After our conference yesterday, we came home, showered and then headed to dinner at a local Chinese restaurant- very fancy. We had our own private room and big round table to fit us all. We did a family style dinner with many different dishes on the lazy susan- delicious. After dinner 2 of my friends and I decided to hit the town. We ended up a local Hard Rock Cafe bar because everything else was closed. We were a little disappointed because we wanted to experience the local bars, but this turned out to be just that! They had a great band playing and we really enjoyed ourselves.
Today was my favorite day so far- besides for the elephant ride. We woke up early this morning and went to breakfast- my body is slowly getting used to Thai time, I am now sleeping through the night, but waking up around 6ish- just in time for me to return to the states. After breakfast, myself and the 3 others in the program, along with one of the program directors, decided we would get an early start on shopping. We went to this mall called Terminal 21- it was SO COOL! The decorations in this mall were unlike any I have ever seen elsewhere. It was so trendy and fun. I will post pictures in my next blog- or they are also on my facebook. The shopping there was also AMAZING! They set the mall up so that it is just a bunch of little boutiques that are uniquely designed based on the type of clothing they sell. They had ones that were decorated all with paper and some with metal- just all over really funky. We had a fun time shopping there- not to mention the great deals. In Thai shopping malls you can bargain with the prices, (which my mom has taught me well) so I was buying presents left and right while only spending $100 at the end of the day. (Also the US dollar is worth about 30 Thai Baht, so that helps).
After shopping, we had lunch at a great Japanese restaurant with a phenomenal view of the city (photo on next blog). What I love most about Bangkok is the brightness of colors on everything from taxis to buildings. It is really pretty to see because so much catches your eye. This lunch I was feeling really American, so I split a pizza with my friend Kristen. SO YUMMY! After lunch we decided to head to Sukhumvit- which is an area of Bangkok known for its bar scene and a place where older men like to go to meet Thai women. We took the sky train (like a subway, but above the streets) and found ourselves a nice bar that had a view of the streets and all of the Sukhumvit hustle and bustle. Street vendors would come up to us and try to sell us things while we were having a drink, people were in and out of the bars and streets just having a good time. When we were finished we took the sky train back to our hotel to go to the pool to catch some sun! The girls and I got distracted by the market on the way in and spent some more time shopping and buying presents! We finally made it to the pool and got to relax some before dinner.
For dinner we decided to go to the food court again, since there was so much to choose from and our feet were hurting us from walking so much, and this was the closest place. I decided to have sushi since I skipped out on it at lunch- again, delicious! After dinner we headed back to the room and here I am now! It is an early night for us because we have to be on the bus by 7 am tomorrow in order to make it in time to catch the floating market! I will write soon!
xx
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Workshop day 2
Today is our second day at the workshop. I will start with what we did last night though... After we finished the workshop- around 5:30 pm we went back to the hotel and then broke off for dinner. Myself and the other students went to the "food court" in the mall. The reason for the quotes is because I don't want you thinking its like the food court in the KOP mall. This food court is equivalent to the buffet at the Borgata and it had the neatest way to pay. Each person got a credit card and you were allowed to go around to the different vendors- separated by different cultures food (mexican, thai, japanese, chinese, america etc..). You ordered your food and they swiped your credit card and when you were done eating, you went to the register, they swiped your credit card and then you paid for it however you wanted. I ended up getting chicken pad thai, a typical thai cuisine. It was delicious!!
After dinner 2 other girls and I went to the mall and walked around. The mall is basically an outdoor market (everything is the same in each shop) where you can bargain with them, just inside and air conditioned. I didn't end up buying anything because I was so overwhelmed with the all the different stores- but I will get some souvenirs soon! After that I ended up passing out in the room, still trying to get over the jet lag!
