Summer...2009

What in the....?

I know...it has been months (months!! How did that happen?!). I can tell you how it happened...

* swine flu paranoia in Ecuador

* whirlwind tours of the USA from D.C. to California

* a swimming sensation that is six years old, and the Transformer's expert

* a beautiful 11 month old that fell in love with her uncle

* bbq's galore

* weekends away with the greatest of friends

* new bikes (Oh, Isis...I miss you already)

* let's be honest....Target, Costco, and the Patagonia outlet contributed to the silence

* 14 hour road trips

* napkin making

* concerts that had to be attended (I really do love you Josh Ritter. Really)

* books to purchase and read

* and, of course, all that repacking

* which only leads to all that unpacking

It's been a busy two and half months kids.

I'm Feeling a Teacher Geek Out Comin' On!

There are four weeks left of school (28 days counting weekends), and usually this benchmark is characterized by complete and utter exhaustion.  A little of the "I just need to make it through this day" attitude.  Past April/Mays of my teaching life have been filled with days where I am just trying to keep my head above water.  I'm tired, the kids are tired, we are all a little bit irritable, and patience doesn't seem to be a virtue that makes it on my list.  By the end of the year, I am so thankful for the break to just physically and emotionally recoup. 

But, this year....this year is proving to be different.

Thanks to some of my rockstar co-workers, I have been energized in an unaccountable way.  I'm talking a full-fledge teacher geek out, usually only experienced in the first few months of the school year.  Technology people, best motivator ever.

Here's the top five technology wonders currently making appearances in the Richert classroom:

1.  Voicethreads: These are awesome!  I can't even describe all the varied uses for them, you just have to check it out yourself.  This is a voicethread that was completed by my 6th and 7th grade classes.  I've only shown a couple of the kid's responses.  Needless to say, I think this is the most fun they have had talking about commas.  Please take pity on how my voice sounds when it is recorded.  Skip the first two or three slides so you can see the awesomeness of my students.   

I've used voicethreads with my Senior Lit. class as well.  It seemed to be a much less intimidating way to discuss Shakespeare.  

2.  Wikis:  For the past two years, I've tried to maintain blogs for all my classes with mixed results.  The blogs were a little difficult to present all the information I wanted, especially in a way that was the most beneficial for the kids.  I was getting frustrated, the kids weren't using the sites, and it was pretty much a disaster.  Then, my friends Jean and Jody introduced me to the wonderful world of Wikis.  These suckers have completely changed my classroom these last few weeks.  So easy to set up, so easy to maintain, and I've gotten a huge response from parents and students.  The kids have been so excited about it that they have no problem doing the hidden assignments found in the site.  Awesome.  Check out everything you can do:

First you can create an endless amount of pages for your wiki:

I have a blog page:

I have an assignment calendar page:

One of the coolest features of the wiki is being able to download any type of documents, word, powerpoints, pdf's, for the kids to access at home.  This has been a life-saver for my more organizational challenged students.  Also, it is helping to move our class to being paper-free.

I also have pages with videos, checklists, and webquests.  All of this took me about two hours to put together because it can all be done with a click of a button.  So cool.

3.  Wordle.net:  My kids are loving this site.  We use it in class as an easy way to check out the word choice in our writing, but the kids are using it on their own to create word art.  First, you copy what every text you want to check and paste it in the wordle window:

And, Wah-Lah....Word Art:

The words that appear the largest are the words that have been used the most.  You can also play around with the wordle, creating different looks and colors:

There is a drop-down menu that lets you change the layout, color, and font.  The kids are coming with new wordle's each day.  They've used their own writing, articles, poems, song lyrics, anything they can think of.  Evaluating our word choice has never been so pretty.

4.  Book trailers:  Wow!  Who came up with the idea to present books in the same vein as movies?  Absolutely brilliant.  I have kids watching them and coming up with must-read lists all on their own.  You can't help but get hooked into the book after seeing one of these suckers.  Youtube is a treasure trove for them.

5.  And finally, skitch.com.  This site provides the software that is allowing me to capture all these images and add arrows, text, and embed those new images into anything I want.  Unfortunately, skitch.com only works with macs right now.  

All of these technological gems have made the last two months of school just as energy filled as the first two months.  I think the kids and I just might survive these next four weeks, and have a lot of fun doing it.

Beach Shmeach

After an almost two year experiement in living, Dave and I have come to the conclusion that we are not beach people.  

Sand?  Not a fan.  

Being in a sea of people who, let's be honest, are a lot more confident in what they are wearing then they should be?  I can live without it, my eyes will forever thank me. (Seriously?  Speedos?  Why are people letting their friends leave the house in those?)  

Yes, the ocean is beautiful.  And big.  And just a little frightening with all those crashing waves that pull you under water and provide that "I've just been tossed into a washing machine during the speed cycle" feeling.

Besides that, I tend to burn.  And then freckle.  Not good.

