The classroom of travel

Switzerland - Through the eyes of a traveler

I usually spend some time blogging about the trips we take, so all those in my large fan base can follow what we do.  I’m including these thoughts in my school blog, so my students can see what crazy things we run into while on international soil.  

Well, in all the miles I’ve logged on international airplanes, I witnessed my first medical emergency on the flight over.  I was moving between consciousness and sleep when I saw a man approaching the bathroom.  (for those of you who haven’t followed my travel escapades in the past, I always sit on the aisle and near the bathroom.  I’m a control freak and need to be able to control the number of times I get up to use the bathroom without feeling like I’m bothering someone.)  As I was watching this man, he reached for the door of the bathroom, fell to his knees and then onto his head.  I waited a split second, and then yelled “we need help back here” and pushed my attendant call button (which is no easy feat on these new fandangled electronic systems on each seat back.)  As fate would have it, he practically fell directly into a doctors lap - and he came to his rescue.  It was frightening at first, since (according to my seat back map screen television thingy) we were directly over the Atlantic - how exactly were we going to get this guy to safety?  They brought out oxygen, got him on his back and let him rest for a while.  Ultimately, it was a combination of dehydration and too many free drinks on the plane, with a history of cardiac problems.  Not too smart buddy.  

We deplaned in Amsterdam and I was surprised to see that they’ve updated the place since I was there last.  There is a new larger Starbucks (for all those American travelers who haven’t had a cup of joe since they left the states 8 hours ago) and some additional shops.  I stopped off in the bathroom, which would normally not be blog worthy, but as I was in line, I hear a soft, “Staffa?” from behind me.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, while I was wearing my brand new ‘Burnsville Staff‘ shirt, I was recognized by a parent of a former student.  That’s why my mom says you always have to be on your best behavior- which of course I was.

After landing in Zurich, I easily worked my way to the train platform and caught the first train into the city to the main train station.  A friend of mine recently pointed out that he happened to be very good at fishing, something he was proud of.  I happen to be very good at international travel - as evident in the smooth transition from plane to train to hotel.  I dropped my luggage off at the hotel and went wandering for a couple hours.  It was a good sleep that night as I’d been up for 36+ hours. 

I got up early the next morning and did a self guided walking tour of Zurich.  I was to meet my parents in Luzerne later that day, and wanted to take advantage of my short time in the big city.  I stopped in the large church that was said to have been founded by Charlemagne, saw a commemorative statue in the crypt, said a prayer and continued up to the tower.  There were spectacular views of lake Zurich and the whole of the city, on a nice clear day.  When I travel, I like to go by boat to see things, and also ‘up‘ in towers or look outs to see panoramas.  Consider one checked off in Zurich. 

Zurich from the cathedral tower

Lake Zurich

  I wandered the streets of old town, and came upon a very long line of people -- unusual I thought.  So, I decided to hop in the line and see what it was all about.  It led to a cog train that brought people to the top of the nearby hill where the university was located.  It was a 6 minute ride, that offered nice views of the city from the top.  After a short stroll, I got back on the train and headed back down to resume my walk.  I stopped in a couple of small churches, nice shops and an art gallery that featured a Hungarian artist - I could tell by the photos of the escalator at Deak Ter.  I had a nice chat with the gallery owner, who happened to be from Ohio, and asked about moving to the country for a teaching job.  Great conversation :)  

The cog train I took to the top of the hill 

I returned to the hotel to retrieve my baggage and went to the station to catch the train to Lucerne, Luzern-- however you want to call it.    

An hour later, I was in the main train station of Lucerne, heading out the door to meet my parents at their hotel.  There is a beautiful old town, and I got to parade through it with my luggage banging on the cobblestones in all my tourist glory.  What made me stick out as a tourist- the camera strapped around my neck?  The luggage announcing my every move with each bump on the street?  The pink travelers pillow strapped to my over the shoulder bag?  The lost look on my face?  Or the map in hand?  Take your pick - I stood out.  Whatever.  It’s part of the gig right?

