The International Educators Institute is a unique week-long professional development program and Pacific Northwest field study tour. We bring together international forest researchers and the most active and successful master educators in the U.S. and abroad.
This blog will be used throughout the 2008 IEI to document our activities, discussions, and new ideas!IEI participants, please add your first comments today (Monday, July 14).
In your first comment:
*Introduce yourself
*Tell us in your native language how to say "forest"
*Share your first impressions of people and place
*Introduce yourself
*Tell us in your native language how to say "forest"
*Share your first impressions of people and place
Don't forget to sign your name to your comments - thanks! ~Angie and Rick
18 comments:
Hello everyone. I am confident that this is going to be a real fantastic week. The hike tomorrow sounds like the perfect way to start things off. I am for an opportunity to stick my feet into some very cold water.
I live in Duluth, MN. If you don't know where it is, think of Lake Superior. The most Superior lake in the world points to my hometown, look at a map. Out my back door is over 7,000 acres of municipal forest. So where I am from we call the forest, "outside."
take care
rob
Sue from Virginia here - This place is wonderful and I am looking forward to getting to know all the people. Forest is Forest or woods back home.
Hello! This is Erin from New Hampshire. I am the Education Coordinator for NH Project Learning Tree (NHPLT). Although PLT is a big part of my responsibilities, because we are fortunate enough to be a non profit, we are also able to do longer term intensive professional development with individual schools and districts. This helps to ensure that any changes made are systemic and embedded within the school culture. The focus of NHPLT is to help make NH's youth responsible stewards of our forests and other natural resources.
In NH we call forests "the woods" too as well as "the backyard".
I am already having a great time here in OR and am appreciative of the openness of the group and eagerness to learn from each other :)
Hi everybody!
I'm Carolina from South Brazil. I have a 4 years degree in Biology. I have been teaching for 6 years from K-12. In 2006 I also taught how to be a science teacher at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.
The translation for forest in Portuguese is floresta. However, we simplify things just saying MATO.
In my opinion we had a great time today. I’m really exciting about hiking tomorrow! And, I hope have enough time to talk with all of you!
Carolina
Hi all,
I'm Arvin Vista, from the Philippines and currently PhD student at Oregon State University. We have a tropical rain forest back home, which we call 'kagubatan,' one of the diverse ecosystems in the world.
It's nice to be with a diverse group of people in a quiet and clean place like Menucha. I'm excited to know more of your stories folks.
God bless,
Arvin
Hello there!!!!
I do think that we can create a much better world trough re-connecting ourselves with nature and between us, this experience is helping with that!!! (and is so much fun! =)
Hello,
This professional development opportunity is a unique experience for me, and I am looking forwarding to getting to know you all and hearing about your life and work in all corners of the world.
Even though I grew up in Kenya, I'm sorry to say my Swahili is not close to fluent. I know the word for 'tree' (it is "mti"). A google search just now tells me 'forest' is "mwitu" so I've already learned something new today...that, and when in doubt while in Oregon, the answer is Douglas fir!
Vanessa
Greetings!! This is one of the few times I have ever blogged but it seems like this week will be full of new and exciting events and experiences. I know the hike tomorrow will be great. I am already enjoying the conversations and hope there is enough time to meet everyone.
I grew up in the Northwest and retuned to this area two years ago. I am loving being back in this area and look forward to exploring this week. I teach at an Environmental Charter School. We take the students into the "forest" every other week on field trips. Sometimes we call it the "woods." But most the time the students give the land we visit their own names.
I'm looking forward to this week with all of you.
See you in the morning,
Elizabeth
Hejho!
Originally, I am from Germany, but I have spent the last four years in paradise, also known as Oregon, where I am finishing up my PhD program in Corvallis at the end of this year.
Wald = forest
Forst = managed forest
I am looking forward to spending a great week with a group of fun people from all around the world!
Bianca
Hi all,
I live in Colorado, near the Kansas border. Since trees do not naturally grow there, we call the forests of the eastern Colorado plains "windbreaks". I am impressed with the beauty of Menucha and excited to develop relationships with the interesting people who are here. I am so excited for tomorrow, ...and Wednesday, ...and Thursday, ...and Friday, and Saturday too!
