Connect, Collaborate, Create- CUE 2016

Not only was it my first time at CUE it was my first time presenting as well....yikes!

My first experience with CUE kicked off on Thursday morning in the most perfect way, listening to keynote speaker, Brad Montague, the creator of Kid President. During his 45 minute speech I laughed, I cried, I got angry, I started craving a corndog, I got the urge to donate all of my socks, I laughed again and then I cried again...and this was all before 10am. Brad really set the tone for my expectations of my CUE weekend and left me feeling hopeful that change is moving through our education system. At the end of the keynote I decided to take Brad's advice and "Treat everybody like it's their birthday" this weekend, little did I know that the other 6,000 attendees decided to do the same!

                                                                   My first CUE badge! 

Brad Montague-Keynote Speaker March 17, 2016

My first day was by far my most memorable because I, yes me, yes My (sorry, I couldn't help myself), presented on the BIG stage in Oasis 4 with four of the most incredible women! We had the opportunity to listen to so many teachers share their stories about their students, about what they do in their classroom, about problems they see facing girls in STEAM education and most importantly about what they are DOING about the problem and brainstorming solutions!

Rebecca, Anne, Kristy and DeJuana the main stage!! 

So honored to work with such amazing humans

Answer Garden word cloud from the audience about why girls ways 

we can encourage girls to be empowered. 

The rest of the weekend was filled with lots of learning, exploring, and socializing, I mean collaborating ;) I learned new tools for movie making and media use, new apps and applications for media and photography, learned ways to encourage and develop healthier school cultures, learned about Google maps and its applications in the classroom, learned about the importance of getting girls to code,  and last but not least I learned about blogging (this is my first official blog post as an educator).

Learning to use our phones as a lens to see

the world. Giving students the chance to be creative and expressive.

Tom Murray showing us why education needs innovated leaders. 

As the weekend comes to an end. I am left feeling rejuvenated and inspired. I have been in the presence of educators who share my love of children and see the full potential that kids have, and I know great things are going to happen. I connected, I collaborated and I created.

Bats, Macroinvertebrates, and Rapids are Amazing!

After a delicious breakfast, we began our morning by checking on the traps we had set for the bat droppings. There were many samples to collect. Each sample was carefully analyzed to separate the seeds from the fruit from the other stuff. Then, using a microscope and a field guide, we identified as many seeds as we could. Everyone was amazed to see how different each type of seed looked.

The data collected helps to provide evidence to support that bats do indeed drop seeds in open areas and the majority of these seeds come from the surrounding garden plants. Bats are extremely important to the forest ecosystem. Pollinating and planting means that the forest can continue to produce and thrive. We LOVE bats!

Then the really exciting parts of the day began. We headed down to the Sarapiqui River to test the water quality and catch macroinvertebrates. Our research determined that the water quality is fair in this area. Everything here is so focused on sustainability and protecting the environment. It is inspiring. After some time to relax and a delicious lunch, we loaded the van to head to another exciting adventure...white water rafting. It had been raining all day which helped to feed the river. Class 2 and 3 rapids greeted us and it was a blast. All smiles and excitement as we floated along and navigated the rapids. There were so many great pictures from today that we had to share with a short video. Enjoy!

Arenal Volcano to Sarapiqui

We were up early this morning for our hike along through the Arenal National Park. We walked along a lava flow from 1992. The secondary forest was beautiful. We were lucky that it was overcast and there was a bit of rain. This kept us cool and relatively bug-free on our walk. We saw so many different types of plants, birds, and insects.

Our amazing driver, Mauricio, spotted a sloth! We were so excited to see this critter who sleeps 18 hours a day!

 After our hike, we were taken to Casona Rio Fortuna Cultural Center. We were greeted by the founder, Eli Herrera. She told us the history of the casona. Built by President Rafael Yglesius Castro at the end of the 1800s, the home is now a cultural center that provides education and outreach. Visitors are warmly welcomed to come learn, cook, and enjoy delicious food and music. The proceeds from tourism are used to support local schools. Currently over 230 students are being educated using funds raised.

Soon we were off to Sarapiqui. We made a pit stop at Las Iguanas, aptly named for the dozens of iguanas that call the trees home. We fueled up on delicious ice cream and continued on our way.


We are staying at the Sarapiquis Rainforest Lodge along the Tirimbina River. The Tirimbina Biological Reserve is an educational, ecotourism, research site. Students, visitors, and scientists come from around the world to study the incredible biodiversity found here. Upon arrival, we were taken to the conference center and we met Michael who taught us about the diversity of bats and the research being done on bats right now. We set traps to collect bat guano so that we can analyze the seeds in the droppings. Scientists want to find out about the relationship between bats and seed dispersal in the rainforest.

setting guano traps

these traps will collect bat droppings

we hope to get lucky so we can investigate the seeds in the droppings in the morning

We had some time to relax before dinner and heading back to meet Michael to set up the mist nets in the hopes of catching bats. We learned even more amazing facts about bats and had the chance to see the Honduran White Tent Making Bat! This is a very rare bat species. It was absolutely adorable and is smaller than your thumb!


