#MAET Year 1 scrapbook FINISHED!!! #scrapbook #Ireland #Galway

I just put the finishing touches on my scrapbook from MAET -Year 1! (MAET stands for Master's of Arts in Educational Technology and I completed in 3 summers in Galway, Ireland.)


Yes, I'm a scrapbooker. Not the it-loos-so-good-you-could-put-that-in-a-frame kind; I'm more like the cram-as-much-on-one-page-as-possible kind. I won't lie, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood had a big effect on me, although I started doing this a little before I read the book. My first scrapbook was of my honeymoon to Greece with my ex-husband. Ever since then I have more or less accounted for big events and trips with a scrapbook.

Here's the gist:

1. I collect all sorts of things during my trip. I mean everything: receipts, tickets, napkins, posters, brochures, stickers, figurines, rain ponchos. You just never know what might come in handy later.
2. When I get home Some number of months or years later, I pull out all the stuff I've collected. I go online and print out a selection of pictures from the trip. For example, for MAET Year 2, I printed out 383 pictures out of 700ish total taken. 
3. I sort the pictures chronologically by event on a big table.
4. I sort all the collected debris on top of the pictures.
5. Assemble pages, event by event. This is the part where I really start to relive the trip. It's the best part (as long as it was a happy event!). Here is where I see what was actually important to me. Those things are included.
6. This is the second best part: I throw out all the stuff that doesn't go into the book. This feels fantastic! Before I started making scrapbooks I just collected boxes full of little mementoes and piles of pictures that no one ever saw except me when I cleaned out. Now, the good stuff stays and gets displayed, and the other stuff gets to go, and I complete the process with a visible piece of me to share and an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

Late, late, late sunsets

I went on a run last night at 10:30. It was so light outside that I was able to capture some pretty amazing pictures on my phone.

A morning run in Munich #Munich #runningisbetterthantherapy #touristrunnerI #almostthereMAET

I slept in and went on a run through Munich. It's a great way to see some sights, get the overview and start the day with some exercise.

Just look in what you can see in 6 miles:

I ended near a cool fountain.

My goal: to get the the English Garden. It's Europe's largest city park.

Getting ready for something in Old Town.

I have no idea what this is, but it's by a palace. And lovely.

Surfers practicing in the park!

More park- a lovely "lake".

Wildlife. Reminds me of Boise.

The Residenz, a former royal palace.

This is a memorial to the horrors of National Socialism

One month 'till Germany!! #EuropehereIcome #MAET

Exactly one month to go until I land in Berlin to begin my 3rd and final MAET (Master's of Arts in Educational Technology through Michigan State University) year in Galway, Ireland!  I'll spend a week in Germany (getting to visit a friend there!), then over a month in Ireland and on to the UK.

Once life gets good, it's so easy to take it for granted. While I whine about my "problems", here in my house in a safe neighborhood in a beautiful city where I am part of a thriving community, it still takes a huge adventure like traveling overseas more or less by myself to really shake up my perspective and make me so grateful for the life I have!

I am also super grateful for Rick Steves (he just arrived yesterday)!

#339: Michigan State University

I'm not gonna lie...I WAS motivated to post about MSU because of their win last night over Iowa in the Big 10 Championship.

Being a Michigan State student is so much more than I ever thought it would be when I started my Master's degree [which I found by Googling "Educational Technology Masters degree overseas]. I've organized the perks below, in no particular order:

• A very cool tagline: Spartans Will.
• A very cool app you can download to make your own pictures like this:



• BIG TIME college football! My first Alma Mater, Trinity University, is a fantastic school, but the football stadium, at least when I was there, held less people than my high school stadium. 
• MSU's football team just made it to the playoffs!
• MSU's football team will be playing in the Cotton Bowl (aka JerryWorld) in Dallas, where there is a slight chance I can go to the game
• I heard rumors that the School of Education is the #1 or #2 in the country. I believe it.
• Fantastic, professional professors.
• Rigorous—I meanRIGOROUS—curriculum.
• An education that is above and beyond any I have received to date.
• The MAET program.
• The MAET program in IRELAND.
• 3 summers in IRELAND.
• Fantastic fellow students.
• A worldwide alumni network.
• Being a part of. The first year of my Master's program, the dean of the college of education came to Ireland to speak at the recognition ceremony for the 3rd years. Last year, the Alumni Association made a video that featured MSU students congratulating all of the Year 3's by name at various places on campus in East Lansing.
• A very cool mascot that can be found everywhere, like when I was in Austin, TX for Thanksgiving:

Blessing #256: Classrooms wired for sound

When i was a kid, I don't remember my classrooms having any sort of sound system. If we were to listen to a recording, it was on a TAPE RECORDER or a record, or on a really fun day we got to watch a film strip! Really lucky students got to turn the film strip handle when the beep on the audio sounded. [For the record, that was never me.]

