PAVEing a Blog

Libros Libros Librao S.A. Monte Arat 220, Lomas Barrilaco 11000 Mexico D.F.
5202 0825, 5540 4778 www.libroslibrosmexico.com
Free gift wrap, cookies (YES!) and awesome magazines, with thousands of books!

Under the Volcano Books!
Cerrada Chiapas 40-C, Col. Roma Norte, Del. Cuauhtémoc
Distrito Federal, MEXICO 06700

Any books you might want to donate, see the Under the Volcano books! Awesome and cool place!

Two impressive forms of media impressed me this week…
This reflection on the 21st Century teacher

and Steve Jobs’ Stanford speech below, you definitely need to read this…WOW…

In a short amount of time, so many things can occur, – crazy, isn’t it?

I will pick up from where I left off last post, how is that?

We did prevail 2 Saturdays ago, (not yesterday, but the Saturday before) – with a great College Fair! We had success with the pizza selling, ordering 4 at a time, Three times, for a total for 12 pizzas blowing out of the fair, and we could have done with probably 6 at a time, but overall, we were lucy we sold it all and had the chance to raise an extra 1000 pesos added to the account. Not bad at all! 🙂 I was proud of

Camila, Ann, and Ji as they helped collect, distribute, and hold of the crowds between pizza deliveries and such.

I was able to actually get my clothes from a new laundromat

after the College Fair, and began the process of putting away clothes and Sunday allowed me to be lazy and settle in with the new kitten, Dewey.

Speaking of Dewey, it has been amazing to see her settle in among stranger, and those “strangers” – in the form of faculty and students, have done a WONDERFUL job in taking care of her. She is completely spoiled but overall, well taken care of. She can be VERY frustrating when she cries, (as Deborah and Tracy and testify to) but when you look back to see how healthy and excited she becomes when she is around people that care for her, you see how similar to a baby she is with the milk, formula,

burping, and the whole training, wow. It you do not have patience you either will or you will break after the kitten baby stage! 🙂

It still tugs at my heart if we could make her a part of the library, as the way the students transformed when she was around was amazing, they pitched in and took care of her, and completely melted when she was near! 🙂 The name Dewey (for Dewey Decimal) as well as originally named Francine (from Sarah!) It is interesting to see how the DF is snuck in there thoroughly representing Dewey in Mexico!

So let’s discuss the eats! 🙂
2 Fridays ago we descended upon Ka Wong Seng

by the Viaducto. I will not spoil the review I wrote on the area with the review of restaurants on this blog (see the page that says Important bits of info about Mexico!)

Agapi Mu Restaurant

Wow! This might be the true test, soaking wet, stormy night, cold, and still a great place! This restaurant in Condessa has some of the best Greek food, and I was taken with the Calamri, oh yes…DELICIOUS! Great hideaway and great restaurant! A definite hit! To make it even better, we relaxed at a colleague’s apartment afterwards and just a great Friday night all around 🙂

This past week was a blur with trying to sneak Dewy into the school every day, (minus Thursday and Friday!) In my sweatshirt most days (in a sock), in her carrier bag, people on the metro noticing, wow, challenges, and then finally the decision to leave her home 😦 In a week she learned to use the litter box, still WAS on milk only (this past Saturday she ate her first taste of soft food and hard food MIXED, progress!) – and so she is coming along so quickly!

Let’s see, Ms Fong, my boss, travelled to New York and asked me what I needed, of all things, I could only think of a Swiffer for the house that would carry well, lol. I could have asked for ANYTHING else, but alas, I fell on the Swiffer, lol. I hope she is getting lots of pics!

I am excited, tomorrow, I am headed camping for four days with Outward Bound with the 9th graders. We go without showers for 4 days, in the wilderness, and do service projects with locals as well as help students in the classroom that are of elementary age. Exciting! 🙂

I have a friend, Glen Richards, who is in India right now working with an orphanage and amazing to see his VLOG and images of India, you truly need to check it out. You need to check out his facebook with the videos he is making, wow. GREAT and the kids are benefitting as well!

I think CYCLICAL because I realize how much an impact one person can make, and seeing Glen makes me realize, if each one if us were to just live like there is no tomorrow, imagine how many people could be affected and how much the world could change.

