ADE 2006 Reflections

7/31/2019 ADE 2006 Reflections

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ADE Institute 2006Explore. Create. Share

December 2005

It all started on a December afternoon, a Friday, I think. I sat in my kitchen listening to thenews via a conference call and I knew I had to go. I knew I had to be a part of this possibly

once in a lifetime opportunity. I danced around my kitchen, I called my husband at work, I

chatted with ADE friends. To me, there was no other possible reaction to the news that the

2006 Apple Distinguished Educator Institute would be held overseas. I felt strongly that

this could be a truly powerful professional development experience.

Why would I want to leave my young family for so long and go traipsing offto Europe to

help create a global awareness curriculum? Based on myfirst institute experience, I knew

that amazing relationships were built and ideas were exchanged during Apples ADE sum-

mer professional development event and these experiences could only be enhanced by a

longer immersive period in Europe. It sounded adventurous to me and as I neared my forti -eth birthday, I suddenly longed for an experience that would test my boundaries and capa-

bilities. And, I firmly believed that my own children and students would benefit from my

experiences if I led by example.

Lucy Grays Reflections&

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In 1989, I did my student teaching while participating in an offcampus program sponsoredby a consortium of colleges calledThe Associated Colleges of the Midwests Urban Educa-

tion program. I took a course called Dimensions in Multiculturalism and I distinctly re-

member being exposed to concepts of globalism and social justice for the first time. The

program directors, Peggy Mueller and Marilyn Turkovich, seemed ahead of the curve, pre-

dicting the emerging significance of a global society. This program was one of the illuminat-

ing experiences of my life, yet I havent always practiced what I learned. By revisiting global

education in the context of this Apple project, I hoped to become more of an activist

teacher.

Personal reasons aside, I also realized that the global education content developed could

have amazing relevancy in this day and age. American education could be enhanced by a cur-riculum that helped children see beyond our borders and that emphasized the development

of critical thinking skills. The fact that Apple felt the necessity to do something good with

its power was compelling as well. The bottom line for me was this was a fabulous opportu-

nity to be part of something truly innovative.

Spring 2006

From the onset, I was eager to prepare for this trip. I bookmarked websites, bought travel

books and consulted friends and family. I decided to extend my trip another week by travel-

ing with two ADEs I did not personally know. I felt that if I was going to travel all the way

to Europe, I wanted to see as much as possible. I also did a couple of podcasted interviews

with people at my school who have experience with global education. In hindsight, I felt

that I could have done more beforehand, but nothing could truly prepare me for this trip

other than the actual experience.

Friday, July 21 - Saturday, July 22

Before the Institute, I had traveled a fair amount within the U.S., Caribbean, and Mexico,

but only once to Europe. On the way to Germany for this excursion, I was surprised to be

packed like a sardine into the plane. I enviously eyed the business class group with their re -

clining seats and more importantly, their ability to plug in their laptops. During an iChat

conversation earlier in the week with ADE Larry Anderson, I had learned all about the


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perks of business class while Larry was en route to Belgium. While I couldnt recharge my

laptop battery on my economy class flight, I could pay to connect to the internet, and Icouldnt resist the temptation to do so. Once online, I was pleasantly surprised to find a fel-

low ADE on line as well and on a plane to Germany as well. We wittily compared notes re-

garding the in-flight entertainment which was the same on both planes. I also took time to

write an entry for my blog. The simple acts of instant messaging and blogging at 35,000 feet

was nirvana for the nerd in me. Two other things impressed me about myflight to Europe,

the first being that the airline food was not bad on Lufthansa and I liked how they occa-

sionally projected our route, estimated flight times and altitude in the cabin monitors.

