Galapagos Islands and MORE!

It is with great excitement that I tell you I am training for the San Diego Rock N’ Roll Marathon as a member of Team in Training (TNT)! I am dedicating my run and efforts to a special little boy, Joseph Barrón (“Jojo” – pictured above), who is currently battling a rare form of acute lymphocytic Leukemia that is from a chromosome abnormality and called, “Philadelphia Chromosome”. Jojo is 6 years old and was diagnosed on March 18, 2010 (please read more about his story on his website, http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/joseph_barron ). His aunt, Becky Barrón Perry, has been a dear friend since we were three years old. I know the difficult time that he has had and how incredibly strong he and his family are through their faith in God. Therefore, it is with much inspiration that I accomplish this marathon with TNT. Not only does TNT provide a great training program, but they are part of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, a non-profit health organization dedicated entirely to finding a cure for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma.

I have committed to raise $2,900 to support the cause, and would love your support. Your donation will help the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s mission of finding cures and saving lives. What’s more, it is fully tax deductible. Over 75% of the $2,900 will go towards research and patient services, as will 100%of the amount I reach above and beyond my goal!

I will run the 26.2 miles (yep!) on June 5^th, and it is with a humble heart that I ask for your contribution to my undertaking. To make a donation:

1. Go to my very own TNT training page:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/al/rnr11/moneilklss

Click on “Donate now” to help me reach my goal (right side of the page)

I will gladly accept your donation after April 30, however the sooner I meet my fundraising goal the better I can focus my energy on preparing for the marathon! I also encourage you to pass on this letter (or the URL above) to anyone else who might be interested in helping this cause. Whatever amount you can give will help-every penny counts!

On behalf of TNT, my team, Jojo Barron and his beautiful family, I thank you for your consideration and prayers. He and all individuals battling leukemia are the real heroes.

Friday we had our official tour of the Capitol Building and meetings with Congressmen.  Watching the video at the entrance to the tour of the Capitol and listening to our guide tell us about the statues and construction of the building,  filled me with pride to be an American.  I hope that everyone can at least experience this tour once in their lifetime.  If you don’t already appreciate our Country immensely with deep patriotism, you should after the tour. I then made my way across the street to meet with Congressman Jo Bonner, the Alabama Representative for District 1.  I was so honored to meet with him and discuss education in Alabama and the issues surrounding. Next, I crossed back across the area in front of the Capitol to the Russell Building for a meeting with Senator Jeff Sessions.  Unfortunately, he was unable to meet with me, as he was in meetings about the arms treaty with Russia -which was  an exceptional excuse! I was glad to meet with Brittany and Andrew, his staff members about the Presidential Award and education in Alabama.

Meeting with Congressman Bonner

Immense anticipation!  Going to the White House for a tour AND then to meet the President of the United States!  Seriously cannot believe that a little teacher from Alabama is actually meeting the President!? How did this happen?!  Absolutely amazing.  We all met in the lobby to head out for the walk down the street from the Willard.  We were instructed to dress warmly as we could be outside in line for a while.  I wrapped my scarf around and donned my new Alpaca wool hat that I got in Galapagos – it sure is coming in handy!  Mom and I made it across the street to the entrance gates of the White House, and we all got in line with our ID’s in alphabetical order to go through part one of the security checks.  As we stood there, the snow started to fall and the snow plow trucks started down the street.  We were REALLY ready to enter after the 45 minutes standing in the cold and snow.  Made it through check one, then to the next gate and check two and FINALLY into the White House. The Christmas decorations were spectacular with trees and tables decked out.  Unfortunately, we only had about 15 minutes to get through the entire thing before we had to meet to go to the Eisenhower Building for our meeting with the President!  We tromped down the street and around the corner careful of the ice on the sidewalks and went through two more security checkpoints.  As we waited, brushing off the wet snow and attempted to look presentable for the President, we noticed the flurry of official men and earplugs – Secret Service! Cool.  They were checking out the auditorium that we were to enter to get our picture with President Obama.  We were escorted and given instructions of “no personal cameras” and no “touching or reaching out to the President” – serious stuff.  The photographer lined us up in several rows and we waited about 10 minutes for him to enter.  He came in, addressed us with how important STEM is to him and how he helps his girls with homework in Science and Math.  He created a relaxed atmosphere (as his photographer had told us ahead of time) and got in the group for the picture.  After the picture, he went to every (102!) person and shook hands directly.  I was very impressed that he took the time to do this and it meant a lot to me to have that personal hand shake.  AMAZING – the President of the U.S.! I not only met him, but shook his hand!? Seriously? (My Galapagos crew will get it when I say, “it was stupid” AND “shut the front door!”)  He cracked a good “word problem” for us – “How much longer will Congress be in session if there are four more bills and each Congressman talks for 2 hours”?  One of us immediately piped up with, “Infinity!”  It was great.  He exited and everyone was so ecstatic and reveling in the moment, walking on air as we went back out into the snow for the walk back to the hotel. Hopefully I will get my official picture soon!  I look forward to seeing it!  I do, however, already have the signed Presidential Award AND a personal letter that he wrote for the winners – I treasure them both!

