Web page: http://erickadianne.com/

I am a gypsy in the sense that I love traveling and wearing long dresses.

I am starting to organize a webpage with more information, photos, and it is http://erickadianne.com/.  I will be posting a lot of my stories, trips, and adventures on this site.

Gratitude

Dear Family and Friends,

   I am writing this post in honor of you.  I wanted to take a moment and thank you for the impact you have made in my life.  I know I haven't been the easiest person to get a long with a times. I  have been extremely stubborn, self-righteous, manipulative, selfish, and frustrating, but if you're reading this you've stuck it out for the long run.

 I am so thankful for the influence you have been to me.  The way you've lead, taught, and supported me through the good times, and the difficult times.  I thank you for reminding me to laugh at myself when I mess up, to keep trying when all I want to do is quit, and to be thankful for life's lessons.

  I thank you for being there when I needed you the most, for not giving up on me, believing in me, and encouraging me.

  I thank you for helping me during times of poverty and celebrating with me in times of success.

  I thank you for showing me mercy and kindness, when I deserved punishment.

  I thank you for being someone I can always trust and admire.  A person I want to emulate.

  I just wanted you to know, you are what keeps me going, drives me to better myself, makes me get up in the morning, and pushes me toward my goals.

  You are the invisible love pushing me toward success.  And you are the one who helped me realize success is personal, not trivialized by being summed up as money, careers, relationships, ect.  It is like clay.  Always being reshaped, restructured, remade by life's never-ending changes, remolded to be something I can find honor in.

  So, just so you know, this is about you, and how you have helped me, continue to help me, and for which I will always be grateful.

Thank you.  My family, my friends, and those who I have encountered.
As they say in Colombia,
Un abrazo!

Online Safety in the Classroom and at Home

LTSM, Students Giving their "Facebook Profile Poster," Demonstration.

As a teacher I think it is extremely important to educate children in technological matters. Without a doubt this will be the future of their lives. They will need a firm and educated knowledge of the online world to be successful.  Technology is only going to continue to evolve and the more they are comfortable with it now, the easier they will be able to evolve with it.

It is essential teachers and parents do their part to acquaint themselves with what is on the web and the sites their children are visiting.  It is our responsibility to make sure they have the knowledge to navigate the web safely and under our guidance and protection.

The best way for you to be in touch with your children is to know and understand their likes and dislikes, their friends, and what they are all obsessed with at the moment.  And boy is it fleeting! Once you realize what they are in to, it usually has already changed into something else entirely.  So, get ready to get actively involved!  

Awesomely enough, Disney, one of the mainstream players in grabbing your child's fleeting interest, has created a website to help you get in touch with the online world and what might interest your kids.

Here is the website:  Club Penguin. The online safety campaign, It Starts With You, launched with this very helpful and for me, fun, list of vocabulary your kids might be using right now. 

Enjoy!

The words included are:

POSITIVE WORDS

Epic - used when something is awesome or amazing

YOLO – an acronym for you only live once

Bro – a boy’s best friend

Like a boss - well achieved

Dece - means decent

Cushti/Kooshty - decent

Naughty - it is good

Savage - it is good

A touch - means something is good/positive

Reem - cool

Swag – from the word swagger, it means style/confidence

Fetch - awesome

Rare - desirable

Jock - cool/athletic

Player - Cool/attractive

FTW - for the win

Sick - cool

Rents - parents

Fly - cool

Keed - kid joke

Ill - amazing

Legit - good/authentic

Tekkers - skills



NEGATIVE

Crab/crabby - crap/crappy

Derp – stupid, taken from a character in South Park Mr Derp

Spinout - means weird

Gate - hate

Butters - means ugly, from butterface, as in “nice body, but her face…”

Lowe that – can't be bothered

Bun - general term of negativity/ swear word

Bov - means don't care

Jank - means gross/disgusting.

Ratchet – a new version of chav, a variation of wretched

Beach - bitch

Prep - snob/stuck up

Outers - out of order

Basic - simple/unintelligent

Noob - new inexperienced player/stupid

Troll - intentionally mean

Dub- unintelligent

Jelly- jealous

Tool - unintelligent/annoying

Blond - unintelligent

Creep/creeper - stalking/weird person

Owned - embarrassed

Neg - annoying

Beef - problem

B@ - banned

Pwned - To be made a fool of or proved wrong.

