Colin Richardson's Portfolio
Mr. Richardson attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received his Bachelors of Arts in Management and Society and his Masters of Arts in Teaching. He has taught at private and public schools, at academic, honors, and AP levels, with classes including Sociology, American History 1 & 2, World History, Geography, Music, and AP US History. He has served his current school, Green Hope High, as advisor to the Roundtable, Feminism, Speech & Debate, Youth & Government, and Meditation Clubs, as PLT leader for American History I, and as Teacher Representative to the PTSA. He especially enjoys collaborating with his peers, creating interdisciplinary lessons to expose students to different viewpoints and analytical frameworks. He has worked with PE, CTE, English, Music, and Drama teachers. He has presented at the North Carolina Council for the Social Studies on "Teaching with Hamilton" and "Big Data and Teaching" and has appeared on the UVA broadcast "Backstory." In his free time, Mr. Richardson enjoys reading, photography, fitness activities, playing with his dog Sasha, and traveling with his wife Jessica. |
Cultural Connections Project 1: Global Collaborative Project (Video Synopsis)
My project connected students from a public high school in North Carolina with a private International School in Turkey. Students analyzed important social issues from local, national, and global perspectives, collaborating with and presenting to their new colleagues and peers from different countries!
|
|
Cultural Connections Project 2: Scripted Duologue Based on Meetup Group or AirBnb City Experience (GoAnimate)
|
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UK74jwvf9dyd1g8dc2lPeDSR0JtFwDSR
|
Writing a Duolog:
Directions: Invent a conversation between two people by writing down just what each speaker says in turn. Place the name of the speaker before his or her speech in all caps; follow this with a colon. Do the same thing each time one of them speaks. Don’t use quotation marks for these speeches. Use dialect and special idioms if it helps us see (hear) the speaker. The time, place, and circumstances have to be clear from the words and actions of the characters. If the place and physical action can’t be made clear in their speech without awkwardness, state these briefly between parentheses at the appropriate points. Your dualog can make any point. It might emphasize personalities or relationships. Or it might develop serious ideas or be a funny give-and-take. This is a script for a single scene that should run for 4-8 minutes if read aloud. 400-1000 words. Give the dualog a title that catches the main action or relationship. |
Cultural Connections Project 3: Experience-Based Travel Writing Based on Meetup Group or AirBnb City Experience (Post on Travel Blog)
Direct link to document https://docs.google.com/document/d/10QsmlB_K4xwkPlkJEj6F4dqE3ML61sS3uHCffAgY-98
Cultural Collections Project 1: Mapping Culture (Google Maps)
What do we value in a place? What meaning to we give to different uses of space?
This map answers those questions through three categories: Czech CCR locations, "Hidden" or "true" experiences, and actual land usage from the popular Strava workout app. Each source tells a different story, and synthesis is impossible without recognizing the advantages and limitations of all. |
Right to Roam:
The construction of a physical space as “public” or “private” necessarily relies on an existing set of sociopolitical norms regarding property, access, and enforcement. In the Czech Republic, citizens enjoy a variety of protections of their access to land. The legal “right of way” enshrined in the Civil Codes is a legacy of Austria-Hungarian laws, and the more modern “Nature and Countryside Preservation Act” is part of a system of laws that legally protects access to roads, water, and unused land. Our Czech CCR group gained some experience with this system through use of the Czech Hiking Markers system on our 8km hike after touring Karlstejn Castle. Obviously access does not mean that all paths are equally developed. Citizen access to lands is enshrined to different levels in Europe, and other countries go much further. Scottish, Finnish, and Norwegian citizens have almost universal access to their countryside. To compare this to the Untied States, let us consider one of the most famous and popular films, Forrest Gump. In this film, the titular character, having undergone tremendous personal stress from the numerous events of individual and social import, chooses one day to run and keep running. He spans the entire country and then, reaching the Pacific Ocean, turns around. On this journey he amasses numerous followers. He is filmed running adjacent to, almost oblivious to, national parks and their natural splendor. But he is removed from those parks, because he is on a highway. Indeed, all of his running is seen as running on state-owned highways, constructed after WWII as part of the Eisenhower Interstate System. Americans enjoy a beautiful set of state and national parks, which gives us access to natural spaces both majestic and mundane. That experience, however, is shaped by our history and legal structures. Prior to the Civil War, citizens enjoyed a right to roam almost as liberal as is present in Scotland today. Indeed it was considered an American rebuke to European class divides that a person would not be imprisoned for hunting on a rich person’s land, as was often the case in the “old world.” In an 1862 essay, Thoreau wrote that he feared soon “walking over the surface of God’s Earth shall e construed to mean trespassing on some gentleman’s ground.” So how did we get to modern conceptions of the sanctity of claims to space that supersede an individuals right to enjoy their own country? Two events stand out. The development of barbed wire divided the west and ended the open range system of cattle migration. After the Civil War, movement rights were severely limited in the American South as a way of restricting the movement of freed slaves and therefore reconstructing (ha) the systems of control that were technically removed as part of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to our Constitution but which remained as defining delineation throughout Jim Crow and arguably still today through mass incarceration. |
Cultural Collections Project 2: Timelining Culture (MyHistro)
|
In Prague we have seen Czechs in beer gardens and restaurants, at clubs and performances, moving through metro, tram, and bus.