December 16, 2010

I have been honored with being the 2009 Presidential Awardee for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching (paemst.org) for Alabama.  Amazingly, the awards ceremony week was one week after returning from the Toyota International Teaching Program, so it has been a whirl wind of activity!  I am just thankful that they did not overlap, as I would have had to miss something!  My mom traveled with me, as my one all expense paid guest, as she has been the inspiration for my career! She retired from teaching high school Spanish while I was working as an environmental scientist and I realized the great impact she had on so many lives.  I had sworn that I would not be a teacher, as I am now fourth generation educator, but changed my mind after the light bulb moment during her retirement.  Eight years later, I sit here in Washington, DC, getting ready to meet the President of the United States of America!  I am so incredibly amazed and thankful that changing careers was the best thing that I could have done!

Christmas Decorations in Lobby of the Willard Intercontinental Hotel

We arrived Monday evening to the Willard Intercontinental Hotel to beautiful Christmas decorations and carolers from the National Cathedral!  Tuesday morning we met all the other awardees from other states and had a day filled with learning activities geared toward science and educational issues.  Tuesday evening we had a welcome reception at the National Geographic Headquarters.  My students will know how exciting that was for me, as NG is my favorite magazine and the staff associated are my heros reporting on incredible science work around the world and taking the most incredible photos to document it all!  Yesterday, we had an early start at 6:45am to bus over to Arlington, Virginia to visit the National Science Foundation Headquarters.  Some more of my heros!  I was so excited to visit and meet faces that go along with the organization that has enabled so many wonderful learning experiences for me and my students, such as the ARMADA Project through the University of Rhode Island (www.armadaproject.org).  We were welcomed by the Program Director of NSF, Valentine Kass, the Acting Assistant Director of NSF, Jon Ferrini-Mundy, the Director of NSF, Subra Suresh and the National Science Board Member, Jose-Marie Griffiths. After the welcoming speeches and introductions, we had two fabulous presentations about Global Climate Change effects on Oceans by Dr. Helmuth of the University of South Carolina and one on Communicating Global Climate Change by Edward Maiback of George Mason University.  During lunch  we had small group sessions with various entities of NSF.  My group was in Biological Sciences and we learned from an Einstein Fellow all of the wonderful things in which she is involved and about scientist researchers connecting with teachers for summer programs through NSF. Next we were whisked away to the US State Department of Education building to meet with the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan!  I could not believe it! We were having a meeting with the head honcho of the nation for education! WOW!  He entered the auditorium and made immediate reference to his black eye/injury that he received playing basketball the day before!  Hilarious.

Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan

Then he got down to business and described the challenges and successes facing our nation’s education especially in math and science.  He is focused on the United States regaining a first place position in the world for these areas, which we are currently falling behind other nations.  Next he opened up the floor to questions, and we had incredible discussions with him for about 30 minutes and then he even made time to get his picture with us as a group!

The most spectacular event of the day was the awards ceremony this evening at the Ronal Reagan Center.  My principal, Dr. Beverly Thomas, made the trip up from Alabama just to attend the ceremony!  I am continually impressed by her support, as I would have never been able to accomplish the fabulous things that I have without her every step of the way in my teaching career!  The ceremony began with welcomes from the Acting Assistant Director of NSF, Joan Ferrnini-Mundy and Subra Saresh, Director of NSF.  Dr. John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology!, addressed us with an inspiring speech before we received our awards on stage.  I was the first on stage, as we went alphabetically by State, so the pressure was on!  Fortunately, I did not trip or fall walking across stage and everything went amazingly smooth!  Phew!