Manizales, Colombia: My Pereiran Escape

 Manizales is a beautiful city nestled in the vibrant mountains of the Colombian Coffee Region.

 

View from the top of the park where everyone goes to fly kites.

Manizales is built on a mountain, so it requires easy transportation from top to bottom.  The way this is accomplished is the Cable Car.  I love riding these things! They are relaxing and have great views.  My friends and I were thinking how cool it would be if at night they closed it for traveling, and only allowed you to sleep inside them.  It would be such a great way to spend the night.

Manizales Cable Cars

I love touring old churches.  I think it's interesting to see the different styles and colors.  Especially, when they are all the same denomination. Here are some of the unique churches in Manizales:

Gorgeous Stained-glass windows

Creepy birds

I would love to turn this into a hotel.

This could be my house.

I love the colors!

Not only does Manizales have great architecture, but they have cool art sculptures and beautiful views.

My two traveling buddies enjoying the view.

I love the fog in these pictures. They make it seem like the beginning of a very mysterious and creepy film.

View from the top of the Frontier Sculpture

Pioneers struggling up the mountainside.

The top of the sculpture.

The walk up the side of the mountain is amazing! It is a refreshing break from the obnoxious traffic and lack of public outdoor space of Pereira.  I will always love spending a day in Manizales.

Iglesias de Colombia or Colombian Churches

My Adventurous Weekend....

started when I decided to go to the Pereira library for the first time.  I walked in completely unsure if I had to have id or if there were weird rules about looking at the books. So, I walked in and the guard stops me because I guess you can't bring in purses or bags. You leave it with the guard, they put it in a locker and giver you a number tag to pick it up when you leave.

I started by looking for the English books and found a few from the late 80's. In fact, almost all of the books are about 20 years are more.  This makes me EXTREMELY grateful for the state of the art library in Indianapolis, it is gorgeous! Six floors of endless possibilities; travels, music, art, education, adventure, science, history, and the creative imaginations of generations of authors.

A view from the older section of the Indianapolis Library. You can see the indoor atrium from here.

One of the fiction reading rooms.

A hallway to the world!

Yes, they have fireplaces too!

View from a window.

View from the new extension. Downtown Indianapolis.

So, suffice it to say, my high expectations were cut to the core and I only lasted about 15 minutes.  As I was leaving the guard stopped me and asked why I left so early.  My limited Spanish caused me to say I only wanted to look because it was the first time I had been there.  Well, being the friendly Colombian he is, proceeded to give me a tour.

So, even though they don't compare to the Indianapolis Central Library, they do offer free English classes, where I met Andy, a very comical teacher, movies on Sunday for the kids, and free courses on technology and financing.  After observing them for a few minutes they were actually pretty decent.

From the library I decided to continue walking downtown. I met Octavio at the church near Plaza Bolivar. I went in to take pictures of the Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Pobreza.

I was able to take these two photos right before Octavio started telling me the entire history of the building, convert me to Catholicism, and save my soul. I managed to escape 45 minutes later.  I continued walking and enjoying the sights, until this weirdo started saying all of these rude comments about white people and foreigners thinking they can wear whatever they want and go wherever they want.  All I was wearing were my moccasins and a green dress. I didn't think it was that inappropriate, but who am I to discern the inner-workings of a know-it-all, crazed man. He scared me enough that I decided to grab the next cab and hop away.

All in all. I walked about 7 kilometers and saw some new and interesting shopping centers and cafes.  I finished my afternoon at Unicentro before heading home and calling it a day.  Below are some photos from the view of the library and Victoria Plaza. I'll share part two, day two of the adventure in the next post.

Another favorite church of mine, Igelsia de Carmen.

The plaza where events are held. Today was some music thing with Pony, a very weird malted beverage that Colombians love.

The library is in the cultural center to the left.

Be the Change You Want to See-Ghandi

I know, I know. It is very over used and may sound a tad cliche, but it really is one of the greatest motivators to stop complaining and make it happen.

I am extremely opinionated. I get an idea in my mind and think that everyone else should be able to see it as clearly as I do. Usually my ideas come from wanting to make the complexities of life, simplified.

Unfortunately, my frankness comes across as complaining. Now, I think there is a clear distinction between admitting there is a problem and creating a solution verses just complaining without reason or without a solution.

