It is really becoming real! #WHTweetup

Everything is starting to feel real!

I am really going to the White House!

I booked my flights today, I fly in on the evening of Monday March 12th and fly out late afternoon on the 15th.

So I should have time to explore on both the 13th (Capitol tour as well as a picture with Senator Chambliss are already booked), and on the 15th. 

I am starting to get really excited about this opportunity!

Can you help me attend the White House Tweetup by sponsoring my trip?

Can you help me get to the Tweetup?  

White House Tweetup

I am funding this trip on my own with the help of anyone who is willing to sponsor me.

If you can visit: http://goo.gl/9dTMW and donate to this trip I would be forever grateful. Any amount no matter how big or how small will be appreciated. If you are not comfortable using the link enclosed please contact me at scienceesl @ Yahoo.com, with your contact information and I will get in touch to make arrangements. 

If you have a home business or even a larger business and you donate to this cause I have sponsorship levels available. 

For donations from $5-$50 I will post thank yous to all sponsors on my blog, http://scienceesl.blogspot.com, my Twitter feed @scienceesl, and my facebook page.

For donations from $50-$100 I will post badges on the sidebar of my blog asking people to visit the webpages of the sponsors of the trip.

For donations from $100-$500 I will do a special "sticky post" advertisement/thank you post on my blog for one week, create a badge for the sidebar of my blog, post thank yous to twitter and Facebook.

For donations of $500 and greater, I will discuss with you, how to thank you as well as all of the ways listed above.

Tweet Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/scienceesl

And the Moon Shall Dance With Jupiter and Venus

First DJ joining in the dance

The Moon and Jupiter

Even with the clouds and without my tripod I got a few good shots

Finally the clouds parted just enough to get all three in their dance

Yeesh I wish I could get this to rotate properly, but you get the idea

The dance will continue for the rest of the week, with slight position changes. I hope the weather is nice enough where you are at the check them out!

Tweet Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/scienceesl

Do you see him?

What do you see in the clouds from last night? Do you see what I saw? Do you see what several of my friends saw? 

One of the mom's of one of my "kids" took one look at this picture and said it was comforting, and a reminder that Jesus is watching over us when we sleep. 

Honestly that's what I saw too. 

Do you see him? 

Tweet Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/scienceesl

Friends of the Twiggs County Sheriff's Office Riffle Raffle

The Friends of the Twiggs County Sheriff's Office is sponsoring a riffle raffle.


On March 1st, 2012 the Friends of the Twiggs County Sheriff's Office are raffling off a Remington Model 887 Nitro Mag 28 in barrel chamber 2 ¾ to  3 ½ .  

Tickets for the raffle at $5 a piece and can be purchased from Jamie McDaniels at the Sheriff's Office, by attending our general membership meeting on March the 1st at 6:00 pm (at the Sheriff's Office).


If you have any questions please contact either Jamie McDaniels at 478-955-9164

Or P. Cleveland scienceesl@yahoo.com 

Tweet Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/scienceesl

Look up! Beauty Everywhere you look.

Look up in the night sky, and just see what you can see. This week Jupiter and Venus are playing dance partners with the moon. Last night the clouds made for a beautiful sunset background for this setting. 

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Look up at the night sky my friends and see the beauty held there

If you look up in the night sky last night and over the next couple of days, the crescent moon has a few nice neighbors. In this series of pictures Jupiter is up towards the left of the moon and Venus is almost directly below her.

My friend from high school said that in this series of pictures it looks like the clouds are an old man, and the moon is his smile. I have to say I agree with her!

Tweet Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/scienceesl

What should I see while in Washington DC for the #WHTweetup?

I am trying to plan my trip to Washington DC for the White House Tweetup, and have a lot of ideas for what I "want" to see when I go. Here is my list:

White House~Given considering I am going for the Tweetup at the White House
Capitol Building ~I have a request for a tour in with Senator Chambliss' office
Air and Space~I want to go wish Enterprise well before she leaves for New York
Arlington~JFK/eternal flame, something we didn't see last time we went
Washington Monument

Now I want to know, if you were me, what would you make sure that you saw in your time in DC? My plan is to fly in on Monday and fly out on Thursday so really I will only have Tuesday to really explore, as I am not sure exactly how long we will be at the Tweetup on Wednesday.

