Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Ireland

It seems like forever ago, but in reality it was two years ago that I trekked over to Ireland for a short stay. Not sure why it's taken so long to post the photos. Spent most of the time on the Dingle Peninsula. What a beautiful location. Rented a car and drove there from Dublin. What a trip that was...sitting on the "wrong" side of the car, driving on the "wrong" side of the road and shifting with my left hand. I'm surprised they don't make you go for a test drive before setting you free. From the Dingle Peninsula, we took a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher. We were very lucky with the weather that day. What unbelievable views from there. Here are some of my shots from the trip....

The Dingle Peninsula

Dingle Peninsula


Ian and Dennis forced me to pose too before we kayaked

View from the Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher

Ian and Dennis think they're being funny....

A 700+ foot drop off...I could only crawl to the edge

Me and Dennis peering over the edge at Cliffs of Moher

Doesn't look very far down, but trust me, it is terrifying

And even more terrifying when the wind blows out...note my hair


Random statue of Bill Clinton in Ballybunion
Ballybunion is NOT a town I recommend visiting...
Swimming on the east side of the Atlantic
It was freezing, but we HAD to do it!

Walking around Dingle

Dingle Brewing Company

Guinness never tasted so good

The bar in Dingle that was also a hardware store...we LOVED this place! Highly recommended
And now back in Dublin

MFK flew in for the night...we visited the Guinness factory
 A Leysin reunion in Dublin. MFK came in for the occasion. Anita and John were already in Ireland visiting family for the summer and Emma just so happened to BE in Dublin :)


Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Alpine Adventure - Session 2

The weather this summer in Switzerland has not proved to have as many sunny days as it usually does. Nonetheless, we spent a lot of time outside with the campers. 

This is a photo of a full sky double rainbow after an evening thunderstorm in Leysin over the Alps.


On family afternoon it was raining, but our faculty family proceeded to have a campfire and roast marshmallows

And then there was Zermatt....in mid-July....Good thing I had a carrot in my bag. You never know when you'll need it for a snowman nose. Ovomaltine cookie eyes, carrot nose and balisto bar smile for this guy!

The construction
July Snowman at Gornergrat

We are from Switzerland, Ireland, USA, Japan, UK and Poland
Faculty Family at the Gornergrat



Hiking in the snow



Looking for the Matterhorn

It was easier to slide down on our bums

And then the Matterhorn came out from the snow and clouds...
....so I took a selfie with it.


And then there's dorm night....the kids all get the same supplies and have to dress the staff in anyway they see fit for the Mr. Leysin contest..


Boys dorm on dorm night

Mr. Leysin
 And then there's the overnight hut trips. We had 17 kids on our overnight to the Lac du Taney hut.
A Ukranian and Russian boy hold the Ukrainian flag

This is what we deal with

Hut dinner

Campfire at the hut

Looking down on Lake Geneva

Snack time for the staff







Mighty Math - Second Session

My classes were much larger during second session this year (but much smaller than my public high school classes). The biggest challenge this session has been trying to explain Mighty Math in French to my period one class! Many students in that class were French speakers with no English. My French math vocabulary has certainly grown.

Working hard on their books




















I asked them to show me how much they love Mighty Math and here was their response...


KenKen puzzles



Making her own fractal












Tessellations were a new addition to Mighty Math this year! The kids LOVE them!

Period 1 working on Pascal's triangle...shading in all the odd numbers makes the Sierpinski triangle!

The session 1 class Sierpinski triangle made a nice classroom decoration for us!

Example pages for the Mighty Math book!

Fractal Cards!

Period 3 hard at work

Inspired to make unique fractal cards!

The Japanese boys engineering

Not quite enough time to get to 256 tetrahedrons!

...but Period 2 added to it....

....and then we had 256 marshmallow-toothpick tetradedrons



Fibonacci in pinecones!



Working on their Mighty Math books!