Had a slow day at school today, so I dipped out once I finished my one class and went on a bit of an adventure before the school talent show. I walked in the direction of the mountains and didn't stop until I was on top of a hill over looking the city. Decked out in my teacher cloths I climbed to the top to be given a wonderful view of the city. It was a good change of pace from the view on top of the castle from the middle of the city.

Teacher cloths in the morning, hiking cloths in the 80 degree afternoons

Flat bottom dress shoes make for difficult hiking

Panoramic from the hill


Panoramic from the castle


Look at those three all-stars


Good day, and my lesson plans are almost complete for tomorrow, just have to make a worksheet. We have a busy weekend ahead of us; I'm taking Chris and Megan on a little journey tomorrow afternoon. Saturday we are rolling out to Bled where apparently we have to eat Cream Cakes from some random place (It sounded like a crime not too) and then we are planning on taking a short bus trip to a place called Vintgar, looking at pictures it reminds me of Chester Creek (if it was on steroids).
Sunday our Principle, Irena will be taking us for a drive to a bunch of places that she said so fast I couldn't even guess what they are.

Hope your weekends are equally as awesome. Don't do anything I wouldn't do.

Hickel

I leave you with a picture of a sticker placed on our floor, not sure what it is, but I have my suspicions...

Well it has been a while since my last solid blog post. I know letting you all know that I’m officially captain awesome was big news, but that didn’t fill you in on the week’s events. So while I illegally stream mad men I’ll get you updated on what is up.

Sad to say that captain awesome has not caught on with any of the other grades, although I think I could get the 5th graders to call me it if I made more of an attempt, but I think I’m alright with one grade (so are Megan and Chris) calling me captain awesome. What am I saying, I’d like all students to call me captain awesome, who wouldn’t?

Let’s go in order; the 5th graders are totally awesome, I get to help them with an inquiry project into the world of reducing, reusing and recycling. The 6th grade, where I’m known as captain awesome(I'm going to keep pushing this) has been by far my favorite class, not only are they fun, but they are intelligent and highly motivated. We are learning (I say that because I learn something every day) about ancient Greece and I have had the chance to create a variety of different lessons from debates to jigsaws. Way fun, which helps make up for the frustration and challenge of teaching the 7th years who continue to be a thorn in my side. I never thought I would see a group of students so into themselves, but that they are. I’m going to stop talking about them otherwise I might throw something at Chris (sorry Chris). The 8th graders are a good group, not as interested in learning as the 6th graders, but a good time to have in class none the less.

It is too bad no one over here has any idea what baseball is (other than a boring sport to them), I’m getting antsy to get a chance to watch a game.

This past weekend we had a three day professional development workshop brought to us by Mr. Burns.

Well not that Mr. Burns, but another guy who was incredibly knowledgeable about the brain and the development of the mind. I learned a number of helpful things to use in my classroom as well as some stuff to help me in my own life. Hearing about the stages of development and how different brain waves affect how you are best suited to learn was fascinating. After going on a Journey with Professor Dan I never thought I’d have wanted to learn about the brain again, but now I have a long list of books to pick up when I get back. I think I’m going crazy. My favorite part of the workshop was working with memorization. He placed a list of 20 words on a board and we had a limited amount of time to memorize it. Then we were expected to write all 20 down once he took it away. I did alright the first time, but then he gave us tips to help us improve. Here is the list, give it a try and the next time you see me bring it up and I’ll fill you on how I remember the list.

Give yourself a few minutes and then close the screen and try and write down as many as you can. Good Luck
1. Sun
2. Eyes
3. Triangle
4. Stove
5. Fingers
6. Stick
7. Can
8. Octopus
9. Line
10. Hen
11. Fence
12. Eggs
13. Black Cat
14. Heart
15. Fame
16. Drive
17. Magazine
18. Vote
19. Remote
20. Vision

After the workshop we had the rest of a beautiful weekend (upper 60s low 70s) to do what we wanted and that we did. I wondered off alone going on a few hikes around the huge downtown park (Man I love having a park right in the center of a big city). Chris had two friends come into town on Sat from England, Grace and Ben. I've met them a few times when Grace studied in Duluth for a year and it was a great time getting to know them a little better. Sadly, they both got a little sick (maybe of us) and ended up heading back to the UK a bit early, but nevertheless it was nice have a few more English speakers around for a few days (a little packed in our room with a mattress on the floor, I was often scared I’d trip over Grace in the morning).