I met my parents on the street just outside of our hotel, we dropped off my stuff and headed on our way.   

We headed out to the tourist shop to see what would be the best use of our time in terms of tours.  On our way, we spotted the tourist boat -- and incidentally with our Eurail and Swiss train passes, tickets were covered in the cost already.  As I pointed out before, I like to ride in boats and go up to see things.  So, we hopped on the boat, why not right?  Well, once we had pulled away, I thought it’d be a good idea to see exactly where this boat was going, as Lake Lucerne is quite large.  Turns out, we were on a 5.5 hour trip - one way.  Awesome sauce.  

There were stops so we were able to get off, and catch the next boat back to town- so all was not lost.  We were on a 1.5 hour round trip once we figured that step out -- much more feasible than a one way.  Additionally, it was the train we’d need to be on the next day so as to catch the train to the top of the local mountain - Rigi Kulm.  

We wandered back through the old town, did a bit of shopping and decided to get dinner.  Turns out, “fixed price menus” are all the rage - and the fixed price is higher than we were interested in spending.  We ended up leaving three restaurants before we found one that offered Swiss cuisine AND affordable prices.  Wouldn’t you know that the two couples at the table next to us were Americans, who hail from Eagan.  What are the odds?!  We had a great meal of fondue, sausage and schnitzel.  It was well worth the wait and it’s almost reasonable price.  

Parent Teacher Conferences

What a day at parent teacher conferences!  It’s always interesting to meet the parents of the students we get to see on a daily basis.  With some, you can tell right away who they ‘belong’ to, others it’s sometimes a surprise.  I find a lot of value in getting to touch base with the parents, not only so they know who I am (there are more often than not stories that make it home about my eccentric personality, quirky stories or my cat Boo) but more importantly, I can connect about their student.  Many parents who came had no idea that we were working on the 20% project, or that their students had put themselves out to the internet world on their blogs.  In some cases however, the parents were deeply involved in the process and had help edit their entries prior to the nerve wracking action of clicking “publish.”  What a range of involvement.  I know that in many cases, the student halts communication with a curt “I have no homework” or “school was fine” etc. etc.  I’m sure I used the same teenage vernacular when I was in high school, but how things have changed.  

In my opinion, parent involvement in student daily life is essential to student success.  Granted, there is a necessary balance between the over-involved and the not involved, but there NEEDS to be connections made every day.  I have worked hard in the past to involve parents whether through classroom newsletters, emails or the annual “bring your parent to school day.”  I have had limited success with all of these attempts... often times its the “choir” showing up for rehearsal.  In this day and age of connectivity, you’d think it would be easier to stay in touch with parents.  However, I haven’t quite grasped my new “google site” where we are to put homework and communication.  I tweet, but I’m not sure how many parents “follow” me, and I answer emails to the best of my ability.   However, there still is that lack of connection between the classroom and the parents.  I wonder, with my current class sizes of 40, would a “bring your parent to school day” be possible?  How would I get more to attend?  Why were only 20% of my students represented at parent teacher conferences?  What else can I do to connect with parents?  How can I ensure that ALL of my parents are reached and are engaged in the lives of their students with regard to my class?  Is this question easy for me to ask since I do not have kids of my own?  Am I expecting too much? 

Can you teach creativity? Is it my job?

Well, we're in official week one of our 20% project blogging.  The process of getting the students set up wasn't so bad, I had created an assignment sheet with screen shots and the like.  It took a long time, but hopefully it alleviated the amount of repetitive questions asked.  We are using Blogger as we are a Google Apps for Education district.  It was a bit cumbersome as I don't know the best way to link their blogs to mine, so I just had them all "add me as an author" - so now I have a bajillion blogs instead of just the one.  I'm not sure how I am going to keep track of all of them, as some of them did not follow that step to add me, so I don't even know where their blogs are.  At the same time, I have some that were named things that should really not be associated with their district gmail address... so we're learning.