Today we are going to the White House and barring any change of plans, get to meet the President of the United States!  Can’t wait!

receiving Presidential Award from Dr. Saresh, NSF Director and Dr. Holdren

Dr. Thomas, me, Mom

Our choices for the final day in Quito were:  A.  Otavalo Market, B. Orchids, Hummingbirds and Butterflies Route, or C.  Miitad del Mundo (Middle of the Earth)  While all were phenomenal options and I really wished we could pack in extra days to be able to do all three, I had to choose the Miitad del Mundo.  My rationale being I had traveled to the Arctic in 2007 and to Antarctica in 2009 (www.armadaproject.org) and therefore, HAD to be at the Equator Monument to round it out!  Our group consisted of 13 of us, and we think that we chose the best day because we had spectacular events throughout the day (of course!)  Our guide, Veronica, started our day in the center of Quito with a tour of the most famous churches.  The streets in town were packed as it is Quito Day or the celebration of Quito’s independence from Spain.  The first church was really interesting because it is the only Basilica that used local animals for the gargoyles such as the Jaguar, land tortoise and tree sloth.  The most impressive church was probably La Iglesia de la Compania which used 4 tons of gold in the decoration of the ceilings, walls and altars.  Apparently, those church members that donated the most were buried underneath the altar in catacombs, which gives them a direct connection to heaven.  The church was built between 1605 to 1765 and has incredible pieces of artwork.

Next we had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the main square with the Presidential Palace and other official buildings.  Once again an incredible meal, but the desert was most notable!  They served the sherbet with fresh fruit in a bowl with dry ice beneath it.  When all were placed on the table, the ice smoke covered the table like a table cloth! It  was beautiful!

Next the bus took us up into the mountains overlooking Quito to the Miitad del Mundo!  We got our pictures made on the Equator and learned that before modern GPS, the location was miscalculated and the original monument is 200 meters off!  Our guide did some neat demonstrations for us to witness the uniqueness of the Equator.  First of all, it is apparently easier to balance an egg on its end on a nail because the force of gravity is less ON the Equator (farther away from the core of the Earth because the Earth slightly bulges in the middle). However, none of us could get it to work (faulty eggs!).  Then we watched water drain counter clockwise North of the Equator, directly down at the Equator and clockwise on the southern side! Bizarre!  We also learned that it is a myth that this works for toilets in separate hemispheres and only for large ocean currents, etc. due to the Coriolis Effect.  After our demonstrations on the Equator, we toured the grounds of models of homes of Natives and learned about their cultures.  One exhibit displayed the small group of Amazonian Indians that still shrink heads, however no longer human heads.  We were shown the diagram of how they removed the scalp of their victim, sewed the mouth shut (to prevent evil spirits exiting) and then dried the “head” which caused it to shrink.  BIZARRE! My students are going to love that one!

After our big day of tours, we prepared for our final farewell dinner.  We arrived at the Convent through the busy streets still filled for Quito Celebrations.  This working convent was set up for our dinner in the courtyard under the stars in the chilly night air (50 degrees F).  Veronica took us on a tour of the church and we stood in a room that was once used for the signing of some of the papers for Quito’s Independence!  I was astounded yet again, here we were in a room where such an historical event occurred on Quito Day about to enjoy an amazing four course meal! Seriously!  Before dessert, our hostess, Rhonda Glasscock of Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. gave us an amazing farewell speech along with Mike McCartt of IIE.  Then Liza Raynal represented our group with an extremely eloquent speech about our experience throughout these weeks and the amount learned and the overwhelming nature of it all.  She even pinpointed perfectly a term about going over the Equator on the ship in the Galapagos four times and how it affected her because she was just in love with the place and it was obviously a “Coriolis Effect in her heart” going on! And what do you know, at the end of her speech, right before dessert was served, FIREWORKS come up over the bell tower in the night sky.  Perfect timing, as has been the norm for the entire trip!  We all responded, “OF COURSE!” because we have become so accustomed to everything being wonderful and the timing dead on.  This was all due to the leaders and sponsors of our trip being so well prepared and having organized so well.  I greatly appreciate everything that Toyota Motor Sales, USA and IIE did to make this dream of a trip come true.  Being able to teach my students, colleagues and community about all that I experienced in this special part of the planet is invaluable.  Words can truly not express enough of my overwhelming gratitude for this opportunity.  And without the support of my wonderful school, community, friends and principal, Dr. Thomas, it also would not have become a reality.  Thanks also to my wonderful Mom and Dad for assisting me as part of my support team taking care of my animals at home while I was away!  I hope you have enjoyed following along on my journey and learning through my story of the Galapagos Adventure.