Towering over all these shared public spaces is another, a type that has required resources and provided amenities to the public for a thousand years in the modern Czech Republic. Though today the Czech Republic is the most atheistic of all European states, it is filed with religious sites. Examining their growth, change, and challenges over the centuries gives us further insight into Czech culture. For this timeline, I will focus on the physicality of churches in the historic city of Prague and their interactions with social forces of politics and religion By focusing on the intersections of major events and these sacred spaces, it is clear churches exist within a broader sociopolitical context in the history of the Czech Republic. Construction has mostly petered out for grand projects. The 20th century was a time of great challenge and change for the church, taking a sometimes active role against Nazi and Communist occupations. One surprising trend illustrated by this chronological examination, however, is that even in times of “foundings,” the church was always undergoing and fomenting change. To see a cathedral as timeless is to ignore it’s strengths, it’s weaknesses, it’s self.
Finally, given the shift under communism to “public” ownership of churches, which was in some ways confirmed and refuted after the Velvet Revolution, the current state ownership of churches bears some examination. These specific spaces, such as the St. Vitus Cathedral inside Prague Castle, are public but administered in a way that blurs lines. Many implement exclusionary design both blatant and subtle. For example, St. Vitus Cathedral charges admission not only for tourists but also for the residents of Prague who are it’s ostensible owners. More subtly, visitors are roped off from seating and are forced to buy audio tours, rather than providing access through a QR code. The marginal cost of a digital artifact such as an audio tour is effectively $0, so charging 150CZK is, according to classical economics, evidence of non-optimized markets. The evolving relationship between sacred spaces and the populace they serve will no doubt continue to change in the Czech Republic. |
Cultural Collections Project 3: Curating Cultural Objects (Voicethread)
https://voicethread.com/share/11099079
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-qwUaIaYckFzYhG_b-1P68h5Qk-UuOkYzOUdVEJyWAc
Cultural Reflections Project 1: The Last Word, Czech education articles
Czech Education articles reflection:
These articles gave some insight into the Czech education system but were limited by contradictory content, repetition, and volume. Reflecting on this reading and discussion gave me valuable takeaways for my own practice and classroom.
The European Union article “Education and Training Monitor 2016 Czech Republic” seemed the most reliable and clear to me. Comparing the Czech Republic to the rest of the EU was valuable for contextualizing modern educational outcomes. The Czech Republic has significantly lower drop-out rates, but theirs is rising from 5.5% to 6.2% compared to EU averages decreasing from 12.7% to 11%. The Czech Republic has lower unemployment rates of graduates, but also lower early-childhood education rates and adults in lifelong learning. The section on inequality was most interesting, showing Roma students attend ECEC at only 26%, compared to 86.4% of the overall population. Our guest lecturer Tomas did not expand on this inequality beyond what some might consider to be a “culture of poverty” argument, saying essentially many Roma people do not value education. I look forward to seeing the research of my colleagues who are focusing on the Roma population in the Czech Republic. Overall, the EU report shows “students’ socioeconomic background had a very strong impact on educational outcomes” as “the Czech Republic has the lowest rate for intergenerational mobility in education in the OECD.”
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CZECH EDUCATION by Kateřina Vlčková gave an overview of the history of education, explaining the legacy of systems whereby “classes and groups of people who were not educated elsewhere could get education [sic]” in the Czech Republic. Unfortunately this article ended at the Velvet Revolution of 1989, stating, “The nineties are therefore remembered as extraordinary time of many changes that took place in a very short period of time.” The audience is not given any resources to understand what changes took place, though this article might have been helpful to contextualize that change. Another glaring omission is the effect of the Nazi regime, after which, “new books had to be written, new curricula planned.” This prompted me to wonder the extent to which Nazi ideology was excised from textbooks, who had control of the process by which new curricula was developed and implemented, and how those decision makers came to terms with their recent history.
Both official Czech documents on the state of education, from the National Center on Education and the Economy and the Ministry of Education, were straightforward explanation of the systems of education without much focus on what happened in the classroom.
The most frustrating part of this reading was the confoundingly inconsistent redundancy of the first readings from different Czech Embassies. The US embassy writes, “At this level, vocational education is much more common than the general secondary education” but the Dublin embassy writes “37.5 % of youth enters this type of upper secondary school and this proportion is increasing.” The US embassy highlighted access with, “University education is available to all applicants,” while the Dublin embassy article ends “The demand for higher education is high, only one half of applicants are admitted.” These inconsistencies confused all members of my group. I took this as a reminder to always do a deep reading of texts before assigning them to students.