Can you help me make it to the tweetup?
Give


Tweet Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/scienceesl

Questions and Answers #WHTweetup Twitter Speak for White House Tweetup

I have been asked a couple of questions in the last couple of days about my upcoming trip to Washington DC, so I want to try and answer them as best as I can.

What the heck is a Tweetup?
A tweetup is a group of Twitter members meeting together for a common goal. This can either be an organized meeting (the #WHTweetup, #SCTweetup, and #NASATweetup are great examples), where there is a set schedule with a "plan" in place. Or this can be an impromptu meeting, where one person invites their local tweeps to join them for a meal (I went to one of these organized by Annisa Mayhew last summer in Atlanta, as well as Jeff Gluck's NASCAR tweetups at Atlanta MotorSpeedway @amsupdates, I have tried off and on to convince NASCAR to plan and sponsor more official Tweetups without a whole lot of luck).


What is with the # in front of the title of the Tweetup?
The # or hashtag as it is called in Twitter speak, is used to denote keywords that you want people to be able to search for, are hoping to get people to follow (yes you can follow a hashtag through Twitter without following all of the people that are using it), or to form a trend. When I first joined Twitter the only way something became a "trend" in their statistics was by having a hashtag, and it had to be one word so John Glenn became #JohnGlenn. Now days a series of words can trend, for example the other week RIP Whitney Houston, written just like that trended before the news of her passing even was published on Yahoo.com's main page. 


How do you use a Tweetup to make yourself a better person?
Tweetups are used as networking tools by the participants. You have the chance to meet with people and share ideas with people that you may never have had the chance to in any other situation. I have met astronauts, future astronauts (9 of my fellow #NASATweetup #SCTweetup tweeps have applied to be part of the astronaut corp in the latest round of applications), engineers, fellow educators, authors, tv and movie stars, media moms, doctors, and lawyers from 12 countries and every state in the country. 


Meeting fellow educators has helped me challenge my way of teaching and my way of reaching my students. Every single educator I have met on my tweetups has given me a new perspective of teaching and continues to inspire me to become a better educator. I continue to learn from these fellow educators through their blogs, #edchat, #mathchat, #STEM chats every single day. If I have any questions about how to find a resource I can ask it on Twitter and chances are one of these great Tweeps will know the answer, or know how to find the answer before I can even blink. 


What exactly is a #WHTweetup?
WH stands for The White House, and these tweetups are run by the social media outreach personnel for the President. The White House has sponsored several tweetups over the last year. Tweeps have had a chance to view the holiday decorations, the State of the Union, town hall meetings, press corp briefings, Official State Welcomes, etc.

What will you be doing on your Tweetup?
While I do not have an official schedule (nor will we get a true agenda due to security reasons), the main purpose of this Tweetup is to attend the Official State Welcome for Prime Minister Cameron from the United Kingdom and his wife. We will also have a briefing with administration officials. Other than this, right now, I do not know. However the chance to be at such an event that is held on the South Lawn is a great honor. 

Will you get to meet President Obama?
I really want to! But in reality probably not. I am pretty sure he will have more important things going on that day with Prime Minister Cameron than to speak with little ole me. Would I jump at the chance if given it? Of course I would, who in their right mind wouldn't? I mean really, I am an Air Force wife, mom to three beautiful children, and a teacher to 70 wonderful 4th graders, and in all of these capacities everything President Obama does for our country it touches my life. I would love to meet First Lady Mrs. Obama and thank her and Second Lady Dr. Biden for supporting and promoting Joining Forces. 


Who pays for you to go on these Tweetups?
The Tweeps invited to most (if not all) Tweetups pay their own way. If you are invited to attend a tweetup be prepared to pay for your own: travel, lodging, food, gifts etc. I was very blessed when I attended the #NASATweetup in having people and businesses willing to sponsor my trip, as well as having some professional development money from the school board. When I was worried about not having the money to attend a fellow Tweep told me to seek out sponsors, especially since the launch was a true STEM activity, and the speakers and things we were exposed to would benefit my students. 