This morning we had breakfast and then took the van over to the university. Here is the site for the school we are at- it is the number 1 university in Thailand.
http://www.chula.ac.th/cuen/
Today we talked about different modeling tools, one in particular that allows students to program their own games and simulations and then publish them as Java applets on the web. It is such a neat tool that I know my students will find entertaining, but the best part for me is that they will be doing math at the same time by creating and analyzing graphs from the games that they have created. Super cool!
Here is a link for those of you who are interested in learning more: http://www.agentsheets.com/index.html
We had a yummy lunch today- rice, chicken and of course some noodle soup with fruit for dessert. Right now we are discussing how to use the cell phone or tablet in the classroom as a learning tool and not just a source of entertainment. It will really open doors for me in my classroom!
Tonight there is talk of going to a local thai restaurant in another nearby hotel that is known for its delicious food! So of course I am very excited for that. Tomorrow is a free day for us- we are going to discuss tonight what we want to do, but I am pushing for the beach!
I hope you liked the pictures- it took me FOREVER to figure out how to get them onto my computer and uploaded. Now that I know though I will have many more coming of the next few days.
XX
After dinner 2 other girls and I went to the mall and walked around. The mall is basically an outdoor market (everything is the same in each shop) where you can bargain with them, just inside and air conditioned. I didn't end up buying anything because I was so overwhelmed with the all the different stores- but I will get some souvenirs soon! After that I ended up passing out in the room, still trying to get over the jet lag!
This morning we had breakfast and then took the van over to the university. Here is the site for the school we are at- it is the number 1 university in Thailand.
http://www.chula.ac.th/cuen/
Today we talked about different modeling tools, one in particular that allows students to program their own games and simulations and then publish them as Java applets on the web. It is such a neat tool that I know my students will find entertaining, but the best part for me is that they will be doing math at the same time by creating and analyzing graphs from the games that they have created. Super cool!
Here is a link for those of you who are interested in learning more: http://www.agentsheets.com/index.html
We had a yummy lunch today- rice, chicken and of course some noodle soup with fruit for dessert. Right now we are discussing how to use the cell phone or tablet in the classroom as a learning tool and not just a source of entertainment. It will really open doors for me in my classroom!
Tonight there is talk of going to a local thai restaurant in another nearby hotel that is known for its delicious food! So of course I am very excited for that. Tomorrow is a free day for us- we are going to discuss tonight what we want to do, but I am pushing for the beach!
I hope you liked the pictures- it took me FOREVER to figure out how to get them onto my computer and uploaded. Now that I know though I will have many more coming of the next few days.
XX
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
PICTURES!!!
Temples where the king and his royal family stay
My cute skirt I had to rent to wear into the temples!
Statue of the Buddha made of all bronze that is 600 years old
Some of the old ruins of temples
Open Air Market!
Love the detail and colors of the temples!
Anthony and I riding an elephant!
Workshop Day 1
Right now I am currently in the middle of day 1 of our workshop. Like I said in my previous post, I started my day at 4 am because my body was thinking it was 5 pm. So after I finally got up, we met for breakfast, again phenomenal and then waited for our bus to arrive. We took the bus to a local university- Chulalongkorn University. Here our supervisor (Dr. Panoff) led the workshop on "Computing MATTERS: Towards an International Partnership to Promote Inquiry-Based Science Education Enhanced by Computational Thinking"
We had a few sessions early on where we learned about different models we could use in our math classroom to help our students understand their expectations, observations and reflections. For us as teachers it is important to understand that the way a students answer looks depends on how the question is asked and that answers may not be wrong, just unexpected. For example, if you go to google and type in 3+2*6 you would expect the answer to be 15 and if you were to type in III+II*VI you would expect to get XV. Both answers are correct, they just look different, but are expected for their questions asked.
