A Tour Around the 1920s Berlin Project: Part 1

One thing that is truly wonderful about the 1920s Berlin Project in Second Life is the realism that is pursued there.  As Augusta found out when she first arrived in Berlin, the sim is set up into different districts, and set up to represent life in the era as realistically as possible.  The residents have all kinds of products and services available in Berlin, and depending on your status there, what you might have to do for yourself would vary.

Outside of the laundry owned by Jacob Cohen and Son.

Even though washing clothes is not really needed in a virtual world, it would have been necessary in a Berlin neighborhood, especially one that was inhabited by the working classes.

Our virutal tour of the 1920s Berlin Project will start at the laundromat, which is located across the Steinpforte from the Keller.

One thing that the students I teach are mystified by is the fact that you actually had to do things that today are done by machines.  Ask them how their

Literary Learning: Die Buchgemeinschaft

I joined a free online course today, sponsored by FutureLearn through the University of Sheffield.  Since school will be out (not-so) soon, and since the title of the course -- Literature of the English Country House -- intrigued me, I registered.  We will be reading selections from different authors, including Jane Austen, my absolute most personal favourite writer.   (The "u" is intentional by the way!)  If you've never tried a  MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) before, I can highly recommend them.

I realized that our Berlin community already does the same kind of thing on a regular basis, albeit with a smaller group.  It is a marvelous way to understand OUR community content.  It can be fiction.  It can be non-fiction.  It can even be in the form of a graphic novel.  Reading (and reading voraciously) about a topic can give anyone a better sense of the era under study.

Augusta has returned!

It has been such a long time since I have posted anything here, and it is now time to start this blog up and running again.

Augusta in her
Hindenburgschule classroom

Many of you who are educators know that the time can be the ultimate villain.  We generally work 7.5 hours a day, but have more work to get accomplished than can ever fit in that amount of time.  Our classes are getting bigger, as are the expectations that everyone seems to have of us.  Toss in a few inconvenient personal or family issues, and what teachers have is a recipe for disaster.  Think of it as working a full year's worth of work, but you get to cram it into a 10-month time frame.

In my case, it has meant an unfortunate pulling back from some of my online endeavors.  With the end of the school year approaching, I am hoping to get back to them.  And that includes my blog.

And do I have some interesting things planned, too!