Nothing too big going on this week, the school has a talent show tomorrow, 6th graders are doing a play on the Trojan war for my class and our principle is going to tour us around outside of the city. We are hoping for Bled (a beautiful city with a big lake with an island in the middle where there is a castle) or Postonja Caves which have a castle that reminds me of Helmsdeep (Is that nerdy?) built right into the rock.

Almost forgot, we went to a football (soccer) match the other day at their new stadium which happens to be real close to our place. It was pretty empty, but they had a solid contingency of avid fans who kept up some solid chants. It was a disappointing 0-0 tie (they were a man up for over half the match) and near the end of the match the fans were getting quite frustrated with the way they were playing. Next week apparently is the final four for former Yugoslavian counties in basketball. I’m thinking of attending, mostly to see the stadium, but also in hope of some crazy hooligans from Serbia. Hopefully its better than the NCAA final four, boy am I glad I wasn’t home for that Championship game, even though I called UCONN and was in the 97% for my bracket (Holla!).

Well I hope I distracted you from something important (work, homework, letting the dogs in). Although this is fun and all I want to do is find a teaching job abroad I’m pretty excited to get back home. See you all in a jiffy (pop).

GO DAWGS!

Captain Awesome signing off

Injured soccer player(who'd have thought) and hooligans chanting


Sienko I found you a job!


The Pitch


Sunset over the city


Ben, we fly back the 2nd. I'll snag some pictures of the park next time I'm there. I'm usually running (up to 10 miles!), but I'll see what I can do. Any other requests?

They call me Captain Awesome!

The title pretty much speaks for itself, I've successfully convinced one of my classes to call me Captain Awesome. If 6th graders will say it its true right?


Captain Awesome in disguise...

its always better with sausage and beer

Weekend was spent in the glorious beer gardens of Munich, Germany. Saturday was a blur of delicious food, top of the line beer and some great friends.

Full mug of strong beer, Kraut and sausage does the body good!


When the Polka music starts you get up on the table and dance.


Drizzy Drake made the trip down from Sweden


Its easy to make friends when everyone is awesome


A fantastic weekend, but of course it ended to quickly. We overnight bussed Friday and trained out early Sunday afternoon, its all to sad to leave so quickly. Germany I'll be back, but for now its back to the classroom for the week.

GO DAWGS!!!

Mike

ARGH...

A day like today makes me wish I was back at Patrick Henry, a day like today makes me wish I was back in Duluth and a day like today makes me wish I was an accounting major (no actually screw that).

This was my second week taking over 3 of my CT's classes and sort of was a culmination of assignments for the 7th and 8th graders. Reviewing a written piece for the 7th graders and an geographical advertisement for a region of Spain for the 8th graders. In each class a healthy proportion of the students did not finish the assigned task and many others put forth a real cruddy effort. Holy crap I never expected stuff like this to piss me off so much, but I really had to express my disappointment to each class. Almost every student had a bullshit excuse that I had to shoot down over and over again. I'm beginning to see the challenges of bring the students back to a structured class when they are so entrenched in the chaotic bitch your way out of assignments style that my CT has. At times like these all I can do is appreciate all the things that I've learned in my previous placements that help me everyday and to those teachers who let me into your classroom I thank you. Hopefully the students realize that I'm not messing around, my expectations of them are a lot high and I'm not going to take any of their crap. I think their grades on these projects will help reflect this. Wow, just writing this is making me feel different, its like I'm becoming a teacher or something.

