What A Great Relief!

We finished the course with triumphs and were much relieved when our struggles had been paid off. It was all worth it because in the end, we looked back and remembered all the troubles and difficulties we went through in order to complete the course requirements. At first, we thought we would fail the course because we weren't sure of how to do certain things which we previously considered too tough for us. In the end, we overcame all our fears and worries through the course. We noticed that once we put our hearts to what we're doing, things would be gradually opened up for us. Most of us completed the course and were given good grades and that was something to feel good about. We thank you, Professor Minjuan, for all your patience and understandings and for making the course, which we considered at first as a tough course to be one simple course for us to complete. We thank you and hope that we would be able to work with you in the near future. Best regards from all of us, students and teachers, from Kosrae.

Kosrae Disability

YO! My fellow Kosraean BA candidates, considering that most of us are in the Special Education Program, with the 6th Disability Day approaching (Nov. 25th) , how about we contributing something to this event? I mean, let's do a presentation/presentations that would reflect our commitments to such Programs as well as our improvements in this program.Our theme for this year is "Building Unity Through Diversity", which may have different meanings or contexts. However, I hope that we could focus on Disability and Diversity in the classroom, and enhencing community involvements. But, this is just an idea, so, in case you guys want to participate, come to the next meeting with your proposals.

trip to Walung

ne of the most enjoyable days of my life.

Final Project

We are now at the tail of the rope, waiting for the right time to jumb down and collect the luxuries out there. Literally speaking, next week will be our last to finish with this course and I believe we are all anxious to finish with this BA Program. Once we are done, we will be fully equipped with knowledge, skill and information that will enable us to tackle with anything coming our ways, not to mention the positive changes that we will create with our learners. Am I right or am I just wishing things to happen?

Beautiful Minds

If you guys go over the Mission Statements for all the participating States in this BA program, you will find three of the most beautiful ideas ever created. Digging deep into them you will also see that these Mission Statements were created by very hopeful and committed groups of people.
So, guys and gals, now that we have come to the last couple of courses, please remember that "We are one aiming for excellence". Dreams do come true! Keep it up.

Wrap Up....Wrapppppp UUUPPPP!!!!

This is just to get everyone's attention!!!! As you can SEE, MJ is pretty eager to view and draw feedbacks on our final projects so ...keep going everyone... Tsruk nga soena!! ahahah!!!

572 Wrapping Up!

Greetings from San Diego!
Here comes the finals week! Final project is due the week of Sep. 27th, latest by Friday.

If you need "live" support, I am available to GoogleChat. Please email me for an appointment and more instructions.

Final project presentation: During circle group meeting, the week of Sep. 27th. 10 minutes per team. Attached is an example, about the Mission to Mars project.

Circle group meeting reports: Your facilitator is keeping track of these. Please contact him/her for missing points.

Blogging: Considering the slow net you got there, you'll get points as long as you posted.

Have a productive week!
--Minjuan

Our PROPOSAL

Indeed we have come to our senses... to agree on a simple and yet culturally relevant topic like Gender Equality. In coming up with this topic, the team (Shrue W. Kephas, Bonna Shrew and Aimina Talley)felt that there is a need to address such an issue on our island therefore here we are giving you a brief look into our proposed topic in which we hope that all of you out there can review and at the same time post comments on...

* In proposing Gender Equality, the main focus will be the dissemination of this gender equality information so that the audiences can understand that women have the same right as men, based on “Human Rights”. We should enhance women’s participation in the electoral process through learning and sharing. Moreover, we will be focusing on adult and young learners of both sexes with goals and objectives that give participants the information they need to understand of the “human rights” as well as the codes of ethics and thus to enhance their participation in high decision-making positions.

Got a reason to worry?