I appreciated the “Last Word” discussion format as it inverts the typical power struggle in classroom discussion. In my classroom students engage in informal conversation in small- and large-group formats every day. Our most formal discussion method is a Scored Discussion in which students earn points for discussing a text they read, analyzed, and pre-wrote about. Students earn points through forming an argument, citing evidence, connecting the topic to other content or subjects, and engaging with other students through summarizing, asking questions, encouraging others, and cultivating the conversation by refocusing or helping plan the conversation. Every year, some vocal students will earn all their points early in the conversation, and shyer students will wait until the very end in what often becomes a painfully inorganic reading from pre-writes. The “Last Word” discussion format forces those who volunteer to wait for all others to share and similarly forces all to engage on at least one topic chosen by each participant. This is a valuable pedagogical tactic that I will be incorporating in my classroom
Czech Education articles reflection:
These articles gave some insight into the Czech education system but were limited by contradictory content, repetition, and volume. Reflecting on this reading and discussion gave me valuable takeaways for my own practice and classroom.
The European Union article “Education and Training Monitor 2016 Czech Republic” seemed the most reliable and clear to me. Comparing the Czech Republic to the rest of the EU was valuable for contextualizing modern educational outcomes. The Czech Republic has significantly lower drop-out rates, but theirs is rising from 5.5% to 6.2% compared to EU averages decreasing from 12.7% to 11%. The Czech Republic has lower unemployment rates of graduates, but also lower early-childhood education rates and adults in lifelong learning. The section on inequality was most interesting, showing Roma students attend ECEC at only 26%, compared to 86.4% of the overall population. Our guest lecturer Tomas did not expand on this inequality beyond what some might consider to be a “culture of poverty” argument, saying essentially many Roma people do not value education. I look forward to seeing the research of my colleagues who are focusing on the Roma population in the Czech Republic. Overall, the EU report shows “students’ socioeconomic background had a very strong impact on educational outcomes” as “the Czech Republic has the lowest rate for intergenerational mobility in education in the OECD.”
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CZECH EDUCATION by Kateřina Vlčková gave an overview of the history of education, explaining the legacy of systems whereby “classes and groups of people who were not educated elsewhere could get education [sic]” in the Czech Republic. Unfortunately this article ended at the Velvet Revolution of 1989, stating, “The nineties are therefore remembered as extraordinary time of many changes that took place in a very short period of time.” The audience is not given any resources to understand what changes took place, though this article might have been helpful to contextualize that change. Another glaring omission is the effect of the Nazi regime, after which, “new books had to be written, new curricula planned.” This prompted me to wonder the extent to which Nazi ideology was excised from textbooks, who had control of the process by which new curricula was developed and implemented, and how those decision makers came to terms with their recent history.
Both official Czech documents on the state of education, from the National Center on Education and the Economy and the Ministry of Education, were straightforward explanation of the systems of education without much focus on what happened in the classroom.
The most frustrating part of this reading was the confoundingly inconsistent redundancy of the first readings from different Czech Embassies. The US embassy writes, “At this level, vocational education is much more common than the general secondary education” but the Dublin embassy writes “37.5 % of youth enters this type of upper secondary school and this proportion is increasing.” The US embassy highlighted access with, “University education is available to all applicants,” while the Dublin embassy article ends “The demand for higher education is high, only one half of applicants are admitted.” These inconsistencies confused all members of my group. I took this as a reminder to always do a deep reading of texts before assigning them to students.
I appreciated the “Last Word” discussion format as it inverts the typical power struggle in classroom discussion. In my classroom students engage in informal conversation in small- and large-group formats every day. Our most formal discussion method is a Scored Discussion in which students earn points for discussing a text they read, analyzed, and pre-wrote about. Students earn points through forming an argument, citing evidence, connecting the topic to other content or subjects, and engaging with other students through summarizing, asking questions, encouraging others, and cultivating the conversation by refocusing or helping plan the conversation. Every year, some vocal students will earn all their points early in the conversation, and shyer students will wait until the very end in what often becomes a painfully inorganic reading from pre-writes. The “Last Word” discussion format forces those who volunteer to wait for all others to share and similarly forces all to engage on at least one topic chosen by each participant. This is a valuable pedagogical tactic that I will be incorporating in my classroom
Cultural Reflections Project 2: Czech Book Club
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Review:
Unlike most in my discussion group, I found this book an interesting and engaging read. In many ways the plot structure reminded me of one of my favorite books, Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five.” My familiarity with and appreciation for that type of non-linear storytelling perhaps is why I was willing to forgive writing that was, at times, confusing or even seemingly purposefully obtuse.
One passage that affected me deeply resonanted because of its relevance to my life. Kundera writes, “Sabina could not understand why the dead would want to have imitation palaces built over them. The cemetery was vanity transmogrified into stone. Instead of growing more sensible in death, the inhabitants of the cemetery were sillier than they had been in life.” This semester my grandfather died and as I read this in the hotel as my family waited to bury him. My grandfather lived an all-American life: the son of Italian immigrants, he fought for the United States in World War II and Korea before returning to Pennsylvania, building his own home and working in a steel mill to support a family of five. At his funeral, I was struck by combination of meaning and theatricality in ways that seemed foreign and obviously constructed. Five aging veterans performed a ceremony honoring Grandpa Esposito’s service, and the dichotomy of their crisp uniforms and proud posture with their wrinkles seemed in that moment to be examples of the kitsch that Sabina sees all around her.