STAY TUNED… and follow me next week (December 13-18) to Washington, D.C. for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching (www.paemst.org) ceremonies!

Shrunken heads of sloth and human!

Latitude 0 degrees!

Tour Group at former Miitad del Mundo monument

Equator Marker

Gilded Room in Convent

Fireworks over Quito! Thanks Toyota and IIE!

Dr. Roland Geyer started off the day with yet another intriguing, thought provoking lecture on “Sustainable Supply Chains” at the Charles Darwin Research Station.  He took us through an explanation of possible options to alternative energy sources for vehicles and which ones will most likely make the most sense in different regions of the country.  Out of biomass fuel, the switchgrass option is the most efficient and is best for the southeastern U.S.  He also provided an incredible diagram that shows the environmental impact versus the economic cost of a product and why particular countries that export the materials used in production of a product do not profit as much as the final stage marketers of the product.  Very interesting thought, as we really don’t incorporate an environmental cost to the products that we use each day.

Emily Pozo organized a trip to a coffee farm outside of town after Dr. Geyer’s presentation for those of us that wanted to join, as we have our first free time!  I was very interested in making a connection for a fundraising opportunity with some local farmers for my students.  My Environmental Science Club already sells fair trade, organic coffee as a fundraiser, but I thought it would be great to use Galapagaen coffee for our sales!  This farm was much bigger than the others we visited and the owners were delightful!  They were very conscientious of taking care of the land and realized the importance of the shade grown coffee.  They also preserved a tree on their land that is 21 meters in daimeter!  Apparently when it rains, it topples between the enormous branches and creates waterfalls!  We also got to walk through the entire process of the bean production from the bean extraction to drying to removing the 2 layers of hull and even to the end roasting process!

This evening we had our final Galapagos Dinner.  Toyota and IIE once again made it a momentous event by hosting it at Angermeyer Point Restaurant!  The restaurant is only accessible by boat, so we arrived on the water just after sunset.  We weaved through the many tour boats that were in port – apparently Wednesday night is the night they come into port.  We had a fabulous meal of fresh fish and vegetables and said our farewell toast to Emily Pozo of Galapagos ICE.  She has been such an inspiration along our tour of the islands, as she spearheads so many wonderful projects for the local people and animals through her non-profit organization.  She will be missed for the rest of our journey, but will definitely be a contact for me and my students in the future!

Science "Beakers" with Dr. Geyer at CDRS

Juan's own method for removing coffee bean husks

Enormous tree! 21 meters diameter!

Puerto Ayora Last Day

FRESH Seafood!

Final Coffee Product!

This morning we left again via bus to the highlands area.  We visited Fundar, the Ecuadorian NGO that strives to reconcile the differences between teh environmental preservation of Galapagos and the development needs of local people.  The private farm and reserve serve as models for the local people to learn about sustainable farming techniques.  The Nature Conservancy helped to purchase the farm in 2004 in the highlands of Santa Cruz in the town of Santa Rosa.  As we hiked down to the farming area from the meeting building, we were surrounded by trees and plants.  We immediately noticed a lot of the invasive blackberry plants with their thorny stems and also the quinine tree (aid for malaria) with the red leaves and in the path below us was one of the giant tortoises in the wild! I was under the impression that he did not like his new guests, as he shrunk his head into his shell and made a hissing noise.  However, I found out that the noise is a result of the diaphragm releasing air as his head pushes on it when it retracts – sounds like Darth Vader!  Snapped tons of pictures and proceeded to the working organic gardens and greenhouse.  The gardens were filled with large, beautiful vegetables and herbs.  The carrots that our guide pulled from the ground were the thickest that I have ever seen and deep orange in color.  They explained to us how they use these gardens to demonstrate to the local farmers how they can use sustainable methods to grow crops on their land. We even got to taste the crops in our lunch produced by a locally famous chef, “The German”, which was possibly the best meal on the islands that I had (and that is a top notch compliment because we have eaten well!).  The caramelized flan and tres leche was a great end to the meal as well!