Today, however, classrooms have better sound than I have at home! Where I student taught there was a microphone system wired into the classroom and it was awesome! The kids hated it because it felt like a teacher was always right behind them due to the surround sound effect of the audio system.

My new classroom is in a really old building (it has chalkboards behind the white boards) so the classroom itself doesn't have speakers, but there is a speaker connected to the projector that gets the job done.

And what do I use all of these audio devices for?

To play Katy Perry's "Roar" at the beginning of 1st period every day! This became the Year Two's theme song at MAET in Ireland this summer, and I have continued the tradition into the school year. The students may be tired of it, but I'm not yet!!

#215: MAET Reunion!

A friend I met this summer while studying for my Master's of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) from Michigan State drove down from the Los Angeles area to hang out with me tonight in San Diego! She rented a hotel room and we're going to have lunch tomorrow. We got to go sailing, to happy hour, stroll along the pier, dine at a fun shop and she drove me back to my hotel in her new car.

We also tried to recruit some of my coworkers to the MAET program--we're a pretty good team, actually!

What a testament to the MAET experience in Ireland that she is willing to do this [just to be clear, I'd do the same for her in a heartbeat].  Friends for life from such an amazing experience!

Photo by Debbie McHorney

#209: The shortest drive

They wouldn't just put me on a bus to get to my hotel near Heathrow; my friend insisted on driving me the 2 hours from their house to deposit me in ready-position to get to the airport at 6:30 tomorrow morning. She also said it would take me all day and all night to get there by bus or train, but still...

And so we went to the beach during the day:

Ate the perfect meal at the perfect restaurant: 

Went back home, packed me up and drove to Heathrow, singing Roar by Katy Perry 3 times at the top of our lungs:

 The said a sad goodbye in front of the hotel:

I am so sad to leave, but can't wait to come back. We decided I'd come visit again next year after I finish MAET, where hopefully they can come on holiday to celebrate my graduation with me. I am so lucky to have such good friends!

#204: MAET Year 2: Completed!

2015 MAET Overseas Year 2 Cohort
photo by Leigh Graves Wolf

Today was our final day of MAET.  Tonight we dine together then say goodbye till (most of us) next year, though a few of our group have graduated.

These 15 people have been my family for the past month, and I couldn't ask for a better group of people to be with. They are wickedly talented, fun, dedicated professionals in the field of education. They have all become friends. Special bonds grow between people when you live and work in such intense and pressurized circumstances. I didn't realize how much a part of me they had become until we reunited this summer (our second). I have learned so much about myself from working with them and about living simply by watching and listening to them.

The Master's of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) Overseas Cohort has absolutely changed my life:

• I have gained confidence in myself and my work
• I have created things I never knew I could do
• I get to spend 3 summers in Ireland
• It has helped me find and calibrate the life compass inside myself that has been out of use for a long time.
• I have numerous tools I can take back to Boise and share with anyone who wants them
• I have a wealth of new friends and connections around the world

See you next year, Galway!

#203: Graduating friends

I am so grateful that I was able to get to know these people. It has been an honor to know and learn and grow with them!

#202: I. Can.

The day is from July, at the end of Year 2 of my MAET program. Now that 2016 is moments away, it's time to put "pen to paper". This summer, more than any other experience or schooling, taught me useful, profound, simple tools for use professionally and personally. I was challenged mentally and emotionally even physically like never before.

I sensed a problem when it was time to start practicing for my presentation for the #Great15 Conference. Our professors kept telling us to write out exactly what we were going to say and practice in front of a mirror as many times as possible. For me this was a problem because in order to write out what I was going to say I had to decide what I wanted to say which meant I had to sit still and research and read and organize.