Besides the classes I taught I observed my CT teach each grade the period before I took over and having him in front of the class before me just gets them all agitated. 7th grade had a test and I don't think I've ever observed more cheating in my life, hidden sheets, talking with their neighbor, passing the sheet around and probably a few others. All I wanted to do was take the students work tear it up and throw them out, but its not my class and all I can do is follow what my CT does. Between the blatant cheating, complaining that they never learned something when they just were not paying attention and bullshit excuses for HW I've spent the last few hours thinking back to if I attempted these things while in school and if so shame on my teachers for putting up with this shit because damn is it obvious.

I'm still don't fully get it, but I'm starting to see that students really do want to learn, but they want to see that they are learning and if you cannot help the students to see their learning they won't accept your teaching or respect you and when you loose that its hard to bring the student back.

Its frustrating and tiring, but I hope that if I can stick to my guns and keep the pressure something will click with the students and they will begin to match up to the expectation that i set for them. Fingers crossed eh...

Besides the 7th and 8th graders I also taught the 6th grade (preparing for a debate on the fall of the Minoans) and 5th grade (recycling). Both seemed to go really well the 5th graders are an awesome group and its fascinating to watch and listen to them. The 6th graders a great group, extremely motivated and interested in history, but we will see how they do with the debate (my expectations are high, but after 7th and 8th IDK).

We went on a field trip yesterday with the 6th, 7th and 8th grade to a coal mine museum. the Museum was located 200 meters below the earth in an old coal mine (next to the new one) and it showed a history of the life of coal mining and the people involved. It was interesting learning about the mines, but it was way more interesting watching the interactions of the students outside of the classroom. Its like a social interaction experiment, watching the interaction between the grades as well as the interaction between the boys and girls, totally hilarious. I'm going to bullet a few things now

- Middle school kids run funny (growing into their bodies I guess)

- There is a village in the town call Kunta Kinte in honor of the character from roots (Not sure what to say about that)

- The country side is crazy beautiful (pictures in one of my next posts)

- Teachers who think they can drone on on a microphone the entire bus ride about random stuff are completely insane and must just enjoy listening to their own voice

- All students can think about is eating (they are like hobbits, breakfast, snack, second snack, 1st lunch, second lunch and they still want more food)

-Middle School gossip is ridiculous

-Field Trips should not take place on Thursdays

Long week, but its all worth it because in a few hours I will be on a bus to one of the best places on Earth... Munich, for the Strong beer festival. WOOP WOOP! I've watched BeerFest multiple times this week in preparation for the weekend. Good people, good beer and Polka what else could someone ask for?

We have began planning for our 10 days of travel and here is a sneak preview of where we will be going at one point in time. CHEA CHEA CHEA!

http://www.np-plitvicka-jezera.hr/eng/index.php
(Scope the gallery)

Make the most of your weekends people! Peace and Love!

Michael D

Taking over classes

So at the end of last week I made the step of taking over half of my cooperating teachers classes. The half involve 6th grade myp history class(Ancient Greece), 7th grade history(Middle Ages) and 8th grade Geography(Spain). I will also teach a few 5th grade pyp classes which have me a little worried, I've never taught that young of a group and I really have no idea how to pace a class for that age. I'll be figuring it out when I teach my lesson on "Why its important to recycle", going to be interesting since I'm not the best recycler out there and have no clue how to teach. Better start googlin! The 2 of the 3 classes I'll be taking over shouldn't be too big of a problem the students are intelligent and motivated which makes working with them a blast. The challenging class is the 7th years, they seem to enjoy being difficult and seem to be a challenge for the entire school. Hopefully I can make the Feudal system interesting enough to keep their attention for 45 minutes twice a week. If you have any suggestions feel free to let me know (I'm looking at you Rowdy). Besides teaching a few classes, we are also taking the middle school students to the coal mines. I think that I am definitely more for the mines then the students. Ohh damn, I'm that teacher.

