Back from Brittany!

Dear students,

Hello! I'm back from my road trip through Brittany with my grandfather and brothers. It was extremely beautiful and nice to get away from the big city for a little while.

Here's Brittany.

Here's the outline of my trip.

The outline of my road trip around Brittany! 

First we drove to Mont Saint Michel, a famous Catholic abbey built between the 11th and 16th centuries  with an estimated date of completion around the year 1523. That means this French abbey was completed about thirty years after Columbus' ship landed on the coast of the United States. The abbey and the surrounding town mirror the structure of a European feudal society, as drawn below.

Photo taken from http://jfortunato.weebly.com/whi9-study-resources.html

At the top of Mont Saint Michel is the abbey, which housed the bishops and Roman Catholic clergy. Below that were the Great halls, where the nobility lived. Below that were the stores that merchants ran and outside of the city walls lived farmers. The Merriam-Webster definition of feudalism is "a social system that existed in Europe during the Middle Ages in which people worked and fought for nobles who gave them protection and the use of land in return." Interested in learning more about European feudalism, click here. Did  you know that feudalism also existed in Japan? Learn more about it here. In 2011, a book was published entitled Feudal America: Elements of the Middle Ages in Contemporary Society. Do you think that there are elements of feudalism happening in the United States today?

Here are a few pictures of the abbey and my time there. 

 The abbey is UNESCO world heritage site. Take a look at some other world heritage sites here. 

 There's the French flag! Interested in playing a flags of the world guessing game, here it is.

View from the top. The city was created around water to make it easier to fend off attackers. 

Inside of the abbey.

After visiting Mont Saint Michel, we headed to the Cap Fréhel, a famous peninsula. What's a peninsula? Let's quickly review landforms.

A peninsula is a body of land surrounded by water on three sides. Can you spot the peninsula?

Image taken from juzaphoto.com. 

After that, we headed to the small city of Roscoff to grab lunch. We spent the night in the countryside before going to our next destination: Carnac. Carnac is known for being a large megalithic site in France with lots of extremely old stones, which are called dolmens and menhirs in French. Some of these stones are as old as 4500 BCE, which means that they are over 6000 years old! The stones were clearly placed in this area for a reason, but what they were used for remains a mystery.

 I'm 5'4'' so I wonder if you can try and estimate how big this stone is...

Find out more about these stones here and here. 

Some people believe that these stones were used to help our ancient ancestors read the skies and understand the weather, some people believe that they were a kind of burial stone, while others think that they were used for farming. What is your hypothesis? What is your guess?

After Carnac, we decided to stop in the city of Chartres on our way back to Paris. Chartres is known for its large cathedral.

Did you notice that the left and right towers have a different architectural style? That's because they were built in different years. 

The Chartres Cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture. It is about 900 years old and the city is in the midst of cleaning the cathedral and restoring it. We've got some excellent sweepers in our classroom, wouldn't it be fun to have a job that combines cleaning, art and chemistry? Yes, I'm sure that to clean the cathedral you have to understand which products to use in order to avoid damaging the old stones. Khan Academy has a great unit on the Chartres Cathedral here.

Okay dear students, I'll be leaving France in just a few days. I'll be spending the rest of my time here with friends and family. Have a wonderful break and I look forward to seeing you on Monday and discussing my trip with you in person.

Sincerely,
Miss Alicia

Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.

Landed in Paris / Visit to the Cartier Foundation

Dear Ross Island students and families,

Hello from France! First of all, this is my life right now:

Quick trip to the boulangerie! 

French Christmas cake, called "bûche de Noël."

More bûche de Noël.

When in France the "sugar can't be in the first three ingredients" school lunch food rule doesn't apply :-)  It's been so fun to catch up with family and be back at home.

Yesterday I went to an exhibit of Congolese art at the Cartier Foundation. This is where the Congo is on a map of Africa.

Maybe you've heard of Cartier because of their famous watches. The company also owns a museum in Paris. Since I'm interested in Africa, my grandfather and I decided to head out into the city to learn more about Congolese art.

Before I show you some of the art at the museum, it's important to review our unit on Colonialism. Don't remember much about colonialism? Reread the PowerPoint here. Simply put, colonialism is when a country takes over another country or part of another country. An easy way to remember the reason that countries colonized other countries is "The Three Gs": Glory, God and Gold.

First off, a long time ago, what is now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was called The Kingdom of Kongo.  The Kingdom of Kongo was colonized by Belgium.  Where is Belgium? It's in Europe, it shares a border with France.

