Fernbank Field Trip

The dinosaurs give me a shock of pleasure. Yes, I know they aren't real, but seeing their massive bodies looming overhead makes me imagine what life would have been like with these beasts running the earth.  And yes, I know humans and dinosaurs didn't live on earth together, but I can imagine if they had, the sight of the Giganotosaurus above with his mouth openwide would have been my last.

Thankfully, I'm just standing in the middle of the great hall at Fernbank with giant bones over my head, but I love playing these pretend games as I walk with the kids through a museum.  Fernbank Musuem lends itself to many make-believe moments.  We used to visit almost monthly when the kids were little and I wasn't teaching fulltime so it had to be one of our first sabbatical field trips.  I'm pleased to write that it still holds many treasures close to my heart, but has undergone a facelift, too, which made it even more enjoyable.

When they were little, the kids were on my time.  I strolled my captive audience to exhibits I wanted to see and then ended our trip in the children's area.  Traveling with a twelve, ten and eight year old doesn't work that way.  Now it was the parents turn to be drug about willy-nilly.  My girls made a beeline to the traveling exhibit, Mythic Creatures.  Perfect for fans of Harry Potter or Pirates of the Caribbean, Mythic Creatures explores the origins of dragons, unicorns, mermaids and even the Kraken.  The exhibit also traces how these creatures still exist in our culture through art, dance, and (thanks greatly to J.K. Rowling) literature.  We were entralled with the artifacts from around the world, but as a teacher, I appreciated the video explanations to help capture my kids' attention and get them to stop, listen and learn.  As most parents know when visiting a museum with kids, rarely do they ever stop and read the information about a display.  I think that is why the movie, Night at the Museum, was such an interesting idea.  Everyone, young and old, would love to experience a living museum.  If the unicorn and mermaid had come to life on our visit to Fernbank, my girls would have died happy.

Next, we went straight to the new children's area, NatureQuest.  Boy, were we impressed!  When we last visited, the children's area consisted of two separate rooms, one for toddlers to preschoolers and one for school age children.  Kids could move a few things like building blocks and fake worms to feed baby birds and there was a tree to climb inside.  That was basically it.  NatureQuest takes up almost half of the top floor and enables kids of all ages to interact with many of Earth's habitats.  There was the ocean ecosystem where you feel like you are really underwater thanks to lighting effects and a docked boat "floating" above you.  Emma loved the underwater hunt game where she successfully identified several ocean creatures.  Anabel went straight to the tree walk and discoverd a hidden microscope station to explore insects living in the tree.  There was even a secret reading room nearby for older kids to escape the scampering of smaller feet.  Wyatt got lost in the riverbed ecosystem.  (Literally, he couldn't find us after he finished exploring the river creatures' homes.)  Greg and I enjoyed exploring ourselves.  I loved splashing in the creek made of light. Yes!  It moved and splashed as I walked through it!  While Anabel and Wyatt let curiosity lead their ways, Greg and Emma explored the hands-on activities together with Greg explaining the hows and whys each time she asked.  Again, as a teacher, I was impressed with the engaging activities set up in NatureQuest that allow for kids personal discoveries.  The exhibit explores lifecycles of animals, plants and rocks and how all cometogether to create a habitat and separate ecosystems.  Parents need to just relax and let kids take their time.  Hopefully, kids won't "run through" this exhibit.

Another hands-on permanent exhibit, Sensing Nature, was next on the kids' to-do list.  Just across the great hall, they adore playing with everything in this third floor room.  Bubbles, bubble, bubbles!  The kids can't get enough of the giant bubbles where this exhibit begins.  Then, they head straight to all the stations in the room that explore and explain how our mind and senses work together to make sense of what we see, feel, smell, taste, and hear.   All visitors must try each station, but the sound domes are the coolest and still amaze me even though I have done it a hundred times.  It works with one person sitting in one concave cutout on the wall and another person going to the other concave cutout all the way across the room.  Sitting in the seats, you can carry on a conversation with each other!  It is amazing!  There can be tons of people talking and interacting between the two domes, but you can still hear eachother.  The next area of the room is weather.  Our kids love the tornado demonstration and pretending to be a meteorologist live on the air.  The green screen set up is always fun, but we had to wait for some big kids (a.k.a. two dads)to finish their weather broadcast.

