Day 2 Microsoft PILGF journal

Wow! What a day today.  It was busy from the outset.  First, breakfast was scheduled at 7:30, but there was a small matter schedule for us as the US team...we had to meet Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.  We hustled to breakfast early, and headed over to the Warner Theatre for our meeting.

There was a press conference and pictures, and usual talking accompaning a visiting politician with his standing, then we had two people scheduled to present to the Secretary:  Nate and his iAm project and the When Fish Fly project.  Their presentations were great, and the Secretary even played the fish video game.  We then got word that EVERYBODY would present to him!  I was next in line, and presented Combat Fishin'! to the Secretary.  We also chatted about Alaska a little bit and he told me what a great project it was.  He proceeded to everybody else, giving them due time to present their work.  It was a great gesture from him, and an honor to present to him.  Hopefully some good will come of it in the way of policy making!

Next, we had our morning keynote.  Anthony Salcito, Education director at Microsoft announced that Microsoft and the Department of Education are pairing to enhance and push education forward in the US. Secretary Duncan also addressed us, citing many statistics and improvements he hopes to make.  It was a good talk.

Next, we headed to our Smithsonian off-site locations for the Learning Excursion.  My group headed to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.  I was not excited to go there; it was my last choice behind places like the National Museum of Natural History.  Nonetheless, we had a good drive to Maryland and a great time learning and conducting research about fish in Chesapeake Bay.  It was a good experience in a beautiful place.  We took what we learned and will apply it to our project about water.

The cap biggest part of the day for the teachers was next.  We had our first judging session! Many of us had two judges visit our booths.  My first judge was from Taiwan.  He spoke good English, so communication was only a small problem.  My trouble was communicating to him how big a part of life fishing is in Alaska.  I didn't think he completely understood it, and this was confirmed by my afternoon judge.  I relayed the information to him, and he got it!  I was very happy with this 20 minute judging.  He was from Spain, and he understood the project in its fullness.  I was somewhat happy with my judging sessions.  My big disappointment was being next to a video game and having their crowd cover my booth.  I received little traffic other than my judges.  Overall, I considered it a good day.

The rest of the evening was a reception with the school booths open and our regional dinners.  I didn't get a chance to visit any booths, including Highland Tech, and that disappointed me.  Our regional dinner was at Zaytinya, a nice restaurant in DC.  Man, that was fun!  We ate, drank, and visited until midnight, and some even went to a cigar bar afterwards!  I was able to have some good conversations with folks from Philadelphia's School of the Future.  They are doing some good things!

After a long day, I slept well, and looked forward to the next day!

Day 1, Microsoft PILFG

Monday, November 7, 2011

Much to my surprise, today was very low key!  Ok, let me explain.  Compared to the US forum, today was great!  We didn't have a lot of down time and time that was relaxing at the US Forum, but that seems to be built into our schedule here at the Global Forum.

First, we had our introduction and a few activities.  It was not too exciting, but great to see some of the things that Microsoft is doing in education.

Our guest speaker was a man named Will Richardson.  The neat thing about his talk was that he owned it!  The material is a part of who he is.  He talked about our need to use technology and teach in a way that is meaningful and useful to students.  Translation:  use technology and teach these students 21st century skills.  It was a great talk.

We also met our learning excursion groups!  I have a group that is diverse in many ways (except sex).  Susana is from Ecuador (but doesn't speak English), Indra is from Latvia, Jinan is from Lebanon, and Maureen is from Ireland.  We were charged with creating a project that deals with water and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.  It was a very fun day with the ladies!  I was acting as the defacto translator for Susana part of the time!

Exhibit setup was uneventful, but we as the US team were separated from rest of the crowd.  We had to setup at the Warner Theater for our time with the US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Tuesday.

Then, we got free time!  Pauline, the gang and I hung out and chatted about various items including the US Forum and our classrooms.

The last item of the day was definitely the most exciting for me.  We had a reception at the American History Museum.  First, we met the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, G. Wayne Slough and his wife.  What a neat guy.  We also met the Sig Behrens, Microsoft education director.  The list goes on!  By far, the neatest part of the night was the Star Spangled Banner Flag Exhibit.  We got to experience the battle from the war of 1812 in which the US fought of Britain at Fort McHenry.  When Francis Scott Key saw the Brits retreating from the fort, he wrote the song we consider our National Anthem.  Around the corner, we saw the neatest part of the exhibit, the flag that flew over Fort McHenry.  Just standing there in awe, near tears in my eyes, so thankful for the skill and perseverance of American soldiers.  I went through twice.


The rest of the night Pauline and I toured the museum.  What a place!  There are exhibits about transportation, electricity, flight, music, and many others.  The highlights for me were the Stratavarius Violins and electricity exhibits.  We actually got to see light bulbs Edison invented and that didn't work!  After a night of fun and food, we rested at our hotels, ready for the big day of Tuesday, likely our busiest.

Microsoft PILGF overall experience

Wow!  I felt like a fish out of water.  A country boy like me in the big city partying like an uptown, upscale pretty boy is far fetched, but it actually happened.

Microsoft's Global Forum was an experience that I will not soon forget.  We were treated as royalty, respected and wined and dined for four days.  We learned a lot, laughed a lot, and complained a lot about not having many breaks!

I learned many different things during my time in Washington DC.  First, I concluded that teachers in the United States are not respected.  This is poor for two reasons:  1)  we will flourish and do an even better job when respected, and 2)  we should be respected for choosing to serve the public good.  I also learned that there are many people doing good in education, but there are also forces for evil that are being promoted.  Yup, I am talking about our guest speakers.  I like several, but several of them were wrong on many points.  I will not go into that.  Thirdly, I learned that there are fantastic educators all over the world that share our fervor for improving education.

Laughing played a vital role at PILGF.  We made some great friendships that will last for a lifetime, friendships that are shaped in a love for children, education, and other people.  We talked about our students, our administrators, and those we love, and forged bonds not to be broken.  We also stayed up late, got up early, and didn't rest much.

The presentations/competition aspect of the Forum was a disappointment for me.  Yes, I went to win (and didn't), but mainly I just wasn't prepared for the Global crowd.  I was US ready, but that didn't get it done.  I learned a few things:  first, Alaska Fishing isn't as appealing to the world as the US.  Secondly, I needed a little bit more flash, something like video games, videos, hands on activities, etc to draw folks toward you and interest them.  I didn't have that flash because we couldn't use copyrighted materials.  Next time, I will go prepared.  The station next to me set the stage for realizing that you need flash.  They had a video game for people to play, and there was a constant crowd at their station, often times overflowing in front of me.

Ah, the food and drink were fantastic.  Thanks Microsoft!  It allowed us to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride comfortably.

The other aspect of the forum was the Learning Excursions.  I enjoyed our group, with me from the US, and women from Latvia, Ireland, Ecuador, and Lebanon.  Truly a diverse group.  We came up with a good idea and plan for the project; hopefully is gets some traction and we do a great job implementing it.

Overall, it was a great experience!

PILGF

It has been such a busy fantastic week with Microsoft and my fellow teachers. I haven't even had time to blog enough! I will summarize upon my return to home.

On twitter

Listen to me @PBLMathTeacher

Oh my!

I just presented to Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, at PILGF. It was great to be able to spread the word of PBL.

National Museum of American History

We just had a private viewing of the museum, and I am fired up! Go USA! Boy, I sure could have a ball with a history/math project with videos here!