Wait a minute I thought you said you would be bringing these experiences back to Twiggs County. You mean the school doesn't help you cover expenses?
While the district personnel was able to help with my expenses to attend the #NASATweetup in July at Kennedy Space Center, that was the only event I was able to get professional development money for.


I took personal days to attend the Space Camp Tweetup, and am taking personal days to go to Washington DC. I covered and will be covering my own transportation, lodging, and meals for these last two trips. This is the reason why I am hoping that I can get sponsors for this trip as well. I can make it happen without help, but it will be tight on our budget. Without a little bit of help I will not be able to purchase any extras to bring home for my students, or extras to use in my classroom. My camera and my computer keyboard will do all of the talking. 


How do you bring the events of your tweetups back to the students in Twiggs County?
With both the #NASATweetup and the #SCTweetup I have brought the excitement of STEM learning to my students in Twiggs County. With the #NASATweetup I have made two picture books 

The Amazing Adventures of Jeffrey the Jeffersonville Tiger by Patricia Cleveland 4th grade Reading and Language Arts Teacher Jeffersonville Elementary | Make Your Own Book

and 

NASATweetup STS-135 The Final Mission by Patricia Cleveland | Make Your Own Book

for my students to read and follow along on Jeffery (our school mascot) and my adventures. I have used both of these books in my reading and language arts classes (and yes there are some editing mistakes in both of them that I did not catch before publishing). Also our second grade students have a story in their reading anthology about astronauts and space so the second grade team has also used the books. I am in the process of writing books for the #SCTweetup.


After my trip to Space Camp my homeroom students grew even more interested in what is happening in space and with NASA. We asked questions of Ron Garan during the #NASATweetup at NASA Headquarters a couple of weeks ago, and then they came up with the idea on their own to turn their spelling homework into space station stories. 


For the #WHTweetup every year my students write President's Day letters to the President. With the knowledge that I would be going to the White House in just a few weeks this project became more alive for my students. I will be bringing back everything that I can learn from my visit to share with my students, as well as hopefully hand delivering our letters to one of the tweetup coordinators (I have sent an email asking if this would be permissible, if not then I will mail the letters like I normally do.) In the two weeks before I leave on my trip we will also be talking more about the President's job, the White House, the United Kingdom, and the importance of inviting foreign leaders to the White House. While I am in Washington DC I hope to visit as many of the historical sites as I can and gain as much first person knowledge about these places and the people that make/made them famous. Not only for my own students but for the rest of the students in Twiggs County. Second grade is currently studying Capitols, and while my trip may be a little late for this year's study on it, I hope to bring home resources for them to use next year. 


Where do you typically stay on tweetups and how do you arrange it?
For my #NASATweetup I was blessed enough to have a good friend living in Daytona that I stayed with. For the #WHTweetup I will be staying with my cousin Glen who lives in DC. Space Camp I stayed in lodging on Red Stone Artillery. 
Arranging lodging for me was fairly easy, due to being a military spouse and having connections in a lot of places. However most big tweetups that I have seen, one person in the tweetup sets up a Facebook group for everyone involved to join, and from there the planning happens. Tweeps generally arrange to stay in houses together, in the same hotels, carpools etc through our Facebook groups.


So you go off for a few days with complete strangers and meet?
While I know it sounds that way, after you have been chatting on Twitter and on Facebook making arrangements and plans, by the time the Tweetup happens, you feel like you know one another. As we said at the end of #NASATweetup and #SCTweetup you have 150/16 new best friends who just had a once in a lifetime experience with you. And actually on the #SCTweetup there were 4 of us who attended the #NASATweetup together. 


How do you keep getting these chances to go on these things?
That is a very good question! I have been so lucky with these tweetups, honestly, every one that I have applied for I have gotten into. I know that #NASATweetup is a random luck of the draw, and I am pretty sure Space Camp and the White House were as well. 


