billkralovec

Upper Peninsula Mentioned on ESPN

December 21, 2008December 21, 2008billkralovec

Where he came from, of course, is Iron Mountain, Mich., in the state’s Upper Peninsula. Where the men are men, and the women are, too, as Izzo likes to say.

It’s hard to come out of the snowbound, sparsely populated UP with either a soft streak or a sense of entitlement. Izzo has neither.

What he does have is an abiding loyalty to the place. Every season, he invites a busload of locals — Yoopers, as they’re affectionately known — to a Michigan State home game, providing them with tickets and even entertaining them at his house. The trip is so popular that there’s a waiting list to get on the bus. (Either that, or there’s just that many people dying to visit civilization for a couple of days.)

Sportswriter Pat Forde wrote a nice article on the ESPN.com website about MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo (below). He is from the same part of Michigan as I am. He is shown below dressed as a hippie on the first night of the practices. It was open to the public and the evening was the anniversary of MSU’s 1979 national championship, hence the 70’s theme. If you recall, that team was lead by Magic Johnson. I can still remember the starting lineup, Terry Donnelly, Ron Charles, Greg Kelser, and Jay Vincent. Amazing how Magic could make his teammates so much better. That is a sign of a great basketball player. Izzo has been the coach at MSU for the past 13 seasons and also won a national championship. You can learn more about him from his recruiting website.

Iron Mountain native and current Michigan State University basketball coach Tom Izzo

School Ends – Family Christmas

December 20, 2008December 20, 2008billkralovec

Nadia and Alejandra Thursday evening did a midnight run to Tempo, the big supermarket here in Belgrade. They decorated the house, buying plants, rugs, etc, and they also rearranged the furniture. What a difference! The girls were getting the house ready for the arrival of my father-in-law, and Alejandra’s boyfriend. It is good to have a full house of family for the holidays. Pictured above is the living room, with Sebey, Owen, and Oliver playing with their bionicles, a present from Uncle Jack.

We wrapped up school yesterday with high school’s last exam and the middle school Christmas party. It was also the big slava of Saint Nicholas. It is cool and rainy this morning as I write this. A bit disappointing as we are all hoping for snow! This morning we are going to the police station to register our guests, as all people visiting Serbia in private homes have to do.

ISB High School Daily Bulletin: Friday December 19, 2008

December 19, 2008December 19, 2008billkralovec

Today is the final day of the first semester. We will be starting on Monday January 12 with Day #1.

I have an interview at 8:30 AM. Ana will be distributing exams and be the contact person this morning as Bojana will be away. In the afternoon I will be at the Middle School for their Christmas celebrations.

Final Exams:
Today is the final, final exam mathematics.

The Daily Bulletins this semester have been posted on the secondary chatterbox. It will be good to check them next year to see how we can improve.

Things I have learned for the next time we do exams.

•    Give explicit instructions for the students who have accommodations. Separate their exams from the others immediately. Make a separate schedule for them.
•    Remind students to take their calculators to the science and math exam days.
•    Do not schedule exams on big slava days.
•    Put the major Slavas on the school calender for 2009-2010.
•    Use Independent School Management’s 10 Commandments for Exam Scheduling when making the exam schedule.
•    Identify and remember the students who are taking HL exams. Do not make announcements during the HL exams.
•    Make a form to put on the envelope with all of the information. Student list, HL students, proctor name, classroom, date, session, etc. can be put right on the envelope holding the exams to make it easier for the proctor and administrative assistant.
•    Meet with the students who take school transport to set changes in times with the bussing.
•    Remind HOD’s to estimate the time of their department’s exams. We had several that ran a bit short.
•    Meet briefly with teachers before the start of exams to review the proctor guidelines and discuss clarifications.

