Getting ready for my trip to Catalina!

Hello to all!  The countdown is on, twelve more days until I leave for my Earthwatch trip to Catalina Island, where I will help collect data for the scientists working on the island monitoring the ocean's health.  I will help scientists  record the number of marine mammals such as California sea lions, gray whales, and common dolphins; collect water samples; survey the inhabitants of the intertidal zone; and observe the ways in which humans use this pristine habitat. A goal is to contribute to Pacific coast datasets and help to conserve a valuable marine ecosystem.

I will fly out from San Jose after teaching on November 2 to Long Beach and be ready to meet my fellow teachers  and researchers at the Southern California Marine Institute at 7 the following morning.
There we will embark on the USC ferry to Catalina Island, a hour and half trip.  Hopefully, I won't get seasick as I do sometimes!

Thinking about what I want to bring back to the classroom,  the effects of global warming on the ocean is definitely an interest of mine.  This is a topic I hope to learn more about from the scientists on the island.

Introduction!

I am a traveler!  I love traveling and grew up traveling around the world as my dad was a diplomat.
We lived in Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Washington DC, Germany, Bangladesh and Bolivia.
I went to high school and college in Massachusetts, Bolivia,  New York and California, which is where I now live.

I graduated from UCSC, with a BA in media-communications and went back several years later for a two year teaching program in bilingual/multicultural studies.

Teaching has been a big part of my life. I have been a teacher for twenty eight years: starting as a bilingual elementary teacher, teaching overseas in Bolivia in an international school, teaching Japanese students English, working in a home study program with kids of all ages,  teaching a high school Spanish course, and now working as a middle school science and math teacher.

I am also a writer and photographer, publishing over thirty articles in various travel and educational magazines.

My husband, Craig, is also a teacher and is now teaching music at Freedom School in Watsonville.  He has been playing music professionally for thirty years and has a local band called the Rayburn Brothers Band.  My daughter, Jessie is a freshman at San Diego State University and my son Rowan is a junior at Aptos High School.  We have two cats, Blaze and Nemo.  We live in a little cabin by a creek in the redwoods in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Places I would like to travel to are  New Zealand, Australia, Africa, Iceland, and Japan.

Life is full of adventures!