With the passing of Steve Jobs, I know alot of people focus on just his accomplishments with APPLE, but that was a vehicle for him to realize alot about himself. His Stanford speech
is FAMOUS, and for good reason. It would do you good to check it out and apply it every day, I hope to.

In seeing Mexico, I realized how lucky I have been to have this experience, and to have friends at home to help keep things going. Melinda Duryea helped me make the first ability to get money sent home and pay bills, and I hope to get back on track. Danielle Levredge continues to watch the house and turtle, and reduce the amount of bad things that could be happening!

I need to bust some hours and tasks out today and finish some on the burner tasks such as writing an article for the upcoming issue of Focus (magazine put out buy the school) as well as catch up with my online classes – November is write a 50 000 word novel and I signed up! – and Web 2.0 Tools class), all which will help me become more of a resource using and adapting technology for teachers.

Additionally, I am sooooo excited that my immigration/FM3 paper came in! YEAH!

I could not travel to NCTE in November without them, and I truly want to make an impact and bring resources back for the educator here in Mexico.

In March, we are preplanning a trip to New York City for the Columbia Univerisity journalism Conference, that will span over the time of my birthday! If I can get the staff to come to this, wow! I am so excited that this could happen – and it will benefit the Literary Magazine as well as the students in publishing! That same week is a Celebration of teaching which would be AWESOME!

In March there also is a United Nations UNUM
trip to Dublin, Ireland which I was accepted to chaperone for the United Nations event for the students, wow….I am so excited! I wanted to try and obtain information for my uncle related to our family tree if I can get that!

I have realized it is okay to do alot of events, but if I do not pull information back from them, then it does me no good and others no good.

I forsee me catching up with bills (BORING) over the next few weeks, and also my classes I have enrolled in, and then jumping back and hitting my list of to see’s around Mexico! 🙂 In the process, I have begun to do the flashcard and recall exercises on SpanishDictionary.com,

ohmygosh! It really works better than anything I thought it would! Excellent! So I am getting there….:)

Alot for you to look over, but I hope by taking the last week off from posts, it has given everyone a chance to catch up! 🙂

I see life as cyclical, and if you believe this, then it is even more important to make sure you provide some good that will come back around and benefit others as it has you!

Okay, so come on, if you had a chance to save this kitten from drowning, what would you do? Enough said, it has been a draining day, more details tomorrow….:)

Okay, so it is FRIDAY! and yesterday the students did an AWESOME job of feeding and caring for the kitten!

and it showed as she passed out at home, lol…

…so Friday starts a new day with feeding, getting “Francine DEWEY” used to the schedule of being a library cat, and overall, it has been an interesting week!

I have enrolled in several classes for online blogging, as well as starting to write a novel in November! AGH! The goal is to reach 50,000 words by the end of November, so…some prep time will allow me to get start! I am trying to get Camila started with me as a writing partner!

I get my work VISA TODAY! YEAH!

This Saturday is the College Fair at ASF, so we plan on selling PIZZA!

🙂

This is something I posted based on a student sharing this with me:

“You need to check these two websites out: (This was shown to me by a student yesterday, and she was fascinated in how it does NOT use 21st Century Technology but mimics it…but yet, it does use 21st Century and tries not to…lol…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iWxD0GZVVk&ob=av2e
(Original VIDEO)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISECTM3xmAs
(Behind the Scenes – Wait until you see HOW they made it!)

Thanks Mary (awesome student) for showing this to me!”

I put this in my post as I am beginning to see some interesting developments in myself as well as in Mexico!

I love being a librarian, my boss encourages me to grab the best and all I can, and I think with a new staff supporting her, we have been able to move the library in Mexico City to unchartered territory! 🙂 it is exciting! let me tell you why:

Just on the surface, we have cadets that are AWESOME, they are reviewing books and we place their pictures all around the library, it looks so neat and it personalizes their talents! 🙂

Second, things are starting to really come together! The ASOMEX conference gave us so many ideas and options, our library IS becoming a hub for technology and media information, it is exciting!

I am enrolled in three different courses, one on 2.0 tools where I collaborate with teachers all over the world, one where I write a novel in the month of November and finish it!, and working through NCTE’s 21st Century Pathways Technology Professional Development Module to create a Professional Development program for teachers online! It is exciting! 🙂 So much! Amid that, I am finding the students of the ASF School to be so interesting and into their knowledge searches, they talk about philosophers and theories like other schools talk about what type of gum they like, lol…so neat!

The last few days, since the ASOMEX Conference, wow! That Sunday following the Conference I headed to the Museum of Anthropology and did not get through it all, but it was free to get in! They are celebrating Brazil right now, and the bands that were playing in the middle, as well as books stands from UNUM were awesome! WOW! The museum was breathtaking, and I will try to add some pics here, but you will definitely want to checkout my facebook to see the album!
I was reminded of ,my turtle when I saw red eared striped turtles in the middle of the pond in the museum! Maybe that would be a cool place to get the turtle to?!

It was astonishing to see the historical Mayas and Oaxaca artifacts including so much more! 🙂 On the way back, I was riding the bus home in the evening, and saw two little girls putting stickers the size of a penny in people’s hands and hoping to get some money. It was sad to see these two sisters so late at night with stickers so small, for a little bit of money. I saw a couple give them their half empty bottle of Coke, and after the girls walked away down the metro train, the boy of the couple pulled out many coins of his pocket but did not give them any. It broke my heart. Yes, I know they are probably working for their parents, and have a good gig going based on them being little, but no one gave them anything this night. I saw them getting off the stop at Patriotismo, and I got off early too, motioned to the oldest sister, and gave them 20 pesos and walked away. I hoped they would use it for something they needed and would not tell their parents so they could get a goo meal or something they wanted, as I am sure their parents would not expect a 20 bill peso to be given out, so I hoped.

I thought about it and realized I never really gave much money to anyone at home, mostly because it seemed they were scammers, yet in Mexico, I feel they are more deserving and genuine, whether they are older or younger…strange, eh?

I see myself growing closer to students here, and we hit it off well. I am going to a roughing it camping trip with the freshmen, wow, this will be an experience for 3 days, lol. I like the outdoors events we do though, as I enjoy that element. I am seeng many mini projects from Banned Books representation, making videos for the library as far as informational, beginning weeding out of books and inventory of the library, as well as various ways to get the cadets to be more active!

I want to see myself grow in the area of learning Spanish better (classes are a bit overwhelming but I want to study harder and memorize more), I want to grow in the media area to be a leader, PD instructor, and mentor for technology in the school, I want to develop the system of bills being paid in the U.S. smoother, and I want to become more knowledgable about Mexico and the people surrounding me. I have a long way to go, but I see these goals as making me a better persona as well.

I miss my friends, XC team miserably, PAVE badly, and alot of things of DE, but do not miss the experience of education and people I am meeting on a cultural level, this is making me more aware of needs of others and being less selfish in my own life. I am excited to be here, and overwhelmed with the generosity and humbleness of the people around me.

We are looking to travel with the Literacy Magazine Staff in March to Columbia University in New York like we did with the yearbook, and that excites me alot! Additionally, this weekend we have a college fair, so things are a mix of social and school, which is a nice change…:)

I am sure I have more, but being 4:27 AM, I wanted to rip this off before it all escaped my memory, and I am thinking of sleep, XC’s meet at Tidewater today (GREAT PLACE!), and things I have been lucky enough to do…

Which brings me back to Mary (mentioned in the beginning) – It amazes me how much I have gotten to know the cadets (library aides here) since starting ASF and how much we joke and have gotten to know each other. The title Double Vision is true, when you watch those videos you see things that appear as one thing, but in reality are different. That is so true n the surface with Mexico, and all the students and the situations here. There is always room for complaints because a system is flawed, no system is perfect, BUT, give it time and you will see surface so much to be grateful for, it is hard to recollect it all in words let alone thoughts! 🙂