We finished our visit with a run through time in Georgia.  "A Walk through Time in Georgia" is a wonderful permanent exhibit, but there are little to no interactive or hands-on displays so my kids tend to run.  They can make it through several million years in under 4 minutes!  Now that's talent!  Each trip, Greg and I try to make them stop and read at least one thing in the exhibit, but this time we were too tired.  I wanted to stop at the opening movie, but it wasn't working.  Greg always tells the kids of how his grandfather donated local crows to the exhibit and has pointed them out to the kids so many times that they spotted them this time before he could.  They were listening after all.

The best thing about Fernbank is that it is always changeing.  Mythic Creatures ends August 14 and the new exhibit Darwin opens September 24.  We'll definitely be back for that.

I recommend becoming members of Fernbank especially if you have children.  Regular admission is $17.50 for adults and $15.50 for kids ages 3-12.  Regular IMAX admission is $13 and $11.  For our family of five one day admission would have been $81.50.  We joined as a family for $95 and can go as often as we like for one year and go to any IMAX movies for $8 each additionally.  Membership also includes admission to Fernbank Science Center with free admission to the planetarium.  We will be going there soon.  The kids and I can learn about the cosmos and Greg can catch up on his sleep.

Wyatt's World at SIG

Hi!  Wyatt here...

This summer I went to a three week camp at Emory University.  I took 5 different classes there.

My first period was spying. It was so fun! I learned how to fool a lie detector and went on a big mission all around campus.

My second period was self defense. It was taught by Matthew Schwab and he is a real judo teacher. He has a judo school thingy in Midtown. We learned different throws and pins. It was so cool!

Third period was gaming. It is taught by Mrs. Brooks (a.k.a. My Mom). We did lots of games such as.....
parkour, mancala, chess, quiddich for muggles ( I was the seeker - see pic), scratch game making thing(bet you don't know what that is.) and senet. It was one of my favorite classes.

I caught the snitch in Quidditch for Muggles!

Then, lunch ... lunch lunch lunch. On most days we go to the DUC(Dobbs Univevsity Center) which is a buffet with things like a salad bar, sandwitch making spot, and ice cream!! On Wednesdays, however, we go to Cox Hall where they serve chick fil a, pizza hut, dooley's( buffulo wings and burgers), a mexican place, sushi, smoothies, and krispie kreme donuts.

Well then my fourth period was fencing. It was fun. We learned different moves like an advance, a retreat, a lunge, an advance lunge, a bolestra and other stuff. It was so fun. I got second place in the final tornament and there were 14 year olds! (I'm only 10.)

My 5th class was going to court. We learned stuff about court and we did a trial where the crime was someone in our class kidnapped Justin Bieber!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

After classes we did rec hour. It is basicly recess. We would pick out an activity to do like basketball, field and lounge. Then after that commuters go home. It was really fun.

SIG Happens

Wyatt and I have been SIG campers for a week now.  He is loving every minute of it and I am finally feeling like I can breathe.  While he enjoys the stimulation of a multitude of new classes and material he has never seen before, I am struggling to create lessons for classes I have never taught before.

Even though I am unsure of my curriculum, I love the SIG methodology for teachers!  It gives you so much freedom to meet the objectives of the teacher and the student without having to worry about a stupid state test.   Basically, I create objectives for the course and then the student creates a personal objective.  We meet and discuss how the activities created by the teacher and chosen by the student can meet all objectives.  How empowering for the student and the teacher!  This week has almost made me like teaching again... Almost.  But I still hate the hours.

The four classes I am teaching are Word Power, Gaming through the Centuries, SIG Apprentice, and Thinking Outside and Beyond the Box.

Word Power is basically expanding the student's vocabulary by researching and using Latin and Greek root word derivations.  I have introduced them to Sarah Kay and the power of spoken word poetry.  She was a hit!  If you haven't heard of her, check out her Ted Talk: Sarah Kay Ted Talk  We'll be using their root word derivations dictionaries to create many new products from their Word Power Menu over the next two weeks.

