The Latest from TEEN!

I thought I'd share some pictures Kellen sent from Argentina. He's doing so well. We love to hear from him every week. His happy optimistic attitude along with his strong testimony shine every week in his emails. From his last email, "I love the gospel so much. It's always so amazing how the spirit affects teaching, happiness, and everything."

Scrubbing down the apartment.

Walking the streets of ElDorado.

Enjoying the wildlife.

The family Suarez (they call him Teen!)

Not his favorite meal yet--intestines!

We love our missionary. Thanks for your prayers. He always thanks everyone for support.

Yellowstone with Mitch & Sonnie

Last Thursday through Sunday, we visited Yellowstone for a last get-away before school started.  Mitch & Sonnie came with us.  We camped at madison campground in Yellowstone for two nights then at Jackson Lake for one night.  It was beautiful as usual.  We did a few hikes, saw the hot spots, but the favorite was when we soaked in the Boiling River up near Mammoth one evening.  I'm going to be teaching science this year instead of math so I was especially interested in all the information about microorganisms in the hot pools--I've never noticed those before!

A whole ecosystem of microbes!

In their own little ecosystem.

Yep, it's hot.

Here we are at the falls after the hike around Jackson Lake.

Lots of cooool microorganism stuff!

Mitch & Sonnie around the Canyon area.

Finally some new stuff

I know I've been a slacker on the blogging lately. Please excuse (and ignore) all the boring stuff previous to this entry. It was required for my class this summer. My family all just left me this morning and I'm reminiscing my summer fun. I'll go back to school in a week--wow, what a fast summer it's been. We've spent time with the Clarkes, Mitch and Sonnie, and Pences have been here for about three weeks. It's been great. The Pences are fun house guests. We've played games, gone places, and just hung out.

Grandma and Emma on the trail around Tony's Grove Lake

Grandpa and the Clarkes on Tony's Grove Lake

Emma's favorite way to wade in Logan River

Pences on Tony's Grove Lake

Grandpa and Addie on a little hike

Gavin and Grandpa on a bridge over Logan River

Emma, the 3 year old princess with her castle cake Marianne made

"Wait for me Daddy" on a hike up Logan Canyon

Krissy and Livvy on the hike up Logan Canyon

Check out Apture!

I've just put a new feature on my blog...it's called "Apture". It allows me to make a rollover for certain words that I want people to be able to automatically link to. It's cool...try some of my links on my previous blog entries.

Last Day 5520

Today Julie shared some information about Skype, a free source for internet to internet calls for Skype users.  If a call is made from a Skype user to a non Skype user there is a small fee.  The advantage being not only cost but the ability for video as well as audio.

Rob showed us Picasa, a free photo sharing and editing site.  You can also order prints and make slide shows from your albums.  Iphoto is a mac based free program that allows you to (among other cool things), make and order photo books.  Windows Photo Story is a free quick slide show program limited to only photos.

We discussed current issues in DE including accreditation questions from university to university.  We also talked about the difference between making individual accommodations on a university level compared to the public schools.  

This has been a very enlightening course, making me feel more confident in incorporating a few of the vast amount of tech tools into my teaching. 

More 5520

Wow, today we started off experiencing Second Life. It was amazing. Anyone can join. You create a character with any attributes and do anything you want. People can build, sell, buy services or products. I am very hesitant about introducing my students to this site for the fact that second life characters have no real life identity and can do some really crazy and illegal acts.

Our class discussed DE evaluation and assessment involving three aspects: students, faculty, and administration. It was concluded that DE is progressing and is just as rigorous and effective as F2F. Christie had a nice presentation about Web 2.0 and MySpace. I looked up Kellen on MySpace and found that he's got a huge Disney pic that I need to get off cause of the copyright scare we got this week. I guess I'll have to get his password from Argentina! Janet helped us explore Instructional Archetect, a program allowing teachers to create a webpage directly linking them to educational online resources.

Sample Movie 5520

Wednesday we learned how to make a simple movie with imovie. We then reformatted it as a podcast and uploaded it to our blog. Vwa-la! Here it is...

Today we discussed cost effectiveness of DE with an IM chat session again.  That was great except I got kicked out of the session several times so my contribution was very MINIMAL!

We learned some really cool tools again.  One new thing that I know I'll use is the apture.com site.  It will allow me to have "roll over" to open little windows to the sites and links I have on my webpage.  We looked at the possibility of using edublogs especially for the classroom.

Today we also learned about Connect Pro (Breeze) and Captivate which both have a free 30 day trial period.  They allow professional looking, interactive, animated presentations that could be used in an online course or virtual classroom.  The costs on those programs are quite expensive though--from $700-$10,000 depending on how many users and locations are used.

We all set up Facebook accounts and had a lot of fun with that.  I have MANY more "friends" after today.  Our class has a wiki beginning today that has ideas of what our final projects for this class might be.   I'll be watching for some good ideas coming from my cohorts because right now I really have not a clue what to do!  More tomorrow...

