On the Homefront: Instilling the 3 R's

For the past year, Jana has enjoyed home-schooling Carter, who just turned 5 just last month. We appreciate the benefits of concentrated attention and the flexibility that this type of education style allows since we have been quite mobile in our deputation travels these last few months. Home-schooling will also be the educational system we will use when we move to our new ministry in Honduras.

Carter is developing quickly in his 'readin, riting 'n rithmatic' skills and especially in his desire to do so on his own. It is amusing to watch him attempt to read the Wall Street Journal (intense business reading with very few pictures!) or use his growing math and number recognition skills to memorize almost all of the car numbers of the NASCAR racing series. Most certainly, his learning abilities in these areas is making his father very proud!

Pay Toilets in a Plane?

Can you imagine being charged for using the toilets on a flight?

Well...this is not far from happening. The Irish lowcost airline Ryanair is planning to do just that. Please read the article to find out a little bit more and watch the video to hear Ryanair´s Chief Executive´s reasons for this policy.

- What is your opinion on this?

- Can you make any sense of this policy?

I will be waiting for your comments

PODCASTING

Here are some of my students´ podcasts related to topics linked to tourism: reasons to travel, opinions on tipping, flying, etc. These podcasts are produced by my students through a voice forum in which they participate on a regular basis. Thanks to all of them for their participation and their interesting opinions.

On the Road Again!

The past few months have seen us putting on the miles or kilometers visiting our family, friends, supporters, and supporting churches.

At the end of October through the end of December, we traveled to Atlanta, Dallas, Ontario Canada, Knoxville and then back home to Jacksonville.

In January, we visited churches and individuals in the Jacksonville area and in February we traveled to Orlando for participation in church mission conference activities.

It was great to be able to connect with so many friends and be able to talk about the Honduras Radio Project.

Are We Being Responsible Tourists?

In the last decade or so we have started to hear the term Responsible Tourism and to read articles about it. Here I am including a video that shows how RESPONSIBLE TOURISTS are needed. The video displays how the Italian canal city of Venice is becoming dirtier and dirtier. The locals are complaining that mass tourism has made their canal city dirty, and authorities have launched a campaign to raise awareness about this and encourage tourists to be responsible and respect the places visited.

A piece of good news

Apart from sharing with you online teaching and learning material related to English for Tourism, today I also wanted to share with you a piece of good news which I received last week. On Tuesday I was granted the Award for the Excellence of Online Teaching 2008 at the Universidad de Huelva. I would like to thank the university, both my classroom and virtual students, all of you that follow this blog and those that often write to me encouraging me to continue with this blog and my work. A sincere THANK YOU!

Here is a picture of the award: