My Does Time Fly

So life around here moves at exponential speeds sometimes. When we have our community meetings at the end of each week, it is often hard to recall all the wonderful experiences from the week. Of course you would think that would give me a lot to blog about... yes it should... but time becomes a factor as well as internet access. We have not had good luck recently where we live with a consistent signal. So tonight I am staying up late to at least give you the last week... there were many cool things the week before including a visit to the Swedish TV Studios, but alas I don't want to bore you too much.

Last week we visited Gotland, Sweden. We took a large ferry across the Baltic and we stayed in a former prison which is now a hostel. The rooms were ok, but walking outside to get to a bathroom was not the most fun. :P

The countryside was beautiful and you can see why people flock here in the summertime. Of course since the clocks were turned back the day before we left - yes Europe changed Oct 31st - it started getting dark pretty early.

It is only 16:28

Now it is 17:12

We started with a great early evening tour of Visby the old walled medieval city. Over the days there we checked out the local history museum where we saw old picture rune stones that showed that Vikings did not wear horned helmets. We raced “gotlandsruss” the special Gotlandic horse around a court with sulkies. Andrew came in 1st with Brad in 2nd.

We also saw many, many, many churches from the road and went into one and Janne our guide treated us to some beautiful songs. The acoustics were wonderful.

We even got to see the beautiful site where Ingmar Bergman is buried in Faro.

Then, the rain stopped to allow us to spend some time at the beautiful sea stacks.

Loving Pano on my iPhone

We had late lunch at a beautiful little hotel in Furillen and then made our way back to town seeing a few more sights along the way.

The last day was spent on a bike tour followed by lunch at the local university and Gotlandic games before taking the ferry back to Stockholm.  A good time was had by all and it was nice to see another part of the country.

Hans Rosling and Statistics

Wednesday night Think Global School hosted an evening with Hans Rosling at Cirkus in Stockholm. It was an amazing event which you can see here if you missed it.

I enjoyed being present for the live event and also tweeting some great comments and a few photos along the way. It was interesting to read others Twitter posts during the event... some of the people were present, including some of our students, and others far away watching the live stream.

Hans Rosling has a way of making statistics relevant and fun. My favorite mathematical quote of the night was about those in poverty around the world. He said, "The percent of people in poverty were reduced, but the number of people in poverty is still the same." This idea has stayed with me even days later. His Gapminder software is a way to make statistics relevant and I want to use it in my math classroom. It is free software that makes use of the World Bank data bank. He is working to get the OECD to also give free access to their stats as well. He also reminded us to all look at the data and think for ourselves. It is very inspirational to hear him and for me put a new perspective on world questions and problems.

Musings on September

So it has been a couple of weeks... ok almost 3 since I have written. Life has been busy, but finally feels like it is settling in to some kind of rhythm... post scavenger hunts and special classes about photography and creativity.  We go regularly to our partner school YBC and they welcomed our students with a beautiful ceremony.

Their students have been buddied up and together they completed a video mashup this week exploring the similarities and differences between Sweden and where our students come from. It was a very cool thing to watch. 

I have found that we have many adventures over food. Everything from me cooking for 25... a well received wok dish courtesy of Kami Lewis Levin from one of her Girl Talk posts. One of mine was with chicken and one shrimp and tofu. 

To advisory dinners, to kids helping to prep to use getting use of a fabulous kitchen once a week to cook beautiful healthy meals. I mean look at the ingredients we picked from the fields for last weeks dinner.

We have also done some great other activities over the last few weeks... swimming, fencing, some early morning yoga taught by yours truly and so much more. We had some guest speakers as well as classes in museums and even one outside in a beautiful churchyard. TGS means the "classroom" is everywhere and can be at any time.  The days can be long, but they are rewarding. Stockholm is a beautiful place even with the cold and variable weather though we have had a beautiful stretch of sunny days in the past week.

I will try and be better to share my journey and adventures more often. I know by waiting so long, I miss many details and fun bits so I will try to post more often.

The First Days

The first day has come and gone and what an amazing day it was. All the staff spent the morning getting everything in place and ready for the students to arrive.

Everything was ready as the students and their parents/families began to arrive... even early :) The students are a really wonderful and diverse bunch. They got settled in and unpacked... and then played some innebandy (well an outdoor version of it anyway).

For the first dinner the parents joined the staff and students for a meal out. After our founders spoke and our head of school. One of the students brought a special treat to celebrate the start of something new. As we left the parents to walk back to the hostel, the students were talking and chatting.

Today, we had a wonderful Swedish style breakfast and then the iPhones were rolled out. Other schools give out textbooks, we give out iPhones which must be on the students at all times. :)  I love it!!

Listening to Mike help them set-up their iPhones

Lunch was out at an all you can eat Asian buffet. I sat with some of the boys and it was great to see them talk to each other and joke around. Some have been in touch via Skype before they arrived, but everyone is open to each other. They were exchanging info and texting and sharing their favorite apps all through the meal.  We also each received a wonderful little gift from Joann of a handmade bracelet made from these wonderful globe-like beads.

This afternoon the girls had meetings to determine their personal learning preferences to help them help themselves as we begin this wonderful journey together. Dinner was a fun and yummy meal prepared by Brad with help from the students... minestrone soup over bread with rosemary margarine. YUM!!! I decided to head out with some other TGS staffers while they had dinner to hang out. I came back and jumped into a webinar introducing Wolfram Alpha which is an awesome tool that we will use here at TGS along with other very cool tools.

Every moment I am with this group, I feel blessed to be a part of this magical journey. :)

THINK

So I got back last Monday evening and have been running ever since.  We have the NHS / NJHS inductions this Friday and all the background work for that.  The IB Art Exhibit was this past Saturday as well as MUN at school.  I also hosted a wonderful couple who will be teachers at ISC next year this weekend.  Now that I have a moment to breath, I wanted to go back and write and reflect on my time in New York City.... I love going to visit there!

I had an awesome time in NYC both with family and friends and meeting my new colleagues for next year!  I even got to check out Om Yoga which I loved and have now decided to apply for the intensive teacher training class this summer.  I also ate at Daisy Mae's BBQ for some really awesome food.

During my time with THINK Global School, I got to meet everyone from the teaching team and the administration as well as the founder.  We got to know each other a bit and hear some amazing guest speakers. There is a lot of work to do before next school year begins, but it is an energizing and exciting kind of work.  I am so excited to be working with this dynamic group of people who I am sure are also amazing educators.  From some of the initial ideas, I could see where we can go with each other and the students.

I am so happy that we were able to meet now and get a sense of who we each are and put names to faces.  It will make it much easier to collaborate from afar while in the planning stages.  From photos to dinner to meetings and discussion it was all great!  I am so looking forward to this adventure.