photostory

This is my photostory that I created for ECMP455. It is my trip to Europe last summer.


europe 2006 from janine and Vimeo.

my new place in Australia

Well I am sitting here and listening to one of the two classes that I have missed in ECMP455 and heard that Dean would like me to post pics and other things in our blogs. So I will post a pic in here.

pictures

Once I get organized I will be adding pictures to this website.
http://www.flickr.com/people/janinesmits/

australia

I'm finally here. I arrived in Sydney yesterday and stayed at a bed and breakfast overnight. I also found a condo being rented out by a couple to rent. So far they seem very nice. I tried to write on here the other day and check my feeds while i was in the airport but the comps there wouldn't let me, they had those sited blocked because they may be malicious. I'm not sure what they expected to find but anyways. I am overly tired and ready for bed.

started my journey

This last week has flown by. Everyone kept asking if I was excited and I really wasn't but as I sit here in Calgary my stomach is doing flips and I am getting nervous. The apartment that I had tentatively lined up fell through so now I'm back to square one. Looking for a place to live!!! I'll be homeless for the first few days and stay in a hostel. My brother drove me to Calgary yesterday and we arrived at 2am.... was suppose to be earlier but there is something with my car and me travelling. Everytime I am getting ready to leave to another country I swear my car gets lonesome and puts a hole in its tire. The last three trips I've taken I've had to either replace my tires or patch my tires on the day before or day I am heading out. Oh well, at least it didn't happen during my drive to Calgary. I'm falling behind a bit in ECMP 455 I haven't had time to read feeds, do assignments, post blogs, nothin.... but hopefully I will have more time once I get to Australia and get settled in. I'm off to surf for a new place to live. Wish me luck.

Listening to our webconference tonight was great. David Jakes was talking about stories being very important to learning and I think that they are essential. Storytelling is how I learn about my grandparents and what it was like when they grew up. It is where you come from!!!

I also enjoyed the link http://www.uthtv.com/. It is important to listen to the children they have alot to say.

Well I was just reading a few of my rss subscriptions and I found this one really interesting. It talks about incorporating childrens learning into building games and working in the classroom.
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2007/07/15/games-%e2%80%a2-learning-%e2%80%a2-society-classroom-strategy-guides/
I really like the idea of the children making up their own test on wiki and then use that information. I think the children would learn more because they would have to create. You learn by teaching.

Technology

Technology is great!!! I have been searching online for a place to live in Sydney and with this wonderful system I have found a place, seen pictures of the place and can even make a deposit on the place (won't but could) if needed. I couldn't imagine just going and trying to look for a place... to much hassle. Did it before and spent way to much on rent for a crappy place with fleas and cockroaches.

Transfer credits

If you can help it never transfer from University to University or College to University. You get royally screwed over. Or you have to fight for over a year to get any kind of credits. Or you have to do all the work yourself and figure out what classes will transfer and then pass them on and they don't transfer as what you think they should. It is not fun!!!

ECMP 455. Looks like it should be a good class. I'm hoping that I can still attend the online sessions with the time difference to Australia but I'm not sure because I have class that day. We will see.

New Blog, New Look

Well it's my first blog for a few months. I find it difficult to blog when I'm on dial up for the majority of the time.

I am going to Australia on exchange to the University of Technology in Sydney. I'm getting excited it is only two weeks away.

That's it for now.