School of Rock

I found a snail crawling across the road. I followed him until the golf course marshal came around and ran over him.

We took a field trip one day to Balstrop. They had several cuts in that were similar to some of the cores that we analyzed. We were right beside the Colorado River near one hole in a golf course.

We even saw clear evidence of the demise of the dinosaurs from the meteor hit.

We had several really interesting sessions in the lab at the Repository. We could analyze actual cores taken from the ocean. We tried to determine what caused different changes in texture or color in the cores. We were able to take core samples and analyze them under a microscope to see if there were any microfossils in them. I actually saw diatoms, forams, calcareous nannofossils, and lots of other critters that existed in our recent past - several million years ago.

We have been taught by several fantastic scientists. Mark was from Buston University, Kristen was from James Madison University, and Debbie Thomas is at Texas A&M.

I have learned so much this week and I am truly amazed! I never thought I could grasp any of this stuff.

We started each day with a warm-up. One day, we did the human pretzel.

We

Family reunion

We had a great time at my family reunion in Wyoming. I got to meet my newest grand-nephew. He is the picture of his dad at that age and is always pleasant and smiling. We took a trolley ride around Cheyenne and then had a picnic at Mike and Chandra's house. We spent the day at Curt Gowdy park at one of the lakes. We went to the Rockies game on the 4th of July. It was an exciting game and the fireworks were the best I have ever seen. Our flights were even on time or early! Curt Gowdy Park and a boat ride

Snow was still there in July!

Lake Marie in the Snowy Range

Sunset at Mike and Chandra's

My grandnieces and grandnephew - Maddi, Frances, Kelli, and Andrew

Haley on the trampoline at Mike and Chandra's

My sisters - DeeDee, Bobbi, and Patsy with hubbies Ed, Bruno, and Ron.

Landon, me, and Eddie at Patsy's

Pictures

Too busy to blog!

Sorry I've been so delinquent in posting this past week. We were so busy all week, I barely had time to check my email.
We took a trip to the famous San Diego Zoo and did a GPS mapping activity there. During the latter part of the week, we learned how to plot the tracks we took and link the pictures of the animals we took. It'll take some practice before I can perfect it, but we'll have loads of fun with that at school doing these activities.
We also attended a session that was presented by a Nobel Peace Prize winner. She was so inspiring! I can't say her name, let alone spell it! I'll get it posted eventually when I find all my stuff.
After that session, they had two ballrooms full of maps that were made by companies and students and colleges and government agencies. Amazing stuff! They also had food all over the exhibit hall to eat.
We also had the opportunity to spend one whole morning at the trade displays for the ESRI conference. I have pens, pens, and more pens! I also got some interesting census stuff and mapping stuff and places to look for maps and even more once I sort it all out!
A bunch of us went to the Padres/Orioles game on Tuesday night. What started out to be a boring game turned into some really big scoring efforts.
The city of San Diego is, by far, the cleanest city I have ever visited. You didn't even see bugs in the lights in the stadium, which was beautiful from the bricks to the flowers they have throughout. The trolley cars were CLEAN! No trash laying around. The streets are clean. I went into the restroom after the ball game and the restroom was CLEAN! San Diego is doing a lot that's right. I'd love to go back again to see even more sights.
Once I get pictures downloaded, I'll reserve a whole blog to just pictures to look at.
Time to sort clothes and try to get back on eastern time!

Saturday (I think!)

This past week has been so goofy, I'm not even sure what day of the week it is! We were to report for breakfast at 6:30 this morning. Actually, I was a little late. We'd been having trouble with the door to our bathroom in our room. It's a sliding door and seemed to want to go off the track. It did this morning for Christine. Neither of us could get it open , so I called the front desk and they finally sent a guy up. When we got home tonight, I think they put a whole new door there. We're not taking any chances and will leave the door open enough so that we can slide through!

The plenary session this morning was superb. It opened up so many opportunities for learning that we can incorporate for our students. The keynote speakers were OK. I worked the CIPE booth at the Expo then and Christine went to a session that had some really great leads for information for us to use.

We found a nice Irish restaurant to eat lunch after some walking. Kathy (from Texas) and Mary (from North Carolina) went with us.

The afternoon sessions were interesting. The first one I attended was good. The second one was OK, but it went too long and got too boring. After those sessions, we went back to the Expo and had the chance to really get to know some of the teachers who are attending the same workshop we are.

We headed back on the trolley and Christine and I went to the Lakeshore teacher store that is right beside the hotel. Christine made some major purchases, but I am still window shopping. We then had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. It was a long but interesting Saturday! We learned a lot and networked with teachers from around the US for ideas and to share stories.

My camera is acting iffy when I try to download pictures. I'm going to save the pictures to download at a later date and hope it works.

We have spent one weekend day to learn a lot and it was fun and we learned a lot. Tomorrow promises to be another interesting day!

Off to California!

We flew out of Charleston this morning at 6:30 to head for San Diego for the VISIONES workshop. Both of our flights were on time and they didn't lose our luggage! We got an all day trolley pass and headed for the center of San Diego. We stopped in the Yardhouse and then went to the Hard Rock Cafe and had lunch. The picture is of us next to one of the Beatles displays. This Hard Rock has the BEST displays of artists I've listened to through the years. Tonight, we have our first orientation for the conference.

Summer Leadership

We traveled to Charleston for WVEA Summer Leadership conference. Eric and Angie completed the Emerging Leaders sessions. Christine had her Executive Committee meetings and her meeting as the new TCEA President. I participated in the sessions on team building. Kristen participated in many of the sessions with her new puppy.