To-Do List

Last week ended pretty well - got to have another phone conference with Julie and created a list of what I need to accomplish in the near future:

• Compile "what students should know by the end of 4th grade" for english, math, social studies, and science - using 4th grade as a middle point for 3-5
• Separate and organize lessons from Ocean's document
• Filter through lessons (good, bad, could be used with modification)
• NOAA/Bridge website, Expeditions, Sarah W, Moodle list
• Create a Survey Monkey for Julie by 10/1 for NTLA teachers
  
• Survey should have yes, no, and a comments option when appropriate

Julie comes up from Florida this week so it will be really neat to meet her and go through everything I've been doing first hand with someone rather than over the phone/internet

Starting tomorrow (9/21) I am doing a research class and will get a certificate in research at NGS which will look good on a resume - getting ready to apply for grad school!!! I'm hoping to look at a few programs while here but that might be near impossible which seems crazy that I am applying to different places without visiting them first. I find it really strange that all I wanted to do was go to Farmington and only seriously applied to Farmington and now I feel like I have options as to where I want to go - I don't have to stay in New England - interesting feeling of freedom in my education.
Being able to move to a city and adjust (fairly well - I don't feel as though I'm going to go crazy here because I'm not in the woods 24/7) has also been a learning experience because again, I don't have to stay in one place - I can move around. Although, I must admit a little part of me feels empty not being able to experience a fall change over for the first time in my life (it was 90 degrees here yesterday and high 80's all last week!!!) but it is also really exciting being in a new place.
Saturday I went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum with a friend from work and spent well over 2.5 hrs in there just wandering. There was a really neat Oceans exhibit which mirrors what NGS is trying to accomplish. What I find most interesting is that there is a large pull towards 'saving' the ocean that started even before the Gulf Oil Spill fiasco and hopefully will continue to grow.
It is too bad sometimes that disasters have to happen before someone notices - even though NGS started "I am the Ocean" two years ago, I do not think it would have as great of an impact without a disaster.