods shortages that affect things like toilet paper, sugar, and milk to name a few,

*language barriers not just due to lack of spanish skills but due to the speed of speech and type of accent here

*rare but still present hostility against "foreigners" as well as a really tough culture to break into and build friendships thus you work with and socialize with the same group of about 40 people 100% of the time,

*lack of options of things to do or places to go-even the list of good restaurants hovers around 10

Overall-it's wonderful. Like I told someone today-VZ has its charms and its curses. I just try to focus on the charms and laugh at the curses. My contract runs through the end of next school year-2011...so, until then at least, you will continue to hear about my life in Venezuela! Thanks for following along...I MISS YOU ALL....OXOXOX

A Series of Events-Fortunate and Unfortunate

*The Steamboat moms (and me), *Tori, Clark, and Me, *Tori after a day of Kiteboarding, *the famous booties...LOL!!!

I know, it has been FOREVER since I posted an update. Basically, things have been marching along following the status quo without much to note-teaching, tutoring, sponsoring cheerleading and yearbook, planning units, swimming, scuba diving, enjoying weekly family dinners with close friends, a little Spanish learning, and generally enjoying life in my current home on the Caribbean Coast of Venezuela.

But, the month of December brought about a few "events" that stand out. As is true for all my adventures-some of these events were odd, challenging and unfortunate (yet surmountable, nonetheless), while other events were outstanding, amazing and absolutely fortunate in their tenor.

Some unfortunate events included:

-the loss of 16 teacher's passports (including mine)...apparently the Venezuelan government Visa office had them but, for some reason, they could not "access" them to return them to us. It was a long week of planning "what ifs" such as applying for replacement passports and contemplating what would happen to holiday travel plans (just 10 days away from said "loss") if the passports were not found.

-my water heater catching on fire and filling my condo with black smoke and soot. The result was no hot water and no upstairs electricity due to a faulty breaker that had to be shut down completely for a good week.

-water outages during the Christmas season including the day I was to begin a 36 hour airplane journey to Colorado.

-my clothes dryer deciding that it was only going to use COLD air from now on-which is not an effective manner of drying clothes.

-my car battery dying unexpectedly in the airport parking lot. I had to use my amazing charades skills and not so amazing spanish vocabulary to get someone to help me jump it. Still don't know what is wrong....hhmmm...

-and a series of promising conversations by email and skype followed by a "date" that turned into a VERY bad merging of the Brad Paisley song "Online" and the bad date scene from the movie "My Best Friend's Girl" (To get a mental image of exactly how "unfortunate" this event was, click on the underlined/highlighted words and watch the videos that come up. WARNING-the movie clip is rated R so watch with that in mind, please, it is quite raunchy...but is not far from what my experience was.) I seriously kept looking for someone to jump out and yell PUNKED or reveal a hidden camera and give me a prize for not losing my temper=). The second date was cancelled by him in a text message (whew)-the reason he gave for calling it off was that, apparently, I have too big of a bootie and therefore I am not dating material. HAHAHAHA...priceless, I could not make this stuff up!!! really!

Now, hopefully you are still laughing imagining the look on my face during that final unfortunate "event"....and are ready for my list of Fortunate events=)!!

-a touching school-wide Thanksgiving dinner-every parent in my class showed up and some even had relatives in tow. This was followed, two days later, by an all staff progressive Thanksgiving dinner complete with too much tasty food and lots of laughs and dancing.

-my daughter's graduation from Florida State University which she celebrated with a 12 day visit to me in Venezuela. We did everything from Scuba diving, to caroling on a boat through the canals, to visiting a mountain artisan village (where we ate lunch with monkeys)....and so much more.

-success in learning to kiteboard, along with Tori, during our 6 day stay at El Yaque Beach on Margarita Island. We literally didn't wear shoes for 6 full days!!!! And we hung out with VZ world champion windsurfers, Dioni and RIcardo as well as a famous VZ reggae/rap singer, Baroni and his band, One Time. (click underlined words to see short videos of these guys)

-a wonderful evening with a Venezuelan family who lives near me, to celebrate Christmas eve. It was 6 hours of eating and singing and gift exchanging-and they included me in every moment!

-a surprise Christmas visit to Steamboat Spring, CO to see my aunts, uncles, cousins, dad, stepmom, sister, bro-in-law, nieces, and BOTH MY KIDS. Steamboat cooperated by delivering several beautiful snowfalls.

-a day of skiing and several nights out with the Moms of Steamboat who have adopted me into their group. I skied black diamonds (Judy "said" I could) and the nights out did not fail to deliver on new memorable moments to add to our collection from Mexico trips and my other visits to the Boat.

I am currently about to board my plane back to Caracas....it has been a perfect month! I start school again Monday. I am happy and at peace. I love my life.....and I love my family and friends both for giving me the chance to do this and for supporting me along the way!!! Thank you...and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!