We checked out mist net and had no luck catching any other bats, but seeing this one bat was worth all the effort. Tomorrow we will go back to analyze the guano, perform water quality testing, and collect macroinvertebrates all before heading to the river for some rafting. Another busy day ahead!

Ziplining, Bungee Jumping, and Hot Springs, OH MY!

Talk about a day filled with adventure and adrenalin! We awoke to a beautiful morning in Monteverde. Our guide, Mariela, tells us that 70% of the time, it is raining here, but today it is sunny and bright. Fabulous weather for ziplining, which will be our first adventure of the day. After another gourmet breakfast buffet, we load into the van for a short drive up the mountain to Sky Trek. Soon we are dressed in our gear and ready to fly through the clouds.

Gina

Zoe

Olivia

Mr. Dan

Mrs. Nguyen zipping above the forest.

Anxiously waiting their next turn

Keira and Nancy 

Emma and Shreya

Yep, we were that high and flew far...there were 8 ziplines!

At the end, some of us decided to take a quicker way down instead of the last zipline...a bungee jump!

Adrenalin sure makes you hungry and we made it back to the hotel for another feast before heading off to La Fortuna, a town 4 hours away that sits in the shadow of Arenal Volcano.

Costa Rica gets 98% of it's power from renewable resources!

 We had a chance to walk around La Fortuna for a bit. There were many shops surrounding a central square with a fountain centerpiece. Then we headed to Baldi Hot Springs. This hot tub theme park was an amazing way to relax after a long day of adventures and driving.

We checked into the Magic Mountain Hotel, complete with Mexican dinner buffett, wifi in our rooms, and another gourmet breakfast in the morning.

Service Learning in the Cloud Forest

We have enjoyed two days packed with adventures. Let's start with Monday. We had a chance to sleep in a bit and eat a delicious buffet breakfast before boarding the bus for a 3.5 hour drive to Monteverde. We stopped at a restaurant that was decorated with beautiful paintings and murals and enjoyed pizza for lunch. We have been eating and eating and eating so far!

Then it was time to head to the reserve. The Monteverde Cloud Forest is a self-sustaining, non-profit that relies on visitors who pay to come visit and volunteers who help maintain the trails, which is just what we did. We helped clear 3/4ths of a mile of trail from leaf litter. It is important that they keep the sides of the paths clear because when it rains the water needs to run off the path to maintain the trails. The work we did in 1 hour was equivalent to what 2 workers could do in a week. Go Team!

Keira and Liz lead the way 

Our reward...a beautiful waterfall!

Within the reserve is a hummingbird sanctuary. We couldn't take our eyes of these amazing fliers who were coming to feast on the feeders hung around the building. We snapped so many pictures you will have to wait to see more when we get home.

 We arrived at our home for the evening, El Establo Hotel, which was built up the mountain. This provided incredible views and on clear days you can see the ocean! We had a chance to enjoy the surroundings for a bit before heading to the Snake Garden and Frog Pond. We learned many new facts about the indigenous snakes, frogs, and toads, including how to distinguish venomous snakes and poisonous frogs. These amazing creatures come in many sizes and colors! 

Ready to see Las Ranas...frogs!

Our Costa Rican Adventure Begins...

Training between terminals in Dallas

15 intrepid #NDBTigers have headed off to Costa Rica for a week of adventure. The trip began at 6am on Valentine's Day, the perfect way to start a journey on which we are sure to fall in love with the beauty and biodiversity of this incredible Central American country. 

We met at SFO, sort of bright-eyed, but definitely ready to go. Our layover in Dallas gave us time to take a few trains around the airport and grab some food. 

Excited to expand our horizons this week

The flights were easy and we even arrived 25 mins early into San Jose, Costa Rica. WorldStrides was there to pick us up and take us to our hotel where we have a 3 course dinner. Everyone was full and ready for bed by 11pm.

“Tell us how you have transformed your practice…”

I am taking a stab at the Google Certified Innovator application and one of the prompts inspired me to write about how I have transformed my practice in recent years.  While this is a loaded question and I could go on for days, I wanted to share my quick response (restricted to 1,000 characters – lucky you!). It doesn’t got into specifics, but I share how focusing on integrating technology in a meaningful way into my curriculum has changed my overall view on what it means to be a teacher.  It also credits my fabulous colleague, Rebecca Girard, for getting me started down this path…

Rebecca Girard and Myself

“I refer to my colleague, Rebecca Girard, as my EdTech Sensei. Three years ago she encouraged me to dive into the wonderful world of integration of meaningful technology into my curriculum. Since then, I have been engrossed in all things EdTech and inspired by the large community of teachers who work everyday to improve their students’ school experience. This couldn’t have come at a better time as I was right around the teacher ‘5 year itch’. I was in need of some inspiration and reinvigoration of my practice. I have never been so inspired and passionate about what I do than I am today. Since then, I have approached my teaching and classroom through a different lens. While content knowledge is still very important to me, my number one priority it to best prepare my students for college and beyond – for the careers that don’t exist yet. A wonderful side-effect of this change in direction is that I have a lot more compassion and empathy towards my students and their individual strengths”