Visiting with Brian's family in Iowa

I have a week off from school for Thanksgiving break and I am spending it with Brian and Leila and the girls.  It has been a very busy week so far.  Sunday the new baby, Rebecca Jane, was blessed.

She is a happy baby and is smiling and cooing already.  Actually I cannot believe she is two months old already.

Aleah was a star performer for the Thanksgiving Day play, Sarah Josepha Hale, the women that petitioned Pres. Abraham Lincoln to set aside a special day for Thanksgiving.  They had three different performances in one day. She had all of her lines memorized and did great.

Today Aleah was baptized.  She was so excited.  The girls were all pretty wound up and bedtime was a welcome relief for parents, but it was a wonderful day.  I am glad to be able to be here.

Five granddaughters.  I have been getting my share of hugs and baby holding.

Back in Idaho

Fun in the mud at Anna's.  This seemed to be the favorite activity whenever I came to visit in the month of September.

My sisters and mom during a short visit by Sandra.

Carving pumpkins with Anna's boys.

Time with Jon

Monday I drove to Twin to see Jon's family.  I took Rylan and Merek with me.  They were so good.  Merek did not have any potty accidents and there was no crying or fighting.  Rylan was so cute while riding in my car.  He kept telling Merek, "You must be nice to grandma's car, because grandma's car is SPECIAL."

Jon read everyone stories and then it was bedtime.  Rylan and Merek slept on the floor in sleeping bags.

The next day, we took the kids to the lake to play and then stopped at Shoshone Falls.  Lots of water going over the falls for August.

The kids had lots of time to play with cousins.  I had lots time to visit with Jon and Charlotte.

Home is where my car is

I am back in Idaho.   It feels like coming home because I have family and friends here, I have lived here for most of my life.  But it is also has a lot of newness.  I am not moving into my house (for a variety of reasons), so I have a new place to live.  I am staying with Anna and Mike and their five, busy children.

They have a big house with lots of room, in fact, they have an apartment attached where I can have my own personal space.  Mike is busy getting it ready for occupancy, so I have been sleeping on the couch for now and living out of my suitcase.  

Because I am at Anna's, I have been attending church with her family and not my home ward in Boise, so I am finding a new ward family also.

I also am not returning to my old teaching assignment at Frank Church High School.  I will be teaching at Boise High School starting next week.  It was hard to leave Frank Church.  I have taught there (and at Mountain Cove) for 19 years.  But it must be a time for a change.  I am excited about my new assignment at Boise High.  I have been there for a more than a week meeting with other math teachers to plan our curriculum and get ready for the new school year and it is going to be a great group of professionals to work with.  

Anna and I took the three little ones to the Splash Park while Mike took the big boys to the car races the other night.  Here are a few pictures.  

Train ride to see Marc

After all of my things left on the moving truck, I took one more train ride to Albany, New York to Marc, Heidi, Ashlyn, and Morgan.  While there we went camping at Walters Glen and hiked the gorge.  It was fun.  The camp ground had lots of great camp sites with place for tents, picnic table, and fire pits.  There were also showers and flush toilets close by.  Morgan's favorite was the swimming pool.  Here are some pictures of our adventures.

Morgan let me braid her hair.

Heidi putting up her tent.

There were stairs cut into the trail, lots and lots of stairs.

There were at least 8 waterfalls.

Lots of beautiful pools cut into the rock.

Checking out a blister.

Last week at NSF

After I got back from Korea, I had one week to finish up my fellowship at NSF.  It was full of goodbyes, cleaning out my desk, computer, and office, awards, and a goodbye party.  Turning in my security badge the last day really made it final.  I could not enter the building again without my badge.  This has been such an experience to live in DC and work at NSF and be a part of the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship for two years.  I still cannot believe I got to do it, but I am so glad I did.  Maybe I will write a book some day.

My team received the Director's Collaboration Award for the CS Bytes and Bites Publication.

Dr. Suresh, Director of National Science Foundation congratulating me on the award.

My mentor and friend, Harriet Taylor.  I will be forever grateful to her for making this NSF fellowship possible for me.

My division have a party for me and and others that were leaving.  It is a tradition for my division, that when someone leaves they write and sing an original song for the occasion.  

The day before I was leaving, someone broke into my apartment and made a mess of my boxes that I had already for shipping.

The final day, my things are being loaded on the truck for shipping to Boise, Idaho.

Post-Congress Workshop

One of the most exciting opportunities that I had as an Einstein Fellow was the invite to participate in a three day post Congress workshop with U.S. and Korean educators.  There were 20 from the U.S. and about 30 from Korea.  We met at the National University of Korea and the focus of the workshop was on curriculum and classroom implementation.  The format of our meetings was for U.S. to start with a 30 minute overview of our education system, followed by small group discussion for 10 minutes, then large group question and discussion for an hour and a half.  Then the Koreans would have a 30 minute presentation with small and large group discussion.  This pattern continued for two and a half days.  We talked about curriculum, textbooks, classrooms, teacher preparation and more.  The Koreans had a hard time understanding our system of local control with districts and school boards and the limited influence of state and Federal.  They have national curriculum and textbooks, so every school teaches the same thing and uses the same books.  I could write a whole paper on what I learned (and I am writing it and will provide a link to it when I finish if you are interested).

Food was a big deal and I have several pictures of my eating experiences.  A small group of us also ventured out at night to try our hand at karaoke.

National University of Korea where the workshop was held.

Some of the Korean teachers at the workshop.

One evening we all went to eat roast duck Korean style.  The tables were low and we sat on the floor on little mats.

Koreans have lots of little dishes for sauces and pickles and other sides.  It is communal eating and everyone eats out of the same dishes.

Night life on Friday night.  The three people on the bottom left are with me.  We were looking for someplace that had karaoke.  They would not let me take any more pictures that evening.  "What happens in Korea, stays in Korea."

Lunch at the university wit the Korean and U.S. teams.

International Congress of Mathematical Education

The reason I was in Korea was to attend the International Congress of Mathematical Education.  It was a great experience.  I brought a poster to present on Programs where teachers, students, and researchers partner together.  I highlighted three such programs that have been very successful and are funded by NSF.  It was pretty cool to present at an International conference.

I was able to meet with several Korean teachers and we had long conversations about what classrooms and schools are like in each country.  They were so kind and gracious and took us to eat.  Teachers in Korea work very hard and is very prestigious to be a teacher.  For every twenty students that apply to be a teacher, only one is chosen.  It is very difficult to get to be a teacher.  The college courses required are much more vigorous than for teachers in the U.S.  

One day of the congress was for cultural excisions.  For mine, we took a bullet train to the center section of Korea in the rural areas away from the large cities.  We visited a Buddhist temple, a summer resort area for royalty, and an ancient observatory that is very famous in Korea.