Flying into Berlin, I was first struck by the amount of water

I saw from above. There seemed to be many lakes in the area

surrounding the city. Arriving at the hotel located in theformer east German side of the city, I immediately recog-

nized the area from the movie,The Bourne Supremacy,

which Ive only watched about a gazillion times as its shown

about every other week on cable television. Very soon after

our arrival, we set out on a walking tour to the Brandenburg

Gate with Melanie, our supremely knowledgeable tour guide from EF Education. Her own

life story was fascinating in itself as she was born in East Berlin to activist parents and even-

tually, her family was allowed to move to West Berlin. Members of my curriculum team re-

corded her narrative and hopefully, it will be part of our final product.

Later that day, we met with our project teams and a received a group trip orientation. The

curriculum will focus on an essential question based on Wiggins and

McTighes Understanding By Design model. Our question is: What is

a border? and we had divided into several subgroups prior to our trip .

Four themes related to the essential question were subsequently de-

veloped: Use of Natural Resources, Peace, Conflict and Security, So-

cietal Change, and Quality of Human LIfe. Two special area groups

related to primary grades and higher education were formed. Also,

prior to the institute, we brainstormed many ideas related to these

themes in our online ADE community. I chose to work on the Qual-

ity of Human Life strand and specifically, on the middle school por-

tion of this curriculum.

Sunday, July 23


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The next day, July 23, we started out with a morning bus tour

of Berlin. I found that bus tours were really helpful in get-ting oriented to a new city. We visited several places includ-

ingCheckpoint Charlie and the Memorial to the Murdered

Jews of Europe . I was surprised and unnerved the most was

the notion of the Berlin Wall. I previously had been basically

clueless to the fact that Berlin had been an island within

East Germany and became divided into four quarters post

World War II. This wall was constructed overnight, taking its citizens by surprise and divid-

ing families.

We had a group dinner that evening at a Turkish restaurant and it was

superb. I had suggested this particular cuisine because I had read in aguide book that Berlin had a large Turkish population. Most of the

meals we had while touring Europe were outstanding in general. I was

astonished by the freshness and quality of food wherever we went.

There was little processed food in general, and I saw very few obese

people. Europeans seem to live a more healthy, calm and active life-

style than most Americans.

Monday, July 24

In the morning, we had some free time to explore the city and some members of my work

group and I set out for the Pergamon museum which un-

fortunately turned out to be closed. Instead, we hopped on a

boat for another tour of the city via the Spree River.


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In the afternoon, we visited theJewish Museum which was very strik-

ing with its grey metal sheath and slashes of windows. We met withthe director the museum who was very clear in pointing out that the

museum was about German Jewish history spanning two thousand

years as opposed to a museum about the Holocaust. We toured the

museum according to themes that interested us, and I chose national -

ism. I was impressed with the overall exhibition design and could

have spent much more time there.

Afterwards, a group of us decided to

head to abier-garden visited earlier in

the day by ADE Karen Percak. We followed her for what

seemed like miles, and just when we thought we might turnback, we discovered the most special place. This bier-garden

was hidden among the trees in a central park area of Berlin

called the Tiergarten. Picnic tables surrounded a small lake

where people could row small boats. Strings of bulbed lights stretched out across this area,

and there was a concession that sold beer, wine, pasta, margherita pizza, and strawberries

and cream.. This area was not a tourist trap; I felt conspicuous with a camera dangling from

my neck. I think we all felt that we had stumbled upon something special that only locals

visited. Our meal there was one of the more memorable moments of the trip. I relished the

atmosphere, the companionship of ADEs and the victuals.

Later on in the week when I sought some peace and quiet after traveling with our large

group, I returned there just with my trip roommate, Meredith, and it provided a comforting

atmosphere for us to dissect life and our trip thus far. Our trip was not just a set of tourist

destinations, but an intense experience of interactingand collaborating with other educa-

tional tech professionals passionate about work and life. Every once in awhile, I felt the

need to step back and make sense of everything because of this intensity.


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Tuesday, July 25

On July 25, we trekked to Potsdam via bus and then by boat.

