The Virtual Vacation Program provides you with the following benefits:

• It's fun for your students
• It allows for a wide range of student abilities
• It integrates many mathematical skills with those of other disciplines
• It forces students to be resourceful and to think for themselves
• It integrates technology and the Internet into your course
• It makes your life easier since you become a facilitator rather than a lecturer
• It allows for a great deal of creativity and flexibility for students
• It is completely digital which allows for easy editing and adaptation
• It is available for immediate download - Start the program tomorrow if you like

As you know, students these days are, for the most part, math phobic. Typically, by the time they reach upper middle school to high school, many of them have already determined that they are no good at math and that the only mathematics they'll ever need their calculator can do for them.

You and I both know, that those assumptions are completely false. Anyone can do math if they put enough effort into it and have a good teacher (the fact that you are taking the time to find new and interesting ways to teach mathametics to your students tells me that you are one of these teachers). And, as far as calculators go, they can't do it all (although they can do quite a bit nowadays). Besides, calculators only do what their user tells them to do. If your students don't have a mastery of the operations their calculator is to perform, how will they know they're using the right ones? Moreover, even if they're using the correct operations, how will your students know they are using them correctly and in the correct sequence?

There's a great deal of mathematics that students simply do not understand. You, as mathematics teacher must help them understand that mathematics is all around them, and it's liable to sneak up on them when they don't have a calculator. It is imperative that your students gain a mastery of at least the essential skills they will need in life.

However, it is just as important to help them realize that those skills ARE actually essential. Thus, you have to teach them in a context that is somewhat realistic - a context in which your students might actually see the usefullness of these math skills in their own lives.

Lastly, you MUST teach these mathematical skills and concepts in a way which students find fun and interesting. That means far fewer lectures. Let your students start to do some thinking for themselves. They're alot smarter than we sometimes give them credit for.

It means letting your students be creative. Allowing them to express themselves and actually get a better grade for it. Traditional math doesn't offer that. It's time that we began to break away from traditional mathematics and offer students a new way to integrate mathematics into their lives in ways that they can relate to and have fun with.

It's time to send your students on a Virtual Vacation!

As you can well imagine, alternative high school students are generally about as math phobic as a student can be. In addition, they see little use for anything, let alone math. If a lesson plan can actually motivate these students, it is almost certain to succeed in a regular classroom setting.

The Virtual Vacation Lesson Plan was designed specifically for a nine-week alternative education mathematics program, but could easily be adapted for use in a regular high school or middle school mathematics class and for a much shorter period of time. For our alternative education program and our students, nine-weeks seemed to be about right. You might only use the program for a week or so.

I designed the course to take the focus off of the mathematics and place it on something a little more fun and interesting - a vacation. There is still a good deal of mathematics involved, but its somewhat hidden within the larger project.

The results have been good. Most students seem to enjoy the Virtual Vacation course much more so than a traditional math course. The best part for many of them is that they are allowed a great amount of creativity in the project. They get to choose their own vehicle (in the past students have chosen anything from a Yugo to a limousine to a Winnebego). In addition, I have allowed a great deal of lattitude in regards to the students' trip journals.

Since I offer prizes to the team that finishes the trip with the least amount of money spent, some work hard to have the cheapest trip. So, they really do their homework to find the vehicle with the lowest price tag and best fuel mileage. Others don't care about the prize and try to spend as much money as they possibly can. I allow quite a bit of lenience in this regard since they seem to have quite a bit of fun with it.

The Virtual Vacation Lesson Plan is one which somewhat runs itself. After the initial few days of showing students how the course runs and how to do the calculations, they can pretty much take it from there. At that point, you become merely a facilitator and assistant. Students will become very independent very quickly which takes much of the burden of running the class off of your shoulders.

This provides you with a great deal more time to be more creative and think up other ways to enhance the fun aspects of the class.

However, getting the whole program in order so that it runs smoothly without running you ragged can take a great deal of preparation. In fact, I've spent nearly 100 hours merely putting together all of the materials and forms necessary for running the course. But, it now runs with maximium effiency and minimal effort on my part, freeing me up for the more creative aspects of the class.

• Communication Skills
• Research Skills (Internet and Otherwise)
• Word Processing and Related Skills
• Spreadsheet Manipulation
• Map Reading Skills

It's divided into two person teams. Each team is taking a trip across the USA. Since I'm located in Michigan, I have the students take a trip up through Canada and then down the East Coast. The trip includes the trip back to Michigan as well. Depending upon your location, another route might very well make more sense for your class.