Krsna Slava Sveti Nikola: Congratulations to the many Serbians who are celebrating today. On the staff, Nevena, Katarina, and Bojana are home today with their families. Sveti Nikola died on this day in 343 AD. He was the Greek Bishop in the city of Myrna in Turkey for many years.
Humanitarian Organization Divac: The Christmas Card Drive is ending today and Vladamir reports between 50,000 and 60,000 dinars have been sold. He will be coming out with the exact amount later today. Congratulations to him and the CAS students for their work. The visit with student leaders to the Collection Center has been postponed until next year.
Second Semester Schedule / Report Cards: Our IBO Coordinators Liz and Branka have been hard at work with schedules and report card preparations. Branka will re-send the report card schedule.
SPACES: Paul McKenzie has done some excellent work on the SPACES Interdisciplinary Project on the Moodlic web page. Teachers involved in the project are now asked to set deadlines for turning in the students’ material for posting. The big SPACES exhibition will be January 30th. Mark your calendars. Also, I would like to congratulate Natasa Skoric and the Grade 10 students on the completion of their epic film for the project.

ISB IB Theatre Arts DP Class and The ISB International Thespian Society 7335 present:
24 HOUR THEATRE
Saturday January 17, 2009 7:30 p.m.
Tickets RSD100. On sale from Thespian Society Members or at the HS Reception from January 12.
The students will arrive on Friday January 16 and begin to work on original theatre pieces. The audience is asked to join us on Saturday evening the 17th to see the presentation of their original work that they devised over the 24 hour period (with sleep in between).
This is a curricular event enabling IB theatre students a chance to combine numerous components of their IB syllabus into a real production experience, supplemented by the ISB Thespian Society.

Oliver’s Christmas Show

December 17, 2008December 17, 2008billkralovec

Talking With Santa, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Yesterday afternoon we attended Oliver’s Early Years Christmas program. It was held in the afternoon for the Early Years (Age 3) and Pre-Kindergarten (Age 4) classes. Oliver did a great job demonstrating dancing, singing (Yellow Submarine), and acting. He also got a chance to talk to Santa Claus (above). He told Santa that he “was going to Serbia” for the Christmas holidays.

I’ll be uploading video this evening when I get a chance.

Happy Birthday Owen

December 14, 2008December 14, 2008billkralovec

Wow, I can’t believe he is six years old! With the new haircut he got yesterday (along with Sebey and Oliver), he looks so much like a boy. We had a nice family day yesterday. The girls went shopping in the morning and bought some Serbian sweaters “All the Swedish moms love them.” while I was home with the kids. We then went and got their hair cut and then to the Delta City Mall to buy a Wii for his birthday.

Messages to Owen from family:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Big Guy!!

I hope you have a nice day and that you

enjoy your company. We hope to see in the

new year.

Love, Grandpa & Grandma

Happy Birthday Owen!!!!!!

Just sending you a big Birthday wish from all of us. Six years old already—-where does the time go. We hope you did something very special on your Birthday. I hope you get to see this and it is not too late over there. Tony and I just got back from the movies. The hospital had a children’s Christmas party and they got to see a movie, get popcorn and a pop for free. We saw Madagascar 2. That is a cute movieyuyuy8y8u888uyy9y89y8yy9y8y88888u(Thats from Tony)

Tony is having so much fun in hockey. He is using a stick now. I will have to send you some video. All is well here. Just waiting for Andy to get home on the 20th.

Owen have a great day buddy—-we love and miss you! Hope Santa is good to everyone.

Michelle, Jim, Scott, Tony and Beau

Happy Birthday Big Guy!!!!

uncle andy

Nadias New Sweater — Nadia's New Sweater

Christmas is Coming to the Kralovec House

December 13, 2008December 13, 2008billkralovec

Owen is shown dancing in his christmas musical at the school. Thursday the kinders and grade 1 students put on “December Nights”. Owen had an acting role as the Chief Mate and along with a first grade student, they were narrators for the program. The elementary music teacher compared Owen to a young Robert Redford! I would tend to agree, of course. He memorized a lot of lines and was a cool customer in a packed house of expectant parents. Congratulations Owen!!!! You did a wonderful job!