I assigned an introduction blog as their first assignment.  Quickly I realized that I had to remind the students that you don't in fact include your full address in the first line.  There is a teaching moment in how much you have the student put out there in terms of personal information, especially since this seemed to be brand new information in some cases.  Another teaching moment was when a student asked, "Ms. Staffa, do we have to write formally in this?"  Well, yes... and no.  Formally for a blog I suppose.  This is not a research paper, there aren't really structural parameters, however it's going out to a much more authentic audience than just me.  That made them stop to think.  "Wait, other people are going to read this?"  My response, "Yes.  I had over 100 views after just my first post" I explained. Admittedly, it was probably largely my mom, or my 10th graders just clicking on it to make me feel good.  BUT, you can't control who does and doesn't see it the way that we've set it up.  The tone in the room shifted.  They had to be a bit more conscientious about what they were writing.  It was a great experience that I got to see them actually think twice about what they were doing.

Their second blog had to explain their activity they are working on for our 20% Genius Hour project.  As explained in my first post, they all have something they have to research and learn or create using 20% of the class time for the rest of the semester.  They were to explain what they were trying to accomplish and why they were pursuing said project.

As I sat back and listened to the clicking of the keyboards I could feel the concentration in the room - the students really wanting to write well and publish something worth reading.  And then it happened.  A student sitting across from me says, "Ugh.  I just want to... learn history.  Why are we doing this?!?"
That was a blow to the confidence of this fairly confident teacher.  Here I was thinking I was revolutionary (compared to some of their other experiences) in allowing students to take this time out of MY class to learn about something they are interested in.  It both broke my heart and frustrated me to no end to hear the complaint that they would rather do a poster project on an assigned president than have choice in a creative project that will be beneficial to them.  A good portion of the drive for me to try this was to let the students flex their creative muscles.  They have been prescribed education for so long, I was going to release them to an endeavor where they could explore something truly interesting to them.  Sure, it would require work and thought and individual drive, but in the end the process would be worth it, right?  Then I started thinking about how I was putting aside content assigned by the state standards to allow for this time in class.  What would my principal say when he found out we were doing this - would he approach it like some of the students, "What does this have to do with history?  How does this learning target align to your curricular area? etc. etc"

These are valid questions, that I don't necessarily have the answer to.  I'm doing it because I've seen many a student graduate from our school and years later not know what they want to do with themselves.  Some go to college right away, and major in something they think their parents want them to major in, when really it has nothing to do with how they want to live THEIR lives.  I'm doing it because our students lack the ability to think on their own and creatively solve problems.  I'm doing it because students need to begin exploring things that can be considered their passions.  I'm doing it because students need to have a voice in what they're doing - and this was their chance, right?  I'm doing it because it can be one of those things that students get so involved in that they'll never forget the experience.

But the question I'm wrestling with right now remains, is this my job?  Do I have the right to set aside these curricular hours for something I'm not even sure will work out?  Is it my place to take these risks in the classroom?  I don't actually think the students would rather be lectured at about the French and Indian War than spending time on the 20% project, but what if they would?  Is preparing them for the real world in this way my responsibility?

What do you think?

Here Goes Nothing!

Well, we're trying several new things for history class in C-284 this year.... and blogging is one of them.  To model what the students are to do, I started this blog so they can read, comment and connect with this skill.

This fall, my students were tasked with developing a plan based on Google's 20% project - only this time in education.  We will spend 20% of our time in class researching and learning about a project of the students' choice.  There is a range of topics the students pitched and proposed to the class, with the culmination being a TED-style talk about the process they went through.

We will analyze TED and TEDx talks, and work on presentation skills based on ones we deem "effective."  Ideally, the students will have chosen a project they are passionate about, so this will be something exciting and fun for them to do.  At worst, they're learning something new and engaging in critical analysis of the delivery and messages of TED talks.