I have Wyatt in my class for Gaming through the Centuries.  This is a new class to SIG so I really got to come up with my own idea of what the class should be.  I started this week with ancient board games - learning how to play the game as well as why each culture created a particular game.  I think the anthropology lessons in this class are more interesting than just learning new games.  The first thing I noticed about the gifted kids in this class is that they may know a lot about playing games, but they do not know anything about gamesmanship.  So while teaching them Senet, Mancala, and Chess, I have had to work very hard to teach them that when playing a game someone is going to lose.  You win some, you lose some.  Deal with it!  Wyatt likes to win as much as anyone, but he has always handled losing well.  Since he was very small we started a rule in our home: the winner puts the game away.  Trust me, no winner gloats for very long while putting tiny pieces back correctly.  If you would like to learn about ancient board games, check out this link: Ancient Board Games  Next week, we look at ancient and modern sports.  I have planned a quidditch match for next Friday so say a prayer for me!

SIG Apprentice has been so much fun!  I get to be Donald Trump and give my 6 young business women competitions to see who gets to be the Apprentice and who hear's, "You're Fired!"  This week's competitions were "Pulling the Strings," "Eco-Friendly Photo Debate", and "Picture Frame Business Plan."  Pulling the strings is a cooperative learning lesson for team building where teams must work together pulling strings attached to a pen to play tic-tac-toe.  Very funny and revealing about personalities right off the bat.  The photo debate idea came to me as I was walking around the Emory campus and seeing signs everywhere about how "Green" Emory is.  I thought we should put it to the test.  I sent one team with their phone cameras to find all signs of eco-friendly practices on campus and the other team to find all signs of waste.  It was a close debate, but waste won, unfortunately.  These high school students really impressed me with our last competition of the week.  Teams created and mass produced a picture frame design and then created a business plan for their new company.  I feel very good about our future business leaders.  Their presentations were awesome!  If you'd like to see where we are:   Emory Campus Tour

My last class of the day is Thinking Outside and Beyond the Box.  I love teaching this class!  It has been so much fun sharing creative thinking strategies and new perspectives with these young gifted minds.  I even got to impress them with my own adventure into inventing when I showed them my Full Bathtub Website.  We will have our own invention convention before the end of camp.  I can't wait to see what creative ideas these kids come up with!  How creative are you?  Try the exercises I did in class: Creative Thinking Exercises

Hope I have wowed you with SIG!  Next, I'll let Wyatt tell of his impressions so stay tuned!

First SIG, then Sabbatical

Wyatt at SIG with Emory's mascot- Dooley

First SIG, then Sabbatical!  First SIG, then Sabbatical!  This is my new mantra... this and Focus and Finish!  I am very distracted by other committments which has made me extremely grumpy and not a fun person to be around.  I am trying to tackle one thing at a time to prevent adult onset ADD.  So now do my new mantras make sense?

This sabbatical year is about new adventures and breaking out of the same old routines.  I have never taught summer school much less taught at a summer camp for the gifted.  This is definitely a new regime.

How did I get myself into this you may ask? (Believe me, my husband has asked me that about a thousand times this past week.) It all started innocently enough.  While attending the National Association for the Gifted Children (NAGC) convention in Atlanta this past fall, I met the coordinator for the Summer Institute for the Gifted (SIG).  When I saw they had a camp at Emory University, I was interested in sending our son, Wyatt.  The coordinator suggested that I teach while Wyatt attends to off set the expense of the camp.  Great Idea!  But no way would I give up three+ weeks of the summer if I were starting back to teach the last week of July when pre-planning begins for teachers in Cherokee County.  When we decided to take our sabbatical leap of faith in April, I applied for a teaching position with SIG and registered Wyatt for the camp.  So here we are at orientation.

Classes begin tomorrow.

First SIG, then Sabbatical....

When Will The Sabbatical Begin?

Our Fripp Island Rental Home

I think at this point I want to know the answer to this question as much as most of the people who know about our field trip year plan.  The current answer - "NO TIME SOON!"

Yes, we both quit our jobs and yes, school is out for the summer.  However, the details of making major changes in our family life daunts our waking hours.  Greg is a detail man and I am a big picture woman.  Somewhere in the middle of both our minds we will get it done, but right now, I'm not so sure.