Due to the common seasonal flu, all the schools were closed down for the week. At first, only the Lelu School recommended a shutdown, but only for two days. However, the Department of Health Services finally acted on the issue and asked all the schools to do the same for the whole week. The decision to shut down the Lelu School was of course the many absences for the previous week. However, during the discussion about the issue, none of the staff talked about the incubation periood of the virus or the preventive measures that each school, staff or parents could do. Furthermore, it appears that none of our school principals have prepared in advance the proper procedural guidlines that should be taken in the event of such outbreak. Well, now that the "break" is almost over, we really should think about the more serious threat that is approaching our region, "the swine flu" (H1N1). The issue here is whether we are prepared to fight off this threat. I believe that we should start planning a guideline for our school system in case such outbreak should occur.

Trade tensions

Just last night our local radio station applauded the Chinese government for their "economic assistance funds to Kosrae", and that their diplomatic envoy will soon arrive on the island to lay out the purposes for such funds. The bigger issue here is that we have the US on one side of our economic development plan and the Chinese on the other. Applauding both, we could not have imagined that they are in a trade crisis at the moment, as reported in the New York Times. Their disputes are about tires, chicken meat, tariffs, imports, exports... etc...etc. Wow! Talking about economic assistance and development? We are, undeniably, still in the dark! So wake up sleeping lady!

Flu Alert

To inform everyone to take good care of your health and watch out for the flu alert..Don't get sick make sure you get a shot from your health service to cover you away from the flu. This flu alert cause all the schools in our island to be closed on next week. Please aware of your health. " Don't get sick but get stronger and stronger."

Great Photos

Wow! These are "great" photos. Not to mention how "slender" you guys appear, obesity is definitely not an issue amongst this group.

PARTY TIME

we all are missing having fun like the trip to walung and having party after our class is over. according what we are doing now is almost get there, what i mean is our final project almost done....hello everyone and bye-bye!!!!!!adios

Greetings from San Diego!

Thank you all for posting. Our trip to Walung was unforgettable. I am back to San Diego now and swamped with everything. Hope you are making good progress with 572!
Miss you all.
Minjuan

Good looking girls at Walung. See this is what we called "Beautiful Girls"

We Are One, Aiming For Excellence

Without teamwork, I believe we would not have made it to this point. We struggle together, progess together, and laugh silly jokes together.

Hello everyone, my name is Brook Shield, if you don't know me, I'm an actress acted on the "Blue Lagoon", at Walung. . . lol. So how's everybody? I miss dancing by the shore at Walung and dinking coconut. . .not. . .lol. So how's our cool instructor?

Group Photo

Final Presentation

My group which is consisted of four members (Willynda, Isobel, Tulpe, and Leeroy) does some last minute changes and decides to work on a new topic, A Guide to Neighboring Islands in Micronesia, for our final project. Our goal is to pinpoint to others where Micronesia is on the map, and provide some information about several elements in the cultures that exist throughout these Micronesian islands. The project will involve a powerpoint presentation which will include a movie, a few handouts containing rich information about a few existing cultures within these islands. We want to educate others to have a better understanding of the geographical locations of these Micronesian territories and to obtain some sorts of understandings about these cultures.

Successes and Challenges

Since we have decided to design a course that would focus on improving teacher performances, we now have a challenge infront of us. We may not be able to come up with an exact curriculum standard or benchmark. However, we are confident that the ojectives with the goal would be self-explanatory. We are currently deciding on the objectives so that each member could design his or her theme to be consistent with the objectives.

One Thing I learn from Chacha's Presentation

I learn to use the Irfan view software, thanks to Chacha. I just wanted to show how much I appreciate the new skills I obtained from using the software and how much I wanted to show a few of things I can do with the software.