The biggest question I get is "what does this have to do with history?"  I answer with a smile, "nothing.  Absolutely nothing."  Though this project does not align with the Minnesota State Standards in History perse, I believe that there are larger skills at play.  Many of these skills I feel are essential to our students' futures, and deserve the same commitment to teaching as those related to history.

One of these skills is exercising student creativity and creative thought. Through this opportunity, they will be able to take their learning style, explore something of interest to them, and share it with their peers in a way best suited to them.  When students ask me, "Ms. Staffa, can I make a video documentary about our favorite pieces of the high school experience?"  I answer without hesitation, "yes."  They ask, "how long should it be?"  My response, "as long as it takes to show us what you'd like the audience to know."  Hands raise, "can I do my project on [fill in the blank]?"  Yes has always been the answer.  If they really want to learn more about underwater basket weaving, so be it.  Go get 'em kid.

Another skill I hope to see flourish through this experience is that of delivering a persuasive presentation.  In my 13 years of teaching, I've sat through an extraordinary amount of students reading from the projected power point at the audience.  Gone be the days of the "Ben Stein" voice being used to deliver information that they are going to be the "expert" on.  I want to see these students learn how to find their passion, and share it in an enthusiastic manner with others, so as to inspire.

Perhaps this is all a pipe dream, but I long for a world where high school students find it exciting to learn again.  Where they want to get to the bottom of questions, and exercise curiosity to see how and why things happen.  Where the apathy is left at the door, and they come in excited to share what they've learned, and thirsty for more and more.

This is going out on a limb for me, as I've only recently started to relinquish my obsessive need to control every situation I engage in.  I'm starting to realize and embrace the value in student choice and voice in the classroom.  For so many years, I taught the way I was taught: the teacher stands in the front of the room, and tells the students everything the teacher knows.  If the student can regurgitate all the information correctly, they get an A.  This isn't about me anymore, it's about them and what THEY want to learn.  Sure, we'll do the normal history stuff -- take the multiple choice tests and analyze documents -- all important skills in their own right -- but there will be a new element this year.  This element, the Genius Project, will be driven by students- learning about what they're interested in, in ways meaningful to them, with results they find value in.

Wish us luck.

Austin is checking out the themes in Blogger - I hope he picked a good one :)

Lángos!!

My favorite Hungarian treat in the entire world - lángos!!!  I found some at the Great Market Hall, a typically touristy place, but what the heck.  I was appalled when the offerings for your lángos included nutella, pepperoni, peanut butter and other such weird things.  I have only had one sweet lángos in my life, and that was in the United States.  We ordered the traditional one that has sour cream, cheese and SHOULD have garlic sauce on it, but for some reason it didn't.  It was a feeling of home comfort food, and we gobbled it up very quickly.

Traveling with your parents...

Let me start by saying that I am grateful that I have the opportunity to (as my mom says) "make memories" with my family while traveling.  In the close proximity of traveling with family, particularly internationally, there are certain quirks that may not be as appreciated as others.  Like most of the things my dad brings to the table... those are the not as appreciated, but probably should be appreciated because I'll miss them dearly when I no longer have these opportunities.  

Let's start with pre-travel packing "issues."  My lovely, but aging parents could single handedly fund their own gyogszertar (pharmacy) in Hungary.  If you had a clue of the pills they took on a daily basis, you'd think that they were working on making an elixir for life.  In their defense, they are fairly healthy, but really.  My dad has am pills, pm pills, pills for before eating, pills for after eating (dessert pills perhaps?) and drops for his eyes to top everything off.  Don't worry, there are charts to mark down when he puts what drops in which eyes.  Then there is the eye patch... I won't even go there.  All of these things take a calculated amount of time to prepare for when coming up to a trip.  It's basically the only thing my dad is in charge of in terms of packing, other than 42 sudoku books and an occasional three inch anthology of presidents.  God only knows why he needs a book for "easy sudoku" one for "hard sudoku" - there is one thats "complicated sudoku" and best of all, his new "Christmas sudoku."  What the hell makes it Christmas sudoku?  You guessed it, red and green colored paper.  While my mom and I were futzing with our right controller (see post from yesterday) my dad was trying to get to the "games" on his television, and then trying to figure out how the hell to put the numbers in.  Really? You have five inches of sudoku books - why the eff are you bothering with these stupid airplane controllers?  