After a few sessions we had a lunch break which I found very culturally different. Think to yourself- If I were at a conference in the United States- what would the lunch menu look like? Myself and a few other Americans came up with - a hoagie platter, pasta salad, a cookie tray and sodas, very typical. If it were a hot meal maybe- hotdogs, burgers, mac n cheese, a cookie tray and soda. Here in Thailand, we had rice, some sort of egg (which I think had an animal in it), some sort of spicy chicken mixture, soup, fruit and water bottles - no wonder they are so skinny! Fruit seems to be the go to dessert here, which is fine with me because it is always so fresh and delicious, but I would be lying if I said that I'm not craving a cookie right about now.
We have another session in store and then dinner, which is also here at the university. Afterwards we are free to do what we want. A few friends and I decided that we would explore the local shopping scene and pick up some souvenirs! Hopefully my pictures will all be downloaded when I get back to the hotel so that I can share them with you all.
xx
We had a few sessions early on where we learned about different models we could use in our math classroom to help our students understand their expectations, observations and reflections. For us as teachers it is important to understand that the way a students answer looks depends on how the question is asked and that answers may not be wrong, just unexpected. For example, if you go to google and type in 3+2*6 you would expect the answer to be 15 and if you were to type in III+II*VI you would expect to get XV. Both answers are correct, they just look different, but are expected for their questions asked.
After a few sessions we had a lunch break which I found very culturally different. Think to yourself- If I were at a conference in the United States- what would the lunch menu look like? Myself and a few other Americans came up with - a hoagie platter, pasta salad, a cookie tray and sodas, very typical. If it were a hot meal maybe- hotdogs, burgers, mac n cheese, a cookie tray and soda. Here in Thailand, we had rice, some sort of egg (which I think had an animal in it), some sort of spicy chicken mixture, soup, fruit and water bottles - no wonder they are so skinny! Fruit seems to be the go to dessert here, which is fine with me because it is always so fresh and delicious, but I would be lying if I said that I'm not craving a cookie right about now.
We have another session in store and then dinner, which is also here at the university. Afterwards we are free to do what we want. A few friends and I decided that we would explore the local shopping scene and pick up some souvenirs! Hopefully my pictures will all be downloaded when I get back to the hotel so that I can share them with you all.
xx
Monday, May 13, 2013
Day 1- Temples and Elephants!
I have made it safely to Bangkok and have spent my first full day here exploring! I'll start with the airplane ride- super long and apparently Tokyo (my 2nd layover) doesn't sell any American candy. I didn't really sleep much because I was too preoccupied with all of the food and my personal tv. When we finally arrived in Bangkok it was almost midnight and we had a driver waiting for us. We walked outside to get to our van and we were hit with the Bangkok heat, 90 and humid! It was definitely a shock from the freezing cold airplane!
Once at our hotel (which is as beautiful as the website show) we were greeted by one of our program leaders, checked in and then went immediately to bed (at this point it was almost 2 am). We had to be up by 6 the next morning for breakfast and our full day of exploring! Our first few stops were to temples where the kings and royal family stay when in town. The design and colors of the buildings were amazing! In order to get onto the premise, girls had to have their knees and shoulders covered. Of course- since it was 90 degrees outside, I did not have on the proper attire, so I had to rent a skirt to wear. You will see in the pictures! ( I am having a tad bit of trouble getting the pictures to open on my computer right now- I am using my mom's Nikon and my computer is having me download a program which still has an hour left before complete since the internet is kind of spotty here, but I promise to add pictures as soon as I can get them to show up!) At the temples that we were allowed to go inside, we had to take off our shoes before entering. One of my favorite ones had a HUGE bronze statue of the Buddha that was built over 600 years ago. The native people would go there and kneel in front of the statue to pray. We participated in some of their ceremonial ways- getting blessed by a Monk and reading our fortunes.
