As Anatoly Dobynin:

We of the Ruski people, believe that the Americans have been agresssors for far to long! It is time for us to get a leg up in this disagreement! I am the best diplomat Russia has to offer, and it will show with my talks with the mean, dirty Americans. Americans must deal with us putting whatever we want on Cuba. The Cubans are our friends, and if we want to put a grocery store or a military base on the island then we should be able to! What are the Americans so afraid of? Do they have something to hide?

GET THAT BOBBY KENNEDY OVER HERE IF THEY GOT BEEF!

webquest 2

http://its.guilford.k12.nc.us/webquests/armenia/armenia.htm

This webquest was functional but not as good as the first one I looked at. The web page is not as dynamic as the last one. It still works but I can tell a lot of work went into the last webquest I looked at, and not as much with this one. The guiding questions are kind of bland. Guiding questions should ask why, or at least more than basic iformation and these really do not move up blooms taxonomy at all. I do like how its broken into 4 groups, so the students aren't overwhelmed with info. The sources are easily found by scrolling down, so that is a positive point. The assessment is again functional but not as interactive as it could be. Overall I see this webquest as very basic and easy.

webquest 1

http://www.ndaviess.k12.in.us/elemshare/Teachers/jweathers/Medieval.htm

I think this is a pretty great webquest for 6th graders. The criteria is mapped out and easily accessed. There are many different roles that the students must play in order to complete the webquest giving the students a broad understanding of the different roles of society in medieval culture. The creator of the webquest gave the students charts to write down their info while they researched. There was a formidable assessment at the end that's not just a standardized test with a complete rubric. Also all the resources were right there for the students online and with book citations. Overall this webquest was very comprehensive, job well done.

Completely forgot I had a blog.

I realized I haven't blogged in quite a long time, and I have a lot to update. The problem is that it's been so long that I can't remember details of my life for the past month. So i'll just do the best I can. I suppose i'll start with Italy. Overall Italy was AMAZING. Rachael and I flew into Pisa, then met my other roommates (minus Casandra) with our friend Chris. We walked the streets of Pisa until we came to the leaning tower and that huge... church... thing. I don't remember what it was called but it was big and religious (like Texas). We got some good pictures at the tower, along with the 400 other tourists that were there as well. Then we walked back to the train station (after getting gelato) and made our way to Florence. I do not speak a lick of Italian so getting places was a tad difficult, but we managed. We walked the streets of Florence attempting to read the grafitti. Italy is covered in grafitti. We saw the statue of David and other famous paintings and sculptures. That was very cool considering in Buffalo I see a replica of the statue of David every time I get on the 198. Our hostel was very nice that night, and the elevator was very old school. I had a small feeling that I was going to meet an untimely end in that elevator but obviously I survived. The next day we went to this look out high above the city and we had a great view of everything. I have pictures of it up on facebook, I think. We also went to a botanical garden that was HUGE. Lots of sculptures, large bushes, and rocks. That night we made our way to Venice, which is without a doubt the most beautiful city I have ever seen. It was a very interesting city to explore with all the canals and little alleyway streets. One thing I noticed were the absurd number of Americans. You'd think we were invading or something with the amount of American travellers wandering the streets. I think we had the best food in Venice as well. I know I had the most fun in Venice out of any other italian city. Just wandering around, taking in everything in that city was so much fun. I don't really remember anything too interesting of note that we did, it was a whole lot of wandering. We even made a friend named Fabrizio! I'm glad I got to Italy while in Europe, it was a great country to be in.
Skip ahead skip ahead blah blah blah, life continues as usual in Manchester till a couple days ago when I went to Holland. Sean and I flew into Amsterdam airport (which by the way is like a mall with an airport and a train station). After a few hiccups in the plans we made our way to the hostel and proceeded to get lost. Sean and I walked in the rain in the residential part of Amsterdam until 2 a.m. It was a tad miserable but it could have been much worse. The next day we walked around pretty much the entire city. Amsterdam is a lovely city that meets up to it's reputation. Luckily everybody spoke English as well as Dutch so it was easier to get around than in Italy. Now on the subjects of the legalities of what Amsterdam allows, prostitution is legal and creepy. The red light district is absolutely crawling with legal brothels with women in the windows looking for "customers". It's almost scary and it was awkward on the off chance that I made eye contact with them, but I still laughed. Marijuana is also tolerated in Amsterdam in coffee shops. These coffee shops were very funny places, and you can't really imagine it till you have seen it first hand. We also went to the Anne Frank museum which was actually a pretty sad place. Not that it would be a happy place, but just looking at the authentic things really brings you down. I have offically seen Anne Frank's actual diary. That was surreal. Also everybody in Amsterdam rides bikes. The city center was like a giant bike parking lot. It was insane, you had to look every which way before crossing the street. Amsterdam's tourism industry probably makes that city tons of money, half the people I heard talking probably weren't even city natives. Overall Amsterdam was a ton of fun, and not as expensive at Italy.
My time overseas is winding down and I am going to miss the friends i've made here and the times i've had. I have a lot of essay work to do this week but i'm going to make sure I see the rest of Manchester that I haven't seen yet before I depart. Until next time. Goodbye.