We visited Cecilienhof, a mansion where Stalin and Truman

met after World War II as well as Frederick the Greats pal-

ace, Sanssouci. ADEs Carol Anne McGuire and Anne Rear-

don very thoughtfully bought me a pressed penny here as I

had told them about my familys quirky habit of collecting

these coins.

Wednesday, July 26

On Wednesday, I had a truly authentic experience. ADE Kathy Shirley and I did our laundry

at a German laundromat/Internet caf. We had trouble fig-

uring out the device that controlled all machines and dis-

pensed detergent, but a sympathetic patron helped us out. It

was another example of the graciousness we found among

the Europeans. The internet access was free and even better

than in our hotel. I generally found that internet access and

good bandwidth were not as readily available as in the

United States. This is yet another thing that I completely

take for granted!

We returned to the hotel just in time for lunch with a panel of locals. Later on the after-

noon, we toured the Story of Berlin Museum. One of the EF people told us beforehand that

the museum had run out of funding, and hence, it might appear somewhat incomplete. This

was far from reality. The museum told a detailed and comprehensive story about the history

of the city and the overall design was really well done. We capped offthis visit by a tour of

an underground bunker that was built during the cold war and still can be used as an atomic

bomb shelter. The whole concept of this bunker was eerie and disturbing and far removed

from an American mindset. We ended our visit with a quick cocktail party in the bunker.


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Thursday, July 27

We left Berlin via bus and stopped in Dresden en route to

Prague. It was scorchingly hot outside, making for a very

uncomfortable walking tour. We had a leisurely lunch and

then made our way to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen

where we saw many works by Dutch masters.

We arrived in Prague around dinner time and convened

shortly after for a traditional Czech dinner in the cellar of a restaurant. On the way home we

stopped in Old Town Square for a beer and to watch the astrological clock. A crowd assem-bled to watch the clock turn 11PM and then 12PM. We couldnt discern any noticeable ac-

tion. It turns out that the clock does not do it s special movements after 9PM!

Friday, July 28

We were bused up to Prague Castle, the current headquarters of the Czech Republic gov-

ernment and we also toured St. Vitus Cathedral. One factoid I learned was that the Rolling

Stones played a concert here a few years ago (scroll down here for a blurb on this) and paid

for special lighting to be installed. We walked down the Golden Lane, stopped for refresh-

ments and then walked down a hill through the New Town section of Prague and over theCharles Bridge into Old Town section. Our hotels were lo-

cated in this quarter.

Later on, our work groups met again. We accomplished a

great deal towards our strand of the curriculum, but again, it

extremely hot, even inside the hotel with its weak air condi-

tioning. Air conditioning is not as powerful nor as prevalent

as it is in the United States.


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That night, a group of us went to a restaurant called the BlueDuck for dinner. It had been highly recommended by friends

of friends, and I was somewhat adventurous tasting rabbit,

goose liver and venison.

Saturday, July 29

We toured the Museum of Communism which more closely resembled my expectations for

the Story of Berlin Museum. It was more home grown than other museums we had toured,

but still packed with information. By the end of this trip, I felt like I had a better under -

standing and timeline in my head for nationalism and communism in Germany and the

Czech Republic respectively. Many of my traveling companions were particularly affected by

a movie within this museum depicting the final days of communism. There was such a con-

trast between the Prague of 20 years ago with the Prague that we experienced. It was fasci -

nating to get a glimpse of how rapid change has come to much of Eastern Europe.

A panel of local people spoke to us at lunch. The panel including an older woman who works

for the Fulbright Foundation, a former au pair who worked in the U.S, and a woman who

was currently working for an NGO. Lunch was traditional and delicious and the building

where we had lunch looked recently restored. It had fabulous mosaics on the wall.