The weekend was a mixture of restful days and epic nights. Hit the club, something I rarely if ever do in America. We took a trip out with an American we met in our building and a friend of hers from Latvia. Its nice to go out with some new friends (not a saying I don't like going out with Megan and Chris, but I think they might need a little break from me more). and yes they dance like idiots in Slovenia just like in the American clubs (and boy did I dance like and idiot), not for me, but I still ended up staying out till sunrise. Along with the club we took a trip up to the castle which I totally forgot to bring my camera for. I guess another time you will be graced with pictures of Ljubljana in all its glory. Until next time,

Hick

Sorry Tina for the low blow about the Wolves, but I might add that they just recently had their second worst loss in team history, makes me happy to be away from Minnesota sports for a bit.

ohh wait, I guess I can throw up a couple pics!

A picture of what Charlie Sheen would call 3 rock stars from mars!


The awesome challenge of Inquiry put on by the pyp (grades 1-5). I helped the 5th years and they did a great job presenting their experiments on oil spills.


Apparently even Slovenians are Irish on St.Patty's day.

Slovenian Basketball... ehhh I'd go again for the half-time show

This evening the three of us (three musketeers or maybe the three amigos) attended a professional basketball game. After watching the competition I find it call it professional basketball, but it is what it is. The game was between Union(local beer) Olimpija vs. Radnicki, but before we made it to the game we went on a bit of a journey to make it. In Slovenia you purchase event tickets at your local petrol(gas) station. So we picked up our tickets for a professional sporting event for the one time cost of 3 Euros a pop. I picked up the tickets with the idea that the basketball game would take place at this new stadium complex within walking distance from our housing. Thinking this we made our for a 20 minute walk in the rain. When we arrived at the arena we were surprised by the lack of cars and or people in the vicinity. Walking around the stadium we see few lights on. A deep gut wrenching feeling begins to grow my stomach "oh shit this is the wrong stadium". We wondered around a bit longer until we found a security guard. The Slovenian only speaking man must have got quite a laugh looking at the three of us completely drenched without a clue of where we needed to be. Our savior the security guard explained to us (in Slovene) how to get to the stadium. Once he finished he noticed the look of total confusion in our eyes and told us to wait. He returned with a lady who was none to sure of her English, but managed to explain the process of making it to the correct stadium (27 bus till it takes a right then the 7 bus for 4 stops in case your ever in the same situation). We thanked the two profusely and made our way back into the now down-pouring rain. The transfer to the other stadium was filled with the thought of how ridiculously dumb it was of me not to double check which stadium to go to. Ah a rookie mistake if I've ever seen one. It wouldn't have been all that bad except for the rain and the fact that I had taken the other two on a wild goose chase, but we made it to the stadium before half time and as Megan said "the game doesn't get good until the second half". We were wrong about the game getting good, but halftime is what made it all worth it. Almost as soon as we sit down a group of what seems to be teenagers begin setting up trampolines and pads under the basket. I have a video for what ensued.

These guys were dunkin fools one even dunking while another was doing a handstand on the rim. Quite an enjoyable half time show, definitely better then the crap the twolves have. The second half proved to be a blow out as home team Union demolished the away team 92-65. Ben if you don't and anything to do with yourself might I suggest moving to Slovenia or another former Yugo country and make an attempt at pro ball apparently there just aren't that many Vlade Divac's around. All in all can't complain about the game and gets me pretty excited for the Handball game I'm planning on attending this weekend. Its all good though, I know which stadium that game is being held.
A few pictures of the game


Handstand and a dunk


Tonights refs brought to you by Kia, Union(beer) and Goodyear. Who need a blimp when you have refs.


Home team in white, away team in red. Damn that red team was awful


Besides the game the week as been pretty time thus far, I taught a short 5th grade lesson today on liter and waste that went quite well. Tomorrow I'll be teaching 6th grade history about the Minoans and Friday I'll teach the 7th graders about the Feudal System and the 8th grade on the Geography of Spain. Monthly conferences tomorrow evening which will tone down and real fun for St. Patty's day, but oh well I'll just make up for it over the weekend.

Laterade foolios

Hickel