How can I get to go on one of these tweetups?
First and foremost, you must have a twitter account. You do not need to be nearly as active as I am (and honestly I have been more active since going on my first NASA tweetup). 
Second you need to follow the accounts of the places/people that sponsor the type of tweetup you would like to go on.


For example if you want to get a chance to go on a White House Tweetup you would need to follow @whitehouse and @macon44. 


If you want a chance to go on a NASA Tweetup you need to follow @nasatweetup and @nasa. 


If you want a chance to experience Space Camp from behind the scenes you need to follow @SpaceCampUSA, that's Charity, our hostest with the mostest, and she announces all of their events.


 Raytheon is starting to get into the tweetup business as well sponsoring STEM tweetups with @Mathmovesu with the Smithsonian for their @Mathalive exhibit.

@Smithsonian also sponsors tweetups to give people a behind the scene look into what makes the museum work. 


I know that there are other places that sponsor Tweetups, it is just a matter of following who you are interested in, or activities that you are interested in. 


Last, don't give up, if you don't get accepted for your first chance, keep applying. 

How can I sponsor your Washington DC trip?
You can visit this link and make a donation through Facebook/Paypal, Or you can contact me at scienceesl @ yahoo.com (without any spaces), and I will either give you my mailing address, paypal email address or arrange to meet with you in person. 

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Oh My Gosh! Look what just came in my email! #WHTweetup

Pretend you see the Presidental Seal here (I couldn't figure out how to show that on here)

The President and Mrs. Obama

invite you to attend the

ARRIVAL CEREMONY

honoring

The Right Honorable

David Cameron, M.P.

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

and Mrs. Samantha Cameron

to be held at

The White House

on Wednesday, March 14, 2012

This means its really happening!!! I am so excited! Obviously there is more information on the invitation that I am not sharing. But this part made me so happy!!! 

Can you help me get to the Tweetup? Give 

I am funding this trip on my own with the help of anyone who is willing to sponsor me.

If you can visit: http://goo.gl/9dTMW and donate to this trip I would be forever grateful. Any amount no matter how big or how small will be appreciated. If you are not comfortable using the link enclosed please contact me at scienceesl @ Yahoo.com, with your contact information and I will get in touch to make arrangements. 

If you have a home business or even a larger business and you donate to this cause I have sponsorship levels available. 

For donations from $5-$50 I will post thank yous to all sponsors on my blog, http://scienceesl.blogspot.com, my Twitter feed @scienceesl, and my facebook page.

For donations from $50-$100 I will post badges on the sidebar of my blog asking people to visit the webpages of the sponsors of the trip.

For donations from $100-$500 I will do a special "sticky post" advertisement/thank you post on my blog for one week, create a badge for the sidebar of my blog, post thank yous to twitter and Facebook.

For donations of $500 and greater, I will discuss with you, how to thank you as well as all of the ways listed above.

Tweet Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/scienceesl

Boycott Loews Resorts! They DO NOT offer Military Discounts

I said I would update my blog if I heard back from Loews Resorts/Universal .

I did today... and basically was told that while they appreciate my husband's service, tough. They do not offer special military discounts.

See...
"Good Afternoon,
Thank you for taking the time to send us an email to voice your concern
regarding discounted rates during the upcoming peak travel period.  

I am not sure if you are familiar with the 3 onsite resorts located at
Universal Orlando.  All of the magnificent, 4 star,  properties are
within walking distance to our two amazing theme parks; Islands of
Adventure and Universal Studios Florida.  When you stay onsite at any of
the 3 resorts your have front of the line access to most rides and
attractions with the Universal Express Unlimited.  You simply show a
card and obtain access to the front of the line!  It is a fantastic
benefit of being a guest.  You also receive early park admission into
Islands of Adventure every day during your stay where you can visit the
Wizarding World of Harry Potter one hour prior to park opening.  This
is an outstanding way to enjoy the exciting new area before all the
other Harry Potter fans arrive. 

The Royal Pacific Resort is our most economical resort starting out with
a garden view room, featuring 335square feet.  Again, this is a 4 star
property.  During the less traveled season the rooms begin at $224 per
night plus tax for travel Sunday through Thursday (Weekend rates are
$244).  This season would be available August 12 through October 4 and
November 25 through December 20.  

During certain times of the year we do offer discounted rates to our
resorts.  Often it is helpful to book in advance to find discounted
rates or chose dates that are not as popular.  

You can find discounts online at www.universalorlando.com and if you
sign up online to receive special offers we will gladly email you
details when a special may be coming up that may work for your travel
dates.  Maybe one of the travel dates will work for you to visit us when
the children are out of school, such as the August 12-October 4 date I
mentioned above.  

We hope that you will take advantage of all the wonderful benefits of
staying onsite at a Universal Orlando resort that we offer!  

We wish safe travel to you and your family and are most grateful for the
service that you provide to our country and to each of us."


So special offers that anyone can get is all that they offer, and you had better just plan on traveling while your kids are in school because otherwise you are going to pay out the nose.

I suggest that all military families and supporters BOYCOTT staying at all Loews Resorts until this situation is resolved.

Tweet Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/scienceesl

Mark you calendars now for the next Friends of the Twiggs County Sheriff's Office Meeting

Please mark your calendars now for the next Friends of the Twiggs County Sheriff's Office general meeting!

March 1st, 2012
6 p.m.
Sheriff's Office 911 call center/Annex

The drawing for the shotgun will be held at this meeting. Tickets are still available for $5 each. 


Tweet Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/scienceesl

Military VA Loans/Homes for sale or rent a couple of sites to try

I have been asked recently a couple of times what I know about VA Loans, and the process. I have to be honest when answering this question and say not a whole lot. Yes we have done a VA loan, but we had a lot of help in the process. But since I have been asked about it, I decided I would do a little bit of research on it, and see if I could come up with a site to at least send people to. I found this link VA home loan rates, where you can go and they will give you a free quote. 


There were several other sites out there, but I found that link to be the easiest to navigate. Click here and check them out. 


Also if you are looking for a new home at your new duty station check out Zillow, they have homes for sale as well as rentals listed on there. I found a good selection for any of the places I tried. 


I hope this helps anyone who was asking me about this type of stuff! 

Tweet Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/scienceesl

Who is read for Read Across America? We are!

I decided on my door/bulletin board theme for Read Across America week on my way home from the Space Camp Tweetup. I happened to stop at the grocery store to grab a few things and saw the Dr. Seuss books, and just stopped to look. The book "Oh The Thinks You Can Think" Jumped out at me. Last year I did "Oh, The Places You Will Go" and I wanted something in that same theme, challenging the students to go beyond themselves with what they think they can achieve and do. 

On my door I wrote out the quote from the book "Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the THINKS you can think if only you try. 

I spiraled the phrase "Oh, the THINKS you can think if only you try", just like the book has it, and in the middle of the spiral is a picture of Dr. Seuss with some of his characters. The picture towards the top of the door is one of my class. 

The poster for my bulletin board says I've got to think up bigger things. I'll bet I can, you know. I'll speed my thinker-upper up as fast as it will go! 

I also drew out Sneeches, and on their body I wrote the writing prompt "Oh, The Thinks I Can Think..." My students were challenged to come up with their own inventions that they would invent, and tell us about it, as well as why they would invent it. 

Since the Sneeches are walking in a circle around my quote in the book, we used "Cat In The Hat" paper to have the Sneeches walk around our door and bulletin board. 

So now I am ready for one of my favorite week's of the school year! 

Please help me to visit the White House. I have been invited to attend the White House Tweetup on March 14th to welcome the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on his State Visit. I am looking for sponsors for this trip. If you can help, please visit http://goo.gl/9dTMW on Facebook, or contact me at 

scienceesl @ yahoo.com. Thank you! 

Tweet Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/scienceesl

Loews Resorts at Universal Orlando~Very disappointed

Last summer I won 2 day passes to Universal Orlando as part of a twitter party that was sponsored in part by Universal (remember the summer of winning?)