That night, Development Executive Helen Hoffenberg

treated the central region ADEs to dinner at the most fabu-

lous and elegant Czech restaurant, the name of which es-

capes me. One of the bonuses of this extended institute was

the opportunity to spend quality time with people. We are

all so busy in our everyday lives so this trip afforded us the

time to relax, talk shop and generally bond. My own life

keeps going at a very fast pace, and during this trip, it struck


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me that I need to recharge my batteries more often. My fa-

vorite part of the evening was when I asked everyone to talkabout amagic moment they experienced on the trip. My

roommate, Meredith, coined this term and we often referred

to those moments when we felt suspended in time and place

during our trip. There were many, many magic moments in

Europe for me!

Sunday, July 30

Our last day was a busy one. We toured the Jewish Quarter and museum in Prague which

included a synagogue inscribed with the names of Czech Jews killed during the Holocaust.

It was an astonishing and powerful sight. The tour also included the Old Jewish Cemeterywhere layers of people were buried and a Spanish style synagogue that was incredibly beauti-

ful.

Helen Hoffenberg arranged for interested people to tour

Terezin, a Czech town that served as a Jewish transition

camp during World War II. We visited two museums. The

first had a detailed history of Jews and World War II and we

also viewed a good film that explained Terzins history. The

second museum had a replica of a typical barracks from that

time as well as examples of art, music and writing created by

the Jews held at Terezin. Terezin was used by the Nazis todeceive the Red Cross about what was really going on at concentration and transition

camps. None of the original barracks exist today because of a typhoid breakout at the end

of World War II. The part of our tour that left me the coldest was a visit to the cremato-

rium. Terezin is still a town, and people live there, but it felt like a ghost town.

We celebrated the end of the institute with a cocktail party, dinner and a keynote speech by

Dr. Joan LaRovere of the Virtue Foundation. Toasts were

made and a video edited by ADE Ross Kallen brought many

laughs. Memories were cemented.

We walked to the Charles Bridge and back one last time. Im

not sure why I felt drawn to bridges on this trip; maybe

bridges are a metaphor for the institute. I know that I found

solace, beauty and a sense of place when standing on the


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various bridges we encountered on our trip.

Monday, July 31 - Friday, August 4

I extended my European trip a week and visited Italy and

France. It was great to have this time to decompress from

the group experience.

ADEs Valerie Becker, Kathryn Smith and I left Prague

early Monday morning to start our post-institute adven-

tures. We flew to Munich and then on to Pisawithout anyproblems. Our airline of choice was Condor, and we were pleased with the ease of travel.

Once in Pisa, we quickly found the bus line that took visitors to Florence and we were at our

hotel by noon or so. The hotel, fortunately, was ready for us,

but I dont know if we were ready for it after our nice digs in

Prague. While the location of our Florence hotel was ideal

(near the Duomo), the accommodations were rather spartan.

The place grew on me, though, because connecting to the

internet was reasonable and we had AIR CONDITION-

ING! I also relished having my own personal space as we

had our own rooms, and I spent a fair amount of time de -

compressing from the institute.

I did do the requisite tourist things such as visitingMichelangelos

David, the Uffizi and the Ponte Vecchio. Our first night there we saw

a newly married and very handsome couple posing for pictures on the

bridge, and again, we were continually drawn back to this place. An-

other night on the way to dinner, we saw the sunset from the bridge

while a three piece band played lovely music. Valerie and I went twice

to an area across the Arno where locals were gathering to hear jazz.

While we didnt hear any music, we enjoyed the view from various

areas on this hill, culminating in a breathtaking view from the Palazzo

Michelangelo.


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On our last evening, we had a celebratory dinner at Sabatini,a restaurant that had been a favorite of my mother in law.

ADE Steve Wagenseller was in Florence, too, for a world-

wide Esperanto conference, so he joined us as well. After-

wards, Valerie and I went down to the Ponte Vecchio again;

it seemed natural to return to the bridge before closing this

chapter of our trip.