Belgium sent soldiers and priests to Africa to take over the Kingdom of Kongo. They ruled over the Kingdom of Kongo for about 75 years. At first, it was ruled by the Belgian King Leopold the II. During this time, he renamed the capital to Leopoldville. He sounds like a bit of an egomaniac naming a city after himself. Let's also remember that Washington D.C. (Washington, District of Columbia) is named after President George Washington and Christopher Columbus, and Columbus also colonized a country. Do you remember which country Columbus colonized...?

The Three Gs for Belgian Congo:
Glory: Belgium took over this country because they wanted more power and glory. All of Western Africa was given to European countries at the Berlin West Africa Conference in 1884.
God:The Congolese schools were run by Christian priests who wanted to spread Christianity to Africa.
Gold: While Congo wasn't famous for its gold, it did bring a lot of money to Belgium through all of the rubber.

Eventually, in 1960, Congo received its independence from Belgium, which means that they weren't under Belgian rule anymore. Yet this was a very hard time as many Congolese weren't given an education under Belgian rule. In 1960, when Belgian soldiers left, only sixteen Congolese people were in college.

Okay now for some art! Understanding the Congolese history of colonialism can help us understand the artwork we're going to look at.

This is a painting of Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama. Do you know who Nelson Mandela is? Read more about him here.  Mandela was the first Black president of South Africa and Obama was the first Black president of the United States. What do you think this painting is showing? 

Not only were there paintings at the exhibit, there were also a few model cities. 

Remember how we made collages, this is a collage! 

Photo taken from the Fondation Cartier website. 

Okay dear students, it's time for me to get back to family. Look at more Congolese art here (scroll down to the bottom). Have a lovely vacation and I'll write again sometime in the next week! 

Devotedly,  

Miss Alicia

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer. 

First Blog Post!

Dear Ross Island students and families,

Welcome to the Ross Island blog! First of all, what a semester we've had! It has been a joy to get to know all of you. You each have your own personality and interests and guess what my favorite part of being a teacher is: my students!

I'm so excited to share my travels with you. I plan to post photos and updates over the break. I'll be leaving from Portland and flying to Paris, France. My mother is from Paris and her family still lives there. After spending a few days in Paris, I'll drive to Britanny with my brothers to spend a few days at the beach.

It'll take me quite a few hours to get to Paris! 

I can't wait to explore Brittany and spend time at the beach! 

Since I know how much you all love learning, here are some fun ways to keep learning over the break!

French Vocabulary
Bonjour = hello
Salut = hello (informal)
Bonsoir = good evening
Boulangerie = bakery
Baguette = a kind of French bread
Joyeux Noël = Merry Christmas

Joyeuse Fête de Hanoucca = Happy Channukah

Au revoir = Goodbye (although it literally means until next time)

Geography
Love learning more about the world? So do I!
Want to take a quick trip around the world? Watch this video about the three most sustainable communities in the world.
What about naming all of the countries in Europe? Play this sporcle game!
Better yet, what about naming all of the countries in the WORLD! Play that game here.
You think that Paris only exists in France right? Actually, there's another Paris... in China! Read about it here.

History
Curious about French history? Read through a few of these links.
The United States and France go way back. 
An interactive map of what happened in France during World War II.

Art
You've probably heard of the cartoons Tintin and Asterix and Obelix? These are French cartoons that I grew up watching!

The graphic novels and subsequent TV show Tintin is named after its protagonist (main character) Tintin, a Belgian reporter who solves mysteries with his little dog Snowy, whose name in French is Milou. Watch the video below about Tintin.

Asterix and Obelix, another famous French graphic novel that later became a cartoon on TV, are  fighting the Roman conquest of Britanny, although back then it was called Gaul, around 50 BCE.  Learn more about Gaul and the Gaullois people here.

Math
You didn't think you were going to get away without doing any Math! Here are a few word problems related to France!
1. Alicia is so hungry on her way to the boulangerie. She buys 18 baguettes. She eats 3 baguettes on her way home. When she walks through the door, her brothers grab a few baguettes for themselves. She has two brothers who both eat five baguettes.  Dinner is in two hours. How many baguettes are left?!
2. Alicia takes the Paris subway from the Eiffel Tower all the way to the Guimet Museum of Asian Art. It takes her about 30 minutes and is a distance of 3 miles. How many minutes did it take to travel 1 mile?

Chemistry
Some of you have started a Chemistry unit with me on protons, neutrons and electron configuration. Have any of you heard of the famous French scientist Marie Curie? Click here to learn more about her amazing work.

Watch this video to learn about why Marie Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Maybe you want to review the structure of an atom. Watch this video!

Feel free to leave me a comment and have a great break!

Devotedly,
Miss Alicia