It was daunting and painful and awful and stressful and the day before the conference I was in the weeds and freaking out and I wanted to change my entire idea. However, my professor stepped in to help. She told worked through the whole thing with me and told me under no circumstance was I allowed to change what we came up with together. I finally sat down, painful as it was, and typed out every single word I would say. I timed myself in practice 4 times before the actual conference. The "live" take was totally acceptable and I was utterly proud of myself for pulling it together enough to give a respectable presentation.

The things I learned that I use every single day throughout all areas of my life are endless: that I can create something, from start to finish. That creating something requires hard work, diligence, persistence, some measure of pain and discomfort, and decisions. That ideas are malleable and that the one you start with is hardly ever the one you finish with, and this is how it works. That I am not inherently bad at creating, I am just unpracticed. That I am not inherently bad at all. That my work may be a reflection of parts of me but is in no way a reflection of my value as a person. That writing down the plan is almost always a very good thing, akin to other tenets I've heard: millionaires know how much everything costs; perfect practice makes perfect; and writing down lesson plans really does make me a better teacher. I learned that writing it down, whatever it is, and having a plan does not diminish my creativity and is not self-will getting in the way of what God was going to just bestow on me without any work on my part, but is in fact a tool that God can use to enhance my creativity. Always edit. Always go over it one more time. When it is done, be proud, critical, open-minded, then let it go.

I learned that finished is better than perfect.

I learned that I can.

#182: Week 1 is in the books!

My first week as a Year 2 in the Master's in Educational Technology (MAET) overseas cohort has come to an end.  And it has been WONDERFUL!!  Even if I had melted down at some point, it still would have been wonderful.  This experience is amazing.

I am astonished at the growth I see in myself.  I feel stronger as a person, more confident in my abilities as a technology specialist and more settled within myself.  It does help that we were in Galway, Ireland last year, but I am still impressed with my growth.  The security that comes from the familiarity of my surroundings has allowed me to relax my soul and be more grounded as the week progressed. 

Now that I'm here this year, I realize how nervous and anxious I was last year!  The people I am surrounded by are brilliant and creative and push themselves just as hard as I do--I've found my people.

#177: Reunited for Year 2

Today at 4 my Masters program officially began with an opening task and yummy dinner. I am forever grateful to my friend in Boise who gave me the idea of "Educational Technology" as an area of study, and to Google for bringing up Michigan State's Masters of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) overseas programs as the first suggestion when I punched in 'masters degree educational technology overseas'. 

Being here again I re-remember what a life-changing event it was and is to do this program.  I also realize how uncomfortable and anxious I was last year now that I feel so comfortable with everyone here. 

Finally, I feel how much everyone in my cohort means to me.  Living and working so intensely with 13 other people for a month bonds you togetherness in unique and strong ways.  They have become a small part of me, though I didn't realize it until I arrived this year.

i am so blessed to be able to do this program!!!

Blessing #172: Being true to myself in Ireland

I'm finally excited!  I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 7 a.m.  My ride to the airport is coming at 5:45, and I'm pretty closed to packed (note: it's 11:54, way better than last year).  Everything fell into place today; I got everything I think I need from Gu Chomps for long runs to Ziploc Space Bags for packing.

The great thing about today, however, is that I did NOT devote the entire day to getting ready for my trip.  I went to breakfast with my usual Sunday morning crowd;  I went to church;  I went on a walk afterwards with a friend; and this evening I went to the gym and did the workout my trainer gave me.  Oh, and I'm taking time to write this blog post.

I realized a few days ago that in the past, these trips overseas were opportunities to escape myself and my life.  While I was gone I didn't work out regularly (I realize many of us do this), I largely ignored my food allergies, I stayed up late even when I was tired, I drank caffeine even when I knew it would keep me up until 2 a.m.  The list goes on and on.  I realize that these are things most of us do on vacation, but what I discovered is that I did these things not because I wanted to, but because I wanted to fit in or because I wanted to make sure I saw all the "right" sights in places or because everybody else was doing it.  [sidebar: Brene Brown says that the #1 barrier to belonging is "fitting in".  See The Power of Vulnerability]

And so my intention this trip is to be myself, to live in my own life, to do the things I want to do because I want to do them, and to take care of myself while I do it.

#135: Scotland, here I come!

My Rick Steves guidebook to Scotland arrived, WooHoo!

I'm going back to Ireland this summer to comlete part 2 of my Masters program in Educational Technology through Michigan State.  This year I'm going to Scotland for a week first with friends, and Rick is going to help ensure that I don't miss anything!