Summer is (Almost) Over

8.9.14
Kristen says...

I can't decide how I feel about the fact that our final Vladivostok summer is (almost) over...

On one hand, I vastly prefer the weather in fall to the weather in summer...I dislike being too warm, and I love the crisp fall feeling you get when you pull on your jeans and a sweater for the first time...

However, I'm so going to miss all the hours of morning sun we enjoy in the summer, and I'm NOT ready to wear a coat or (especially) shoes!

One sign summer is (almost) over?

I went back to school (Year 2 of volunteer teaching has begun)!

It is a tradition in my family (and probably in yours, too, judging by facebook) to take a picture on the first day of school, so here's mine!

 My schedule this year is quite different than it was last year, which has taken some adjusting, but one thing hasn't changed: my terrible drawing skills! :)

One class is learning about Ancient Greece...I was trying to explain how the Ancient Greek civilization "came to an end" and for some reason decided to use the analogy of mice fighting over cheese...

Probably should have made Greece out of feta cheese rather than Swiss?? :)

 It doesn't quite feel like fall here yet (well, ok, it didn't before today's chilly rain), we have been having some BEAUTIFUL days:

We took advantage of the warmth this weekend to have a picnic lunch

Black bean burgers, chick pea and onion salad and lemonade, so summery!

and we took a trip downtown where we saw two of the many different types of ships that visit the Vladivostok port:

The tall ship Nadezhda on the left and a visiting cruise ship on the right

We also took a ride in the oldest, sketchiest bus in the world on the way home, which was something of an adventure :) Ah, the memories we will take with us when we go!!

So, whether I like it or not, our final Vladivostok summer is (almost) over, but we are enjoying the last days as much as possible!!

Winter is coming my friends, winter is coming. :)

KF

A (Teaching) Win + Pretty Pictures

26.9.13
Kristen says...

Ok, so I know this blog isn't about my "career" as a teacher (can you count it as a career when I haven't done it for a year and a half(!) and am only now volunteering for two half-days a week with a total of 6 students??)...maybe vocation is a better word?

Anyway, I know that isn't the point of this blog but I had a good teaching day, and since I don't have any close colleagues to chat with, I'll post it here instead. If you don't want to read "school stuff", feel free to skip down to the pretty pictures below!

You see, most of the actual "work" of teaching isn't done in the classroom with students present. The getting up in front of the class and giving the assignments, reading the chapters, or delivering the lecture is probably the easiest part of the job (providing the kids are behaving and nobody interrupts you...) Most of our work is done on nights and weekends and during planning periods...which is all fine with me.

What is frustrating is when your plans have to change...especially when it's your own fault.

I have a class comprised of 5 fourth graders...a grade I never hoped to teach (and honestly, will be happy to never teach again--I prefer students with 2-4 years more maturity), all students for whom English is a second language, all with varying grasps of the tongue...

The school I volunteer at doesn't officially admit 4th graders, so there is no curriculum and are no textbooks or other materials specifically geared toward this age of students...so I'm basically making this up as I go along.

I've decided to start the year off with the beginnings of geography--continents, oceans, maps, globes, etc...I actually think the kids know some of this information, but in Russian and Korean, not in English, so it's really like working with a blank slate...something I'm not quite used to...my students usually come to me at least knowing the difference between the Americas, the oceans, and what north and south mean...

So, it's been fun.

I've seen the kids now for a total of six 40-minute classes, so we've just barely covered anything. So far we've labeled a map, made visual vocabulary cards, and used one of the better impulse purchases I've made in my life to practice labeling the 7 continents and 5 oceans:

Thank you Discovery Channel...and Walgreens, for the 75% discount! :) In a classroom with not a map in sight, this is a lifesaver! :)

 I had given the students paper outlines of the continents last week, and their homework was to label each outline for class today.

The plan was to make balloon globes using those cutouts...the problem is, 20 minutes before class began, I realized...I forgot the darn balloons!!!

It is impossible to make balloon globes without balloons.

Darn.

So. Like any good teacher, I gave myself 2 minutes of self-pity and then, with the imminent arrival of five 4th graders looming, I made something up...

Which, of course, ended up working out so much better than the balloon globes would have.

When the students arrived I had them take out their homework, and then we discussed what the equator was and about the northern and southern hemispheres. I had them point them out on the fabric map above when it became clear that my writing the word and definition on the board just wasn't getting the concept through.

Then they colored each of the continents a different color and cut them out...

This was all part of the original plan, which was to have been followed by attaching the cut-out continents to the balloon.

Without the balloon, I decided to capitalize on desk space instead.

We had been discussing the difference between a map and a globe (flat vs. round, etc) and I decided that the placement of the continents on the globe (balloon) might be better facilitated if the students were a little more familiar with the alignment of the continents on the map (where they can see all the continents at the same time)...

So in the minutes between classes (I had a double-period with my 6th grader in the hours before) I quickly made pieces of index card with the names of the five oceans (colored blue for a visual) and the northern and southern hemisphere, and cut up some tatting thread I just happened to have with me (thank goodness!) for use as the Equator...