Friday, August 4 - Tuesday, August 8

While traveling to Paris, we encountered our first and only travel glitch. We had booked our

flights on Easy Jet, which apparently has a total weight limit for all pieces of checked bag-

gage. I was over my limit and I quickly whipped out an extra bag and repacked some items

in it. I put the bags on the conveyor belt and I was still over the limit; it didnt matter that I

had spread the weight between two bags. I had trouble understanding the ticket agent and I

thought he said that I would be billed 70 euro per kilo, and I was 4 kilos over. Valerie per-

suaded me to carry the second bag on the plane, even though I had two carryon pieces al-

ready and miraculously, her plan worked.

We arrived in Paris around noon. The best surprise of the

trip was in our Paris hotel. Recommended by a colleague at

Lab, this hotel was FABULOUS and just what we needed.

Small, elegant and intimate, I felt we had stumbled upon a

Parisian gem. Its left bank location

across the Seine from the Louvre was

ideal. Everyone escapes Paris in

August, but I didnt feel like this was

a disadvantage to us. While many shops and restaurants were closed,

I liked the uncrowded feeling of the city.

After a delicious omelet at a neighborhood caf, we took a bus tour

that first afternoon. Admittedly, I was completely exhausted, even


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nodding offduring the tour. I did manage to stay awake for

the truly important parts and man-aged to get somewhat oriented to the

city. That night, we dined at a caf

called Les Deux Maggots, once

known as a hangout for Jean Paul

Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. Vale-

rie and I walked over to the Louvre to

see its famous pyramid at night, and while exploring the Richelieu

wing passageway, we found two large paned windows looking into

hallway entrances to the Louvre. Large marble statues filled the cav-

ernous space, and it was quite a sight. Simultaneously, a lone violinist

began playing and people gathered to listen. I whipped out my new iPod and Belkin Tune-Talk to capture the magic. Later, I turned this into apodcast accompanied by some of my

favorite European photos.

Our second day in Paris was spent checking out a shopping

district. We had dinner at the oldest restaurant in Paris, and

then visited the Eiffel Tower. While visiting the Louvre the

previous night, we had surprisingly witnessed the Eiffel

Tower lit up with sparkly lights so we then had the oppor-

tunity to see this phenomenon up close. I had never known

that the Tower did this, and it was amazing. I didnt actually

end up going up the Eiffel Tower until our last night as we

arrived too late on our second evening.

Our third day was well spent visitingMonets home in Giv-

ernyand Versailles Palace. We took an overpriced bus tour

to the outskirts of Paris. Giverny ended up being our favor -

ite. Monets gardens and ponds were gorgeous. His inspira-

tion was crystal clear. Versailles, on the other hand, was

crowded and we had to strain to hear our tour guide most of

the time. We did have a lovely lunch with our tour mates

and two ladies in our group turned out to be foreign lan-

guage teachers from Canada. We impressed them with our impromptu demonstrations of

the many classroom uses of iPods. That is being an ADE for you...never missing an opportu-

nity to advise, author and advocate for Apple.


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Monday was our last day and we had planned to visit the Louvre and the Muse de Orsay.

We also wanted to visit Monets Water Lilies at the Muse de lOrangerie. Unfortunately, theOrsay is closed on Mondays so we missed Impressionist works. The entrance line the Or-

angerie was too long.The Louvre was amazing and I especially loved the design of under-

ground entrance beneath the Pyramid. I spent my time viewing the three must sees: the

Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace . I also concentrated

on European paintings. I was impressed with the vast size of many works and also surprised

that photography was allowed in many parts of the Louvre. Most museums I visited in

Europe prohibited visitors from taking pictures or video.

We had dinner at another local caf and headed back to the Eiffel Tower where we caught a

night boat tour. The highlight of this tour was cruising by the Latin Quarter and watching

couples tangoing on the banks of the Seine. There was much that we didn t see in Paris, butI know I will return one day. The evening was capped offby a solo visit to the second floor

of the Eiffel Tour. The top floor was closed for the night by the time our boat tour returned

to the area.