This coming spring break is the first chance that we have had a chance to even consider using these tickets.

While I have been looking into booking our trip, I have been exploring every option available for hotels. Which means Priceline, Kayak, Universal Loews Resorts, Disney Resorts, Hotels.com, etc.

Disney has Shades of Green, and even though they are full the dates we want, they can get us into one of the other Disney Resorts for under $130 a night. Which is an awesome rate for the week we can travel. Only thing is we are not planning on visiting WDW while we are down there, and I don't want DJ upset about not getting to go to WDW just because we are staying at one of the resorts. I "know" that I can explain it to him,  but I am not sure that once we are there he will really understand. Plus having to travel to and from Disney to Universal each day, isn't something I really want to do.

I also looked into Universal's on property resorts, thinking (crazy crazy crazy thought) that they would offer military discounts, that would be comparable to the ones on Disney, or other hotels in the area (most offer at least 20% off to military members and their families). Imagine my surprise when I discovered the Loews does not offer a year round military discount. To stay on Universal property it runs $340-$400 a night for the week of spring break, and $200-$400 a night for the week after school gets out (which I looked into at the suggestion of the helpful Universal Guest Services). From what I can tell, the only bonus that you gain by staying at one of these resorts is the Express Pass that your room key works as, (express passes for the days we are looking at visiting are $70 each, or if we wait until the week school gets out $50 each).

I contacted Universal Guest Services about this and while the young woman that I talked to was very friendly and very apologetic, Universal does not run the resorts, Loews does, so other than suggest that I call the vacation package group and see what partner hotel they can get me into, or to change our dates, there wasn't a whole lot she could help me with.

Basically I was told that because it is "peak" time, they have no reason to offer discounts to military members. 

What I can not understand is why or how on earth Disney can manage to offer military rate rooms for under $120 a night during the period of March 31-April 4th and Loews Universal Resorts are almost $400 a night. How is this possible?

I do not think that Loews cares at all for our military members and their families with these outrageous charges. I am highly disappointed in Loews Resorts and Universal for treating our military and their families this way.

I have contacted Lowes directly through the companies web page, about this, but I am honestly expecting that I will be told the exact same thing, "It's peak season, we will sell out without offering a military discount, so we won't offer one." If I hear different I will of course post about it. But essentially what I am saying to all of my fellow military families is this, if you want to visit Orlando, and stay on a theme park property and hope to have a military discount, don't count on it with Universal.

I am so excited! #WHTweetup

I am so excited about my trip for the White House Tweetup next month!

March 14th, I will be at the White House on the South Lawn, can you imagine? 

Normally this is something that I would have waited to tell my students about until right before I left, or even when I got back. They get so hyped up and anticipate things like this that they can get more excited that I do (yes, as crazy as that sounds) but I couldn't wait to tell them today. 

We were writing President's Day letters to President Obama and when they asked if we were going to mail their letters, I said that I would be taking the letters to Washington DC. Oh boy oh boy they got excited! I have requests for pictures and presents! (Does the White House have and educator center like NASA does? hum the things to look into!) I am really proud of the thinking that they were doing as far as the things to ask the President and the things to include in their letters. I hope that their final drafts read as well as our brainstorming went today! 

Now everything is starting to fall in place as far as actually going. 

When I registered for for the chance to go to the tweetup I had the chance to put down if I was bringing a guest. I checked yes, not really knowing who I would bring, I just thought oh I will figure it out if I get selected I will figure it out. 

When I got the email that I was selected the first person that came to mind was my principal, so I called and asked her if she wanted to attend with me (literally 30 seconds after reading my email, I dialed her number!) Unfortunately she is unable to go. 

I have a tweep friend who also applied to go, and didn't get in so I thought I could take them, but they can't get off of work to go. 

I have a cousin who lives in the DC area, and I invited him to come with me, and he said yes! :0) I am so excited to get to spend time with Glen. (This makes it sound like he was my third choice, which he wasn't, really, I just knew how excited my principal would be to get the chance, and I knew that my friend was disappointed that they couldn't go, so I was trying to make everyone happy.) 

