Housing Information

I am finally taking the time to sit and start my blog about my trip to South Africa. First a bit of background information. This spring, I received a letter from the organization People to People. This was not the first time that I received a letter from them and I usually open it to find out that I am being invited to be a part of an early childhood delegation. However, this one was addressed to me as my former role of a Classrooms for the Future Coach, so I was definitely intrigued. I opened it to see that I was being invited to participate in the education technology delegation that was also involving ISTE, which is sort of an ed techies "mothership." I immediately got very excited and hid the letter from my parents. They would not be as excited as I was, at least I didn't think. I wrote a letter to my superintendent and school board asking if it would be allowable for me to participate in this delegation. Eventually, Dr. Smarkanic mentioned the trip to my mom who would have been much happier if she had heard it from me first. At the last board meeting of the school year, my trip was approved by the school board and I began to move forward with paperwork and planning.

The reason that this is the first trip I was truly interested in taking was because of the pairing of ISTE and People to People. I knew that the trip to China in December of last year was the first big "delegation" from ISTE to travel to another area of the world and meet with educators there to discuss their schools and how technology is used. I felt very honored to have received this invitation and was excited that I could participate in such an important experience. I am very excited to travel to South Africa to find out more about their culture, geography, and education. Not very many educators get to participate in these types of experiences and I thank North Schuylkill for allowing me to be a part of this experience. I'm sure that it will change my life and my teaching. I look forward to sharing my experiences with my students and creating some more global connections to open the walls of my classroom further.

Yesterday, I received some much anticipated information, the locations that we would be staying while we were in the different locations. I eagerly googled the three hotels, one in Johannesburg, one in Cape Town, and one at Kruger National Park. I was VERY impressed by the images that I saw as well as the comments by those who had already been there. While in Johannesburg, we will be staying at the Southern Sun Grayston. While we are in Cape Town, we will be staying at the Southern Sun Cape Sun, and when I go to Kruger for our 2 day safari, we will be staying at Protea Hotel Kruger Gate.

Keep watching for new updates as I receive more information. My goal is to keep note of my experiences here for those who are interested and my students.