Field Trip to SMU and the President George W. Bush Museum and Library

This blog assignment is found on Mrs. Kallas's wiki, which you can view here.

On March 30, 2017, our class took a field trip to Southern Methodist University. Here, we got to view an Education building and go into classes to learn about both augmented reality and virtual avatars. I thought the avatars were extremely interesting. I thought it was cool that they could be programmed to play the role of different types of students. This would be great for new teachers to practice how to teach and control their different personalities. I learned that there are many ways to practice lesson plans, even with computer automated students! I also learned how important it is to be aware of the personalities of all the students, because talking to one in a specific voice, may not be okay with the another. For example, we did not talk to Maria using the same tone that we addressed Cindy (CJ) with.

Click here to view the SMU Department of Teaching and Learning.

This is a picture from SMU of my sister, Emily, and me.

Next, we went to the George W. Bush Library/Museum. Click here to view the museum's website.

• One cool aspect of the museum was the Oval Office. This was an exact replicate of the President's office. Given by the name, it was an oval shaped office with white walls and a ceiling. It had sofas and a desk with a big chair like that of President Bush's office. Also, there were two flags. There were many windows in the office that gave a view of out into the rose bush garden. The office had a replicate of a yellow sunbeam designed rug, chosen by Mrs. Bush, and an oil painting, A Charge to Keep. On the ceiling was a large presidential seal, which you can view below.   

The Oval Office

Presidential Seal on the ceiling

Education Initiative Exhibit

• George W. Bush's famous education initiative was "No Child Left Behind", and it was his idea of taking accountability to the national level, in order to help failing children and schools in need. He wanted to get all students capable of reading, because he believed that that was the foundation for learning and education. Many students were failing in school because they were never taught to read, which made every lesson and topic difficult to understand. His idea was an education system "that's based upon sound fundamental curriculum, one that starts teaching children to read early in life, one that focuses on systems that do work" (George W. Bush). This was one of his ways of making a difference, and helping promote a successful education community. He even went to several elementary schools and read to them as part of his program.