A welcome message...

Hello and welcome to my new blog.  This was originally created as a requirement for one of my online classes, but as a former blogger who really enjoyed blogging, but just kinda "fell off the wagon" due to life in general, I hope to at least somewhat regularly update this blog.  The specific instructions for creating this blog for my assignment were to: "Give some thoughtful consideration to naming your blog due to the possibility that you may want to continue using it beyond the end of this course" which got me thinking.  I have so many passions in life and there is so much that I thought I would like to share.  After sitting and racking my brain for a good 15-20 minutes about this, I started coming up with a list of my passions and the first couple that I thought of both happened to start with the letter "e".  That was perfectly convenient, of course, because my last name begins with an "E".  So then, I decided to think of five words (signifying the five people in my family), all beginning with the letter "E" that I not only would want to share with you and continue to blog about, but that I could  also use for an appropriate title.  And that is how I came up with my title.

ENJOY.  My family is my life and my entire world.  I also feel extremely blessed due to the fact that I am living out one of my dreams by being able to live and travel (more on that later) in England and Europe!  I often have to stop and pinch myself, and say a special prayer of "thanks" to God for not only blessing me with an amazing husband and best friend, for three wonderful (most of the time!)  and for lastly for affording me the opportunity to live overseas.

Hanging out in Olympic Park, London 2012.

Enjoying some after-dinner Espresso in Rome.

EXIST.  This kind of goes along with "enjoy", because I feel that one of the key aspects to being happy is to enjoy life, and to be present.  Live in the moment, do not take things for granted, and most importantly live by the golden rule "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."  There is so much negative in the world, be the positive!

EAT.  One of my most favorite things to do is to cook and bake.  Truly... I really do love cooking.  I always joke that I am a GREAT recipe-follower, so this blog will probably not have many (if any?) original creations, but instead I will gladly share some of my favorite recipes and food blogs that my family and I love, and I hope you will to.  I absolutely love the satisfaction that comes with cooking a delicious meal and/or desserts for my family and friends to enjoy!  And I love to EAT as well.  Although still maybe a little finicky, I am no longer the picky eater I was growing up, and I am now enjoying eating so many different foods.

Getting ready to enjoy a panini in a cafe in Lucca, Italy.

Belgian Waffles.  Enough said.

One of our favorite eateries in Bruges, Belgium.

EXPLORE. I believe there is so much to see and do in our amazing world... so much of it can be found right in your very own community, it just takes a little exploration!  Even I am guilty of thinking I need to hop in the car, a train, or on a plane in order to see something new, when really all I need to do is step outside and take a look around!  Of course, traveling to new destinations and checking off places on my "bucket list" is always exciting as well, and this is something I am trying to take full advantage of while living here in England!

Orford Castle, England

View of the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero in Paris

The Colosseum

EDUCATE. I guess you can call me a "geek" or a "nerd", but I have always had a passion for learning.  I loved school and it has always been a goal of mine to earn a college degree, and not even necessarily to start a career or to obtain a job, but purely for the sake of going to school and earning a higher education.  I am currently just over a year away from finally achieving that goal, and in early summer 2015 I will be graduating from Ashford University with a BA in Education Studies.  I believe we should never stop learning and look forward to hopefully instilling a love of learning in future generations as I work towards becoming an elementary school teacher!

Well, that is a little about me and some background info as to why this blog was started, why it is titled the way it is, and what you have to look forward to in posts to come!  Thanks for stopping by!

Week 1 Journal Entry for EDU352

Without a doubt, I think that the Internet has been the most significant development in our (recent) world regarding the changes we have experienced due to technology. Because of the Internet, our world has become increasingly flat and people from all over the world can interact and connect through classrooms, social media, and even the workplace. The Internet has even affected classrooms in a sense by bringing the ability to research current news and events in "real-time", and to even connect with the past in ways like never before.

However, while this is not a recent development, I would also have to consider both the invention of paper and the printing press to be among other key developments in the changes our world has experienced due to technology. With first the invention of paper, followed by the invention of the printing press, things were able to be not only written out and preserved indefinitely (or at least for as long as the paper was not lost or destroyed), but also the printing press allowed for writings to be mass-produced and distributed. This allowed for a larger quantity of people to be educated than ever before in everything from the arts, to religion, to mathematics, to current news events, to even the latest gossip.

I must admit that I smiled while watching the video "The History of Educational Technology" and the clip of the overhead projector came on because that was pretty much the extent of my experience with technology in the classroom for me while growing up. I do remember a basic computer class in High School, but my experience was so different than my own children's for example, who not only have computers in every classroom, but they are connected to the Internet, as well as being in classrooms with interactive SmartBoards. In fact, my daughter's High School just finished assigning each and every student a personal laptop to be used for school!

I would definitely have to say that technology has increased my learning due to the fact that information is so handily and readily available because of the Internet. Not that the information is always 100% accurate or reliable, I can at least Google, for example, as a starting point to find what I am looking for. Just last night, for instance, while watching a movie with my husband and son, I became a little lost in the plot so I searched for the movie on IMDB.com and read a brief plot description in order to help me make sense of a few of the details I was confused about. Another example is that it is because of technology that I am only a year away from attaining my BA from Ashford University in Education Studies. Technology has made it possible for me to still be a stay-at-home mother, first and foremost, to live in another country, yet still attend college and work towards my degree and my goal of becoming an elementary school teacher.