Summer 2017: San Antonio, San Diego & the Caribbean!
As summer comes to an end and Trevor and I head into our fourth year of teaching in Amherst, Massachusetts, I wanted to take a few moments to reflect on and share our summer of travels (China was just beginning!).
In June, I visited San Antonio for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference. The ISTE conference, with more than 20,000 attendees, can seem overwhelming, but it offers insights, ideas, and hope about the future of education. The presenters shared the incredible things they do with technology to redesign learning experiences for their students (here's one example: Near Space Balloon Launch). As the president of the Teacher Education Network (one of the special interest groups), my schedule was packed with hosting sessions, organizing volunteers, and connecting teacher educators for collaborative learning.
My amazing research colleagues, Dan Krutka and Jeffrey Carpenter, (who have taken my research and writing skills to a whole new level) and I won an award for our research paper about K-12 teachers' professional learning networks.
Back in Amherst, Trevor and I spent the month of July enjoying the outdoors (aka catching Pokemon) and watching the fourth of July fireworks from just down the road from our new house.
At the beginning of August, we headed to San Diego with two good friends that we met through softball, Maria and Scotty. Maria mentioned she had never surfed before and was looking for a beach-like place for vacation, so I said, "Let's go to San Diego!" And, so we did. It was fun playing tourist in my hometown - we went to a Padres game, Old Town, San Diego Zoo (my dad was an excellent tour guide and master of posing with the statues around the Zoo), La Jolla Shores and Cove, Mission Bay, and Encinitas. We surfed, jet skied, kayaked, standup paddleboarded, and even swam with sharks (well, I did) :) We took a day trip to Los Angeles and met up with Trevor's sister, Courtney. We spent the afternoon at the Santa Monica Pier and Promenade.
After the jam-packed trip to San Diego (where were didn't even get to do everything on Trevor's detailed itinerary), we needed a vacation from our vacation...so we headed to Houston! We spent two days exploring the city in extreme heat. We discovered an underground network of tunnels, shops, and restaurants, which was nice for staying out of the heat, but many of the places were closed since it was the weekend. The skyscrapers in Houston were stunning, especially the ones with windows that reflected the beautiful sky.
On that Sunday, we headed to Galveston, Texas - the port for our 10th anniversary cruise to the caribbean. Many of the houses in Galveston were held up by stilts. It is devastating to hear what has happened to Galveston, Houston, and many other parts of Texas as a result of Hurricane Harvey. There are a number of students who attend UMass Amherst from the parts of Texas that were hit hard by the hurricane, so our chancellor posted an announcement about how you can help: http://www.umass.edu/gateway/about/hurricane-harvey (I recommend donating to local charities and organizations).
The cruise ship boarding process was pretty quick and easy, so we were on the ship in no time. We explored the 13-story massive Liberty of the Seas, complete with a floRider (surfing/boogie boarding), 3 pools, water park, ice skating rink, rock climbing wall, and many shops and restaurants. It was like a giant floating city (with all-you-can-eat food!).
After a day and a half of cruising, we stopped in Cozumel, Mexico. This was the stop that I had been looking forward to for months, since it featured the Save a Sea Turtle shore excursion. With our small group and tour guide, Panda, we hopped in a taxi and toured the island. Then, we went to a beach where the green sea and loggerhead turtles make their nests. We met local turtle experts who showed us how to safely dig into the nests to rescue the remaining turtles (the ones who did not make it to the surface). Trevor and I were fortunate to get our own nest, which meant I got to dig all 120 egg shells out of the nest. It was slightly creepy to pull the hatched and unhatched eggs out of a narrow hole in the sand, but well worth it when I found 5 turtles that needed some help (one even needed help getting out of the egg). We gathered up our turtles and took them down to the ocean and released them into the sea - it was AMAZING!!
After our save a sea turtle experience, we went to Pueblo de Maiz, a Mayan village, to watch performances and eat local food. Then, we headed back to the cruise ship (but not before Trevor ran off into the city to catch a rare location-based Pokemon...luckily he made it back to the ship just before it departed).
The next stop on our cruise was the Grand Cayman island. We did a shore excursion to the Grand Cayman turtle center. After hugging a few turtles in tanks, we dove right into the lagoon filled with sea turtles and spent all of our time at the center watching these amazing animals glide underwater.
Then, we headed to Jamaica. We spent some time shopping in the Jamaica port. Both Cozumel and Jamaica had ports built just for cruise ship passengers (e.g., giant mall-like areas with expensive shops). Locals were not allowed into these areas. We stepped outside of the Jamaica port and we were immediately bombarded with locals trying to sell us stuff. It was sad to see the stark contrast between the glitzy ports for foreigners and the locals who were just trying to earn a living outside of the port walls.