The musical was very good. The stage was a yellow submarine (Owen sang “yellow sumbarine”) and the children were dressed as pirates. Kinder and Grade 1 have around 60 kids so it was a challenge to get them all on stage and a starring role. The school is really lacking a proper auditorium! The parents and kids were quite crowded. Lower School events feel so crowded, such as the Halloween night. They definitely need more room. I uploaded several photos and am in the process of putting up video of the performance. Please check them out in my flickr.com account. Oliver’s performance is next week. He got an early start by running up on stage in the classic elementary school Christmas show style, when the little brother or sister storms the stage! I was preparing my camera and a girl next to me pokes me on the knee and I look up to see Oliver trying to grab the microphone from his brother. Hilarious!I ran up and got him off the stage.

We have our Christmas tree up. We bought a fake one from Home Center here in Belgrade. Ornaments have been all over the house as Ocean and Oliver both take them off and play with them. I can see why my Dad put the television on top of large wooden box when we were kids. We then could not break the dials.

Ocean undecorating the Christmas Tree — Ocean "undecorating" the Christmas Tree

Ocean this week was battling a cold. She kept vomiting in the night due to choking on mucous. Nadia had to have Ocean sleep between us. Ocean kept kicking me in the head. It was a rough week for both of us with limited sleep. Finally, we called the local private clinic, Bel Medic and they have a children’s doctor that make house calls. Brilliant! No more waiting in the crowded room with sick and crying kids. It is amazing how much better Nadia and Alejandra feel after they see the doctor. I think the doctor does more good for them than the children. I don’t think there is much a doctor can do for a virus, but they can do a lot for an upset and worried Latina mother.

The Bel Medic doctor with her patients. — The Bel Medic doctor with her "patients".

Family Journal: Arrival of Sebey & Alejandra

December 8, 2008December 8, 2008billkralovec

Nadia, Ollie and Owen are pictured with Alejandra and Sebey at the Christmas Fair in the center of Budapest, Hungary. They arrived from Bahrain on Friday afternoon and the next morning we left for the 4 hour drive north to neighboring Hungary.

Edelweiss, our new car did extremely well on its first excursion out of Belgrade. The countryside north of Belgrade is reminiscent of central Wisconsin or Illinois. It was extremely flat, lots of agriculture, and decent highways. We had no trouble crossing the border. It was nice to go through the Diplomatic Corps line and not have to wait. I got Diplomatic plates through the US Embassy which is very kind of them.

Budapest is considered one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and I can see why. The Danube runs through Buda on one side and Pest on the other. We stayed at the Marriot Hotel right on the river. It was a nice hotel but I would not stay there again. Great breakfast and views, but no swimming pool and they charge for overnight parking in their garage ($40). We used the GPS to find the hotel and other places we went and that was great. The first day we took the kids for a walk over the Széchenyi Chain Bridge shown in the picture below.

We also stopped to throw some rocks in the Danube. We were with our good friends the Moynihans.They are shown to the left. We finished the night at the famed Budapest Christma

s Fair. It was crowded and in my opinion, overrated. But after a couple of mulled wines, we ended up having a great time. I half learned how to say Merry Christmas in Hungarian, Boldog Karácsonyt

We were not impressed with the Hungarians. We found them to be very different from the Serbs. They were cold and borderline mean. For example, Ale and Nadia asked two people to take a picture of the family and they refused. I guess it is the culture, as the Hungarians have had a long history with the Germans and Austrians. I know one can’t judge a people with just one day in the country, but we did feel a difference. I was also comparing the cities of Budapest and Belgrade. Both are beautiful and similar although Belgrade was mostly destroyed during WWII and does not have all of the beautiful old buildings of Budapest. Although Belgrade has its charms, and if they would clean up the Sava and Danube rivers, it would be nicer. I like the fact however, that Belgrade has virtually no tourists and it is more authentic and vibrant. I hope it doesn’t change, but in the future it will as it looks to join the European Union. I also noticed it was more expensive in Budapest.

