Expedition Video

This semester the Junior class and I have been working on an Expedition about cultural conflict. There were three main questions that were answered over a little more than a month.  A rough translation of questions that the students are responding to are.

1. Should I love a person that is from another culture but refuses to accept and respect mine?

2. Should another country be used to resolve problems between 2 other countries?

3. Is a person influenced by their culture?

The students selected the questions they addressed, filmed the video, and it was all put together by one wonderful student named Sthersy.

If you don't speak Spanish it might be hard to understand, so good luck, and I hope you enjoy the two girls that decided to speak in English.

Time for a break.

Given the fact that this time next week I will be in Kansas City, this will be my last post until I return to the Dominican Republic after Christmas.  I am excited about my last week before Christmas here and I am excited about heading back to KC, I'm really happy that I am not at a place that really wants either one more than the other.
This past week was a good one.  We concluded our Expeditions on Thursday night with Expedition night, it was a fun chance for all of the different grades to showcase what they had been working on.  My juniors had been explore the world of through cultural conflicts and made a video about it that I hope to post soon.  The downside to the video is that it is in Spanish.  Its good to be done with Expedition, but it was good to be doing it as well.
This weekend was spent at Christmas parties and an Aguilas game.  Las Aguilas are the local LIDOM team and have the likes of Manny Ramirez, Bartolo Colon, Miguel Tejada, and others playing for them.  The atmosphere is quite a bit different than in the states and it is a lot of fun.  If you ever have the chance to visit the DR during beisbol season you should head to a game.  Myself a student of mine and his older brother went and outside of the fact that we left following the seventh inning when we were down 7-0, we had a great time.  The funny thing is that after we left las aguilas scored 7 in the 8th but lost it in the 9th.  Oh well.
This week will be spent finishing strong and in a flurry of fun.  Tuesday night YL party, Friday night another Aguilas game, fake ice skating, and cigar factory tour, along with other random events in the evening here.
Hasta Pronto!

TIgre!

A Tigre is a hard thing to describe.  In my poor understanding it is someone who is always trying to work a situation to benefit themselves the most, always wheeling and dealing.  They don't work, but they always are trying to put of the appearance of having a lot of money.  They spend a lot of time in the river and eat a lot of fish also.  They also like to have their BlackBerrys out playing music even if there are two other Tigres playing music right next to them.  They are rather hard to describe so here is a picture of what one looks like.

  

Expedition week!

One of main strategies of learning at Doulos is Expeditionary Learning.  With that in mind, it is finally Expedition week!  Expedition night is on Thursday and that is culmination of what many of our classes have been working towards for a couple months.  There are many different things that go into an Expedition, but part of it is having the students create a product that shows what they have learned and to also have them present that product to a valid audience.  For my junior class we have been working on a video that shows what they have learned regarding culture and cultural conflicts.  Besides the video some of the students are also working on an art project to compliment the video and show some of their personal reflections on culture or express themselves in the culture they live.  Hopefully I can upload the video and have some photos of the art for my blog next week.  All in all this will hopefully be a fun week and something that the students can look back on with pride.

Outside of my school life things have been more or less normal.  Last week I took on the adventure of going to the dentist here and I followed it up by going back for round two; which was them drilling and filling 3 cavities.  If you go to my dentist, forget about numbing the pain.  

This weekend somehow became a weekend of performances, with Friday night being the semi-finals of Festival De La Voz and Saturday night being a Doulos talent show.  Both very fun and a good chance for us to support our students in what they love.  

I also went for a run for the first time in a couple months and it was fun although my heart rate is so much higher than it was and now I very slow again.  Their are a few loops around my house that are a mixture of fun surfaces and places.  The one I did this weekend headed down my street onto a trail to the river and then back up to a big pretty road that is not used much but connects back with my street.  On the big road I was running and came across a smashed tarantula, I always knew they were here but that is the only one I have seen.  I also discovered rhino beetles which are huge, there was one at a friend house the other day so I let it crawl on my arm, it was weird. 

Pray for Expedition week!