Trip to Walung

I won’t forget how stubborn we were to undertake the trip even though we were not really prepared for the trip. All of us didn’t have life jackets on and not to mention a few of us who were without foods and drinks for the trip. If it wasn’t for those who had the necessary provisions for the trip I think I wouldn’t be able to survive the whole trip, especially, the long walk to the bridge at Panyaa, Walung. The first group to board the engine boat would not have made it if it wasn’t for our skillful captain Mr. Norlinson. You see, it was part of our culture to share what little we have even if that comes in small amounts. For the first time, I noticed that my classmates here are kindred spirits. They share whatever they have (foods, drinks, jokes, laughter, conversations, paip, sra, laim, nuht, suhfa, etc. ) to those who are in desperate need of those.
I am a stranger to that place, but I acted on behalf of everyone as your tour guide at a certain point. I’m sure I didn’t do a great job with my role as a tour guide for we didn’t reach the best part of Walung. Despite the stomach cramps that a few of us had after our get-together lunch, I do believe that all of us had a great time. It was a pleasure accompanying you to Walung, Miss MJ. Hope you enjoy the trip as we did. Best regards from all of us back here in Kosrae.

5-Minute Demo Presentation

We had a wonderful time going through the 5-minute demo activity. We work for a few days doing all we could to complete the presentation and on Thursday evening, we presented our demo to the whole class with success. We presented the Windows Movie Maker which was made available in our laptops. We had so much fun working with Windows Movie Maker and we can see that other students from our class enjoyed using the program. After our presentation, I noticed that one of the students in our class, actually started her own movie and she told us that she really loved the software and wanted to make her own movies at home where she could edit it by herself. Another student used the same program to make his own movie and used the Irvanview software to play his finished movie. Well, actually this student used the Windows Movie Maker before and displayed great skills in using the software. Well, my group who was consisted of 4 members were hoping to learn about the Windows Movie Maker so we could make our own local movies. Maybe in the near future, our skills would expand and we would no longer consider ourselves as amateurs. (Lee-Roy, Isobel, Willynda, and Tulpe)

New member for the Lelu Group

Sorry everyone, it appears that we have forgotten to mention a new member in our group. She is Notwe Jackson from the village of Tafunsak who has married a very skinny guy by the name of Lincon.

Final Project for Lelu Group

Our group is made up of three members, all from the village of Lelu: Jack Nedlic (Early Childhiood Education teacher); Oleander Henry (Early Childhood Education teacher); Memorina Sigrah ( Special Ed. RR teacher). As teachers and B.A. degree candidates we feel that we have a responsibility to encourage our colleagues to become more literate in computers or be able to, at least, use the available technologies, especially the different programs commonly found on computers. As observed and expressed by many in this field, a teacher who is able to use the computer is better-off in terms of delivery of instructions or preparations. With this in mind we intend to work on a proposal that will allow us to teach our colleagues "how to use " the different programs commonly found on computers. We also feel that this approach will also allow us to become better users of such programs. We are still entertaining this in our brainstorming activities, therefore we may have to change this plan.

Blogging Topic for the Coming Week

Greetings! I am leaving Kosrae to Guam, Manila, and then Shanghai today. Blogger is not accessible in China. But it will send your posts to my email, which I will reply. Topic for the coming week:
What do you plan to do for the final project?
Can every team please post a short summary?
thank you!
Minjuan

Class Pictures

Please see: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=cg6dzr1.3o6u4gfh&x=0&y=-bgwqf5&localeid=en_US

Feel free to download. [Also, meet students from the other two islands!]

Fun day to Walung!

What a fun and memorable day! Thank you for the beautiful singing and dancing. Here are some pictures. I'll upload the rest to an online album for you to visit and to download.

Greetings and Welcome from All of Us in Kosrae

Hello, the rest of the world! Welcome to our blog. Our connection is very very slow here, and it takes about 30 minutes to make one post. But we're trying. By the end of semester, everyone of us will have at least 2 posts.

Class Photo (August 10 in Kosrae)

To add a picture, click New Post, when the box opens, click on the blue picture icon above the box, browse then follow the instruction on the screen. Always click "publish post" when you are done! Happy blogging.

Welcome to the Kosrae Blog!

This is the blog for a group of teachers who are getting their B.A. from San Diego State University. Here they'll post updates on their study, work, and lives in the beautiful island of Kosrae, the island of sleeping lady.
In case you are wondering, MaKosrae--means Things of Kosrae. Welcome and stay tuned!