On our last morning, I ran over to a nearby store to take some pictures of a store. Upon ar-

rival in Paris, I had received an instant message from fellow ed techie and Portland princi-

pal,Tim Lauer. He had just returned from a trip to Europe himself and he pointed me to

this NPR podcast about an Parisian art supply store where Picasso once shopped. It turned

out that Sennelier was about two blocks away from our hotel, but closed for most of August.

I took pictures of the exterior, however, to show Tim.

Myflight home was relatively uneventful, although a cold I developed in Florence continued

to plague me. I flewfirst to Frankfurt and found the gate for myflight home to Chicago in

the next terminal. The gate was the last one in the terminal, and strangely, it was cordoned

off. I had to show my boarding pass and passport again in addition to putting my bags

through another x-ray machine. I was then patted down and a metal detection device was

waved over me. In hindsight, I realized these extra precautions were due to the terrorist

investigation that came to light two days later. It is a sobering reality that we are living in a

world threatened more often by violence. I have to admit that this was in the back of my

mind throughout my European travels. I had thought this summer had been strangely ab -

sent of any major terrorist episode, so I suppose recent events were not a total surprise.

Promoting awareness and understanding through global education initiatives is even more

imperative these days, and its going to take a miracle to overcome the hate that seems per -

vasive in this world.


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http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/10/us.security/http://www.sennelier.fr/default.htmhttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5581725http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home_flash.jsp?bmLocale=enhttp://www.musee-orangerie.fr/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvrehttp://www.musee-orsay.fr/ORSAY/AccueilMO/HTML.NSF/c5ad27560274b3dfc125642800567d48/322da73321db3942c1256714004e756a?OpenDocumenthttp://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/10/us.security/http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/10/us.security/http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/10/us.security/http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/10/us.security/http://www.sennelier.fr/default.htmhttp://www.sennelier.fr/default.htmhttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5581725http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5581725http://tim.lauer.name/http://tim.lauer.name/http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home_flash.jsp?bmLocale=enhttp://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home_flash.jsp?bmLocale=enhttp://www.musee-orangerie.fr/http://www.musee-orangerie.fr/http://www.musee-orsay.fr/ORSAY/AccueilMO/HTML.NSF/c5ad27560274b3dfc125642800567d48/322da73321db3942c1256714004e756a?OpenDocumenthttp://www.musee-orsay.fr/ORSAY/AccueilMO/HTML.NSF/c5ad27560274b3dfc125642800567d48/322da73321db3942c1256714004e756a?OpenDocumenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvrehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre


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Post Institute Random Thoughts

In a post-institute discussion, ADE Joe Morelock said, Costco will never look the same

in response to my slight feeling of disgust regarding American life. It seemed that Europe-

ans did very well with much less than the average American. I am grateful for all the pro -

gress and wealth shown by our country and I fully understand why some people think its

the greatest country in the world. However, I think the U.S is overrun by a sense of mate-

rialism and self-centeredness that truly concerns me. Do we really need gigantic SUVs,

suburban subdivisions where every house is the same, a plethora of electronic devices at

our whim? Where has American individuality gone? What about taking care of other peo-

ple on this planet?

European life is calm, noted ADE Lucas Van de Paer, in another post-institute conversa-tion. I appreciated how Europeans generally biked everywhere, lingered at cafs, took af-

ternoon breaks, and enjoyed good food. I have been in such a mad rush juggling lifes re-

sponsibilities that it was very refreshing for me to take time to smell the roses.

I expected to learn more about the Holocaust on this trip and I certainly did. I was aston -

ished at the conditions that allowed Hitler to rise to power. I was amazed at the level of

organization and planning as well as with the speed that events occurred. While I previ -

ously had a general knowledge of the Holocaust, I have realized that I need to explore this

topic further. I am simply stunned that humans can behave in this manner. Maybe I am

naive, but I dont know if I will ever understand what motivates others to be deliberately

and unusually cruel and unjust.