Representations of consent, agency, and power were the hardest for me to appreciate in this text. I’ve always had an affinity for bowler hats but after this book I may never be able to look at Rene Magritte’s “The Son of Man” the same way again. When Sabina takes her father’s bowler as her only inheritance, even as her brothers “appropriated” the effects of her parents, I wasn’t sure whether to be proud of her for recontextualizing this masculine tool or to be sad that the bowler “returned again and again, each time with a different meaning,” as that meant happiness would always be tainted by sadness. That question suffuses Kundera’s work and engaged me throughout this book.
The theme I found most interesting was that of Kitsch, and the ways in which kitsch pervades almost every component of life. It seemed Sabina ultimately triumphed over kitsch by focusing on true beauty, which I found an interesting and positive idea. In many ways, it is similar to the final edict of Voltaire’s “Candide:” we must cultivate our garden. No matter what external circumstances exist, Kundera is saying, we have the power to control our reactions to the outside world and therefore control our experiences. This is contradicted in other places by the violence our characters are subjected to, and perhaps my interpretation of Kitsch is influenced by the fact that I was reading Frankel’s “Man’s Search for Meaning,” about his time as a psychoanalyist in Nazi camps, at the same time as I was reading “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.”
Overall I found this a compelling, challenging, and rewarding text: 4/5 stars.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Review:
Unlike most in my discussion group, I found this book an interesting and engaging read. In many ways the plot structure reminded me of one of my favorite books, Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five.” My familiarity with and appreciation for that type of non-linear storytelling perhaps is why I was willing to forgive writing that was, at times, confusing or even seemingly purposefully obtuse.
One passage that affected me deeply resonanted because of its relevance to my life. Kundera writes, “Sabina could not understand why the dead would want to have imitation palaces built over them. The cemetery was vanity transmogrified into stone. Instead of growing more sensible in death, the inhabitants of the cemetery were sillier than they had been in life.” This semester my grandfather died and as I read this in the hotel as my family waited to bury him. My grandfather lived an all-American life: the son of Italian immigrants, he fought for the United States in World War II and Korea before returning to Pennsylvania, building his own home and working in a steel mill to support a family of five. At his funeral, I was struck by combination of meaning and theatricality in ways that seemed foreign and obviously constructed. Five aging veterans performed a ceremony honoring Grandpa Esposito’s service, and the dichotomy of their crisp uniforms and proud posture with their wrinkles seemed in that moment to be examples of the kitsch that Sabina sees all around her.
Representations of consent, agency, and power were the hardest for me to appreciate in this text. I’ve always had an affinity for bowler hats but after this book I may never be able to look at Rene Magritte’s “The Son of Man” the same way again. When Sabina takes her father’s bowler as her only inheritance, even as her brothers “appropriated” the effects of her parents, I wasn’t sure whether to be proud of her for recontextualizing this masculine tool or to be sad that the bowler “returned again and again, each time with a different meaning,” as that meant happiness would always be tainted by sadness. That question suffuses Kundera’s work and engaged me throughout this book.
The theme I found most interesting was that of Kitsch, and the ways in which kitsch pervades almost every component of life. It seemed Sabina ultimately triumphed over kitsch by focusing on true beauty, which I found an interesting and positive idea. In many ways, it is similar to the final edict of Voltaire’s “Candide:” we must cultivate our garden. No matter what external circumstances exist, Kundera is saying, we have the power to control our reactions to the outside world and therefore control our experiences. This is contradicted in other places by the violence our characters are subjected to, and perhaps my interpretation of Kitsch is influenced by the fact that I was reading Frankel’s “Man’s Search for Meaning,” about his time as a psychoanalyist in Nazi camps, at the same time as I was reading “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.”
Overall I found this a compelling, challenging, and rewarding text: 4/5 stars.
Cultural Reflections Project 3: Czech Film Club
"This tale was cobbled together almost at random and barely merits praise."
As the film opened with this title card, I was reminded of wisdom from Maya Angelou: when people show you who they are, believe them the first time. Marketa Lazarova is appreciated as the greatest work of Czech cinema and like similarly critically lauded works of other countries it is simultaneously engaging, substantial, and inscrutable.
I read reviews before starting this film that identified key dichotomies, which anchored my viewing. Paganism vs. Christianity, Man vs. Nature, and Authority vs. Self-determination are all themes that are constantly represented, though no one side is ever presented as right. By the end, it was clear that another contradiction was being challenged: love and violence seem to fill every frame, often at the same time.
