CINCINNATI: SLAVERY

Day 3: Wednesday, October 6th

Around Cincinnati

I washed my The Underground Railway Stationclothes in the laundry and had a late breakfas and at about 11 we all went up the city to take panoramic pictures of Cincinnati.

As some of us weren't hungry, we decided to just have a snack or icecream/ shake for lunch.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD STATION

In the afternoon we went to The Underground Railroad Station (museum) where an enthusiastic, knowledgeable Afro American middle aged man guided us all around the place. Here, the tough History of Slavery in The US was presented to us in the most moving way.

There we learnt how important Cincinnati had been for the Liberty of Slaves. Find out more about it in:

 http://www.freedomcenter.org/ 

Day 4: Leaving Cincinnati

I am now on the plane going to San Francisco. It's a long flight! First we took a plane to Detroit which lasted about one hour, waited at the airport for the connection and from Detroit to San Francisco is about 4 hours and a half. It's 8:20 on my watch but it is about three to four hours earlier in San Francisco... it'll be a long day!! There is San Francisco from the plane!

CINCINNATI: TAKING THE BUS

The rest of the afternoon:

As we finished early, Cecilia (Bolivia), Olga (Colombia) and I decided to go shopping. I needed a suitcase as well as Cecilia and the closest shopping centre was 15 minutes away by car. So, we took a taxi to split the fare.

We, first, went to a Best Buy because Cecilia's laptop wasn't working well. They offered to repair it in about an hour, then, we decided to try to find the suitcases in other shops. We entered three more shop and walked 15 minutes to get to Target (a super market) where we had been told, we may find good suitcases at reasonable prices.

As I hadn't had luch, I was starving. I told the girls about it and asked them to hurry. The minute I found the suitcase, I went to the check out. However; as both of my partners are giving generous mothers they went on looking around to shop something for their children. I told them I was leaving and was to take the bus to go back to the hotel.

TAKING THE BUS ON MY OWN - FIRST TIME EVER IN THE US

When I was walking out in the street, I started to realise there was nobody to ask to. Plus, I only had 3 dollars with me. I doubtingly went down the street to find a bus stop which to my luch it was only about half a mile away. I waited for any bus in order to ask the driver which bus could take me to the city centre (downtown in American, to be exact). So I did. The driver kindly took me to the right bus stop and instructed me which one I was to take.

5 minutes later, the bus 21 appeared and I quickly jumped on it. There was nobody on the bus but the driver who was an Afro American woman. Little by little more people got onto the bus. I realised only Afro Americans were on the bus and as their English is quite difficult to understand I stupidly didn't ask where I should get off to get to the city centre. I didn't have the address of the hotel but I knew it was opposite the Main Public Library and that it was near a tall building with the name Macy's (a clothes shop) on it.

When the bus reached the city, I was attentive to any of the references I had. And there it was, Macy's on a tall building. I asked the bus to stop and got off. Have you ever heard things look further than they seem? Well, this is the case. It seemed to be half a mile away but it wasn't. I walked for about 20 minutes to get to the hotel and saw all kinds of people in the streets, not so educated I may say. In fact, they all seemed vandals. I saw a group of teenagers smoking, a teenaged girl holding her baby roughly, a group of noisy gays verbally fighting with another group of young men, beggars and much more. I admit I was a bit frightened but I also have to say that none of them tried to do anything to me. What a experience!!

CINCINNATI: CINCINNATI UNIVERSITY (RESEARCH ON ELT)

Day 2:

Meeting 1: Cincinnati University

Today it made miss my years as a Teacher Trainer. Mind you, I'm now devoted to Colegio Mayor and it's been almost two years since I last gave a workshop or course for Teachers.

The director of the school welcomed us and told us they were asked to do presentations about the use of Technology in the Teaching of English and so she brought teachers and post-graduate students to talk about their research and innovations in this matter.

Presenter 1: Winona - Topic: AAPS in the classroom

Winona is trying to implement the use of the so famous iPads and Smart Phones to reinforce The students' Academic Writing Skills. She showed us some of the activities that can be done with it and personally, I don't have an iPad but after this meeting I really think it'll become a great tool in the teaching of English soon. So, I'm dying to get one! Will I?

Presenter 2: Joy Ting Xiao - Topic: Literacy and Second Language Studies

When teaching English as a Second Language and for Specific Purposes, it demands from the teacher to know a bit of everything; but above all, giving tasks to students that are meaningful to their subject matter and for doing that a close connection between teachers and curricula should be done. In other words, learning English while learning Content.

