Happy Book

Over the spring break of my senior year of high school, I volunteered in Pearlington, Mississippi with a group of people from my school district to build houses for those who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. We traveled the 18-hour bus ride, slept in an empty elementary school on wooden bunk beds, used porta potties, and showered in sulfar water that smelled like rotten eggs. It was the best week of my life.

The elementary school we stayed at in Pearlington.

Only part of the group of students that went on the trip.

One of the girls on the trip had a simple notebook she called her Happy Book. She passed it around throughout the week and explained the rules:

• Pick up the number where the previous person left off
• Create a list of things that make you happy, it does not matter what it is
• Sign and date your entry

Needless to say, this book was a huge hit. We brought the Happy Book idea to our high school. I created Happy Books for friends on their birthdays, writing lists of a hundred or more things that made me happy. Some friends even put pictures in my Happy Book, turning it into somewhat of a scrapbook of memories. I brought my Happy Book with me to college, constantly reading through the entries my freshman year because my friends were at different universities. It was a great way to feel connected to my friends.

I've decided to make an entry in my Happy Book this week, reminiscing my college life. I plan on asking my close friends to put in their own entries as well (get ready, guys!). This is such a simple way to have friends contribute to your book of memories. Go ahead and try it!

Just some examples of entries in the Happy Book.

Google Earth

As I said in one of my earlier posts, the reason why I am obsessed with new technology and how to utilize it in my teaching career is stemmed from the technology course I took at KU this past summer. Each class was filled with 3 hours of technological discovery, creating projects, and looking at my classmate's work as well. It was a busy 3 weeks, but completely worth it in my eyes.

In previous semesters, I have experimented with iMovie and such for projects. I was actually pretty proud of a video presentation I created and editted with three other classmates about Least Restrictive Environment, having never officially learned the basics of the program. In this summer course, I was able to go back to iMovie and learn more about the program, creating numerous videos about my selected curriculum unit: The Rainforest.

The last grade for this class was a 20-minute presentation over a technological program of my choice. I was lucky enough to have first pick, choosing Google Earth. As my roommate can tell you, I spent hours upon hours watching tutorial videos about the program, reading its blog, downloading layers from the blog, and creating my presentation. I could have spent 5 hours presenting this amazing program, but had to keep it down to my 20-minute maximum. To do this, I had my classmates discover areas on their own, showed them only a couple of the basics of the program (that alone could take an hour), and created an iMovie about Google Earth.

The amazing thing about this program is there are different "layers" available constantly for different uses. There was even a layer for the oil spill this past year! It tracked the progress of the area, showing how the oil spread. Google Earth allows for great instruction at any age. Obviously it is used to teach geography and math, but there are other subjects to teach as well. There is an option to go back in time to see an area in past years. This is a great history component of Google Earth. There was also a program where high school students were able to create their own 3-dimensional buildings for the program, integrating architecture and computer programing into the lesson.

I encourage all of you out there to have some fun with Google Earth. It's a free download, enjoyable, and is helpful for future traveling and directions if nothing else.

I can obviously talk forever about this program, but instead, I will leave you with the video I created for class.

Graduation

I'm sorry it has been a little while since my last post. My days have been filled with curriculum projects, completing a workout challenge at my university's rec center, and working my job on campus. Because these aspects have been filling my schedule, the lingering graduation weekend has crept up on me. In a mere 4 days, the University of Kansas graduation weekend begins! A weekend filled with anxiety for what is to come, tears for the many goodbyes, and excitement for the next chapter in my life.

It is hard not feel nostalgic lately. It seems like just yesterday I graduated high school, said goodbye to my close friends and came to Lawrence, Kansas alone to start my college career. I was thrown into the college life and loved every minute of it. Through these past four years, I have been fortunate enough to experience so many things. I joined a sorority unexpectedly and was elected to numerous leadership positions, including Vice President of Internal Affairs, helped plan a philanthropy event that raised over $3,000 for Prevent Child Abuse America, dealt with unexpected deaths, witnessed the Jayhawks win the National Championship in basketball my freshman year, volunteered, spent time in numerous elementary schools, fell in love, learned to be even more independent than I already was, traveled to Israel, became inspired by a group of people in the School of Education, ate more sushi than I ever have or will in my entire life, and met the best friends that will continue to be there for me, even though we may have distance in the upcoming years.

My pledge class in the sorority.

My 5 best friends throughout college.

It is nice to know that with the advancements of technology, I am able to keep in touch with my friends, especially since we are all from varying states. Through social networks, cell phones, Skype, and even blogs I am able to keep my friends updated on my life, although it is fun to get some snail mail now and then.

Once I move back home to St. Louis, I plan on concentrating on a few projects this summer, one of them being this blog. I want to "beef" it up and add some interesting content for those of you out there who are interested. Until then, I am planning on cherrishing this next week with my best friends and absorbing the last few moments of true college life that I have.

T-6 days until I walk down the hill. Let's do this.

The hill I will be walking down on campus for graduation.