The cinematography of this film was especially beautiful, continuing these themes. A pack of wolves stares down the camera for 10 seconds in a striking tableau before later chasing down different characters in turn. Alexandra is silent as she is introduced watching men come in from a semi-successful quest, butchering cattle and at times framing her face or scenes across the courtyard through the openings in hanging flesh. She interacts with her brother who, it is later revealed, raped her. Sex is always violent in this film, sometimes through interaction between individuals, sometimes with juxtaposition on screen. This latter is seen in the first sex scene, wherein the frame cuts from closeups of faces and bodies to a pagan tree and sacrificing chickens and (too on-the-nose?) a snake. The titular Marketa invariably appears in symbolic representation of forces beyond her control, from her introduction sheltering a dove in her bosom as she walks through a field of tall grasses, to her final wandering in a forest, caring for a child of her own and a child she must adopt.
Overall, I would not recommend this film as a viewing experience but recognize its value as an aesthetic object. I appreciated the conversation this film prompted with my colleagues. While the film was overwhelming chosen as the greatest film ever made in Czechoslovakia, many reviews also included recognition that the professional reviewer did not fully understand the film. That inscrutability seems to be part of the draw, as the first title card promise, and New York Review’s Hoberman notes the complexity and style is “evidence of the psychic liberation that was stifled by Soviet tanks.” Despite all that, it is a beautiful film and an interesting experience to view, even if broader understanding is out of reach.
"This tale was cobbled together almost at random and barely merits praise."
As the film opened with this title card, I was reminded of wisdom from Maya Angelou: when people show you who they are, believe them the first time. Marketa Lazarova is appreciated as the greatest work of Czech cinema and like similarly critically lauded works of other countries it is simultaneously engaging, substantial, and inscrutable.
I read reviews before starting this film that identified key dichotomies, which anchored my viewing. Paganism vs. Christianity, Man vs. Nature, and Authority vs. Self-determination are all themes that are constantly represented, though no one side is ever presented as right. By the end, it was clear that another contradiction was being challenged: love and violence seem to fill every frame, often at the same time.
The cinematography of this film was especially beautiful, continuing these themes. A pack of wolves stares down the camera for 10 seconds in a striking tableau before later chasing down different characters in turn. Alexandra is silent as she is introduced watching men come in from a semi-successful quest, butchering cattle and at times framing her face or scenes across the courtyard through the openings in hanging flesh. She interacts with her brother who, it is later revealed, raped her. Sex is always violent in this film, sometimes through interaction between individuals, sometimes with juxtaposition on screen. This latter is seen in the first sex scene, wherein the frame cuts from closeups of faces and bodies to a pagan tree and sacrificing chickens and (too on-the-nose?) a snake. The titular Marketa invariably appears in symbolic representation of forces beyond her control, from her introduction sheltering a dove in her bosom as she walks through a field of tall grasses, to her final wandering in a forest, caring for a child of her own and a child she must adopt.
Overall, I would not recommend this film as a viewing experience but recognize its value as an aesthetic object. I appreciated the conversation this film prompted with my colleagues. While the film was overwhelming chosen as the greatest film ever made in Czechoslovakia, many reviews also included recognition that the professional reviewer did not fully understand the film. That inscrutability seems to be part of the draw, as the first title card promise, and New York Review’s Hoberman notes the complexity and style is “evidence of the psychic liberation that was stifled by Soviet tanks.” Despite all that, it is a beautiful film and an interesting experience to view, even if broader understanding is out of reach.
Cultural Reflections Project 5: Urban Neighborhood Analysis (from Field Research)
Post your analysis here, drop a slideshow block below and add ten images...
This field research activity involves traveling to a neighborhood in Prague that is outside of the major tourist areas in Prague 1 (Old Town, Jewish Quarter), taking some observation notes, capturing some related photographs, and sharing your impressions on your portfolio page. You will need a mobile phone with camera to complete this field research activity. You can travel with another person to a selected neighborhood, but please take independent notes and photographs to analyze the neighborhood on your own. This is an individual project.
Before Field Research: Pick a neighborhood that you would like to explore. It should be outside of central Prague, away from the old town square and the Jewish quarter—the sections of town most frequented by tourists. Part of the reason we do this activity early in the program is to 1) give you a chance to explore a different part of Prague after you have seen the major tourist areas, 2) give you a chance to navigate the local transit system without the help of one of the program instructors, and 3) get you noticing, observing, and capturing data in the field, particularly by exploring and noticing places that might take you away from the “beaten path”--something we will be repeating for other field research activities while in Prague.
During Field Research: We have dedicated about an hour and a half for this activity, including travel time to your selected neighborhood. Take some time to walk around your selected neighborhood, at least a few different blocks to get a sense of the space. Use the questions below as a guide to take some field notes (can be audio-recorded via an app on your phone, typed into a note-taking app on your phone, or written in pen/pencil). Capture photographs that help to illustrate things you are noticing in your observations and notes. In the field, you can take as many photographs as you like, but you will be selecting a smaller sample of ten images to share.