Update on my life.

I haven't blogged in a while... so you think I would have a lot to say; but I don't. Life in Manchester is still pretty fantastic. I still haven't had one bad day yet while i've been here. School is going ok, but I hate going because i'd rather be doing other things. The people here have been great, although I get some strange questions. For example I was asked on Halloween if "there are Mounties in Buffalo." Not sure if I spell that right but, you know, those CANADIAN police who ride around on horses, thats what I am talking about. That girl thought since we are so close to the border that we would have been influenced by our Canadian friends. Her friends made her feel stupid before I had the chance. Also when I say i'm from Buffalo, NY, people always say how much they love Brooklyn and how scary the Bronx is. I let all that slide though and just agree. Last week I saw two amazing bands both starting with the letter P. Phoenix and Portugal. the Man were both amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better time. For Halloween, I didnt really have a costume so a friend of mine and I went to the costume store and I picked out random things. I had people who said I looked like Zorro and I had people who said I looked like the Hamburgaler. There are/will be pictures on facebook so you can make your own decisions. I still have more pictures from Liverpool that I need to put up... i'll get to it. I'm going to Italy on Friday with Rachael, we'll be meeting Sean, Lindsy, Lenora, and our friend Chris there. I think we are going to Pisa, Venice, and Florence. Also in December I'll be going to Amsterdam with Sean, Cassandra, and our friend Tamara (hopefully I spelled her name right, too lazy to look it up.) It's my reading week (aka a week that we are given to catch up on homework, but since I don't really have any it's a week to sleep until 2 or 3), so that should be pretty neat. I miss my telecaster a lot. It sucks only being able to play my acoustic all the time, but without it I probably would have tried jumping out of my 4th story window (its 3rd story in England because they have the "ground floor" then the next floor up is the 1st floor). I still have not eaten a crumpet. I do not have swine flu. My room is a mess. I'm still not one hundred percent sure what people here are saying all the time (for instance I met a kid from Wales on Halloween, I understood about every 7th word he said... nice person though.) Thats about it. Until next time.

PS. All my roommates and a friend of mine said I had a horrible diet because everything I eat needs to be microwaved. So I cooked my own dinner tonight. Rice, cucumber, onions, yellow peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes with salmon and Thai chili sauce. It wasn't terrible, but it could have been a lot better if I "read directions" or "looked up how to properly cook the meal."

Liverpool.

Just to get it out of the way... the bills suck and it's time to rebuild again. Thats the end of that. Anyways my roommates Rachael, Lindsy, and Lenora visited Liverpool last weekend. It was a blast! It is the Mecca for all Beatles fans. It was two full days of the Beatles (with an hour set aside to go to a slavery museum... i'll talk about that later). We went to authentic Beatles shops, a Beatles museum, took a Beatles cab tour around to where they met, and where they grew up. We spend some time on Matthew Street which is pretty much an entire street dedicated to the memory of the Beatles. We went to the Cavern Club, where the Beatles played 292 shows, and saw a John Lennon impersonator who was very good. We also went to a John Lennon memorial museum that had postcards he had written to his family, clothing he had worn, and all sorts of other stuff. I pretty much filled up my 2 gig memory card in my camera on Beatles stuff. As soon as we get the internet at our place i'll be putting up my London and Liverpool pictures. The phone company pretty much screwed us over. We have a phone line but they gave us the wrong plan or something to it costs a ton to call internationally, and they said they couldn't install internet for another three weeks; even though they were supposed to do it on the 5th. Our landlord is probably going to take the company to court. Anyways... the slavery museum... it was exactly what you would expect. Relics, testimonies from slaves, diagrams, maps, models of plantations, the whole bit. Thats really all I have to say about that. As far as life goes... it's good. I'm really enjoying my time here. Mostly everyone I have met has been very kind. School is going well... although I never really want to go. I'd rather walk around the city or enjoy awful British television. It's probably going to rain soon which is not cool. I really don't have too much more to say right now. 3 hours of talking about The Cold War would tire anybody out. So until next time... goodbye.

I'll keep it short and sweet. I am a Bills fan, and it's hard enough being away from them. But come on, I wait all week not even to watch the games because I can't but to just get on nfl.com and watch highlights and check stats... and we lose that bad to the Dolphins with a second string QB in? Really? Come on. Seriously.