Some of the other temples we went to were old ruins, ones that were built hundreds of years ago and have deteriorated over time. It was so neat to see all of the intricate detailing that went into the stone carvings and brick laying. All of the gold that had been there at some point, was melted down and stolen, so the ruins were just huge brick monuments. It was a scorcher yesterday, so we were all soaking wet from sweat after about 10 minutes in the sun. Our tour guide was a native who was so knowledgeable- we got really lucky with him, he taught us a lot! He recommended a restaurant we stop at for lunch, true local Thai cuisine. We ordered food for the table to share- IT WAS AMAZING! I ate a lot of Thai food when I was in in Australia, but this was authentic Thai and so much better! After lunch we went to some more temples, (when I have pictures up I will be able to give more detail on each) and then walked around their open air markets.
The next part was my favorite!!! I got to ride an elephant for about a half hour! The neatest part to me was that when we were crossing the street, the people on the road in cars and riding bikes/scooters- didn't even bat an eye! I was like- HELLO PEOPLE! IM ON AN ELEPHANT!!! So fun! I have some awesome pictures to show yall soon. After Elephant riding we tried to make it to China town for dinner, but China town is closed on Mondays because they shut down the streets to clean them every Monday night. It smelled horrible! We ended up just coming back to the hotel where I had dinner with the two other girls on the trip. (I hate to admit it, but I ordered a cheeseburger! Aunt Amy will laugh at that one).
Once I hit the bed I tried writing in my blog, but it got deleted so I just fell asleep. I had been going on 48 hours with no sleep so I was out..... until now! When I started writing this blog it was 4 am ! Apparently I am not all that tired- or my body won't let me sleep! In about an hour when we get up I will go to breakfast (which has the BEST fruit) and then head to our first day of the workshop at a local university. I am extremely excited to learn about inquiry learning and technology! I am hoping that they will have better internet there so that I can download the pictures fully and upload them for yall to see. I will also put them on facebook since it is easier to upload in bulk on there. So Check back soon!
LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!
Once at our hotel (which is as beautiful as the website show) we were greeted by one of our program leaders, checked in and then went immediately to bed (at this point it was almost 2 am). We had to be up by 6 the next morning for breakfast and our full day of exploring! Our first few stops were to temples where the kings and royal family stay when in town. The design and colors of the buildings were amazing! In order to get onto the premise, girls had to have their knees and shoulders covered. Of course- since it was 90 degrees outside, I did not have on the proper attire, so I had to rent a skirt to wear. You will see in the pictures! ( I am having a tad bit of trouble getting the pictures to open on my computer right now- I am using my mom's Nikon and my computer is having me download a program which still has an hour left before complete since the internet is kind of spotty here, but I promise to add pictures as soon as I can get them to show up!) At the temples that we were allowed to go inside, we had to take off our shoes before entering. One of my favorite ones had a HUGE bronze statue of the Buddha that was built over 600 years ago. The native people would go there and kneel in front of the statue to pray. We participated in some of their ceremonial ways- getting blessed by a Monk and reading our fortunes.
Some of the other temples we went to were old ruins, ones that were built hundreds of years ago and have deteriorated over time. It was so neat to see all of the intricate detailing that went into the stone carvings and brick laying. All of the gold that had been there at some point, was melted down and stolen, so the ruins were just huge brick monuments. It was a scorcher yesterday, so we were all soaking wet from sweat after about 10 minutes in the sun. Our tour guide was a native who was so knowledgeable- we got really lucky with him, he taught us a lot! He recommended a restaurant we stop at for lunch, true local Thai cuisine. We ordered food for the table to share- IT WAS AMAZING! I ate a lot of Thai food when I was in in Australia, but this was authentic Thai and so much better! After lunch we went to some more temples, (when I have pictures up I will be able to give more detail on each) and then walked around their open air markets.
The next part was my favorite!!! I got to ride an elephant for about a half hour! The neatest part to me was that when we were crossing the street, the people on the road in cars and riding bikes/scooters- didn't even bat an eye! I was like- HELLO PEOPLE! IM ON AN ELEPHANT!!! So fun! I have some awesome pictures to show yall soon. After Elephant riding we tried to make it to China town for dinner, but China town is closed on Mondays because they shut down the streets to clean them every Monday night. It smelled horrible! We ended up just coming back to the hotel where I had dinner with the two other girls on the trip. (I hate to admit it, but I ordered a cheeseburger! Aunt Amy will laugh at that one).