Human Activity: How do people use this neighborhood? How many people do you see and what does it look like they are doing? Is it predominantly residential or business? What types of businesses are present? Who occupies these residential or business spaces? What do they look like? Are they homogenous or diverse? Are homes owned or rented? Do you get any ideas of the family structures (e.g., intergenerational, people living alone)? What is considered private and public?
Infrastructure: What are the buildings like? What are they made of? What is their condition? How might they have been used in the past? How do people get around? Are there roads, sidewalks, paths, public/private transit? Are yards and streets tidy and free of trash? What services are available to the people who live or work here (e.g., ATMs, convenience stores, churches, schools)? Do you see recycling?
Natural World: How present or absent is the natural world in this neighborhood? Are recreation areas available? Are plant and animal life present? Are the animals pets or part of the natural world? What of the natural world is visible, heard, or smelled? Are parks and greenspaces part of the neighborhood and what are the conditions of these areas?
After Field Research: After taking notes and photographs in your selected neighborhood, your afternoon is free to plan as you wish. When you return to your hotel room tonight, open your Weebly portfolio page and drag a “slideshow” block into your “cultural reflections project 5” section. Choose ten photographs that best tell the story of your neighborhood and add them to your Weebly slideshow. Above your photographs, write a short summary statement about your neighborhood, a few paragraphs long. What story do your photos tell? Why did you select them? Did you learn anything by doing this? What did you learn about being an explorer or field researcher? Did it raise questions for you about what you saw? Please finish this activity by the end of the day today, so your neighborhood will be fresh in your mind and you won’t fall behind on the other projects to come.
Post your analysis here, drop a slideshow block below and add ten images...
This field research activity involves traveling to a neighborhood in Prague that is outside of the major tourist areas in Prague 1 (Old Town, Jewish Quarter), taking some observation notes, capturing some related photographs, and sharing your impressions on your portfolio page. You will need a mobile phone with camera to complete this field research activity. You can travel with another person to a selected neighborhood, but please take independent notes and photographs to analyze the neighborhood on your own. This is an individual project.
Before Field Research: Pick a neighborhood that you would like to explore. It should be outside of central Prague, away from the old town square and the Jewish quarter—the sections of town most frequented by tourists. Part of the reason we do this activity early in the program is to 1) give you a chance to explore a different part of Prague after you have seen the major tourist areas, 2) give you a chance to navigate the local transit system without the help of one of the program instructors, and 3) get you noticing, observing, and capturing data in the field, particularly by exploring and noticing places that might take you away from the “beaten path”--something we will be repeating for other field research activities while in Prague.
During Field Research: We have dedicated about an hour and a half for this activity, including travel time to your selected neighborhood. Take some time to walk around your selected neighborhood, at least a few different blocks to get a sense of the space. Use the questions below as a guide to take some field notes (can be audio-recorded via an app on your phone, typed into a note-taking app on your phone, or written in pen/pencil). Capture photographs that help to illustrate things you are noticing in your observations and notes. In the field, you can take as many photographs as you like, but you will be selecting a smaller sample of ten images to share.
Human Activity: How do people use this neighborhood? How many people do you see and what does it look like they are doing? Is it predominantly residential or business? What types of businesses are present? Who occupies these residential or business spaces? What do they look like? Are they homogenous or diverse? Are homes owned or rented? Do you get any ideas of the family structures (e.g., intergenerational, people living alone)? What is considered private and public?
Infrastructure: What are the buildings like? What are they made of? What is their condition? How might they have been used in the past? How do people get around? Are there roads, sidewalks, paths, public/private transit? Are yards and streets tidy and free of trash? What services are available to the people who live or work here (e.g., ATMs, convenience stores, churches, schools)? Do you see recycling?
Natural World: How present or absent is the natural world in this neighborhood? Are recreation areas available? Are plant and animal life present? Are the animals pets or part of the natural world? What of the natural world is visible, heard, or smelled? Are parks and greenspaces part of the neighborhood and what are the conditions of these areas?
After Field Research: After taking notes and photographs in your selected neighborhood, your afternoon is free to plan as you wish. When you return to your hotel room tonight, open your Weebly portfolio page and drag a “slideshow” block into your “cultural reflections project 5” section. Choose ten photographs that best tell the story of your neighborhood and add them to your Weebly slideshow. Above your photographs, write a short summary statement about your neighborhood, a few paragraphs long. What story do your photos tell? Why did you select them? Did you learn anything by doing this? What did you learn about being an explorer or field researcher? Did it raise questions for you about what you saw? Please finish this activity by the end of the day today, so your neighborhood will be fresh in your mind and you won’t fall behind on the other projects to come.
Cultural Reflections Project 6: Czech Education Analysis (from Field Research)
On Wednesday July 11th, you will tour the National Pedagogical Museum and John Amos Comenius Library, which this year is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakian education. The museum is located in two 14th century historic buildings. The museum was established in 1892 in Prague as an expression of the Czech teacher's efforts to preserve and document traditions of Czech school system and pedagogy. It is one of the oldest museums in the Czech Republic. Since 1991, it has belonged to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. The museum is a research and resource center focused on the history of Czech education, pedagogy, teachers and reformers. This special exhibition that we will visit, New School in the New Republic, will be offered in English.
