So, I don’t know if this is as crazy as I think it was…but yesterday as I was making the “fun and exciting” journey from Regina to Saskatoon, I was listening to XM radio. I was listening to some teeny bop channel and usually it’s just song after song and then all of a sudden a commercial came on. I can’t remember exactly what the product was called, but it was a pill to increase your sex drive. They went on and on about how it’ll be the best sex you’ve ever had, and you’ll last longer than ever and be ready to go again. I sat there thinking oh my gosh, my 13 year old step sister listens to this music channel….is it really necessary for them to have that kind of commercial? I mean, I am aware that kids see sex and violence everywhere they turn these days, so I really shouldn’t be that shocked, but I felt a little violated lol. Sigh.
Over the years, I have heard people talking about their blogs, and it always seemed like a waste of time to me. I thought that it was a bunch of bored people rambling on about their day and that it wouldn’t be that interesting. When I heard that we had to blog for this class I thought it was going to be difficult. To my great surprise, blogging is the complete opposite of what I expected! When you get into it, it’s quite easy, and can be lots of fun. It’s fun to find new things to write about, but it’s also exciting to read others’ blogs. It might sound silly, but blogging really helped me to connect with a lot of the people in this class and I got to learn more about them then in a normal classroom setting.
When I first started reading other students’ blogs I happened to stumble upon Jayla’s first blog post and I found that her and I had something in common. We both lived in China! It’s great to hear about another person’s experience there, and nice to know that I am not the only one who realized my love for teaching over there 
Unlike other students, I did not have a favorite blog to read-because we all have different opinions and things to say, and I think they are all equally important. After getting a bit more comfortable with reading my classmates’ blogs, I began to broaden my horizons, and began reading other blogs. I like wordpress because it has a little arrow on the top right hand side that takes you to a random blog. I found some of my favorites by pressing it. Although, I must admit that it became quite addictive lol. I would stay up until 2 am not realizing how much time had passed.
I have only just begun the journey of blogging, and even though it is not required of me to continue writing, I will really try to keep it up. The most amazing thing happened the other day; a grade 9 girl that I work with, *A*, that I had mentioned about in my Racism in all shapes and forms post, was looking over my shoulder as I blogged. She ended up copying down the address of my blog, and told me the other day that she’s been reading it. She said she even used it as a resource for a project she is doing about people who are making a difference in the world. I couldn’t even believe it, because to me, I’m just Kari. This made me feel so special, so *A* if you are reading this, I promise to keep on blogging!
I feel as though writing and reading of blogs really keeps myself, as a teacher, in touch and up to date with what’s going on in the world. Not only surrounding education, but technology, the media, everything!
As my connections keep growing, I also hope that my fellow ECMP355 students continue their blogs as well, as they have opened up my eyes to new thoughts daily. I’ll leave you for now with a picture that started my love for teaching… but this is not the last you’ll hear of me!!
While reading a blog by an education reporter from Illinois, I read something that sparked a bit of interest. The state of Illinois has set in place a program for students during the summer months, where they can go to school and receive a cold lunch for free. This program is only for schools offering summer school, but here is the interesting thing… it is not only for the students attending the school, but for all children up to the age of 18. Hmmm…it sounds like a great idea… but can the government really continue to support this project financially? Let’s pray for the best! I found a bit more information from this website, if you’d like to read more about this program.
As a teacher and a sister to a pre-k boy one of my true opinions is that bringing in a nutritionist to schools, and setting up some sort of lunch program is a great idea. It helps those who don’t have lunch, and those who have the wrong kind of lunch. The cost of a chocolate bar is no cheaper than the cost of an apple, we need healthy food in our schools and our children need to be fed. A child cannot be expected to concentrate on an empty stomach.