The next day I took Ollie and Ocean to the city park. They had a great time feeding the ducks and in the playground. The girls did some more shopping. We were thinking of doing some ice skating, but once again, the rink was crowded. I did enjoy the the Heroes Square. This was next to city park and had statues of all of the Hungarian Heroes. It was similar to the Venezuelan Panteon.

We do plan to return to Budapest as there is lots to explore. We hope we run into a friendlier bunch of Hungarians however.

Ollie & Ocean in Heroes Square in Budapest

Ocean is getting cuter every day. What an angel! She is so cautious and calm and she cries like a girl. Below is the most recent photo for Grandma.

ISB HS Daily Bulletin: Monday December 8, 2008

December 8, 2008billkralovec

Today is Day #1. I will be in the HS for the day.

ISB Web-based Forms Presentation: Bane is giving a short presentation on the new ISB web-based forms. This is an easier way to do service requests, cash advances, etc and will cut down on the amount of email. The presentation will take place Monday December 8^th in the HS Computer Lab. Simultaneously, there will be the same presentation given by Neša in the LS MPR. All MS and HS teachers are asked to attend one of the two meetings. The presentation will begin at 3:30 PM and will take no longer than 30 minutes.

STUCO Community Drives: The HS students through the Red Cross are helping the children’s oncology ward in Tirsova Street. At the ward there are 57 children, ranging in ages from 1 to 19 years old. These holiday gifts are new toys and for older children, books in Serbian, magazines/newspapers, classroom material (notebooks, pens, pencils, etc.). These items are to be collected by Thursday, December 11, 2008. The group is aware of the busy schedules of the parents and students, and have decided to accept money for purchasing these gifts.

The final day to donate winter clothing — especially shoes, jeans and jackets (new and old) to the Drinka Pavlovic orphanage is today. Tomorrow the HS Choir will be visiting the Orphanage and putting on a mini-concert for them.

Blue & Gold: The latest edition of the student newspaper, Blue and Gold came out on Friday. Congratulations to the student journalists and Mrs. Jamie Van Drunen.

Final Exam Schedule: The latest version of the final exam schedules and proctoring schedule were placed in the student and teacher boxes Friday. Remember that exams begin next Tuesday, December 16^th. The final exams need to be completed and sent to your department heads this week. They will be photocopied on Friday and Monday and stored securely in my office over the weekend.

ISB Time: Please send ideas for ISB time Wednesday. Liz is wrapping up the semester two schedule and would like to devote 20 minutes to selection of electives for the students.

Education News: (Online Textbooks):

Our own Web 2.0 guru Jenny McKenzie sends along this link to a Washington Post article about the State of Virginia on line textbooks and supplements. This is a timely article considering our purchase order this week. The article has links to several sites with on line modules to help teachers, especially in science.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/29/AR2008112901809.html

“Rather than waiting two years for the Virginia Board of Education to review its science standards, then another year for publishers to print new physics texts, the state secretaries of education and technology asked a dozen teachers to write their own chapters in biophysics, nanotechnology and other emerging fields and post them online.

By February, physics teachers from Vienna to Tappahanock should be able to rip, mash and burn new chapters in real-time physics, said Secretary of Technology Aneesh P. Chopra. The virtual pages, which cost the state and schools nothing except teacher time, will be an optional, free supplement to hardbound books. “

Lower School Winter Shows: These are taking place Wednesday through Friday evening this week in the MPR beginning at 6:30 PM.

Humanitarian Organization Divac Program at ISB

December 5, 2008December 5, 2008billkralovec

Our Community Service Program at the school is turning it up a notch for the holiday season. The high school students on Wednesday, participated in a presentation by the Humanitarian Organization Divac (HOD). HOD employee Aleksandra is shown above, explaining the Christmas Card program. All of our students are selling Christmas Cards to raise money and awareness for HOD. Ana, shown to the right, gave a moving talk on the refugee problem in Serbia. HOD was founded by ex-NBA basketball star Vlade Divac. He is now living in Serbia and when he visited along with his wife Ana, the collection centers for refugees in Serbia, he was moved to help. Vlade was known for his philanthropic deeds, and now he is focusing his work in his home country.