Once I hit the bed I tried writing in my blog, but it got deleted so I just fell asleep. I had been going on 48 hours with no sleep so I was out..... until now! When I started writing this blog it was 4 am ! Apparently I am not all that tired- or my body won't let me sleep! In about an hour when we get up I will go to breakfast (which has the BEST fruit) and then head to our first day of the workshop at a local university. I am extremely excited to learn about inquiry learning and technology! I am hoping that they will have better internet there so that I can download the pictures fully and upload them for yall to see. I will also put them on facebook since it is easier to upload in bulk on there. So Check back soon!
LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Tokyo Japan
Hello family and friends! I have landed safely in Tokyo after an extremely long flight!! I had a middle seat which made for lots of small talk with my neighbors. I'm sure they got annoyed with me continually asking to get up to go to the bathroom/stretch my legs...
I barely slept because they were constantly bringing us food and I was busy watching movies. Now in Tokyo we have a 3 hour layover- we met up with another student who is from northern jersey. It is 5 pm here on Sunday so HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOMMY!!
Our next flight is 6 hours long and we will get into Bangkok around midnight and then I'll finally be able to sleep! Monday is a free day for us so we are throwing around ideas of what to do! I'll write more tomorrow after my first day there!
Love you! Xx
I barely slept because they were constantly bringing us food and I was busy watching movies. Now in Tokyo we have a 3 hour layover- we met up with another student who is from northern jersey. It is 5 pm here on Sunday so HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOMMY!!
Our next flight is 6 hours long and we will get into Bangkok around midnight and then I'll finally be able to sleep! Monday is a free day for us so we are throwing around ideas of what to do! I'll write more tomorrow after my first day there!
Love you! Xx
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
She turned her can'ts into cans & her dreams into plans...
Hi Y’all! I am shipping off to Thailand in 5 days, it still hasn’t hit me yet! This week is quite hectic for me- I am frantically trying to pack up my apartment for my move to Charleston, SC, doing all the last minute things for my masters degree (since sadly, I am missing graduation) and trying to say goodbye to all of my wonderful friends I’ve made along the way, old and new.
Some of you might remember my blog from my time in Australia a few years ago, which proved to be very useful in communicating with everyone (since phone calls are extremely expensive- ask my dad). I am only going to be in Thailand for about a week, but I will try my best to post each day, with pictures, so you all can follow along.
Here are some of the details of my trip:
I fly out of Columbia, SC at 6 am on Saturday morning (thanks to my wonderful boyfriend who will be dropping me off super early) where I connect in Washington DC. I will be flying with a friend of mine, Anthony, who is also a math major and in my masters program. Since only 4 people were chosen to go on this trip we have found ourselves to be very lucky coming from the same program. Once in DC, we have a little bit of a layover before we make the 14 hour flight to Tokyo, Japan. In Japan we are meeting up with another student who is from New Jersey. Once we are all together, we fly 6 hours to Bangkok, Thailand. We are staying at the Pathumwan Princess Hotel - it’s worth looking up. www.pprincess.com
While there, we will be attending a professional development session where we will ”focus on inquiry-based learning enhanced by computational science and will introduce attendees to incorporating modeling at all levels from desktop to mobile devices.” What this means is that I will be learning how to use different forms of technology in my classroom to enhance learning. I can’t explain how thrilled I am to have been given this amazing opportunity for both myself and my future students. The school where I just accepted my first job, R.B. Stall High School in North Charleston has given all of their students Ipads, so I am trying to learn all that I can on how to best use them to benefit the students learning.
The conference takes place over 2 days and then the rest of the time we are free to explore beautiful Thailand! I hope you all enjoy!
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