Sunday, June 24, 2007

Thursday, June 21, 2007

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, June 16, 2007

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!

Friday, June 15, 2007

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.