I can't help it...I wasn't born to be enchanted by the swaying palm trees and shimmering sunsets.  I mean, I'm from Idaho.  Give me the mountains anyday.

And this is why Dave and I headed to Vilcabamba, Ecuador for Semana Santa, instead of following the rest of Ecuador to the coast.  There were no blasted sand flies, no sand collections in unexpected, and uncomfortable, places, and no salt water up the nose.  There was only mountain ranges, hiking excursions, a horseback ride, and a lot of reading. 

 Vilcabamba in a word?  Paradise. 

The mountains were beautiful, the weather perfect, the trails extensive (though a little muddy in some areas), and adventures plentiful.  Our days went something like this....breakfast, exploring of some kind, back to town for a delicious and cheap lunch, reading, napping, card playing, dinner, reading, card playing, you get the idea.  Of course, laughing was also a major part of the day.

We stayed at this beautiful hostel called Le Rendez-Vous.  There were only eight rooms, with the most comfortable beds I have EVER slept on, each with a hammock outside.  The rooms also surrounded a beautiful courtyard; our room had an avocado tree in front of it that had the biggest avocados I have ever seen.  They also delivered a delicious breakfast to our room each morning, and encouraged lazing about.  Notice, on the sign above, that they had "hot water at will."  Sometimes, our will was not especially strong.  

All in all, despite the occasional cold shower, it was pretty wonderful.  Not a sand strip in sight.

Because We Can Look at the Scary Eye Picture For Only So Long...

Meet our new little friend...

He likes bikes too.

Whew...What a Week

Dave and I have been housebound the last week.  Let me tell you, an unexpected week off of work is not always as enjoyable as you would think.  

Living in a developing nation, you have to be willing to accept some unpleasant things that are going to come your way.  You will be robbed at some point, just go with the flow.  Your plans will never go as expected (What?  You don't have my hotel reservation?  Or the $50 deposit I have already made?).  And, you will contract some awful virus or bacteria.  Guaranteed.  The latter is what struck the Richert's this past week.

Yep, right there is just your basic case of conjunctivitis (a.k.a. pink eye).  I know, gross.  We are pretty sure that it found its way to us via Ecuador's stellar bus system.  I began noticing the problem on the way home from our relaxing eco-resort getaway.  Thinking that something had flown into my eye due to the open windows of the bus, I worried it like nothing else trying to get it out.  This is what caused the extensive hemorrhaging in my left eye, causing me to look like a demon possessed extra in some horror film.  Not my best look.  

By Monday morning, my eye had completely swollen shut and the school doctor quickly sent me to an optometrist.  This is where I learned that conjunctivitis is extremely contagious, that it can be contracted through the air, and that it takes six to ten days to recover from.  Uhmm...excuse me, what?  That is beyond my worst nightmare.  You see, I'm a bit of a germ-a-phobe, (Molly, I can hear you laughing at me right now) which doesn't always work for me living in Ecuador.  I've been washing my hands obsessively, especially because some fever disease has been making its way through our school community, and this woman tells me this virus is airborne?  Are you kidding me?  

I went right home, armed with three different types of eye drops, and have been here ever since.  Dave came down with it on Monday night and has been suffering with me.  We missed classes, parent/teacher conferences, and had to back out of chaperoning activities.  We've been playing a lot of cards, watching (mainly listening to those first couple of days) a lot of movies, and once our eyes stopped watering and gooing, doing a lot of reading.  I'm exhausted.

The highlight definitely was receiving the get-well card from the 6th and 7th graders at school.  Our friend Sarah helped them make it.  There are pictures of each kid next to a little written message.  Man, they are hilarious.  I laughed so hard that I cried my eye-drops out.  ("I hope you come back soon.  The substitute is getting mad at us; I think she is getting stressed").

Okay, here is the lesson kids:  It doesn't always matter what we do to try to avoid what we are afraid of; sometimes it is going to fly right straight into our eye anyways.  Maybe it isn't what we do to avoid our little fears, but how we survive them that matters.

Carnival Adventures (Or: What I Meant My Last Post To Be About)

I know that my adventures are not in the same vein as this.  But, come on, can the Amazon really compete with:

Hanging out with a superhero who just happens to be an Ecuador futbol fan as well.

Making the ever delicious treat of the "Gaby Sandwich"

Being in awe of "Super-Mom" (A.K.A. Cousin Kira...and yes, those are all her adorable children)

Finally getting rid of my own personal heating system. 

Spotting something uniquely Idaho.  (A live bait vending machine?  Are you serious?)

There was the re-stocking of reading material. (Man, I love Barnes and Noble)

And let's not forget about the shopping.

There was also having coffee and dinner with friends, the frazzled transition from speaking Spanish to English whenever ordering food, and the beauty of finally getting to flush my toilet paper (though I did have to tell myself to flush it and not throw it away Every. Single. Time.  Too much information?)  

It was a wonderful, restful, break full of family, fun, laughter, and pure joy at seeing baseball fields and snow again.  It's the little things.