We began the summer with... WORK!  We went to one of our rental properties to ready the home for the summer rental season.  [For those of you who don't know, Greg and I own and manage our own property rental business.  It is not a big business by any stretch having only 4 properties to take care of, but making a go of it in this economy means we have to do most of the improvements and upkeep of the homes ourselves.  Our only vacation rental property is on Fripp Island in South Carolina.]  Owning a home near the ocean means you must work, work, work.  During this week, we have pressure washed the whole exterior, caulked and painted porch posts, hung new curtains, replaced all bedding, installed two new bunk beds, updated pictures and decor, and created a back porch retreat off the master suite.  Hopefully, these upgrades will keep the house rentals up and help fund our field trip year!

While at Fripp, my next hurdle looms large... teaching at the Summer Institute for the Gifted.  Instead of playing golf and relaxing with the family, I must plan lessons for my first season teaching with SIG which I will begin as soon as we return.  Lesson planning at the beach leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  How do I get myself into more work when I am trying to work less???

Leaving My Students Easier, Thanks to Mrs. Beverly!

Packing up my career life of the past 6 years (15 years in my total teaching life) is harder than I thought it would be.  I am lost in the details... end paperwork, posting grades, packing personal curriculum, organizing school's materials, storing supplies, storing materials and storing more supplies... teacher's have a lot of stuff!

Thanks to the smiles and cheers of my students and coworkers, leaving is emotionally easy.  While I am going to miss all of my gifted and talented students (some of whom I have taught for four years), I feel so good about the hands in which I am leaving them, Mrs. Beverly.

Of course, I haven't always felt so great about Mrs. Beverly.

Due to budget cuts last school year, I left the comfort (now a luxury) of teaching at only one school and stretched myself to serve an additional 46 students at Macedonia Elementary.  There, I met Mrs. Beverly with whom I was forced to team teach.  I walked in with a chip on my shoulder the size of Stone Mountain.   I detested the idea of teaching in the same room with another teacher.  To be honest, I thought it was a complete waste of time for one teacher.  I did not work well with others and had no desire for self-improvement in this area.   While I was grumpy about this development at the time, I realize now how fortunate I was to have the opportunity to work with such a gifted educator and to make a wonderful new friend at the same time.  Beverly, ever patient, smiled and nodded at my extemporaneous speech about how I taught: my beliefs and methods. How I was doing it my way and she could "go up an alley and holler fish" to quote Gomer Pyle.  I made my point as congenially as possible, being a Southener, but Beverly got my point.  Over that school year, she let me whirl about the room my way, but showed me the way to teach with precision.  I learned to slow down and listen to the students and to weight my objectives equally with theirs.  She was also my therapist.  Each morning and afternoon, she listened to my non-stop narrative of our insane life of sports practices, dance and music lessons, church activities and band practices; the life of non-stop working to give meaning to family.  She helped me see the maddness in our modern family life.

I look at that year now as my therapy year.  I should pay her a counseling fee, but don't tell her that; we need the money for traveling.

This school year, I missed the luxury of having two teachers in a classroom of 27 gifted students.  The budget crisis increased along with my class size.  Gifted classrooms went from having a maximum class size of 17 to 25 in two years.  Next year, the new maximum size is 33.  Thirty-three gifted and talented children in one room with only one teacher to attempt to meet their needs and answer their unending questions is what's really insane!  But it is no longer my problem. :-)

Thank you, Beverly, for your support, your encouragement and your friendship!  You are lucky to work with these incredible kids and they are so lucky to work with you!

Affirmations and Overwhelming Support

Amazing!  Unbelieveable!  The overwhelming support for our Field Trip Year (my new term for our family sabbatical) affirms our faith in following our dream!

When Greg and I turned in our resignations, we expected hesitant acceptance, if not an outright dour attitude toward our decision.  Instead, we met excitement and encouragement (I hadn't seen them in a long time these long lost friends!)  Most people we have told are thrilled with our prospects and supportive of our plans.  New opportunities sprung up with each conversation.  One teacher friend spoke with her mother about our sabbatical and she offered her home on Long Island, New York as a free stopping point on our journeys up the east coast!  Another friend's parents have a vacation home near Tempe, Arizona and have graciously said we could stay there for part of our southwestern field trip.

These encourageing offers have started new ideas stirring in my head.... Could we trade our vacation home on Fripp Island during the off season for other homes in America and abroad?

This is the most excited I have been about our future in years!  We both feel this is the beginning of something wonderful for our whole family... What were we worried about again?