ET NO MORE....
The weirdest and most amazing thing happen to me today. It was the opening of the convention today and I got a chance to meet teachers from all over the world that are here for the International Innovative Teacher award.
After registration, we all got our little Microsoft goody bag with cool Microsoft goody bag shtuff! I was really excited 'cause teachers love free shtuff.
After the welcome address, we were all put in random teams based on a color system on our name tags. There were teachers from all over the globe and we had to walk around the conference room looking for our team members (that match our name tag...well..tag). I had problems finding anyone from my team 'cause I was too busy being in awe and gawking at everything like the farm peasant I am.

Finally, one of my team members from Singapore found me...and guided me around 'less I hurt myself. She is an elementary school teacher in a model 'school of the future' in Singapore. I immediately asked my brain..."school of the future? SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE??? Yeah...What the ying yang is THAT?"
She must have read the puzzlement on my face 'cause she kindly (and speaking really slowly) told me the kinds of things that go on in a "School of the Future". Geeeeeezzzz, my knees started shaking as she spoke and I had to quickly find a chair before I made a bigger fool of myself. Wow! (more details to come)

The event MC then spoke of the homework that he was going to give us. The homework is due next year in South Africa!!!! Each team was given a challenge and technology tools that could be used to enhance student learning across international lines. Each team has to construct a project (long distance mind you) within the next year that pushes global barriers, overcomes technology obstacles, and is able to be piloted by every one of our students simultaneously (regardless of age, language, geographic location, income and race). Oh...God is soooo good!

Today, they are taking each team on a separate field trip around Hong Kong so that we can find inspiration and begin to brain storm about our project. I am so excited, I keep wetting myself!!!

These teachers are like...my people. We speak the same educational technologista language, we finish each others sentences, they study ed tech trends, twitter, use LMSs, pour over ed. projections, use virtual communities to play with our students...Oh sweet St. Pete....they even snort when they laugh. I am an Alien NO MORE. Could it be that I am not crazy?....I have found my pack!!!!!

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Hong Kong History Clip

by Sara Clark 1st hr. World History

Hong Kong has had human activity for hundreds of years. It dates back over five millennia. There was also early influences from Chinese stone-age cultures. The East India Company made the first trips to China, and trade developed soon after that. Hong Kong was ceded to Britain after the First Opium War under the treaty of Nanking. In the 19^th and 20^th centuries Hong Kong developed warehouses for the U.K. trade with southern China.

After World War II, communists took over China. Thousands of people fled from China to Hong Kong. This helped Hong Kong become such an economic success and tourism center. In 1997, China resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong, ending the years of British rule.

谢谢您=Thank you Sara for your entry...you have earned 10 Cantonese points toward your UNIT #3 test...HOT DOG!!!

Hello Hong Kong
I have finally arrived in Honk Kong after almost 24 hours of travel. My flight was long but alright. I did meet some really cool people during the flight that I hope I will run into here in HK.

Hong Kong is close to South East Asia so it has a semi tropical weather and it is currently 85 degrees with about 92% humidity @ 9 pm at night!

After I exchanged some money, I decided to go have a 'look see'. Woaw...the stuff that there is to see! In the picture I included in this post you see the ridiculously could Harbor City in the background (Oh yeah, I did get some Starbucks cause my body keeps wanting to sleep like its 2am and I have places to see and people to meet yet tonight! yeah, I a 13 hours in the future...) I am hoping to walk the length of that harbor by the end of the week.

So far Hong Kong-ites are really neat people. The young people are friendly and cool and most people speak English. People drive on the right side of the car which makes everyone seem like they are driving the wrong way...to me, at least.

I also went out looking for food so I ended up in a typical HK street eatery. These are really narrow and small family owned 'restaurants' (can't really call them that cause they are the size of most people's bedrooms back at home) and only the locals eat there. I stuck out like a sore thumb in there but...that is just the way I like it. I had only some fried rice cause I really wasn't hungry, I just wanted to go out and do the Hong Kong thang! The fried rice looked nothing like the stuff we see @ home and it tasted 19.5 times better.

My Hat, My Laptop and My Bag On Route Again

I love the buzz of a new trip. I love the magic of getting into a plane on one end and ending up on a huge adventure on the other.
I am always so curious about the other travelers...where are they going? what is their story? are they too expecting an adventure on the other end? who knows? Are they getting creeped out by some weird black chick staring intently at them? probably..tsk dang...I really should learn to use my powers for good.

Goodbye Lansing, Goodbye Michigan, See ya later USA....

Sister Mary Eucharist says.....Happy Halloween and Pleez be nice to my sub while I am gone or else you will be forever blamed and punished for the death and crucifixion of Christ!

Ridonculous birds eye view of Hong Kong!

HONG KONG AWAITS!!!
Ok, you have now heard me rant about going to Hong Kong at nauseum for the past week. I will be going there to present CareerForward, a course that I worked on for Microsoft Partners in Learning program. The course was created to help students like yourself begin to think your career goals in today's global economy.

Click on this link and follow the directions there to watch the course trailer. If you would like to become a better consumer of your high school career, you can take this course for free Michigan Virtual University.

I am super excited to go and I know that it will be amazing. I will try to blog everyday so that you can travel with me to Hong Kong through the internet. Come and visit often!