For your reflection paper, consider comparing and/or contrasting education offered in different parts of Czechoslovakia, i.e., between schools in Czech lands (Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia) and eastern parts of the republic (Slovakia, Carpathian Ruthenia). Or consider creating a description of the lives of children in school and out of school in Czechoslovakia between the two world wars, and what pedagogues suggested to improve them. Or you might define problems in Czech education over time and comment on the efforts of reformers to address them, offering your own evaluations.
This writing can be in several genres--for example, compare/contrast, problem definition, description, a You-Are-There snapshot.
You may want to review some of the educational reformers who are mentioned in the exhibition for the bio poems that you will compose on June 16th, prior to visiting the museum. Mentioned in the exhibition are Anna Hlavatá-Pokorná, Eduard Štorch, Přemysl Pitter, Václav Příhoda (experimental education) and František Bakule (established an institute for disabled children), among others.
On Wednesday July 11th, you will tour the National Pedagogical Museum and John Amos Comenius Library, which this year is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakian education. The museum is located in two 14th century historic buildings. The museum was established in 1892 in Prague as an expression of the Czech teacher's efforts to preserve and document traditions of Czech school system and pedagogy. It is one of the oldest museums in the Czech Republic. Since 1991, it has belonged to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. The museum is a research and resource center focused on the history of Czech education, pedagogy, teachers and reformers. This special exhibition that we will visit, New School in the New Republic, will be offered in English.
For your reflection paper, consider comparing and/or contrasting education offered in different parts of Czechoslovakia, i.e., between schools in Czech lands (Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia) and eastern parts of the republic (Slovakia, Carpathian Ruthenia). Or consider creating a description of the lives of children in school and out of school in Czechoslovakia between the two world wars, and what pedagogues suggested to improve them. Or you might define problems in Czech education over time and comment on the efforts of reformers to address them, offering your own evaluations.
This writing can be in several genres--for example, compare/contrast, problem definition, description, a You-Are-There snapshot.
You may want to review some of the educational reformers who are mentioned in the exhibition for the bio poems that you will compose on June 16th, prior to visiting the museum. Mentioned in the exhibition are Anna Hlavatá-Pokorná, Eduard Štorch, Přemysl Pitter, Václav Příhoda (experimental education) and František Bakule (established an institute for disabled children), among others.
Cultural Reflections Project 7: Czech Literature Analysis (from Field Research)
Option two:
Kafka’s good friend, Max Brod, wrote that the unique charm of Kafka’s works is the presence of Prague. Read the NY Times short article in your PD resources: “On the Trail of Kafka’s Legacy.” The author names many places that Kafka experienced in Prague. (You may want to print and carry this article with you the day we visit the museum.) One of the exhibits in the museum is a focus on the city, with the aim “to explore the city, seeing it from Kafka’s point of view.” With only occasional exceptions, Kafka does not name the places he describes. “Rather than a particular house, school, office, church, prison, castle being important, it is what these constructions reveal” about the mood, or a character in a Kafka story. With this in mind, select a place in Prague (whether or not Kafka actually knew it) and consider how Kafka might have viewed it or included it in a story. This reflection will involve describing the place and connecting it to something you have learned about Kafka.
Option two:
Kafka’s good friend, Max Brod, wrote that the unique charm of Kafka’s works is the presence of Prague. Read the NY Times short article in your PD resources: “On the Trail of Kafka’s Legacy.” The author names many places that Kafka experienced in Prague. (You may want to print and carry this article with you the day we visit the museum.) One of the exhibits in the museum is a focus on the city, with the aim “to explore the city, seeing it from Kafka’s point of view.” With only occasional exceptions, Kafka does not name the places he describes. “Rather than a particular house, school, office, church, prison, castle being important, it is what these constructions reveal” about the mood, or a character in a Kafka story. With this in mind, select a place in Prague (whether or not Kafka actually knew it) and consider how Kafka might have viewed it or included it in a story. This reflection will involve describing the place and connecting it to something you have learned about Kafka.
Cultural Reflections Project 8: Czech Art/Visual Analysis (from Field Research)
You will be visiting the Kampa modern art museum in Prague with a guided tour of the collection followed by free time to explore. During your free time in this field research, we would like you to find at least two pieces of art from Czech artists to engage in some visual thinking. Ideally you will select the same pieces of art as a few other classmates, as this visual thinking process is best engaged in small groups. You will go through the visual thinking protocol twice, once for each piece of art. This museum does not allow electronic devices or pens, so please bring this piece of paper and a pencil for taking notes. Later, post a reflection based on your notes to your portfolio on Weebly--what did you see today, how was that art analyzed and described by you and your peers, and what does it reveal about Czech culture?
