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IST Grenada Internship 2007 Blog	What's going on in Grenada

jmbmxer
read my profile sign my guestbook Name: James Gender: Male Interests: BMX, computers, SRA Club, snowboarding, working out, cars, music, drums, etc. Expertise: Computer Security Message: message me Website: visit my website AIM: jmbmxer Member Since: 4/30/2007

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Sunday, July 29, 2007

	No more Xanga! Hey all! I finally have my own URL so I will not be using Xanga anymore. you can check out my new blog at www.jimmymesta.com/blog
	6:16 PM - 8 views - add eprops - add comments - email it

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

mid week updater

Hey everyone, it is Wednesday and we just finished a day of teaching network and wireless security to the teachers. Good day today considering this is what I am really interested in. We went over some basic networking topics (topologies, routers, switches, hubs, etc). We also covered some basic security tips. The teachers really enjoyed when I talked about SQL injection. A little SRA 111 flashback... The rest of the day was very cool as well. We stopped at the top of a mountain and I looked for some monkeys... none today. A local said they passed through earlier to eat. We just missed them. The rest of the ride was very interesting as well. Some tricky driving skills by Josh involved(the rest of the group will agree). Tonight was cool. Auggie and myself took a kayak out and hung out in the middle of the bay... Tonight I am going to work on my website a little bit. It is near completion. I just need to incorporate this blog in it using Wordpress. I am having a great time designing it. If anyone reading this wants a nearly free website done.. let me know. I am starting to get excited to go back toschool and talk about my summer. I miss my friends but I have found the people here to be my good friends. Everyone has a kind heart here and I like that. I hope to bring that back home. I was talking to the IT teacher of St. Marks Secondary and he is an interesting man. We talked about some IT things that Grenada needs and can be useful. He has an idea to create an automotive website somewhat like our Autotrader for the island. I think it is a great idea. We are going to keep in touch with it and see if we can make it happen. I would honestly do anything for this island. The people are way too nice to me. With that said. I will leave you all with a few pictures from the University Club. Enjoy!

8:57 PM - 6 views - add eprops - add comments - email it

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Currently Reading
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)
By J.K. Rowling
see related

Thursday.

Sun, sand, water. We still have it. Not much has changed in the past week or so. Everything is still great. We are now training the IT teachers at St.Marks Secondary. They are great to work with. Most of them are full of more advanced questions which makes it more interesting than teaching the students. I have not wrote in here for a few days because I have been busy coding away at my website (www.jimmymesta.com). I should have it up and running in a week or so. I will post a link to my blog in here because I will stop using Xanga and have my blog on my website. I started reading Harry Potter by peer pressure. I actually like the first one and plan on reading more...something I thought I would never say. The mosquitoes and I are having a war. They are out to destroy me I think. DEET and citronella candles are new daily staples of my life. No complaints though. We ARE in the tropics. I have been doing alot of Photoshop work for fun and for my site. You can check out a few at . I will have a photo album in my website when it is finished for projects I work on. Well there is your update, hope all is well in America. Grenada is all good. Take it easy.

8:16 AM - 9 views - add eprops - add comments - email it

Friday, July 13, 2007

End of week.

Hey everyone, I know its been a while but I have a few updates...We finished the teachers edition of the manual. We included a few new topics such as 2D Arrays,String.compareTo(), Objects and a few other things. We went to St.Marks school to set up the lab with JCreator yesterday. I started making a website after Tim gave me a lesson in CSS. I can't stop coding! Ugh. Well I miss my family and pets but am still having an awesome time! I will get pics up sometime soon hopefully. Have a good weekend all!

9:11 PM - 3 views - add eprops - add comments - email it

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Back to Grenada.

Hello everyone! Yesterday we arrived back at the port in St. Georges from our amazing week in Carricou. This week was a challenge. The students had even less of a background in IT and programming. It was hard because there were only three of us teaching a class of 20. The facilities were decent, we had to fix a few computers beforehand. The students were a little relentless at first. Some just hated the topic of Java which made it a challenge. After I taught the introduction the first day I realized we needed a different approach with these students. We tried to assign programs as a whole for the students to do during class but we noticed that many students were copying and joking around..not taking it seriously. I found myself teaching much of the class. While I was assigning a calculator program I decided that we should do it step-by-step and make sure everyone was on the same page. This worked so well with these kids. They were attentive to me and asked questions and worked in groups. The method of teaching worked..As Mr. Cato says, teach at the level of the average child, not above or below. This method was very effective. I felt like the skills I have learned in the first few weeks really helped me here. Java is coming easily to me which is something I never thought would happen. This week I was very happy with myself and how I handled the situation. I believe I took a leadership role and coached the students on. A few of the students really grew on me. I found myself sitting outside during lunch or after class and just chatting about anything. I will keep in touch with a few and I will miss all of them. Besides the teaching aspect, the rest of Carricou was also amazing. The island is so tiny and everyone knows what is going on. I am pretty sure that the whole island knew we were there. The vibe is much more laid back than the main island of Grenada. After work we would relax at the beach and explore. I went for a jog around town and it was so beautiful. I went to the end of a peninsula and reflected of the whole experience. This week was great. We hung out at night at a place called Snagg's. This is a little home made "hut" that a man whose name is Snagg owns. He is truly as Tim stated a kind hearted soul. He gave us some leftovers one night and he was so proud of it.. He really takes pride in his work. It was hard saying good bye to Snagg. I will definitly always remember him and the rest of the Carricou experience. Here are some pictures of the trip:

Graduating class at Carriacou

Moving out of Johns Unique ...and out of Carriacou

One of our more charming students...

Pretty much our private beach ...small small island

Tim's desert...

9:13 PM - 2 views - add eprops - add comments - email it

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No more Xanga!

mid week updater

Thursday.

End of week.

Back to Grenada.