Happy Summer! The whole summer is stretched before me and there is so much to look forward to, but by far the biggest adventure of the summer will be traveling to South Africa with friends. In fact we leave in just a few short weeks and I have to admit I am so not ready! Besides packing which I usually like to do embarrassingly early, that I haven’t done, I feel like I have so much reading to do before leaving. While all the flights are booked and places to stay are set, I feel very behind the eightball on […]
Classroom Virtual Travels to Australia
Last week we wrapped up our in depth travels around the world with Australia as our last stop. While I have not been to Africa or Antarctica, which were the two previous continents, I have been to Australia and could share my experience with students. To kick off the week we started by locating Australia on a map and read a general facts page. This lead to questions and discussion, and comparing Australia to other continents we have studied. In addition to this we watched two videos by Travel Kids about New Zealand. I liked that the videos cover […]
Let’s Explore South America
My class continued their continent exploration by traveling south, from North America into South America. I was secretly thrilled to get to South America so I could share about the countries I visited there; Peru and Ecuador. Although, I’m sure my enthusiasm for the entire continent study is pretty evident in class. Geography/Travel nerd alert! The timing couldn’t have been better to travel south of the equator in our studies, as the setting of that weeks anthology read was Chile. Included in our reading program’s materials was a small vocabulary reader on Chile to provide students with more background knowledge. This […]
Tourist at Home
What a treat, weather in the 60s in February! We were spoiled for February Vacation, unless you like to ski that is. To take advantage of the gorgeous weather I planned a few local trips for vacation. First up, a day trip into Boston. I go into Boston all the time but sometimes it is fun to act like a tourist in your own city. My friend and I decided to make a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts. There was a special exhibit on the book, Make Way for Ducklings which happens to be one of my favorite children’s books. How could I […]
Travel Blues
February Vacation is fast approaching. In fact with snow days and school delays, this week before break felt a bit like a mini vacation before the vacation. But this year February Vacation will be unlike any other I have experienced since teaching. Why? Well this year for the first time ever I will not be traveling anywhere. It is such a strange feeling, not to have a suitcase packed, passport at the ready and teachers to talk with in anticipation of a trip to somewhere new. At work teachers will stop and ask me, where are you headed for break? […]
The Sound of Silence
This week I continue down travel memory lane. My photo wanderings brought me to one of my favorite spots in Helsinki, the Kamppi Chapel of Silence. Believe it or not it took me a while to find this giant building. As I was trying to get my bearings of Helsinki, riding the tram up and down Mannerheimintie and surrounding streets, I found myself hoping off stops and wandering around. Map in hand (trying to be discrete, I didn’t want to look like a total tourist!) I would meander down streets, circle around, double back, all in search of must see highlights, […]
Schools Around the World
I couldn’t be more excited about the story in student’s anthology this past week called, Schools Around the World. I mean could there have been a more perfect story for me to talk about?! This week has given me a chance to share with students my travels and visits to schools around the world. Sharing my experiences went perfectly with the text. Students started the week by listening to the story online and answering a few questions on our classroom blog. Later in the day we talked about some of the things they learned in the story and how that connected to […]
New Year, New Adventures
Where did 2016 go? I know I am a bit late to the party, and we’ve already had more than a full week of 2017, but better late than never. Before we get too far into 2017 I thought it would be good to take a moment to stop and take a look back at all that 2016 had to offer. It was certainly a whirlwind year of travel, new friends, and new adventures. Here are some of my favorite highlights from the past year: 1. I started blogging about teaching and traveling. Blogging has given me a great outlet […]
Holidays Around The World
Starting next week my students will begin a big journey traveling around the world. And while we will be doing this trip virtually, since a teacher salary is not quite enough to buy a class set of multi country plane tickets, I know students will love it. At each country we stop at along the way we will take a close look at how people from that country celebrate the holidays. These are some of my favorite lessons to do with studnets and this year it will be even better. This year in addition to readings, videos, doing a few […]
Summer in South Africa
Well I finally did it, I booked my flight to South Africa for two weeks this July! This will mark continent number six for me and be fulfilling a long time dream to travel to Africa. When my friend Christine asked me last spring if I was interested in traveling with her to South Africa this summer, I didn’t hesitate in telling her of course I would go! We talked about going and what we would do for months. And now talk has turned into action. It was time to make traveling there a reality. We finally sat down and […]