During the break up of Yugoslavia, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Serb citizens were forced to flee their homes in Croatia, Kosovo, and Bosnia. Many were traumatized by the violence and the loss of their homes, jobs, and lives of loved ones. Many of the refugees still live in these centers, getting by with limited resources. The Serbian government and economy are still recovering from the wars and the international embargoes and can only supply limited support. HOD’s goal is to help these people get their lives back together. They have purchased over 100 homes for families and they are also giving job training to help the refugees start again.

From the HOD website is an excerpt about the program:

Today, Serbia is a country with the largest number of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Europe.

Thousands of refugees and IDPs still live in collective centers across Serbia, in poor conditions, terrible hygiene, without jobs, salaries, pensions and often without the opportunity to legally obtain any type of income.

They can’t return to their homes. The refugee camps are their only “home”.

After more than 10 years of living in such circumstances, they feel abandoned, forgotten, without hope that they can make any change for the better. They have no will or strength to even try.

We ask that anybody who feels compelled, to join us in this effort to help them find new homes, material and financial security, so they can live a decent and dignified life once again.

Humanitarian Organization Divac (HOD) launched the “You Can Too” initiative with the mission to help these people realize their right to a home, a job, material security, psychosocial help and an opportunity to start a new life after years of living in refugee centers.

Individuals such as Vladimir Radmanovic, Zarko Paspalj, Scot Pollard, Sasha Danilovic, Chuck Peterson, Sasha Djordjevic, Chris Webber, Savo Milosevic, Dejan Bodiroga, Zoran Savic, Peja Stojakovic and many others, have already taken part. We invite you to join us.

If Divac can help, You Can Too!

I will let the refugees tell their own story in the video below. We plan on visiting a collection center in two weeks and the students want to help more.

Refugees collect rainwater in a center in Kralijevo

I also came across a really good post on video lecture sites on the internet.

Alignment of the Planets

December 3, 2008December 3, 2008billkralovec

I took this photo on Monday evening at sunset. The sun sets around 4:00 PM here and I was heading to basketball practice on our campus. It shows a crescent moon, venus right below it, and Jupiter to the upper left. Although it looks like they are close, they are all actually millions of miles away from each other. Later on in the evening, the moon blocked venus (called an occultation) which is a rare event. Thanks to my wife for sending this link, which explains more about it. An interest in astronomy is another thing we have in common.

On Sunday we drove to Mount Avala which is about 8 miles south of Belgrade. The mountain is a state park and it has some walking trails, war monuments, and a hotel that looked closed for the season. Being about 500 meters higher than Belgrade, there was still snow left and we had a good snowball fight. Owen showed his tropical upbringing, and he refused to get out of the car, prefering to stay warm with mom. We are both sick this week and driving in the car gives us a break with watching the kids so the trip to Mount Avala had an alterior motive. Behind Ollie and Ocean is the Unknown Soldier monument dedicated to the Serbian soldiers killed in WWI. I noticed some of the marble blocks were chipped. This was from the 1999 NATO bombing raids that targeted RTS state television transmission towers. They are building a new tower that looked like the CN Tower in Toronto, so perhaps there will be a restaraunt there.

We are loving our new car. We bought a GPS also, and I am a believer in it! It is so much easier than old fashioned maps, although I love maps. The GPS tells us exactly when to turn, etc., and you can zoom in and zoom out on the map. It also has pharmacies, supermarkets, etc. Amazing! Below we are shown filling the car up with gasoline. The neighborhood gas station is very low key, so much different than the big, lighted, American gas stations. The Serbian gas stations on the highways are similar to the US gas stations, but the ones found on side streets are like the one below.

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