Step 1) Each individual should look closely and silently at the artwork for a minute or two. Avoid reading the labels/artists statements right away as you want to make your own observations instead of being led to conclusions based on the title or artists statements. After reflecting, you can look at the labels and what the artist is trying to convey.
Step 2) Reflect individually or in small groups on four questions: a) “What's going on (in this picture, ceramic piece, etc.)?" This initiates the inquiry into the meanings contained in the image: not just what's depicted but also what it conveys. Keep the conversation open to others’ interpretations. Remember, ALL responses are valid (provided they're being respectful). b) "What do you see that makes you say that?" which is a non-threatening way to introduce reasoning; students must provide evidence for their interpretations. Back up your statements with what you see in the work of art. c) "What more can we find?" which helps continue the conversation and deepens the meaning-making process. d) Since we are reflecting on Czech culture during this trip, does this art reveal anything about Czech culture?
Step 3) Link related comments whether students agree or disagree, or build on one another's ideas. By linking, you're showing how ideas interact, making sense of a conversation that otherwise might seem random, or disjointed. By connecting ideas that agree, you make it clear that drawing similar conclusions is often appropriate: "It seems that several people see that...." By linking ideas that disagree, you're indicating that it's also possible for different people to respond differently to something they see: "We have a variety of opinions here...."
You will be visiting the Kampa modern art museum in Prague with a guided tour of the collection followed by free time to explore. During your free time in this field research, we would like you to find at least two pieces of art from Czech artists to engage in some visual thinking. Ideally you will select the same pieces of art as a few other classmates, as this visual thinking process is best engaged in small groups. You will go through the visual thinking protocol twice, once for each piece of art. This museum does not allow electronic devices or pens, so please bring this piece of paper and a pencil for taking notes. Later, post a reflection based on your notes to your portfolio on Weebly--what did you see today, how was that art analyzed and described by you and your peers, and what does it reveal about Czech culture?
Step 1) Each individual should look closely and silently at the artwork for a minute or two. Avoid reading the labels/artists statements right away as you want to make your own observations instead of being led to conclusions based on the title or artists statements. After reflecting, you can look at the labels and what the artist is trying to convey.
Step 2) Reflect individually or in small groups on four questions: a) “What's going on (in this picture, ceramic piece, etc.)?" This initiates the inquiry into the meanings contained in the image: not just what's depicted but also what it conveys. Keep the conversation open to others’ interpretations. Remember, ALL responses are valid (provided they're being respectful). b) "What do you see that makes you say that?" which is a non-threatening way to introduce reasoning; students must provide evidence for their interpretations. Back up your statements with what you see in the work of art. c) "What more can we find?" which helps continue the conversation and deepens the meaning-making process. d) Since we are reflecting on Czech culture during this trip, does this art reveal anything about Czech culture?
Step 3) Link related comments whether students agree or disagree, or build on one another's ideas. By linking, you're showing how ideas interact, making sense of a conversation that otherwise might seem random, or disjointed. By connecting ideas that agree, you make it clear that drawing similar conclusions is often appropriate: "It seems that several people see that...." By linking ideas that disagree, you're indicating that it's also possible for different people to respond differently to something they see: "We have a variety of opinions here...."
Cultural Reflections Project 9: Czech Site Analysis, Site-Based Travel Writing (Post on Travel Blog)
Analysis of Travel Writing
1. How does the author attempt to get the reader’s attention? Do you think
this method is effective? Why or why not?
2. What kind of background information does the author give? Why is it
necessary? Is there anything that you feel the author left out?
3. Does the author describe the setting? What kinds of details does he or she
give? Why? Is there anything you wish the author had mentioned but didn’t?
4. Does the author describe any people? What kinds of details does he or
she give about the people? Compare details about people with the way the
author describes the location. What similar elements are provided? What
different elements?
5. Does the author use any dialogue? If so, what does dialogue add to the
writing? If not, where could the author make the story more lively?
6. What is the main event in the story? How do you know?
7. Are there any images or photos in the article? What do they add to the
reading experience?
Link to travel writing: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FIvUGLw8wDLCBkFUQWPX8_R-LedTdugMJaBZ52RRNm0
Analysis of Travel Writing
1. How does the author attempt to get the reader’s attention? Do you think
this method is effective? Why or why not?
2. What kind of background information does the author give? Why is it
necessary? Is there anything that you feel the author left out?
3. Does the author describe the setting? What kinds of details does he or she
give? Why? Is there anything you wish the author had mentioned but didn’t?
4. Does the author describe any people? What kinds of details does he or
she give about the people? Compare details about people with the way the
author describes the location. What similar elements are provided? What
different elements?
5. Does the author use any dialogue? If so, what does dialogue add to the
writing? If not, where could the author make the story more lively?
6. What is the main event in the story? How do you know?
7. Are there any images or photos in the article? What do they add to the
reading experience?
Link to travel writing: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FIvUGLw8wDLCBkFUQWPX8_R-LedTdugMJaBZ52RRNm0