Whew…Okay, let me back up….Friday this week I knew I still was bogged down with preparing for the ASOMEX Conference we were Presenting ON SATURDAY! LOl, AGH! However, after the official kick off Friday night with a great speaker, Marco Torres, (Check him out!), I was getting excited! I watched this utube video of him, and some of the material was similar (and this was 2009) but he was smart enough to pick topics that STILL are relevant today in 2011! 🙂 I think there are some lessons to be learned in the message he brought to educators, librarians, and administration in 2011! 🙂

Friday night,a new book store opened, Under the Volcano Books given as a reference to me from Daniel Hamilton! Let me tell you, after leaving the cocktail/mingling ceremony following the keynote speaker, I walked a friend from the metro and went to find the bookstore. I went a few times on the Chiapas street, but no go? Where was it? I really wanted to find it! I went home, rechecked the address, and did the mapquest walk and heck, I was on a mission to try again! 🙂 Overall the distance was about 6k each way…so I WAS going to try and find this place! (It was 8:30PM now!)

I walked past and saw numbers on the right street, jump from 38 and 42, where was 40 Chiapas?! 🙂 Ahha! Found it! It was down the end of an alley, and wow! An awesome looking house, where the last grand opening was held, books on sale, to fund the opening of the new bookstore Under the Volcano Books! I met the owner, and it was exciting to see an English bookstore in Mexico, and a group of people all interested in the same venture for books! 🙂 I found Amanda, Mark, Daniel, and others I met from the ASOMEX Conference I just met from ASF there, it was great! Some of the best places I am finding involve a search, new friends, and different locations! I headed back to put some final touches on the Saturday presentation, and out like a light!

🙂 ASOMEX! Saturday! I have to say, I was so excited to see a mix of Librarians, ADMIN, faculty, all teachers from elementary, secondary, primary together, and it worked well! 🙂

It was neat to see the vendors there too…

I have to say I learned so many things…:) Take a look at our page for the presentation!

I tried to stack the page, combined with Elaine, with the many things I had tried and used in and out of the classroom. BUT WOW! The workshops I went to were awesome!

1- Finding polleverywhere.com and 2 – todaysmeet.com ! WOW! Check them out! Oh there is more! Check out 3 – Edmondo.com!

Also, WOW< this is great. TED…..FIRST check out RSA….

then check out Ted Robinson and CHANGING PARADIGMS! HOLY COW!

As if this was not enough – we went to Alejandro Archundia! OHMYGOSH! We put clown noses on took pictures in iphoto, of various expressions, switched places with different peoples’ laptops, and took similar pictures, as a basis for a story writing workshop! WOW! IT WORKED! And I learned how to to imovie in 5 minutes! These were unbelievably educational and exciting!

When we did out workshop it was a challenge to get all in within 2 hours! Elaine was awesome and showed she did so much more than what a typical “Librarian” is supposed to do, and that was the main goal, showing the fact that the word Librarian is a joke, there is oh so much more a good librarian does! 🙂 It is not for just book shelving anymore, lol … I hope the resources we provided were enough to show there is so much out there!

Overall, this approach to a conference is GREAT! I was excited to see this much challenge to teachers and possibility 🙂

Very exciting and wow, not a bad way to spend a weekend with so many valuable resources to use! I hope this can carry on to NCTE in Chicago, Illinois! 🙂 (Fingers crossed).

ASOMEX…Wait until you see our workshop….

Titled:Breathing New Life into the Educator and Classroom . Technology at Your Fingertips for the Taking by Elaine Fong & Harry Brake, US Librarians – MS 206

and scheduled for Saturday, we bring to the all around educate the first ever world-created virtual classroom offering courses to teachers for FREE in all aspects of education, links to some of the latest and greatest tools to solidify basic tenets of educations, as well as the insights and FYI’s to Kindles, ebooks, Ipads, and more. All resources presented will give attendees a chance to begin utilizing these immediately, whether you are a Math teach searching for the newest method to tutor in basic to complex concepts, to the media resourcer in need of a fresh perspective, this cohort will equip you beyond the 21st Century!

I just checked out Glen Richard’s VLOG, (yes, video blogging!) – He has just arrived to India! If you are interested, you need to follow their 6 month adventure in India! Where you may ask? Well, great question! 🙂 HERE!
http://carmelcalling.blogspot.com/

I think there is so much truth when I read Glen’s blog about the anxiety of something so new, but having alot of people somewhere else supporting you. The people I have met mean so much to me and propel me forward into new things and that is how I can do these things, I think anyone is capable if they simply, let go.