And then I had the kids practice laying out the map on their desk:

That worked for about 5 minutes, until they caught on and could easily reproduce the map. With 25 minutes left of an 80-minute double-block I needed something else (like balloons, which I had left at home!!)

As one after another said, "Teacher, I am done" I wracked my brain to think what I could have them do that would fill 25 minutes and be educationally defensible...and then I had it...friendly competition.

Initially I thought to do a timed race of who could put the map together fastest, but each student finished the coloring and cutting phase at a different time, so that didn't really work...

Instead, I got the bright idea to turn the map into a kind of puzzle. Working in pairs, the students would take turns "stealing" elements of the the "puzzle" while their partner put the jumbled pieces in their correct places. For example, Student A might take Australia from a jumbled pile of map pieces. Then Student B would have to put the map together, at some point realizing which piece was missing, which they would then have to ask Student A for it and put it in it's proper place in the map. Then the students would switch roles. After both had done this, they would repeat the process, only the second time taking two pieces, the third round taking three, and so on.

One student hides the missing "piece" while the other ponders what is missing

This served a triple purpose. 1) They were reinforcing the placement of the different elements of the map, the chief purpose of the exercise. 2) They had to be able to identify and list by name the missing element(s), which may not sound hard to you, but it's remarkably hard for a 4th grader from Korea to remember, for example. the difference between the Arctic and Atlantic, and especially to pronounce them when asking for the missing piece. 3) It was fun! (I know this for a fact, because they were all smiling, giggling, and even said it was fun when I told them class was over. YES!) It's a proven fact (somewhere, I'm sure) that students learn more when they are having fun. Or at least, that has been my experience as a teacher.

After correctly realizing the Atlantic Ocean is missing, the student moves to put the missing "piece" in its place (and hopefully double-check the placement of South America...)

And, the nice thing is I'll see them next Wednesday and we can make our balloon globes then...but I might make a couple sets of this game over the weekend so we can play it again as a review game before our quiz! :)

Good times! I love it when classes go much better than you expect.

--

Are you still with me?

So, the weather here is getting colder (I've been assured that there will be snow on the ground before the end of October) but it is still sunny most days (it feels like fall in Iowa, which is something I missed in Honduras). I have actually been refusing to wear "real shoes", hoping to stave off that eventuality until October dawns, but my toes have been awfully cold in the 45° mornings...

Anyway, even though it's been getting colder there are still plenty of beautiful flowers around (I just can't get over the gorgeous gardens here!) and I snapped some pics of them today:

You don't usually see butterflies and bees sharing a flower

I love it when you catch bugs with their tongues out!

So fuzzy

 So, that's what's happening here! Busy September rolls on...and it's Tiger Day this weekend! :)

KF

A Busy September: Part III!

22.9.13
Kristen says...

Well, I meant to write this last weekend, but this weekend will have to do...as it says in the title, September has been busy! :)

Last weekend we broke "tradition" and actually did something sporty while in Russia...well, actually, last weekend was the culmination of a series of sporty events that began the week before but...

Getting ready to be athletic...

To commemorate the 1-year anniversary of the APEC conference in Vladivostok, a Dragon Boat race was planned, to include both teams to represent local businesses as well as foreign consulates, etc.

What is a Dragon Boat race, you ask?

It's basically a fast race in a canoe-like boat that has a dragon's head and tail...if Wikipedia is to be believed (blech) the idea was originally Chinese (of course, what wasn't?) but has now spread all over the world. Various family members have commented on recently seeing Dragon Boats in different parts of the US and the world. If you Google it there are some fun videos on the Internet that you can watch to get a better idea.

There are apparently varying ways to row in a Dragon Boat, and the Russians have (not surprisingly) come up with their own way...which seems to be pretty effective. The local team (the Vladivostok Tigers) have been World Champions more than once in the past few years, according to one semi-pro Dragon Boater who works at the Consulate.

Tigers of Vladivostok, Sports Club

Why was a Dragon Boat race planned to commemorate APEC, you ask?

No idea.

But anyway, it was organized, and our Consulate was invited to participate.

So we did!

We had the option to organize a 10-man team, a 10-woman team, and/or a 10-person team, made up of 6 men and 4 women. We couldn't find 10 interested women, but we had enough to participate in the 10-man and 10-person competitions.

Originally I wasn't going to participate (not for any reason, I just wasn't asked) but somebody (Chris) let it get around that I'd rowed crew in college (which is true, for one semester in my sophomore year...I would probably have continued but I knew I was going to have to miss an entire season while I studied abroad in London so had to give it up) and I was recruited...

 

Drake University crew member 2003! :) / 2013 Consulate Team...funny

Of course, Dragon Boating is much different than rowing crew, but the contest is at least held at a place that looked familiar...

Note the unadorned dragon boats in the front and the image of the crew team on the side of the building.

We had practices three times before the actual event, with between 8 and 12 people in the boat depending on who showed up...at no time did we actually practice with the boat exactly as it was for the race, so I took pictures of the trophies before the race thinking that this would be the only shot I'd get of the hardware.