Each two-member team is assumed to be a married couple with two children coming along for the vacation. The children are old enough that if the couple stops for a meal, the children will actually be ordering a meal as well.

Your students are given certain destination cities that they must visit along the way. Each section of the trip includes one day of travel from one city to another and one day of seeing attractions in the new city (at least two attractions are required). Along the way your students must stop for two meals per day (breakfast and dinner). It is assumed that they will have some sort of snack-lunch each day for which they do not have to pay or keep records.

There is a journal form on which your students calculate and record information such as how many miles they have traveled and how long it has taken to arrive at their destination. In addition, they must calculate how many gallons of gas their vehicle would use and whether or not they need to stop for gas along the way.

Because many students do not fully understand exactly how the scale of a map works, they are required to actually measure their route with a ruler and then convert that measurement to miles using the scale of their map. If you utilize maps from a US atlas, generally, each state will have a different scale which makes multi-state sections of the trip slightly more involved when calculating distances.

Your students must pay for all meals, fuel stops and attractions as well as for lodging each night. They have a book of checks which must be filled out completely for each payment, and a checkbook ledger upon which to record everything. When stopping for food or fuel, your students get a meal or fuel slip from you (actually, Ive now got a small box which organizes these slips so that they simply come up and grab them as they need them - you might wish to do the same).

Of course, part of the research is determining costs and recording the attraction and lodging information in a ledger. I have them record which attractions and accommodations they made use of as well as addresses and contact information. I make certain that the students know that I will randomly pick one attraction and one of their accommodations and check that the places actually exist and that the students have not misrepresented the costs. If the entries that I check turn out to be bogus, the student team receives a failing grade on the assignment - no questions.

For the most part, this makes certain that all students actually do the research and record accurate information. This way I can be certain that I am giving the "cheapest trip" award at the end of the trip to the right team.

Once the trip is complete and all journal entry forms, ledgers, etc. have been completed, the students are required to put together a final project that brings all of the information together in a nice, neat, typed format. Pictures from all destination cities are required along with a three quarter page summary of each section of their trip. Charts and graphs are encouraged.

Now, certainly, after reading through the material on this page, you could decide to set up a project similar to Virtual Vacation on your own, but how much is your time worth? If you were to spend even half the time I've spent getting this program in order, at a salary of $20 per hour, you'd have earned about $1,000. Unfortunately, you and I both know that nobody is going to pay you for that time.

Other thematic units can sell for as much as $30 or more, and you generally have to pay extra for and wait for shipping. In addition, these courses normally come in printed form which eliminates the possibility of easily editing the unit resources to your liking.

With Virtual Vacation, for only $9.97, you get a complete thematic unit which is completely editable in digital format. You have immediate access to download the course materials as soon as you place your order - and, of course, no extra shipping costs. AND, you have my Unconditional Double Your Money Back Guarantee.

If you're not completely satisified with the course materials, for any reason, simply contact me by phone or e-mail for a complete refund of your purchase price X TWO. That's right, if you are not completely satisfied, just ask for "DOUBLE YOUR MONEY BACK", and I'll not only refund your purchase price, I'll pay you almost $10 just for giving it a try.

The Virtual Vacation course unit includes:

1. Realistic Student Checks for Making Payments (screen shot)
2. Example Check for Students to Check Theirs Against (screen shot)
3. Check Ledger to Record Payments & Deposits (screen shot)
4. Journal Entry Forms for Recording all Trip Information
5. Example Journal Entry Form Already Filled Out
6. Food Slips for All Meals(screen shot)
7. Fuel Slips for All Student Fuel Stops(screen shot)
8. Grading Sheets with Recommended Grading Structure
9. Complete and Detailed Project Syllabus
10. Long Term Lesson Plan w/ Stated Objectives, etc. *
11. All forms completely editable!

As a result, I have not set out a schedule for you. The very nature of this course leaves it open to flexibility. If you are afraid of flexibility or want ALL of your work done for you, don't buy Virtual Vacation. When you became a teacher, I'm assuming that you understood that no matter who's lesson plans you were using, a certain amount of imagination, enthusiasm, knowledge and creativity would be required of you.