In the greenhouse, they grow the native, Escalacia Tree and coffee plants.   They are reforesting areas that have been clear cut with these trees and helping farmers grow shade grown coffee. They offer the farmers the plants without cost to promote the sustainable farming. We got to pick up two trees from the greenhouse and take them back up the trail to the meeting house where we chose a spot on a hillside to plant our trees. We even got to put a name plate on the trees to identify which ones were ours!  I felt really special knowing that I have a “piece” of Galapagos that has my name on it and I can return to visit someday!

After lunch, we visited a couple of shade grown organic coffee farms and learned about the processes required to prepare the coffee beans. One of the farms also serves as a guest house for vacationers and had beautiful accommodations with an incredible view all the way from the highlands to the ocean!  We all decided that this should be the next place for the Toyota team to stay, however they would need more rooms for all of us! We also got to travel to a lava tube (former lava from a nearby volcano that cooled so quickly upon oozing out that it creates a hollow area underneath) and hike down into it!  The entire tube is about 1 kilometer in length, but we only had time to travel about half way through it.  I really felt like I was in North Alabama in a cave, without the stalagmites and stalactites!  We entered through a small opening through some steep stairs and went into the tube – fortunately there are lights strung along the walls so those of us that forgot our flashlights could still make our way! Heading back to town, we were all quite exhausted from our long day and ready to download some more pics!

Giant tortoise in the wild!

Coffee and Escalacia Trees in Greenhouse

Quinine leaves

My own piece of Galapagos!

Entryway to the lava tube down the stairs

We all donned our green Toyota International Teaching Program t-shirts and left the hotel in our groups for one of the five schools involved with our school visits.  My group gathered our materials and headed out to the Colegio Cazares.  We could not wait to go meet our students and share a lesson with them!  Upon entering the campus located near the outer edge of town, we met the principal and several teachers.  They cordially invited us in and we introduced ourselves and Jhonnie and Lyanne described the Population Activity we developed about the zayapa crabs, as they are the most expert Spanish speakers in our group.  We discussed the three main important elements for survival of any creature – water, food and shelter.  There are three corresponding hand signals with each of these.  Seven students volunteered to be zayapas and the others were in a different line across from them representing one of the elements for survival.  On the count of three the students held their hand signals, turned to face each other and matched up with classmates with the same signals.  If there was not an available resource, the zayapa “dies” and gets “recycled” as an environmental resource.  If a resource is chosen, they become a zayapa.  The population of the zayapas was recorded on the board by three other students and we played several rounds to be able to graph them for our data collection.  The game worked perfectly, the discussions continued about the importance of the zayapas in the environment and why the restrictions on eating them are important.  The students then pledged to protect them and painted a large mural of a zayapa to mark their pledge.  Next we introduced ourselves and described where we live and shared photos with the students.

After our lesson and an assembly in the outdoor stage area, a different class invited us to their classroom for cake and Bienvenidos!  We shared introductions and then danced and sang some English songs! We then moved to the art room that had few supplies and some tables.  The art teacher shared some of his students’ work with us and then showed us how they use a very simple technique to make screen prints on t-shirts that are sold.  We were amazed at how dedicated this teacher was and how resourceful with such limited supplies.  Immediately the wheels started turning about a project we could do to help them.  Once we left the school, we immediately went and bought supplies including basketballs (as they had courts and hoops, but not any basketballs – only soccer balls), paper, markers, dry erase markers and rulers.

After a fabulous lunch of pizza at Hernan’s (although we were already full from the cake and chifles that the students presented us with at the school!), we headed up to the highlands to a school that Toyota has helped to sponsor through Emily’s Galapagos ICE Project.  The school was Dlia Ibarra Elementary and we had three different projects to accomplish:  1.  Planting a Native and Endemic Garden, 2.  Green House Plant Beds and Compost and 3. Paint Recycling Bins with students.  Because I have a project with my students, Saving Our Shores and Seas, and Baldwin County Grasses in Classes, which restores native plants in areas of need of habitat restoration, I chose Option #1.  We spent a few hours on our projects and felt very accomplished after completion!  Being able to dig in (literally) and get our hands dirty in the lava rock soil was extremely satisfying!

Mary and Paul had at work on the native plantingsClass at Colegio