After two days of sailing, we made it back to the States (check out our short 1-minute video recap of the trip). We stopped at the Houston NASA Space Center since we had an evening flight. There were lots of interactive exhibits. The main area featured new technologies and science fiction ideas (e.g., invisibility, eye tracking, mind control). We watched a video in the Space Center Theater, which has the largest screen in Texas (four stories), about the journey to space. Then, we explored various space ships, space suits, rocks from space, and other cool things that you only ever see in Hollywood movies. It was quite a fun way to wrap up our vacation.
We hopped on a flight back home. Since then, we have been prepping our courses for the new year (I will be teaching "Designing Digital Media for Teaching & Learning" "Teaching & Learning with Technology" and a first year seminar called "Lights, Camera, Action: Designing Videos that Inspire and Create Change"; Trevor has 18 classes of students from all grades, K-6).
Thanks for reading!
We'd love to hear from you, as well. Let us know how you are doing!
My amazing research colleagues, Dan Krutka and Jeffrey Carpenter, (who have taken my research and writing skills to a whole new level) and I won an award for our research paper about K-12 teachers' professional learning networks.
Back in Amherst, Trevor and I spent the month of July enjoying the outdoors (aka catching Pokemon) and watching the fourth of July fireworks from just down the road from our new house.
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| Happy 4th of July from Oreo & Chloe |
After the jam-packed trip to San Diego (where were didn't even get to do everything on Trevor's detailed itinerary), we needed a vacation from our vacation...so we headed to Houston! We spent two days exploring the city in extreme heat. We discovered an underground network of tunnels, shops, and restaurants, which was nice for staying out of the heat, but many of the places were closed since it was the weekend. The skyscrapers in Houston were stunning, especially the ones with windows that reflected the beautiful sky.
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| Houston City Hall |
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| View of Houston skyscrapers from Sam Houston Park |
On that Sunday, we headed to Galveston, Texas - the port for our 10th anniversary cruise to the caribbean. Many of the houses in Galveston were held up by stilts. It is devastating to hear what has happened to Galveston, Houston, and many other parts of Texas as a result of Hurricane Harvey. There are a number of students who attend UMass Amherst from the parts of Texas that were hit hard by the hurricane, so our chancellor posted an announcement about how you can help: http://www.umass.edu/gateway/about/hurricane-harvey (I recommend donating to local charities and organizations).
 |
| House partially on stilts in Galveston, Texas |
After a day and a half of cruising, we stopped in Cozumel, Mexico. This was the stop that I had been looking forward to for months, since it featured the Save a Sea Turtle shore excursion. With our small group and tour guide, Panda, we hopped in a taxi and toured the island. Then, we went to a beach where the green sea and loggerhead turtles make their nests. We met local turtle experts who showed us how to safely dig into the nests to rescue the remaining turtles (the ones who did not make it to the surface). Trevor and I were fortunate to get our own nest, which meant I got to dig all 120 egg shells out of the nest. It was slightly creepy to pull the hatched and unhatched eggs out of a narrow hole in the sand, but well worth it when I found 5 turtles that needed some help (one even needed help getting out of the egg). We gathered up our turtles and took them down to the ocean and released them into the sea - it was AMAZING!!
After our save a sea turtle experience, we went to Pueblo de Maiz, a Mayan village, to watch performances and eat local food. Then, we headed back to the cruise ship (but not before Trevor ran off into the city to catch a rare location-based Pokemon...luckily he made it back to the ship just before it departed).
 |
| Showing off my "Save a Sea Turtle" certificate of recognition |
Then, we headed to Jamaica. We spent some time shopping in the Jamaica port. Both Cozumel and Jamaica had ports built just for cruise ship passengers (e.g., giant mall-like areas with expensive shops). Locals were not allowed into these areas. We stepped outside of the Jamaica port and we were immediately bombarded with locals trying to sell us stuff. It was sad to see the stark contrast between the glitzy ports for foreigners and the locals who were just trying to earn a living outside of the port walls.
After two days of sailing, we made it back to the States (check out our short 1-minute video recap of the trip). We stopped at the Houston NASA Space Center since we had an evening flight. There were lots of interactive exhibits. The main area featured new technologies and science fiction ideas (e.g., invisibility, eye tracking, mind control). We watched a video in the Space Center Theater, which has the largest screen in Texas (four stories), about the journey to space. Then, we explored various space ships, space suits, rocks from space, and other cool things that you only ever see in Hollywood movies. It was quite a fun way to wrap up our vacation.
We hopped on a flight back home. Since then, we have been prepping our courses for the new year (I will be teaching "Designing Digital Media for Teaching & Learning" "Teaching & Learning with Technology" and a first year seminar called "Lights, Camera, Action: Designing Videos that Inspire and Create Change"; Trevor has 18 classes of students from all grades, K-6).
Thanks for reading!
We'd love to hear from you, as well. Let us know how you are doing!
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