MYIP: Week Thirty

Tuesday, July 24: Pasta dinner and good conversation with my friend Sarah.  We forgot to take a picture of the meal itself, so here's a shot of the dessert!  Talking to a school friend helped me start to feel back in the "school spirit" . . .

Wednesday, July 25: Blueberry picking again, this time with my parents.  Of course, both of them picked as children and are really good and much faster than I am.  The berries were still plentiful, though, and with some donations from Mom and Dad's buckets, I went home with over six pounds!

Thursday, July 26: Choir practice tonight!  Here's my favorite song that we sang: "Into the Night."

Friday, July 27: This salmon and vegetable salad by Jaclyn was super-delicious!  (I contributed a minorly notable blueberry pie.  It'll be better next time . . .)  It was great to catch up with her again after her trip to Israel and decision to go to Calvin in the Fall.  We finished the night of good times with Bride and Prejudice.  "Show me the way, take me to love!"

Saturday, July 28: Our second wedding of the summer was the celebration of Jana and Aaron.  Here the bride and groom eagerly run into the reception area.  The smiles are genuine, and the afternoon and evening were entirely enjoyable.  I made lots of notes about ideas for my own wedding!

 

Sunday, July 29: A day out at one of Michigan's many inland lakes with a friend of Eric's (Mike) and his family.  Here, Eric swims the "water boggan" back into shore after it snapped while he was riding.  Then, Mike's parents patiently tried MANY times to help me get up on water skis, but to no avail.  I sure plowed through a lot of water, though . . .

 

Monday, July 30: A shot of some of the books I tagged today at the library.  One of my favorite things to do during the summer is to volunteer at my city library, where I have helped out for almost 15 years now!  Whew, am I old or what?!  ;)  Instead of shelving kids' books this summer, I have been assigned to the adult section to help with RFID tagging.

MYIP: Week Twenty-Nine

Tuesday, July 17:  My poor dead grass, from weeks without much rain.  It's been a rough summer!  One bonus though: no need to mow it!  :)

Wednesday, July 18:  Blueberry picking with my lovely friend Kristi was a treat, even if it was a bit hot.  It even rained a little in the morning!  It was great to chat and catch up.

Thursday, July 19:  My man, in his foulies (foul weather gear) and life jacket, tethered to the boat for safety.  We delivered the boat again with Eric D (in the yellow) this year to Chicago, and had quite the doozy of a storm with lightning, strong gusts of wind, and hours of rain (most of which sadly never reached land, though . . .)


Friday, July 20:  With Yeni, visiting her and Colin's sweet apartment for the evening.  It was so great to see so many friends this week!  We were very thankful to Jen and Colin for letting us spend the night, too -- such good company, good food, and a good night's sleep before Eric left on the race.


Saturday, July 21:  Here's a shot at the bus stop, while we waited for our transportation to the Red Line to Belmont Station.  The Craigs' apartment building is adorable inside *and* outside!  (Luckily, no problems at all on our solo trip to the harbor, either.  We were actually early and had time to sit and eat at Dunkin' Donuts.)


Sunday, July 22:  Spent a few moments throughout the weekend, checking on Eric's boat's progress.  They seemed to be moving pretty quickly, even though they had forecasted light winds.  In fact, he arrived on Monday -- hour before they usually finish the trip!  Way to go, Que Loco !!


Monday, July 23:  Here is a portion of the berries I picked with Kristi, fresh out of the freezer and ready to be bagged and returned to the freezer again.  When you freeze them this way, they don't freeze in clumps and are very easy to use later!  However, my fresh blueberry container is already diminishing.  I think I can see another trip to the u-pick farm in my future!  Yum!

MYIP: Week Twenty-Eight

Tuesday, June 10: The heat keeps coming!  On the record, hottest year since 1895!  And this even made the front of the BBC News page.  I told you that it's been hot . . .  Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise made it in, too, for the biggest split of the year (so far at least . . .)

Wednesday, June 11: Somehow I felt like I was doing a lot of driving around this past week, so I took a shot in my car.  This little Pukka has been traveling along with me for years -- her drums are even fading a bit, but I love having her along for the ride.  She was originally a gift from my dear friend Brianna.

Thursday, June 12: A beautiful sunset as we cruised in a friend's sailboat in the evening on Wednesday.  Not much breeze for sailing, but otherwise it was a perfect night to be out on the water!

Friday, June 13: I didn't actually catch what the name of this is, but apparently it's a recipe from Eric's mom for a Dutch dessert.  I think.  We melted brown sugar and butter on the top of this Dutch cookie/bread, then put lots of strawberries on it.  Delicious!

Saturday, June 14: Sticking with the fruity theme of the week, I brought this English trifle to Denise and Laura's for our English evening, complete with Iron Lady and King's Speech movies, cherry and pumpkin scones, bread pudding, fish and chips, and my trifle.  Yum, yum, YUM!

Sunday, June 15: I'm having problems with my camera, so the next two shots aren't quite up to my normal quality.  Here are my three violet plants, which I water faithfully and which sit happily next to my kitchen sink.  I am really really really hoping for a flower this year!

Monday, June 16: Many stops today for wedding-related questions, from catering to bridal gown to folding chairs.  I liked how this shot of coffee carafes turned out, despite using a camera with no zoom or focus functions.

MYIP: Week Twenty-Seven

THANKS for detouring this week to a new site!  I'm hoping we'll be back to xanga like normal next week.