I also love the possibilities of blogging, and vlogging, opposed to what facebook offers. Here you have a diary of thoughts and helpful reflections from people across the world. I see facebook as the table of contents to so much more, and facebook has opened the world up so much!

I hope many others will begin their blogs and vlogs base dont he many adventures and experiences that will motivate others to do so as well! 🙂

EL GRITO!!!!

Okay, so what is all the hype about El Grito? What is it? I found myself asking THE SAME THING, after finding out it means “The Cry”. Well, it IS a big deal! It was the cry that signaled the “cry” for independence of Mexico! 🙂 So, yes, a HUGE reason to celebrate!

Lost in the activities of El Grito, I found the students’ energy exciting and I was honored to be included as a part of this! 🙂 A huge food bazaar, Mariachi’s playing the traditional music, clubs from ASF represented, to ballons, pinata’s of every shape, size color, flags, painted faces, and so much more, EL GRITO!

At 6:28, I raced into the library and got SKYPE working and forgot about the time difference! OH NO! 🙂 However, I did manage to catch the XC TEAM thanks to the FYI’ing of the Taylors and it was so GREAT to see them! It made El Grito night perfect.

With having so many cool literary magazine students here, as well as reuniting with the Seaford gang, then later that night talking with Priyanka what more could you want out of a night, it was PERFECT! Friends are so much more important than anything, and tomorrow is the big day for XC their first meet! 🙂 It is metaphoric for them, tomorrow is their day to be INDEPENDENT of former times and release their possibilities!

Not much more can make a great beginning to El Grito, in Mexico and abroad…I am rich in close friends and love them dearly….:) So yes……EL GRITOOOOOOOOOOOO 🙂

First in Spanish…..

Metro premia al usuario 48 mil 500 millones
Por Agencia el Universal | El Universal – Hace 7 horas
CONTENIDO RELACIONADO
Artículo: UNAM y GDF ofrecen transporte seguro a estudiantes
El Universal – Hace 5 horas
Artículo: Matemáticas para mejorar al transporte público
El Universal – Hace 11 horas
Artículo: SSPDF resguarda cruces nocturnos de Línea A del Metro
El Universal – dom, 11 sep 2011
MÉXICO, D.F., septiembre 13 (EL UNIVERSAL).- El Sistema de Transporte Colectivo (STC) Metro llegó al usuario número 48 mil 500 millones y lo premió con un paquete de diversos aparatos electrodomésticos.
Pasadas las 12:00 horas de este martes, la señora Juana Emilia Aniceto cruzó uno de los torniquetes de la estación Chapultepec de la línea 1 del Metro y fue recibida con fanfarrias, confeti y aplausos por ser la usuaria 48 mil 500 millones.
La señora, de 58 años, y con cáncer de mama, se dirigía a la estación Hospital General de la línea 3, donde recibe quimioterapias desde hace un año y medio.
Sin embargo, al ingresar a la estación, donde los funcionarios del Metro le informaron que se había convertido en una pasajera distinguida. Le entregaron una serie de aparatos, entre ellos, una televisión de plasma de 32 pulgadas, un refrigerador, una plancha, un tostador

Now in English!…

Mexico, D. F. , September 13 (THE UNIVERSAL) .- The Collective Transport System (STC) Metro arrived to the user number 48 thousand 500 million and rewarded him with a package of various household appliances.
Past the 12:00 PM hours of this Tuesday, Mrs. Juana Emilia Aniceto crossed one of the turnstile at the Chapultepec station of line 1 of the Metro and was received with fanfare, confetti and applause for being the user 48 thousand 500 million.
The lady, 58 years, and with breast cancer, he was going to the station General Hospital on line 3, where he receives chemotherapies since a year and half ago.
However, upon entering the station, where the Metro officials informed him that he had become a transient distinguished. Delivered a series of appliances, among them, a plasma television of 32 inches, a refrigerator, an iron, a toaster, a fan and a battery of kitchen. un extractor y una batería de cocina.