The all-male team was up first:

Chris is in the middle, with the sunglasses.

And then my mixed-gender team was second:

I'm in the back, on the far side of the boat with the pony tail.

The race was *only* 200 meters in Novik bay off of Russky Island (maybe a 20-minute drive in good traffic from our house, and crossing the new gorgeous bridges) but let me tell you, 200 meters of Dragon Boat racing is exhausting, especially when you've only practiced two or three times.

Still, believe it or not, both teams won their heat! It was great!

Even better, when it came time to hand out the trophies, we were awarded first place of the Consular teams! :)

The top of our trophy

Even, even better, we also got medals...given to us by Ivan Shtyl, 2013 sprint canoe bronze medalist at the London Games! :)

I love Chris' face in this picture

 He was nice enough to pose with our team for a photo:

 and sign medals for those who wanted it:

 Winning is fun! :)

If you're interested in seeing the complete scores or other pictures you can click here or here for two local newspapers' coverage of the event.

Of course, being the loving wife I am I can't help but share the other fun event of the day...while they were tallying the results of the Dragon Boat races they offered the chance for anyone who wanted to participate in a kayak race...I had already changed my clothes (you get remarkably wet during Dragon Boat competition) but Chris was game:

 Unfortunately his kayak wasn't, and he got a little wet... :)

 However, a "fishing" kayak was quickly procured for him, and he smilingly participated in the race.

 He did a nice job and didn't finish last in his heat! :)

 Other highlights of the day included seeing this gigantic specimen of sea life:

Who knew there were jellyfish in Russia?!

The business of life has continued into this past week, when I started volunteer teaching 2 days a week at a local school, providing 6th grade English lessons for the lone American student and cultural studies (social studies) for some Korean fourth graders. It's heaven.

We also celebrated International Talk Like a Pirate Day at the Consulate this past week:

We are nothing if not goofy! :)

Booty for those willing to dress or talk "Like a Pirate"

The business continues this week...September 29 is "Tiger Day" in Vladivostok! :)
KF

Motifs 4-6!

6/5/12
Kristen says...

Hello again!

Well, what with Semana Santa, and last weekend being a 4-day weekend (YAY! It was the International Day of the Worker, didn't you know? ;) I have had a bit of time to do a bit of tatting.

I sent home about half of my tatting books with my sister when she was here in March, so I've been working with "limits"...but I think this is good because with less choice comes fewer decisions...does anyone else run into the problem of having too many ideas of what to try to create, so you just sit around deciding rather than doing?

I started out with a doily because I hadn't really made one since last summer. I liked this pattern from Gun Blomqvist and Elwy Persson's Tatting: Patterns and Designs. It is pictured in white in the book, but because I worked on it over Semana Santa, I thought I'd make it in Easter/Spring colors instead:

This thing, although really pretty, was kind of a pain to make...I ran out of both the purple and the blue thread at different times, so I had to go back to the thread store twice!

I also like the myriad of motifs in Tatting: Patterns and Designs. In order to actually get back into the motif-making mode (and to attempt to actually get to 25 this year! :-S), I started working through some of those, and came up with these:

Motif #4

Motif #5

 Working small is nice, but I also like the goal of completion that comes with doilies, so I have started to work on another, which began with:

Motif #6

 I finished the second round of this doily last night, and I have to say I'm really liking it:

 One of my favorite parts is actually how the center motif raises up a little bit. You can kind of tell in the picture above, and I tried to take a picture of it from the side below, but you can't really tell how pleasantly the middle bubbles up unless you see it in person.

 Of course, I'll have to iron and block it away later, but for right now I am totally digging it. I'll let you know how the doily grows over the next few weeks...we're in the home stretch of the school year so my tatting-time is limited, but when school is done, I'll have nothing but time! :)

Speaking of school, I had to do an "All About Me" (o, "Todo Sobre Mi" en Español) project in my Spanish class last week.

 I had to put in parts about my physical characteristics, favorite and influential people in my life, a timeline, my future plans, and my "gustos" or likes and "pasa tiempos" or hobbies. Of course, tatting made the top of the list, and since it was a project I had to present, I figured what better way to kill a lot of presentation time than to do a demonstration...

Apparently I'm very intent on this piece of string

So, I brought some #5 thread and my #3 needles to class and taught four 5th grade girls and my friend/teacher Maricarmen how to tat! IN SPANISH! Boy was that hard!

Thread the needle

I've never felt I have successfully taught anyone how to tat in English, let alone in Spanish, but I was very impressed at how quickly the girls picked it up. I think the fact that the class was so small really helped, as well as the fact that the girls thought it was fun! Although some got it more quickly than others, they all ended up with some rings and chains at the end of the class. It was really cute...when class ended they all helped each other tie their tatting on as necklaces or bracelets, depending on how much thread they had left!

I told them if they wanted another lesson I'd be glad to spend time with them after school, so maybe I'll get a couple of them to really learn...either way, I now know I can not only do it myself, but actually teach it, too...good times. (Now if I could only figure out shuttle tatting...)

KF