Update Week 3

 

Welcome back readers!

 

We are now ending week 2 of my genius hour project and I will be sharing what I have learned so far on my project of: How to Travel on a Student Budget! I created a pinterest page and have been researching others blogs as well as taking notes comparing all of the tips and feedback. I have looked at a variety of different websites, and blog posts to gather my information!

Check out my pinterest post to see where I have collected information from:
 

 

New Findings:

I have recently looked into and learned about the currency and exchange rates for various locations. I compared them with the Canadian dollar. Here is what I found:

1 Canadian Dollar =

·         0.76 U.S.A. Dollar

·         1.54 Belize

·         0.61 British

·         421. 33 Costa Rica

·         2.88 Turkish dollar

·         14.36 Egyptian pound

·         1.31 German

·         5.23 Chinese Yen

·         37.93 Philippians

·         86.59 Japanese yen

·         465.61 Central Africa

·         12.5 Argentina Peso

The Canadian Dollar is however equal with Australia’s, but Australia is an expensive place to visit!

This information was found by going onto Google and searching an exchange rate converter and Google has one for you where you type in the amounts and search every area of the world. If you want to see any other rates you can simply check out Google! I just found ones that were most applicable to me and this genius hour project.

Online Travel Blogs

Did you know you can use your student ID to get you discounts all over the world!? It does pay off on being a student, and this shows that you are able to travel as a student. Here’s how!

        I found this great blogger called: girl vs. globe. She has been travelling all over and she is a student like you and me! She found there are even student discount cards that you can get. They are $20 but they can save you hundreds on travel, clothes, hotels, food, and transportation while you travel! Also as a student you can attend museums and landmarks all for free with your student idea! Can you imagine checking out the most famous museums all over the world for FREE!! You have to mark that one down on your bucket list! Another tip girl vs. globe suggested was to skimp on nights out and to drink more at home then you won’t spend as much money on alcohol too! Another helpful tip would be to look into studying abroad if you still have more time as a student left or look into getting a work VISA that lets you get a part time job overseas to make money while you travel! I have a few friends in high school who went to other countries and worked as an Au Pair and cared for children. The family paid for everything as well as gave you money for watching their kids. My friends got to go on vacations with the family, and had their own rooms too! That is definitely a great option to look into!   

To check out more about her and her tips check out:

http://girlvsglobe.com/2016/01/how-to-travel-the-world-as-a-student.html

 

Stay places for FREE

 

Another thing you can think about when selecting the travel destination is where to stay. Where do my family and friends live? I have quite of few friends all over the world including: Germany, Argentina, Australia, Ireland, England, Florida, Sweden, and Denmark. My mom even has a pen pal in Ireland that she has had since grade 4 and they still keep in touch to this day, I can definitely work my way to staying with her at some point! One thing I also learned about where to stay is how cheap hostels are, and you can bunk with other travelers in them. You get your own room but will share a bathroom, and kitchen/common room. This is another great way to meet people who are adventurous and crazy as you are, and you can share travel tips and ideas!  

Next Steps:

The next steps I will be taking is to go through the data I have collected so far and to pick the top places to visit on a student budget! I would love to visit so many different places, but it will definitely come down to the amount of money I have, and will be willing to spend! Then I will go further by beginning to collect data by interviewing my best friend who has a lot of experience travelling and she is still a student! I will also be looking at meeting with a travel agent the week after and talking to them about tips for travelling on a student budget.

The one obstacle I encountered was....to be honest after looking at all the amazing places I WANT TO GO TO THEM ALL!!! This definitely makes staying on a budget a hard thing to do! I need to remind myself I am still a student and I have a tight and strict budget. I am going to do more research on free things to do and look into walking to places vs. Taxing.

 

Educational Technology Tip for Teachers:

Today is class we used an educational technology resource known as Plickers. This resource was something that I had never seen before but was so AWESOME! My teacher handed pieces of paper that had a shape on them and on different sides of the shape was the letters: A,B,C, and D. Then my teacher asked our class a series of questions and we answered them using our shapes. All of the questions were multiple choice formats and we would flip the picture to select the option we agree with whether it was A, B, C, or D. I would recommend using this in your classrooms as it is a great tool to see how students are feeling, it is anonymous, only the teacher can see who responds, and it gives the teacher feedback on their lessons/activities while using 21^st century technology! I will definitely be adapting this in my future lessons! The best part is this app can be on your phone and you create the questions!

Thoughts and Feelings:

Overall I am beginning to feel more comfortable including technology in my lessons as a future educator. With all of these different resources I have discovered and been exposed to I am more than excited to try them all out. I won’t know until I try if I like the resources but the hardest part is if you are willing to even give them a chance! I sure am! I love a good challenge!  

Tavia Wright. (November 29, 2012). Teaching with Technology the Wright way. Pasco County Schools. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYowyQ-o4oQ

Thanks for reading talk to you next week!

Cheers!