Cherie
Great day! I learned that I really knew nothing about the forests of the world, nor had I ever given them much thought. The diversity is a tremendous experience. It's a pleasure to know each of you and share such a wonderful place as Menucha. In South Carolina the forest is just referred to as the woods.
Nihao (Chinese style, hello"
I am Min from Shanghai Normal University, China. so happy to know everybody after the unusual week.I am very happy to speak with you and enjoy the good experiences with you. Hope we know further through this space.
Good evening everyone! Today I have noticed a lot of commonalities that this group shares. For example: 3 of us speak German, some of us have links to Africa (I hope mine will soon be much stronger!), many of us are science teachers, some of us appreciate mountain biking and beautiful Corvallis (go Beavs!), Indroneil and I love tigers!!, Claudia and Carlos and I share a love of the ocean (and Arvin likes squid candy ;), Susan knows how wonderful it is to have a great support at home, and it's nice to meet a fellow mid-westerner (Rob, I'm from your "superior" neighbor to the west (ND) ;)
It is wonderful to hear your perspectives and share stories of different homes! I feel all the benefits of travel without the airfare or jet-lag! Thank you all for sharing yourselves and your cultures!
Forest here in Oregon is forest or "wet" on the coast, as I shared earlier.
Sleep hard and fast!
Amber
I am from China, glad to know you through this special program. if you want to know more about me, you can read my Blog.
Thanks
I am Indroneil Ganguly from Calcutta in India. I am very excited to be here and have enjoyed interacting with all of you. I am looking forward to the hiking trip tomorrow.
How do we say ‘forests’ in India? …. Not an easy question…… with so many languages, dialects and types of forests the list can become a pretty extensive one. In Bengali (the language I speak) generally we say ‘Jangal’ more colloquially ‘Bon’.
See you all tomorrow,
Indro
Looking forward to a fantastic week! I just returned from directing the World Forestry Center's Forestry Leadership Youth Summer Camp...so it will be interesting seeing some of the same site visits through adult eyes!
Here in the pacific Northwest we have two ways of saying forest: Timber and Recreation. We're very connected to the forest in one of those ways...perhaps we can see some examples of where the two meet?
A bit about Rob: I have a degree in Forest Resources Technology and a degree in Geography...I went that route to specialize in GIS relating to Forestry...total geek yes...But I do ride motorcycles and brew beer at home =-)
We've got a fantastic and diverse group this week, I can't wait to learn more about everyone!
--Rob Pierce (Not the other Rob...not that that would be bad...I'm just not...I bet he's glad too...to be himself that is...cause it would just be weird if we were both him...at lest for one of us...) ;-)
Hello everybody!
I'm from Germany and just finished school there.
Now I'm so happy to spend this week at this wonderful place with this wonderful people from all over the world. This is such a great experience for me!
Like Bianca allready wrote
Forest is Wald and managed forest is Forst in german.
hola mi nombre es carlos yruretagoyena...hi my name is "carlos y", im from mexico the state of baja california ...was born in mexicali a long tme ago...bosque or 'vozzkhe" as it might sound is how you pronounce forest in spanish....as for my impressios on the place...i have always been partial to forested paces because aside from the natural beuties you find a lot of iteresting creters to admire either on the pavement walk or on the trails...the water hles (either the starbucks cafes or the real water holes) are possibly a god site to start, but i my case this group has a great sample of what we have aroud the world.....im always interested in learning how the new generations do it, so bloging come to e as a new way of chating and telling you all who and what i might be all about, but i think that theres no substitution for the real thing....talking and trying to establish a dialogue and comun9cating with some one outside your famly has always intregue e ....and yes im worse than a cat because im curious and like to tinkle with brains and people...so please dont mnd me staring or asking you questions that might be foolish or simple minded...you can always say no thanks and thats alsso ok....but i tink that as earthlings we are here fr a reason...mine might just be some what special and different ...but so might yours....you can call me by carlos why (y) or bear ...i do hope that we will have the time to share and talk..te worse that could happen is that we just might go home knowing that we met an interesting indvidual that comes from a different place that just might become our best friend.....saludos carlosy
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