INST 5520

Hi Y'all,

I've been taking an IT (Instructional Technology) course this week. We've been learning about current tech issues and experiencing using new tech tools that will have applications in my classroom.

Today we learned about OCW (open courseware)-free, online classes available to anyone with the desire to learn and who has access to the technology. MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is probably the largest resource for open courseware, offering thousands of classes covering a variety of subjects!

We also discussed many issues relating to IP (intellectual property--sharing of educational ideas and how this works with cc (creative commons) and copyright laws. We learned how to use IM (instant messaging) as a discussion tool as we discussed faculty effectiveness in DE (distance education) in a fast paced 18 member chat room.

Don't you love all the acronyms?! :~) (and the emoticons). More to come tomorrow...

Topaz Mountain & Omaha Trips

Elder Kell at Iguacu Falls Argentina

Dan and Emma on the giant slides in Omaha

Gavin at the transcontinental RR monument in Omaha

Livvy with Grandpa at the Omaha Zoo (petting zoo)

Grandkids at the Winter Quarters Monument--Omaha

Sonnie & Mitch--rockhounders at Topaz Mountain!

Gavin and Addie roasting marshmellows at Topaz Mountain.

Topaz Mountain & Omaha Trips

We've had a couple of great trips with the fam lately. The first was with Mitch & Sonnie and the Clarkes at Topaz Mountain May 23-25. Topaz Mountain is down in central Utah about 45 minutes from Delta. It is in an ancient volcanic area where you can find little pieces of topaz if you dig in the mountain and also if you just sift through the sand in the wash area. We took a detour on the way home to find the Dugway Geode Beds. Mark and Mitch dug in the 95 degree sun trying to find geodes while Sonnie and I just wandered through the previously dug areas and found our own geode treasures.

Our next excursion, May 31-June4, was with the Clarkes (Eric absent) on a 16 hour journey to Omaha to visit the Pences in their little condo. It was a houseful. Marianne was a lovely hostess and we fit in all the famous Omaha sites in just three short days before we took the 16 hour return journey. We visited the Winter Quarters Temple, the Omaha Zoo, the Omaha Botanical Gardens, the giant slides in downtown Omaha, then took a trek to the Pizza Machine (a buffet pizza place with amusement rides, arcades, race tracks, mini golf etc)--a Chucky Cheese on steroids as Kristen called it. But the favorite place for the kids was just in Marianne and Dan's condo complex's playground. What a great time we had with the girls and their babies (for sure Dan too).

Kellen's latest news is that he's had intestinal discomfort (if you know what I mean) ever since he arrived--no fun. But he's managed to keep in good spirits and has visited one of the largest waterfalls in the world, Iguacu Falls, in Argentina on one of his P days. He's our missionary hero!

We are truly blessed to have such amazing children who've made such good choices in their lives thus far. We love them.

Baby Animal Days

Gavin and Addie came to visit at Grandpa and Grandma's house for a couple of days during Grandma's spring break. We went to Baby Animal Days at Jensen Historic Farm on April 11. What fun!!! Here's some cute pics...

Grandkids on the fence.

Addie with the baby chick--so soft.

Gavin finds out how hard a calf can suck.

Gavin with the baby pig.

Pony rides!!!

Addie loved the bunnies?!

Gavin with the toads and turtles...Nothing like little boys and toads.

I hope they call me on a mission!

Mitch & Sonnie's Wedding

Easter Weekend

We spent the weekend with Clarkes in Provo where we had a fun little Easter egg hunt with the grandkids! On the way home, we took a detour past the MTC. It was great to be in range of our "Elder" son. He's loving it. Mark is harvesting scrumptious salad greens from the greenhouse and we'll soon have a fresh pineapple to enjoy. I promise we'll get better pics from the wedding as soon as they are ready...anticipation!

Grandma and Baby Livvy!

Zeus loves to be in the greenhouse. He's sitting by the basil, parsley, and oregano.

Soon the pineapple will be ready to be harvested

Mark in the greenhouse with his lettuce (notice the cucumbers, lettuce and and tomato plants growing with hydroponics)

Elder Humpherys (second from left in the back)

More pis to come later...

Big Days

Well, we made it through the big days. Mitch & Sonnie were married and now live happily ever after. Kellen is now Elder Humpherys and lives in Provo for a couple of months before moving on to Argentina. Mark & I are empty nesters. So far it's not such a bad thing!!!

The latest at the Humpherys' home

Mitch and Sonnie

Elder Kellen Mark Humpherys

Since our last blog, we've had some real excitement. Kellen got his mission call to Resistencia Argentina. He leaves March 5 and is ultra ready! Mitch met the girl of his dreams, Sonnie Leak. He and Sonnie will be married four days before Kellen leaves, March 1. What a couple of weeks we have in store. Kellen's mission farewell is February 24 at 11:00.