...I digress....

For those of you who know my parents or have followed my writing before, you know that my dad appreciates the little things.  Whether it be a branch that's caddy-whampous (is that how you spell that?) or a leaf the size of his face.  It could be a man hole cover, or a gutter that seems to flow the wrong direction.  He notices it all.  We are standing looking at the Coliseum in Rome, and he notices that a dog is walking down the street and is fascinating to him because it's an "Italian dog."  Don't get me wrong, he was impressed by the Coliseum, but its the little things that really impress him.  For example, our trip to the great market yesterday.  My dad hates shopping.  With a passion.  He has a sudoku book with him at all times (travel size mind you - which he did NOT pack for the trip) in case the shopping becomes too intense and he needs to find a chair and rest for a bit.  We walked into the great market hall - which is impressive - and he could have spent hours there.  At one point, he told my mom and I that we were walking too fast, and he couldn't stop to see everything.  

 

My dad was so impressed by this cauliflower.  Admittedly, it was freaking huge, but it's cauliflower dad.  Don't you know that there are cheap, crappy souvenirs for us to peruse upstairs?  Let's keep moving.  

Mom and dad in the great market - designed by the Frenchman Eiffel.  Yes, the one you're thinking of. 

My other favorite part of traveling with my dad is the way he takes things in and is easily fascinated by things that are different.  Perhaps it's because he didn't travel extensively until retirement, perhaps it's because he's crazy, I don't know.  My dad is a watcher.  He likes to watch other people.  He likes to watch Fox news.  He likes to watch my mom.  He likes to watch machinery at the European breakfast nook in our hotel. 

Nothing pleases me more than watching my dad watch other people trying to figure out the cappucino machine, or more recently, the orange juice machine.  You have to push certain buttons for what beverage you desire, and my dad just wants coffee.  A large, mediocre, free-refillable cup of mcDonalds coffee.  Well, that's not a choice on the cappucino machine.  You can get "frothy milk" "espresso" "cappuccino" "long milk" etc.  None of these are the type of coffee my dad is used to.  So what the hell does he push?  By this trip, I'm used to just getting his coffee for him so he can stop and watch people as they choose their buffet foods.  I do love the choices on the different machines though, and watching to see if he pushes the right buttons, and puts the cup in the right place so it actually makes it into the cup he put there.  

Who knows what the hell is happening here... but he ended up with some frappy-dappy something or other in his cup.

I'm not even going to get in to the orange juice machine....

The last thing I love about my dad, is how he dutifully follows my mom around.  She wanted to do some shopping while out last night - and hells bells, my dad was not warned of said shopping, therefore ill prepared with no sudoku book in hand- he just had to endure.  As you can see below, he is thoroughly enjoying himself at the H&M.  He just stands inside the doorway, where there is the most direct heaters and waits.  patiently.  as long as he needs to. 

That is family travel love.

Note to the readers: In this picture, my dad has on long underwear - top and bottom - an undershirt, a long sleeved shirt, a columbia vest and a winter jacket - with fleece lined jeans of course.  All of that, and he still looks like he's never braved a MN winter.  Yeesh. 

Well, we're at it again... The Staffa's go (back) to Europe

I'm not sure how we pulled this off exactly, but as a result of my parents' financial savvy and my credit card, we are back in Europe- more importantly, in Hungary.  This is our fourth trip to europe in 13 months- it's a bit of an addiction if you ask me.

I decided months ago that I would return in December for the Szalagavato of my youngest students that I had while teaching in Hungary.   Luckily my parents were interested in coming with, and Mike traveled from Tokyo to meet us as well.