The listeners just don't get it.  Or maybe they don't think its a problem.  I think anything that makes life harder is a problem and therefore should be evaluated and solved.

One problem I want to solve is the gap between children and adults, or the controllers verses the controlled.  I want to see a future where the antiquated view of a child being less intelligent than adults or unable to control themselves is a thing of the 20th century, not the 21st.

Now, the older I get the more I realize age has nothing to do with emotional and intellectual intelligence.  There are a lot of kids out there do amazing things these days.  Kid President is one of my favorites!

There are also, just as many adults doing very ignorant things---HEllo? War, fighting over really stupid things liking parking spots or property lines.  I believe I had the same fight with my brother when I was seven: "This is my side! You can't touch my side of the seat! Keep your fingers on your side!"  Same argument, amplified context.

So, I want my students to start recognizing the importance of who they are now. I want them to have an active and partnering role in the learning process.

Which is why I decided to allow them to have an open discussion forum the next few days in class about what they like and don't like about our class, things they want to improve on, what they think they should be evaluated on, how they feel in our classroom, and things they like and don't like about me. (That's a wee bit frightening).

I admit I have always complained about the voices of children being lost, but now I am going to stop, address, the problem, and start being the change I want to see.

Wish us luck!

Vacation Summary Winners

This year in our class we are using more internet tools.  One of these tools is Blogger.  After the students write their assignments I will choose a few to highlight by posting them on this blog. This is entirely their work, written and edited by them.

The following are selections from students at Liceo Taller San Miguel in Pereira, Colombia.  They are all native Spanish speakers learning to read and write in English.

We hope you enjoy!

This summer vacation I did many things and had lots of fun. The first day of vacation was my birthday so I celebrated it by going to Boliz with my cousins. At Boliz we ice skated, bowled, and played other games. It was a lot of fun! After that I went to U.S.A to visit my dad and the rest of my family in Florida. With my dad I went to the beach, to Universal, to SeaWorld, and ate lots of hamburgers. Another thing I did was learn to scuba dive and got my scuba diver certificate. Scuba diving was fun because I was underwater swimming with all the fishes. Towards the end of vacation I came back to Colombia and stayed the last week at my aunt's farm. On the last day of vacation I was a bit sad because the vacations were over, but now summer is over and we're back in school.

Sabrina Gutierrez 8th Grade, at Liceo Taller San Miguel

MY FANTASTIC VACATIONS
(By Miguel Benítez Quintero)
On my last vacations my family and I went to Cancun in Mexico. These were a fantastic vacations.
We traveled from Medellin to Cancun. The travel was really comfortable. In Cancun we arrived to a hotel located on the beach, it was a fantastic hotel, with seven (7) restaurants and variety of foods, five (5) pools and a water park for all the family. The beach was very amazing, the sand was white, the water was warm and the weather was excellent.
In Cancun we were in the malls and in the Mayan museum, an important place where we knew about the Mayan culture.
Around Cancun we visited many important attractions; for example, to three hours from the city is Chichen Itza, the most important Mayan City, there we were walking to the Pyramid of Chichen Itza and other Mayan constructions and we were in the Mayan ball field and other interesting monuments; near from there we visited the fantastic Cenotes.
In other route, more near from Cancun, are the parks. We visited the most important and big park. It is Xcaret´s park, it is a wonderful place! We did many activities, we enjoyed much and learned more about the Mayan culture and the Mexican history and folklore. In this park, my father and I swam with stingrays.
Ten days later my family and I came back to Colombia after to live a great experience and enjoy the best vacations.
Miguel Benítez Quintero 8th Grade, at Liceo Taller San Miguel

Over my vacations I went with my family to a small village called Juanchaco, in order to see whales. Juanchaco is located almost one hour off Buenaventura’s coast. My dad, my mom and me, we took a small boat and went from Juanchaco to the ocean where we saw some ten whales. I remember that I saw a whale-mother swimming together with its baby during a couple of minutes very close to our boat. I think if I would have stretched my hands, I could have even touched the two whales. It was very exciting to be so close to these wonderful animals which come to Colombia’s Pacific Coast just once a year, between July and October.
Sarah Schmieg 7th Grade, at Liceo Taller San Miguel