Tuesday, July 3: Debbie and I spent some of our afternoon playing mini golf.  It turns out we're both pretty bad, so we were good partners.  Also good that no one else was behind us to get annoyed by our frequent mulligans . . .  :)  (Notice Debbie's high swing here.  Maybe this is why she shot her ball off the green so many times?)

Wednesday, July 4:  Happy Independence Day, America!  Holiday celebrations at the beach are a family tradition, and donuts, waffles, and potato bake made this one wonderful.

Thursday, July 5: Saying goodbye to Debbie at the Ford International Airport.  What a hot day, though!  Temperatures hit 107 degrees in Grand Rapids and made history -- highest temperatures since 1936!

Friday, July 6: A calm day on the water meant a perfect day for a kayaking adventure with my fiancé!

Saturday, July 7: Yes, folks, this is Lake Michigan.  Unseasonably hot hot hot weather was followed by big waves and intense under-toe.  I had to head in from being so tired, but here's Josh and Eric, riding the waves.

Sunday, July 8:  Thanks, Eric, for a nice shot of me making guacamole: a little taste of Honduras.

Monday, July 9: In my eagerness to get as many details nailed down before I go back to full-time teaching, I have been a little wedding-focused.  Hopefully it's not obsessively focused, just the super-excitedly focused . . .  It's been fun to plan everything, though, and we officially have a location and date for our wedding next year!

Blog #3: Final Reflections

 In the past 8 days of class, I feel as though I have learned so much and honed skills in many programs that I had been familiar with before the course.  Although my head was spinning a bit at times, I feel as though I have been introduced to so many new things that I can really integrate into my class.  The top things that comes to mind are podcasts, blogs, universal design, GoogleDocs, GoogleBookmarks, and open-source software.

I really appreciated the project for this course.  Since I had already had something in mind for adding technology for next year, I was able to use my idea (portfolio blogs) and build it based on what we learned in class.  I liked how open-ended it was to design for something that I would really use in my classroom, not requiring us to use webquests (which I would be less likely to use in my class) but yet orienting us to how to use a variety of programs.

If I'm honest, I have not always been a teacher who integrated lots of technology into my classroom.  Part of this is because I am teaching a foreign language, and my teaching is based on very basic communication.  So many of the things that educators take for granted at higher grades (e.g. "Okay, kids, write down some ideas you have about this topic" or "Read this authentic website") simply won't work in my classroom because my students' vocabulary is very limited.  However, being introduced to some new elements of technology has helped me think that I really can use technology in my classroom to enhance communication and apply real-life situations.

In the future, I am absolutely going to use my CIP idea of portfolio blogs in my 7th grade class.  I am confident this will help them develop their reading and writing skills, two things that are rather hard to motivate middle schoolers to practice in authentic situations that won't make them look silly.  I am excited to use Prezi instead of PowerPoint to mix things up in my lessons that require more visuals to support understanding of the new vocabulary.  As I progress, I would like to find more ways to allow students to use technology at their appropriate level of language ability.

One issue that I am still figuring out how to deal with is how easy it is when students use the internet to just click a button and translate entire web pages or translate their own words into Spanish without actually applying what they have learned in class.  I see a value in GoogleTranslate (although I never use it myself; I prefer using online dictionaries, not rote translation), but I want my students to be able to communicate without needing to rely on technology to express themselves.  But then I open my email in Spanish and see Google's helpful offer to translate everything into English for me and wonder about what my students would do in a similar situation.  How can I train them to see technology as a language resource but not as a crutch?  This will certainly be an issue that comes up as students use their personal laptops more in my class.

External Blog #3

On http://blog.web20classroom.org/2012/06/power-of-lurker.html -- posted as Emily619:

"This is a valuable message for those who are a bit nervous or unsure about blogs, social media, etc.  I believe that many who are unfamiliar with these sites may become more open to engaging if they just started by listening in.  I appreciate your comment -- 

"Many say to me they find value in lurking and searching. But the true value was when they took that next step and signed up and added their voice to the conversation. I didn't have to push. They discovered that on their own."

Certainly, we hope that those who are introduced to these new technologies will not just want to be lurkers, that at some point they will want to engage in discussions and add their perspective to the many voices.  This is, after all, what makes internet technology such a powerful tool: the ability to speak and be heard, and to listen and learn in a multicultural and diverse community that stretches around the globe.  Who couldn't help but be swept up in something as exciting as that?!"

External Post #2

On http://www.teach42.com/2012/04/16/are-your-children-on-facebook/ -- posted as Emily 619.

""Th real problems hit when kids feel like they have to hide their actions from their parents.  Because then when something goes wrong, they feel they have to hide that as well."

Thanks for this comment.  I think there is reason to keep young children off facebook, but some of our obsessions about bullying and safety are sometimes a screen.  As a teacher, I have had conversations with my students about what is appropriate to post online and what is inadvisable.  I have talked to them about why it is important to choose friends (yes, even the online kind) wisely and control what kinds of comments are associated with you and your name.

Excessive fear that results in autocratic "No you can't do that" pronouncements are seldom effective long-term.  I wonder how many of the parents who said their under-13-year-old doesn't have facebook have actually talked to their children about appropriate online behavior.  I also cynically wonder how many of their kids actually *do* have facebook, but Mom and Dad just don't know . . ."