These students we are visiting are the ones I had for the full year and a half I was there, several lessons a week.  One might say I knew these students the best as a group since we had so much time together.  Szalagavato is a sort of 'coming of age' ceremony that is very important in the lives of the 'school leavers' or the graduates.  They receive their ribbons- it's pinned to their winter coat to indicate their status as a school leaver - and then do their class dances.  They have themes that each graduating homeroom chooses, and as far as I can tell, this year's English group is something Godfather like.  After the class dance, they do a waltz in white wedding dresses and tuxedos.  It's a very special night for the graduates and their families, and I'm blessed with the opportunity to attend my third Szalagavato this year.  More about that later though.

The flight over was long, but do-able, as we're basically naturals at this by now.  It would have been a bit smoother, but both my mom and I had faulty television controllers.  I know, first world problems, but when you're looking forward to the free movies as the highlight of the flight, this was a buzz kill.  I was just told on my way to the airport by a friend from school that I should watch "The Campaign" sometime, and sure enough, it was one of the movies offered.  Unfortunately, my controller's arrows would not move to the right, so I was not able to select that movie.  It was super frustrating (as most technology is to anyone who is much older than I) I spent 30 minutes trying various ways of getting around the right directional arrow.  Clicking up, to the left, continuing to the left, trying to go alphabetical, none of it worked.  I eventually settled and watched the latest Bourne movie.  While I am an ardent fan of the Bourne movies, this did not live up to my expectations as it did in fact lack Jason Bourne.  I also watched "Mirror Mirror" with Julia Roberts, who - I'm certain if I were a lesbian I would lust after her.  I also started Pixar's "Brave" but didn't finish.

The thing I hate most about flying on planes is my loss of control.  I am a control freak (as many of you know) and it all goes down the crapper when you're flying.  I can't control when I can eat and drink.  Depending on my seat, I can't control when I pee.  I can't control who I sit next to, and I can't control if my television controller works or not.  This flight was manageable, but not without traits of my OCD and control freakiness bubbling to the surface.  First, I purchased a foot long subway sandwich at the airport before we left.  Never mind that I had eaten before going to the airport, and knew we would be eating on the plane.  There was just something about not being able to eat something if I wanted to while on the plane and when they weren't serving food.  Additionally, there seemed to be something just right about getting a sandwich - with cold cuts - for said flight.  It's as if I was preparing for my arrival to Hungary.  Next, I had two empty water bottles that I filled before take off, a caribou Reindeer Drink and a Diet Coke in my bag.  I need to have beverages.  Lots of choices of beverages.  Lastly, I had an aisle seat.  I've always longed for those super artsy pictures of people taking off and landing in famous cities around the world, and I've certainly done enough traveling to accumulate a great collection.  But that one picture just isn't worth it to miss out on being able to freely pee when necessary.  Bathroom accessibility trumps pictures almost every time.  Well.... that's arguable I suppose.    The last thing I hate about flying is the crapshoot that is seat assignments.  You know you all look around the waiting room wondering, "will I be sitting next to him?  Or him?  Geeze - I hope it's not her that I sit next to..." Yeah - I do that.  Every time.  I ended up okay as the guy I was next to didn't speak to me.  Airplane captive audience small talk is my own personal hell.  This was avoided by immediate application of earphones, to be removed only for aforementioned bathroom trips.  On our flight from Amsterdam to Budapest, I was in the middle (sigh) but again sat next to two equally "shy" passengers.  I did note that the 30something guy next to me was reading in Russian, typing on his computer in English and speaking in Hungarian.  There is something to be said for someone who can just switch like that.  I aspire for such skills.

At any rate, we made it safe and sound.  We are in a nice hotel near the Danube and the pedestrian shopping street, in my favorite part of town.

We will rest easy and prepare for Mike's arrival and more debauchery in Hungary.

at the airport

forralt bor (hot wine) and palacsinta (pancakes)- fresh off the plane :)

Vaci Utca - the pedestrian shopping street

Viszontlatasra!  (there are supposed to be accents somewhere in there, but I forget where)