Greetings from the other side of the United States! I have safely made it to California. I think it's 10:20pm EST as I am writing this email but it's only 7:20pm here in San Diego and, to be honest, I am already in the bed. I guess traveling really does take it out of you.
Since I'm going to bed rather early tonight, I decided to post a quick blog about all the fun things I have planned for the students at Mangum Elementary School. I am going to miss my students a lot and I really want to turn my traveling experience into a learning opportunity for them. So I've come up with a few creative ways to get them involved in this whole Semester at Sea thing!
One of the first things I have done is made a bulletin board with all of the destinations of the voyage. It's beside the cafeteria and Mr. Ellis, my awesome substitute, will be connecting each destination card to the actual country using a string once I arrive at the country. This will, hopefully, be a great geography lesson for students throughout the voyage...
Beside the bulletin board, Mr. Ellis will hang flags for each country. I managed to purchase some inexpensive flags so that the students can get an idea of the different country representations.
Also on the bulletin board is a small cruise ship with a mini-Mr. McKee on top. Mr. Ellis will move the ship around the world as I give him my coordinates every few days so the kids can see how long it takes to travel from one country to another. Here's a pic of me sailing on my ship...
I also plan to skype with some of the classes and have signed one class from every grade level up for a program run by Semester at Sea. The program is called Vicarious Voyage and it creates connections between classrooms and the ship by having a sharedrive to exchange pictures and by paying for postage to send letters to classes. There are actually a few students who asked me to send them postcards, so I plan to do that as well. I follow through with my promises, ya know!
I have also scheduled a few trips in various ports to interact with children in the countries. I will visit a Kindergarten in China, an orphanage in Vietnam, and stay with families in India and South Africa. I really want Mangum students to be able to compare their daily lives with those from other countries and cultures and truly see how truly lucky they are.
The last big plan is probably the most silly one. On a whim I purchased a Where's Waldo costume off ebay. I've gotten a friend on the ship to commit to taking pictures of me in my Waldo outfit hiding around in public areas, just like in the books. I thought it would be a fun game students could play and something they could look forward to every week.
And of course, Curious George has traveled with me and will be showing up in various pictures I take throughout the voyage...
Whew! That's a lot of stuff. All of that seems like a full-time job in and of itself. I hope I have time to do the job Semester at Sea actually pays me to do. :-) For any of my Semester at Sea supervisors reading this - just kidding!
Alrighty, off to bed so I can be fresh for San Diego Exploration tomorrow. On the agenda - Balboa Park, Coronado, and possibly the beach. It's so sunny and feels so good here!
Thanks for reading. I'll post again soon!
Since I'm going to bed rather early tonight, I decided to post a quick blog about all the fun things I have planned for the students at Mangum Elementary School. I am going to miss my students a lot and I really want to turn my traveling experience into a learning opportunity for them. So I've come up with a few creative ways to get them involved in this whole Semester at Sea thing!
One of the first things I have done is made a bulletin board with all of the destinations of the voyage. It's beside the cafeteria and Mr. Ellis, my awesome substitute, will be connecting each destination card to the actual country using a string once I arrive at the country. This will, hopefully, be a great geography lesson for students throughout the voyage...
Beside the bulletin board, Mr. Ellis will hang flags for each country. I managed to purchase some inexpensive flags so that the students can get an idea of the different country representations.
Also on the bulletin board is a small cruise ship with a mini-Mr. McKee on top. Mr. Ellis will move the ship around the world as I give him my coordinates every few days so the kids can see how long it takes to travel from one country to another. Here's a pic of me sailing on my ship...
I also plan to skype with some of the classes and have signed one class from every grade level up for a program run by Semester at Sea. The program is called Vicarious Voyage and it creates connections between classrooms and the ship by having a sharedrive to exchange pictures and by paying for postage to send letters to classes. There are actually a few students who asked me to send them postcards, so I plan to do that as well. I follow through with my promises, ya know!
I have also scheduled a few trips in various ports to interact with children in the countries. I will visit a Kindergarten in China, an orphanage in Vietnam, and stay with families in India and South Africa. I really want Mangum students to be able to compare their daily lives with those from other countries and cultures and truly see how truly lucky they are.
The last big plan is probably the most silly one. On a whim I purchased a Where's Waldo costume off ebay. I've gotten a friend on the ship to commit to taking pictures of me in my Waldo outfit hiding around in public areas, just like in the books. I thought it would be a fun game students could play and something they could look forward to every week.
And of course, Curious George has traveled with me and will be showing up in various pictures I take throughout the voyage...
Whew! That's a lot of stuff. All of that seems like a full-time job in and of itself. I hope I have time to do the job Semester at Sea actually pays me to do. :-) For any of my Semester at Sea supervisors reading this - just kidding!
Alrighty, off to bed so I can be fresh for San Diego Exploration tomorrow. On the agenda - Balboa Park, Coronado, and possibly the beach. It's so sunny and feels so good here!
Thanks for reading. I'll post again soon!
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