Presenter 3: Xuejiao Diao - Topic: Trustworthy webpages

This is a thorough research on the use of webpages as sources to teach English. Xuejiao has developed an instrument to assess the webpages we use as teachers or that we suggest students to use. Quite an interesting research!

Presenter 4: Glenn Chapman - Topic: Corpora and Second Language Acquisition

In 2005 I went to the IAETFL conference in Cardiff and one of the topics that I became interested in was 'Corpora in Applied Linguistics'. So, I bought a book there and got familiar to this topic, searching on the internet and reading more papers about it. I still remember I thought it would be a good idea to let everybody know abou it and prepared a presentation abou it for Peru TESOL 2005, encouraged by my dearest friend Erik. Not many people went to our presentation but the ones who were there also realised about the importance of knowing about this topic. Usually, the teachers that attend these conventions, expect to be given tips on what activities, games or tasks to use in the classroom and so I think the topic "Corpora in Applied Linguistics" was not catchy.

Six years later, this topic is being part of a research in the university of Cincinnati. I'm sure that if an American or British gives a talk about it in Peru, it'll soon become popular!

Presenter 5: Zachary Haurash - Topic: Academic Writing through Gaming

Yes, gaming meaning Video Games!! This research is the one that is still in process but will surely become of everybody's interest. Zachary is using the following page:

www.minecraftwiki.net to create a Content Based Learning approach activity to encourage students to write and so they are learning English. If some of you have ever played City Ville on Facebook, it has more or less the same structure and what he basically does is to make students write about it. For example, describing places (as he creates it, he has Viking houses, Native American homes, etc) also it can be extended to Speaking activities. Try to find out more about it.

This university is seeking to make connections with Latin American countries where they can apply their research, create a colearning link, and in the near future to offer Masters and Diplomas entirely online for Teachers of English. We'll keep in touch!

Ohh! I think I had eaten too much the day before and felt bloted, I wanted to eat nothing, not even drink water. Ironically, everybody had the cheapest ($8) buffet lunch in the US. It was the University Canteen. The place smelled delicious!! Look how much they all ate!

After that, Mary (Nicaragua), Cecilia (Bolivia), Virginia (Dominican Rep.) went to the university bookshop. I bought the book Fresh Takes on Teaching Literacy Elements which cost me $24 and which will help me with the supervision of the extended essays I'm in charge of.

Meeting 2: Conversa Language Centre

There's no much to say here. This is a private business that offers Translation and Interpreting services. It's a very small English Language Center for immigrants. They currently have about 20 students from different countries and 3 full-time teachers.

CINCINNATI: HOME HOSPITALITY - WHAT A FARM!!

Day

Meeting 3: Great Dinner with The Clarks

We were organised in two groups one of 5 and the other of 10. I was in the largest one. We knew we were having dinner but we didn't know how warm kind and great people we were to meet.

Mike and Peggy Clark, our host family, live about one hour away from the city of Cincinnati in a farmhouse. When we arrived, our eyes couldn't believe how big the farm was and all the high-tech machinery the farm had.

Back yard of the house farm

Peggy welcomed us and saw us to the house. As we entered the place, the smell of fresh home made food made me feel back at home. Peggy introduced us to Teresa, a close friend of the family who has a catering business and who cooked the dinner for us; which by the way so far it is the best food we've had in US. Then, Mike came to the living room and took us all to the farm processing machines to tell us about his business. I'd say that he didn't talk about his business but his passion.

He was raised in a farm and started working the land at the age of 6, since then he's not stopped. He confessed proudly that he never went to college but the cutting edge technology he has in his farm is admired by engineers and techinicians in the world. Even the Chinese and Japanese come to his farm to learn more about it. His farm is 580 acres and only 5 people in total work in it!! Yes, 5! Amazing isn't it. In Peru we may need more than 50 people among drivers, cleaners, etc...

And guess what? His secret of success is that he renews his machines and trucks every year or every two years, that way he has the last high-tech toy for farming and doesn't worry about spare parts or fixing.

After about an hour Peggy called us for dinner saying firmly that if she didn't stop him, Mike'd spend the whole night talking. We went back to the house and the delicious meal was awaiting us. We sat in two large tables, one in the kitchen and one in the dining room. Peggy and Teresa were at the table where I sat. By coincidence we were all girls at this table and so we had to talk about girly things. Peggy tolds us how she met Mike. Here it is:

"It is not a romantic story, though. Mike is not that kind of man. We were aquaintances at school and all of a sudden one day he called me and asked me to go out for dinner because he had two tickets for free and added that if I couldn't go with him, it wouldn't matter. I, anyway, accepted and the day after when I saw my best friend, I told her I had met the man I want to spend the rest of my life with."

