Mrs. Morris and her husband traveled nearly 8,000 miles from their home in Australia and have been staying at the Yollis house. Mrs. Yollis and Mrs. Morris have been blogging buddies for years, but met face-to-face for the first time last week. These educators spent a wonderful week together!
The two teachers were together because they were presenters at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). The topic of their session was Educational Blogging: Flattening the Classroom Walls.
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| Photo by John Miller |
After ISTE, Mrs. Morris visited Mrs. Yollis' classroom. Although school was already over, Beverly and Panda were still in the room and were glad to have some friends stop by!
Enjoy these photos from the fun-filled, educational week!
Spending Time With Blogging Buddies on PhotoPeach
While in Mrs. Yollis' classroom, the two teacher filmed a special message for their readers!
Do you have any questions for the bloggers?
I really enjoyed your session and your story. How awesome that you finally got to meet in person!
ReplyDelete@ Mrs. Sedgwick,
DeleteThanks so much for coming to our session and for taking the time to leave a comment! It was so exciting to meet so many wonderful educators at ISTE! What a great conference! I'm thinking already about ISTE13 in Texas! :-)
Sincerely,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Mrs Yollis,
ReplyDeleteWow, what an amazing post! I have heard from Mrs Morris quite a few times over the past week as she kept me up to date with what was happening over in Los Angeles and San Diego. It is so nice to be able to see all of the photos of your adventures together. Now I can really visualise the fun you had!
It sounds like you had so many highlights over the past week. I know that everyone who attended your session at ISTE would have been so inspired. The story of you and Mrs Morris "meeting" online a few years ago and now finally meeting face to face is truly wonderful.
Thank you for sharing all of your adventures!
Your other friend from down under,
Miss Jordan
P.S I am very jealous of the sunshine you are experiencing. I am currently sitting inside with the heater on and a blanket around me. Outside it's cold, wet and windy!
@ Miss Jordan,
DeleteThanks for your kind words about my post! It was fun to be sitting here today putting it all together. It really was a wonderful adventure, and I will never forget it! When are you going to fly over that big blue ocean? I hope soon!
Yes, the weather here has been fantastic! We sat outside if we were home for dinner. I know that the weather is quite hot in New York City, so I hope they are doing well there!
It was fun Skyping with you those two times! You certainly had it all covered considering your buddy was with me!
Do you have any fun plans for your time off? I'm just relaxing now and will be starting obedience skills with my pal, Buck! :-) Fingers crossed!
You were missed, Kelly! :-)
Your friend,
Mrs. Y♥llis
@ Mrs Yollis,
DeleteOhh, thank you, that is sweet of you to say. I would love to fly over to the US to meet you and Mr Yollis...and Buck and Harvey of course! Perhaps you will be over in Australia first though! :-)
Mrs Morris said you were the perfect host during her stay in LA. Perhaps you could consider a job as a tourist guide in your time off, hehe.
I am very glad it's holiday time here in Victoria. Although, like Mrs Morris, I don't always "switch off" on the holidays. I am running a conference about blogging and technology in education with Mr Limb at school next week.
I really enjoyed skyping with you and Mrs Morris too. Luckily we could fit it in amongst all of your outings!
Good luck with the obedience skills with young Buck!
Your friend,
Miss Jordan
Dear Mrs Yollis,
ReplyDeleteI truly loved this post it really was quite moving. For as I was watching the peach photo slide of photographs I couldn't stop smiling.
I'm, so over the moon that you got to meet up with your blogging pal and with the smiles on both your faces you can tell it was everything plus more for you both too. :)
This to me is what I love about blogging for not only learning, sharing and growing together but finally meeting up with each other. With blogging everything is possible and the world is really closure than you think and making friendships that will last a life time too.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful time that you had with your blogging pal. I know this is something I will never forget as well Mrs Yollis. I have loved watching this unfold way back when BB was in grade two with Mrs Morris. :)
Hopefully one day we will see you and Mr Yollis in Australia. Now that would be the icing on the cake.
Enjoy your summer and I hope Buck enjoys obedience school.
From your friend down under,
AA
@ AA, (parent from Australia)
DeleteI cannot stop smiling when I watch it either. Of course, I'm not smiling as much now since I had to drop Mr. and Mrs. Morris at the airport. But as I said, all good things must come to an end.
You hit the nail on the head: With blogging everything is possible..."! I certainly had no idea when I first stumbled upon Kathleen blog that such rich relationships would occur, not only with her but from her students and parents! Simply amazing!
I hope you are enjoying your two weeks off! Although it is winter there in the southern hemisphere, try to stay warm and dry.
Yes, Buck and I had our first real "school" session yesterday. He is a bit reluctant, but I'll make him a top dog in no time! :-)
Thanks for all your support over the years!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Mrs. Yollis and Mrs. Morris,
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to tell you how much I have enjoyed following your journey with Quadblogging this year. I attended your session at ISTE and left feeling inspired to take the next step with blogging in my classroom. It was a moving experience to hear and see your Uganda project in action. I registered my class yesterday for Quadblogging and I can't wait to see what this year will bring for my students. Hope you enjoy the rest of your summer.
