Welcome

Welcome to our sabbatical plans! This site will consist of several blog entries that describe the plans & needs, preparations, family news, supporters, and updates from each place we visit and do fieldwork. I relish your input and support along the way.


Who are we? Marty and Megan Robertson along with Sam (9), Sarah Jane (6), and Emma (3). I am Marty, a sixth grade teacher at Peabody Charter School in Santa Barbara, California. This Ancient Civilizations & Geology sabbatical is my project and travel will begin with the whole family in January 2007. If all goes as planned we will be gone for seven months. Megan is a homeschooling mom and the support crew. She keeps me hopeful through all those moments of doubt. The actual idea of creating this sabbatical was hers. Sam, Sarah Jane, and Emma are the cheerleaders. They are studying up on their Egyptology, Greek mythology and Italian. They are also selling eggs from our chickens for their “Egypt fund!” Needless to say, or write for that matter, we are excited about this trip. See our “Project Description” section for more information about where we are going.

What are we doing? We will be traveling to Egypt, Greece, Italy, France and England collecting video, photos and sounds relevant to the sixth grade studies of geology and ancient civilizations. I will be organizing a curriculum where students will take these clips and retell the histories of Egypt, Greece and Rome utilizing the technologies of PowerPoint and iMovie. I have previously done this by having students retell the geology of our Santa Barbara backcountry by creating a PowerPoint virtual hike up Hot Springs Trail. I am confident that I will return with another great learning experience for Santa Barbara students. See our section titled Project Description for a more detailed account of the project and rationale.

Don't worry too much about the dates on these posts. I use the dates to arrange posts in an order that I think is important, not always in chronological order. Sorry for any confusion!