Anybody agree or disagree? Any good ideas out there? I would love to hear them
你们好。
我姓Krug,叫Kari。我是加拿大人。我在中国湖北荆门住了两个年。我会说一点汉语,也会写一点汉字。我在中国教了音语。我先在在大学学习。。我想我的学生。我想中国。我知道我不会写汉字很好，可是，我写汉字很高兴。
你的加拿大朋友，
谢加姝
I absolutely loved this video the first time I saw it and as I was doing a random search on youtube, I found it again. I think it’s an important one to share, especially with University students and future teachers. So if you haven’t seen it before, I highly suggest it as a must-watch.
I was searching through the videos Alec has on his weblog about Media Literacy and while going through different links, I found a video on Youtube that I thought was quite interesting.
To give you a short summary (because I think you should watch it)… while talking on The View one day, Rosie O’Donnell decided to talk in “Chinese” and repeatedly said ching chong chong, as if that is what it sounds like. Now, I realize it is *funny* to some people to make a joke about how other languages sound, but do we actually realize how ignorant it is?
I am not going to lie, pretend I am perfect and say that I have never laughed at a prejudice joke. It makes me sick to my stomach with guilt, but I probably have.. and it really makes me wonder why this kind of behavior is still somewhat acceptable.
I work with a girl named *A* from Ghana and when she showed up late for work yesterday I asked her why. She said that she got suspended. Being a teacher, it upset me a little so I asked her why; she replied with something I never expected. In history class, her teacher was talking about Martin Luther King Jr. and mentioned something about his life. *A* had a question so she lifted up her hand and proceeded to ask a question. Apparently, her teacher looked at her and said “Shouldn’t you of all people know this?” *A* was so shocked and upset that she just got up and left class….. and got suspended.
I was soooo incredibly shocked when she was telling me this story. I wanted to go to the school and have a few words with this teacher. It’s 2008 people… don’t we realize things have changed!? Or have they? I sometimes wonder if things have even gotten better…
This video is a “response” to Rosie’s comments on The View from a guy who is being honest and real about the situation and the way he does it is really appealing to watch. He’s calm, collective and just trying to get his point across. I think he did a darn good job.
Last week I had a chance to go sit in on my aunt’s grade 6 classroom at Sacred Heart school in Moose Jaw. To my surprise (and her enjoyment) when the students came in the room she announced that I would teach them for the afternoon. She laughed and said “Kari lived in China for two years, why don’t you ask her some questions” To my surprise they all put up their hands in excitement! They were really interested in my experience and had so many questions to ask. After awhile she had me teach them some Chinese characters and they loved it. I was really impressed by her students. They seemed so well behaved, and although they became quite energetic and chatty at times, they knew when to behave. It was neat to see my aunty “in action”, teaching, and I think it was cool for her too. We are the only teachers in our big family so it’s nice to have someone to talk to that understands my passion for teaching. When I got home that night, my roommate said she hadn’t seen me that happy in a long time…….. woop woop 
I have never done a power point/slideshare presentation before, so as I searched for one to critique I took a minute to think of what I wanted to search for. I realized that everything I had been looking at on the internet lately had been really negative stuff that was either causing me to become emotional, or upset in some ways, such as videos of children who were cyberbullied and ended their lives, or ignorant videos of people being racist. So in the moment, I searched “rainbows and sunshine” because that was the most beautiful thing I could think of lol. I came across a few so-so slideshares and then I searched “beautiful life”. I then came across this slideshare that I decided to critique called “We are the world”. At that moment I realized that even while trying to search for something silly I came across an important issue that needs to be realized.
The “We are the world” slideshare is filled with beautiful photographs of children and each photograph has a line or two from the song that was written by USA for Africa and performed by many popular singers such as Lionel Ritchie and Bruce Springsteen. To critique the slideshare itself, I thought it was fabulously done but the only thing that I found a little off is that the writing is very small and even if it was put in “bold” it might look a little better. Other than that, I think it was done very well with the different photographs. One of the nicest things is that the children are all smiling. It’s beautiful that through everything they still smile… I think they could teach us a few things!
Just thought I’d share this video with you all. It’s from my first year in China and it always brings a smile to my face. It took a couple weeks to learn this song but they said it was well worth it