Dinner: Mince pie- corn - salad - vegetables

Unfortunately, the driver of the van that was to take us back to the hotel arrived and so we had to say good-bye. Some of us had taken small presents from our countries to give them away to people like Mike and Peggy who without knowing who we were opened the door of their homes and hearts. I have to confess that I was quite unsure if they may like the present I took. It was a tiny 'Retabalo Ayacuchano' (A nativity creek). 

 As in the US Religion is something not many want to talk about. I took the risk because we learnt that Cinccinati had a vast majority of Catholics and so I timidly gave it to Peggy. To my relief and luck, she said: "What a beautiful thing! How did you know I collect nativities from all around the world?" Aren't I lucky? I quickly told her about Ayacucho and what it means to Peruvians.

Just before we left, Mike and Peggy asked us to pin a world map on the country we were from. That way they remember all the people they had in their home. I was the first Peruvian in it!

Heini from Venezuela

We all kissed and hugged and went back to the hotel with the feeling of home hospitality I'm sure we all want to replicate when having guests at our very own homes.

CINCINNATI: ARRIVAL AND FIRST DAY ACTIVITIES

Sunday: October 2nd

GOING TO CINCINNATI

What a trip!!

We were told to be at 7:30am at the hotel reception ready to jump on the van towards the airport. Our flight was at 10:15am. You can guess, we all had to wake up at about 5am if we hadn't packed our suit cases the day before. Well, we all did it in time!!

But none forsaw what was coming!!

Some of us hadn't had a good sleep and so we only wanted to enter the plane and take a nap of about 2 hours, which was the approximate time that took to get from Philadelphia to Cincinnati.

The minute I sat on my seat, I fastened my belt and closed my eyes. About an hour later I woke up and to my surprise the plane was still in the airport in Philadelphia!! What had happened?!

I asked Jose from Nicaragua and told me the plane was about to take off when a metal gadget fell off on someone's head and the plane had to come back to the gate. It seemed to have been a noisy event, complaints, personnel from the airport coming into the plane, and upset people desperate to arrive in time to have connections.

Finally, we took off at about 11:20am. I just can't believe all that happened while I had a little nap!!

Day 1: October 3rd

Meeting 1: The Children's Theatre

Being there was so refreshing. The theatre, the story, the children (aged 5 or 6), the Primary teachers and the actors, ohh!! the actors and actresses were just four but highly talented!

The story on stage was inspired by the so well known fairy tale The Pricess and the frog. Nevertheless; the play has an original script and a creative storyline created by Jen Scott, the director. They named it 'The Prince frog'. It is a such beautifully written story for children to teach them not to be spoilt and know how to be a good friend.

Stage

What was really different to all plays I've been to, is that after the play was finished, the actors and actresses stood in front of their very young audience and invited them to ask any question they may have. Many a child raised their hands and made the most interesting questions ever. Some of them were:

- How do you manage to change clothes so quickly?

- How long did it take them to memorise their lines?

- Why were there other characters different from the Prince frog and the Princess?

- Who made the scenary?

- Why were some of the actor wearing black clothes when holding the puppets?

- and other questions alike.

The actors answered all of their questions for about 15 minutes.

At the backstage we met the director and the actors who told us how important it was for them to teach children values and to be good people because the future of the country will be soon in their hands.

The fouractors and the director (in blue)

The Children's theatre is not a common theatre. The members are all professionals in the field of Arts. Some of the activities they do are:

- Do school performances

- Go to schools to do workshops for children to deal with social topics.

- Do free performances in the streets.

- Organise Art summer camps.

They advised us to integrate arts in the Teaching of English by first talking to the Arts teachers we have in our schools and do something together. She told us that if we google the following words we'll find plenty of suggestions:

- how to introduce active plays in the classroom

- Improvisation games

- Tips for art integration in the classroom

I will quote what Mrs. Jen said they wish the children keep in their minds and hearts:

"There are no limits to how many times you can try or to how many times you can fail."

Then I'd say that the meaning we give to our lives is not based on how successful we are but how many times we try and so how much we learn.

Meeting 2: Princeton High School

Named after Princeton University, this public school has awards for its Excellence in The National Elementary and National Secondary School Recognition Programs and offers its students the International Baccalaurette Diploma Program.

Here we had a great talk with Mr. Jim O'Connor, Social Studies Department Chair and the great team of ESL Teachers. They had arranged a meeting for us with students from the countries we are from. I met two Peruvian students who were from Callao and were with their families in US trying to have a better future. Great teens!!