While there are some places and activities that I missed, I don t have any regrets. On va-

cations, I usually plan as much as possible in order to experience as much as possible, al-

most to the point of creating a rather frenetic schedule. On this trip, I learned to relax

and contemplate more.

I gained a sense of independence by learning to navigate and stumble my way through un -

familiar territory. Making post-institute travel arrangements and executing that plan af-

terwards was a huge boost to my confidence. I did have small episodes where I felt rather

ridiculous, such as when I waited outside a bathroom at the Jewish Museum, thinking it

was locked. The door was not locked; I thought I had to pull the door rather than push.

Another time, my roommate ADE Meredith Melragon made me order a beer myself just

so I could get over my apprehension of mispronouncing its name. Meredith generally set agreat example for me of how to live life fearlessly.


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15/16

Speaking of language, I was surprised by the number of Europeans fluent in English, par-

ticularly in Germany. I felt very uncomfortable trying out German and Czech phrases, butin France, I felt much more comfortable with the language as I took the French classes for

about five years. French was actually one of my strong points in school; I wish I had kept

up with it.

I also came home from Europe with a renewed interest in travel. I also feel strongly that

my children to should visit Europe and other places whenever our family can afford it.

Many parents often dont want to take their children to certain places until their children

are old enough to remember the trip. I dont think any kind of experiential learning is

wasted on the young; travel can strengthen attitudes and build confidence. I want my chil-

dren to grow up to embrace the world. ADE Audrey Van Alystne and her family are vet-

eran house swappers and this sounds like a viable option for my family.

As this institute was longer and even more of an intense experience than last years insti-

tute, I had the opportunity to strengthen already established ADE friendships as well de-

velop new relationships. Its difficult to describe the power of gathering a like minded

group of people, passionate about their lifes work, but it was intoxicating. I probably

stayed up too late too often on this trip, relishing conversations and shared experiences,

but it was well worth it.

Im very happy with the curriculum group to which I am assigned. We generally seem to

be on the same page regarding our vision for the Quality of Human Life strand, and I par -

ticularly appreciated how DE Helen Hoffenberg and ADE Tina Barrios kept us on track

whenever we were in danger of derailing. Im looking forward to continued work with this

group and am optimistic that we will produce a thoughtful portion of this global aware-ness curriculum. We have decided upon using walls as a metaphor for a border and our

theme will be something related to what lies beyond walls.

As far as EF Tours was concerned, I thought that the company did an outstanding job

leading us on this trip. The tour guides, Melanie and Alex, really knew their stuffand were

able to multitask very well. I now have a better sense of what is involved in taking a group

on tour, and its no small feat. Id like to lead an iStory tour one day with kids from my

school as we already have several travel programs in place, even a few with EF. Its a natu-

ral progression to add the technology piece. Adult acquaintances who have since heard me

describe my summer travels are intrigued by the iStory concept as well. Id like to even

lead a group of teachers abroad in much the same way we experienced Berlin and Prague.

I was also very surprised at the scope of EF as a company; they are not just about studenttravel.


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I also thought it was interesting that EF and Apple chose Berlin and Prague for us to visit.

I dont think many ADEs were truly prepared to be intrigued by these cities. I know thatas a novice European traveller, I would have initially preferred to visit more standard tour-

ist spots, but in hindsight, I am so glad that we visited Germany and the Czech Republic.

The rich history of and the rapid transformation of these cities were fascinating and gave

me perspective on societal change.

If I have to summarize how I feel about my experiences this summer, I would say that I

am grateful. I have gratitude towards my husband for keeping our household running

smoothly, towards my children for not falling apart without me, and to my workplace and

the ADE program which both continue to support me and my endeavors in so many ways.

I am thankful for living in the United States, too, and for having this incredible opportu-

nity to experience other cultures. I always dreamed of traveling to Europe and I am now

simply amazed that I have done so.


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ADE 2006 Reflections

Documents

Transcript of ADE 2006 Reflections