@ Tina,
DeleteThanks so much for joining our session. There were certainly a lot to choose from, so thank you!
I'm glad that you are inspired to start blogging. It offers so many wonderful learning opportunities for your students and for the teacher!
QuadBlogging is a wonderful place to start, and I wish you the best of luck. Because QuadBlogging is so random, I also recommend that you join the Student Blogging Challenge.
Student Blogging Challenge Information
It is a great place to learn and connect with other new bloggers.
Good luck on your journey!
Warmly,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Mrs Y♥llis,
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing this wonderful post about our time together. The PhotoPeach brought back so many memories!
Our time in California really flew by but I hope it's not too long before we can meet face to face again.
Say hi to your summer student, Buck, and say g'day to Harvey!
Your blogging buddy,
Mrs Morris
@ Mrs. Morris,
DeleteYou are so welcome! Putting the photos together yesterday was so much fun because I got to relive our fun-filled time together! We packed a lot in the schedule!
Meeting you and Mr. Morris was a highlight of my year. I knew that we were compatible colleagues when it comes to global projects, but spending personal time with you was such a pleasure!
Enjoy the rest of your trip and feel free to contribute any photos to our 366 Blog!
Your friend,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Mrs Yollis,
ReplyDeleteAwesome post.
The photos were awesome my favourite photo was the picture of you and Mrs Morris at the conference.
The photo peach was awesome too I just loved the music it sounded so cool.
I have happy tears that you and Mrs Morris have finally met. I hope you and I can meet each other too :-D.
I have a question for you Mrs Yollis
Do you think you would visit Australia one day Mrs Yollis?
From your pal,
Bianca BB.
:D :-)
@ Bianca,
DeleteThank you! It was an awesome time if I do say so myself! The photo from the conference was taken by one of our blogging buddies, Mr. Miller. He had a great camera and captured some wonderful shots for us!
I had happy tears too! Not only do Mrs. Morris and I work well on class projects, but we have also become good friends.
Mr. Yollis and I would love to come to Australia one day. I know we will. Our biggest obstacle now is good old Buck. He is young and needs to grow a bit before we could leave him for a long period of time.
I have a question for you: Do you think you will visit America one day?
Your pal,
Mrs. Y♥llis
@ Mrs Yollis,
DeleteThank you for your wonderful comment back to me.
Great question Mrs Yollis. Yes, I do feel that one day my whole family will visit the USA.
As you know my dad I just loved your post you did on Death Valley. My dad did mention that is one place he would love to visit.
Also my dad has some cousins in the USA. It would be really nice to meet them and YOU!
Enjoy your holidays Mrs Yollis.
From your pal,
Bianca BB :)
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteThis is so awesome, thank you for sharing this story!
I remember what a joy it was when I was a student at Round Meadow and had a pen pal at Chaparral. I would love to have worked on projects with students half way around the world!!! I can just imagine how much it broadens the students minds and prepares them to be global citizens.
Keep up the great work,
Jennifer Peyrot
@ Jennifer,
DeleteThanks so much for taking the time to comment! Yes, technology has certainly made communication easier. The world is becoming more flat!
Have a great summer and I'll see you in the fall!
Your friend,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Mrs Yollis,
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful post! I am glad you and Mrs Morris met in person. It sounds like you had heaps of fun. I hope your presenting went well.
I can't believe Mrs Morris and Nate travelled 8,000 miles to get to America. Wow!
I really want to go to America one day. By the sounds of things it is a great holiday place. I would like to go to Disneyland and of course meet your class.
Enjoy your holidays!
Your blogging buddy from down under,
Skye
@ Skye, (My blogging buddy from down under)
DeleteYes, Mrs. Morris and I had heaps of fun and our presentation went very well. We had about 140 teachers attend our session, and we are hoping that many of them will start blogging like we do! Do you have any advice for teachers who are just starting to blog? How can they get get their students writing?
I hope you do visit America one day!
Your friend,
Mrs. Y♥llis
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteI loved the PhotoPeach slide show and Vimeo movie capturing moments of your time together! I had a few favorites from that video: I loved the faces of all your young bloggers when they were introduced to Mrs. Morris! Priceless expressions of awe! ... Your new Aussie flip flops are fabulous for your California summer. Hopefully, Buck won't try to take them... I chortled when I saw the picture of the both of you on the playground playing Bamboo! ... My absolute favorite was the picture of the two of you Skyping during your ISTE Session! I was choked up at ISTE at that moment, and felt that again when looking at that photo.
Thanks so much for sharing those with us!
Your friend,
Mrs. Watanabe
@ Mrs. Watanabe,
DeleteThanks so much for your thoughtful words about the post. It was fun for me to assemble all the photos and relive the events. I love the photo of the kids meeting Mrs. Morris...such authentic joy! Skyping in Marsha and her two daughters, Leila and Hannah was a high point for me too.
It was so much fun to meet you and room with you at ISTE! You were easy going and always supportive. Thank you!
Your friend,
Mrs. Y♥llis