PHILADELPHIA- AMISH COUNTRY

Saturday- October 1st:

Amish Country

Most of the things I can tell about the Amish is on the web. I just can say it was like going back in time. In my facebook account the pictures show their lifestyle clearly. Here just some of the photos are displayed.

Amish men in the farm

Apparently a family was moving from a place to another and they were all trying to help.

On our way back, we were asked if we wanted to go to the city or to the Outlet shops. Guess what? 99% opted for the latter one. For this reason we couldn't go to the stairs where Rocky (the film) had been. When we arrived to the city, it was too late; but anyway a group of us went to have some pictures even in the darkness of the night.....

PHILADELPHIA HISTORY AND THEATRE

Day: Friday 30th, September

Today was quite a long day but it was worth doing every little thing. We had four different appointments and went to a play.

1. Meeting: Independence Park Institute

There, American school students, especially Primary, are taken to know more about their History. This is not a museum or a centre but a building with interactive classrooms.

- In the first classroom we were asked to sit down in groups of three in working tables. As you may see in the picture we could do different activities all related to learning more about life in Philadelphia in XIX century. In the centre of the table there was a booklet giving information and tasks using the various gadgets in the table. This way students learn in teams and feel they are in a competition. Although there's no price, the accomplishment of the tasks and ejoyment one gets makes you feel a winner. We made puzzles, played with a house doll, looked for a place in a map, and so forth.

It was so entertaining we didn't want to get out of here.

-In the second room we were againg divided in groups and could see an use the inventions of Benjamin Franklin. Using the electricity spin, finding the drafts of the Consitution, trying to make music with cups and water and understanding how printing worked in those times was a meaningful hands-on experience.

As we left the building another guide immediately approached us to take us to the Historical Centre.

Meeting 2: Independence National Historical Park

The Historical Park receives many visitors from all over the world. One of the most amazing things I learnt was about the Liberty Bell. It was only used once to celebrate the first year of the American independence and had been made by Americans who had never made one before and so, it cracked on its first appereance. However; this bell has become a logo throughout the American History. It was used by Martin L. King for the Civil Rights movement and many others.

Then we went to the place where the constitution was written and also it was the first congress Americans had.

Meeting 3: American Philosophical Society

I have to say I did not what to expect from here but at the end of it, I was very glad we were there.

Mr. Roy Goodman explained how important it is for them to keep collections of printed materials like Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, Benjamin Franklin's imprints and even books of Franklin's personal library.

It was amazing how much prints they have in the Spanish Language. Among all the papers he showed us, I was greatly taken aback by some newspapers and documents from Peru of the year 1824. Can you believe how happy I was?

Lunch time stroke and I have to confess I now felt like going 'shopping', which is something I don't really enjoy but I know it'd be silly not to go to the so famous 'Ross', 'Macy's', 'Old Navy' 'Burlington' and 'The dollar shop'. This is my opinion about them:

- Ross: reasonable prices, mainly a clothes shop, but it seems the clothes are second hand.

- Macy's: very expensive clothes. If you surf well, some good offers could be found.

- Old Navy: expensive clothes. Not very nice clothes.

- Burlington: inexpensive good quality clothes.

- The dollar shop: Good for stationary and story books for children.

Meeting 4: Temple University

The speaker was Professor Philip Yanella and the topic of this meeting was 'US attitudes toward work and his past work on American Literature.

I really enjoyed this meeting because I'm currently the supervisor of two extended essays about Literature Analysis for the Diploma Programme (IB). However; some of my partners considered this meeting didn't meet their expectations. Personally, I felt I was a university student again and hope to become a student again.

If you like poetry, the following link will lead to selected websites.

www.poetry.org

We left for the hotel at about 4:30pm.

We were now all tired but had to get ready for a play at 7:00pm.

Evening:

The Big Bang

We all walked from the hotel to the Kimmel Center, it was just 10 minutes walk from our hotel.

I was very tired and told my friend Bettina from Uruguay 'I think I'll fall asleep since the programme said there were only two actors and a musician, I infer it will be boring.' What mistaken judgement I had!

These two actors make the perfect dynamic duo I've ever seen on stage. The play is about how these two actors try to sell a musical to the audience (us) about the entire history of the world, from the formation of planets to present. The scenary was only the living room of a flat with a pianist on a corner. They both played roles of Historical characters, no matter man or woman, by only using the furniture and gadgets they had in the flat. Absolutely creative and extremely hilarious!

During the whole play we all laughed from start to end.