Now I just need to figure out my travel arrangements. I am thinking arrive on Monday so I can spend Tuesday doing all of the awesome "teachery" things that I want a chance to do (Smithsonian, NASA Headquarters, all of the Monuments etc) and fly out on Thursday, so I don't have to stress getting from the tweetup to the airport and through security on Wednesday.

It is a 12 hour or so drive, so I really do not want to drive it. I will if I need to, but I would prefer not to. Especially since in DC the public transportation is such that you do not need to have a car. 

I looked into Amtrak, but it is just as expensive as flying and takes more than an hour longer to get there than driving.

I can fly in and out of Baltimore for under $200, or in and out of Regan for just over $200, which is doable, and actually may end up being cheaper than driving, and it is definitely faster. I just need to figure out if with either long term parking at Atlanta or riding Grooms is it still less than driving.  

If anyone has an suggestions on travel I am up for any help I can get!

I am hoping to get sponsors for this trip, since it will directly benefit my students. I feel kind of funny asking for them, since people and businesses were so generous with my last trip. I know that we can swing this trip, or else I wouldn't have signed up to go. My only concern is what more can I add that I can bring home to share with my students if I have a little bit of help? If you are willing and able to help me out you can go to this link which is through Facebook, or send me an email at scienceesl @ yahoo . com (obviously all together) and I can give you my address or my paypal address (because it is a different one). 

 

Tweet Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/scienceesl

Can you help me to attend the White House Tweetup? #WHTweetup

Give

I have 67 little reasons for wanting the chance to go on this Tweetup, my fourth grade students! Can you imagine how excited they will be if I get this chance? Talk about bouncing off the walls excited. Our writing assignment for this coming week is to write letters to President Obama for President's Day (my fourth year with this assignment and my studens love this chance every year). What if I had the chance to deliver them in person? (Kind of, since I know I wouldn't be able to actually hand them to him, but I could mail them from DC or maybe even give them to the tweetup handlers). They love to talk about history, they love to see the pictures from my other tweetups, they love to hear about the people I have already had a chance to meet and they love to take the chance to "tweet" my friends that are attending events to ask questions. Every event I have a chance to go to, or to send questions through my friends, inspires them to come up with more questions about the world we live in. I know they would give me assignments of things to ask and to take pictures of. 


Another reason to help me attend this tweetup? The history in the making that I can continue to share with my future students. The meetings that will happen during this State visit will discuss world events that will effect the future of this country and all of my future students. To be able to share this with the generations to come would be absolutely amazing.


I have been able to share both of my previous tweetup experiences with my current students (NASATweetup STS135, and Space Camp Tweetup) to inspire them to reach for the stars. I can guarantee that this experience would inspire them to reach for the White House (we talk almost daily about how if a person with President Obama's background and experiences can get there, these kids from Rural Georgia can get there too!) 


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White House Tweetup Here I Come! #WHtweetup

I got a wonderful email today! 


I have been selected to attend the White House Tweetup on March 14th to attend an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on the morning of March, 14th and an opportunity to engage with Administration officials after the ceremony.


I am so excited to have this opportunity! 


Now the fun part of figuring out transportation, and lodging. :-)


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A new shopping search engine

In my search for ways to become Sam I Am for Dr. Seuss week, I have found a new shopping search engine. I found Become.com.
I discovered a lot of neat things, and could easily spend a lot of money over there! Since I was already looking on their site I looked for a few other things to see how it came out price wise to other places.

For example I searched for a burgundy leather chair just to see what they came up with. Not bad price wise, very comparable to other search sites.

I looked for the www.elias burgundy top grain leather club chair that Amazon is currently out of stock on, just to see, and Become.com had one.

Then because I have a friend whose birthday is coming up who I know loves both candles and butterflies I thought lets try butterfly candle holders, and bingo they found a lot of choices. Choices anywhere in price from $0.76 to $150. Just depends on what you are really looking for.

Next time you are shopping on line try them out, and see what you can find.

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