This course is no different. What I have done is to provide you with an interesting and entertaining course idea and centered it around core math principles. Then, I put together a framework for putting that idea into motion: including an overview of the course, it's objectives, how those objectives are attained and evaluated, pre-made and electronically editable templates for organizing and collecting student work and some worksheets for focusing on specific math areas.

The glue that holds this together and makes it fun, though, is you. The course itself does not teach the math principles, you do. What the course does is provide a fun framework for reinforcing those principles. The course itself does not provide the fundamental incentive for your students to perform at their best. You do. You provide the enthusiasm. You provide the special contests and/or rewards as you see fit, because your style is different than mine.

In other words, although this might sound rude, don't think of Virtual Vacation as some automated system for helping you avoid actually teaching your students. It is an excellent tool that is extremely effective when put in the hands of a teacher that is willing to be the glue that holds it all together.

Thing of Virtual Vacation as a model car. In the box are all the parts necessary to build a beautiful 1965 Corvette. Plastic pieces, decals, paint, etc. You don't have to mold the parts and create the decals. But, you don't just open the box and out pops a fully assembled model car. You have to put the pieces together with care and attach the decals very carefully to create a car that looks like the picture on the box.

Virtual Vacation is much like that. I have done the work of creating all the of the plastic pieces and decals, and I've supplied the paint and the instructions to put it all together. But, you have to actually assemble it. The good news is, though, the assembly is really very easy. And, once you've assembled it once, assembling it for classes in the following years will require even less effort.

In order to read the files included in this package, it is recommended that you have Microsoft Word and Excel 97 or later available to you. However, if you do not have these programs - you can still use Virtual Vacation - you just need another office suite on your computer which can read Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel files.

I highly recommend the FREE office suite from Sun Microsystems called StarOffice. It is an extremely capable suite of applications that very closely rivals Microsoft Office at a far better price - FREE! It will run in Windows 95/98/2000 and will read Word and Excel files. You can find this office suite at http://www.sun.com/staroffice/.

The Virtual Vacation files are compressed into one self-executable file which will extract all files to your computer.

SPECIAL BONUS OFFER: If you place your online order by , I'll throw in two special free bonuses:

1. FREE Virtual Garden Software Worth Over $40!
   
   An educational simulation that uses weather, soil, and plant growth models to simulate a simple garden in an open-ended microworld setting. Students can plant and grow virtual vegetables to learn more about plants, the soil, the weather, gardening, and science.
   
   Similar, far less informative gardening software sells for as much as $40 to $50. Receive your copy free with your purchase! Use it for your own children and/or students or pass it along to another teacher to use in their classroom.
   
   PLUS - The designers of this software have provided a 600+ page online resource guide to help you learn about important gardening topics such as:
   
   
   • Nutrient cycling
   • pH
   • Soil porosity
   • Movement of water through the soil
   • Photosynthesis
   • Leaf area index
   • Heat unit index
   • Plant competition for water and nutrients
   • And much more
   
   
2. FREE Enormous Directory of Educational Freeware
   
   I'll provide you with a link to one of the most complete yet virtually unknown archives of educational freeware I have ever run across. It's not the prettiest site you've ever seen, but you won't find another directory on the net with more educational freeware listings. This is a virtual goldmine.

So, let's recap. For only $9.97 you get one of the most complete and customizable thematic math units available anywhere. It's fun for students and almost completely automated for you. You'll be able to use it for years to come.

You get the FREE $40 Virtual Garden simulation software AND the link to hundreds of other great educational freeware programs.

AND, you have my Unconditional Double Your Money Back Guarantee. The worst that can happen is that I refund your money AND pay you an extra $10 for giving it a shot. Moreover, you get to keep the Virtual Garden Simulation software just for giving it a shot. You simply can't lose.

Click below to purchase your copy of Virtual Vacation today for only $9.97 US. You may use the PayPal service and receive a $5 rebate from the PayPal company for signing up. Sign up is free. Otherwise, if you don't wish to sign up with PayPal you may purchase via ClickBank.

ClickBank accepts virtually all credit cards, debit cards, etc and no sign up is required. With either option, once credit card information is entered and submitted, you will immediately be taken to the Virtual Vacation download page.

NOTE: If you are a Mac user, but do have Microsoft Word and Excel 97 or an application which will open these type files, you will need to download the Virtual Vacation Files separately. The self-extracting executable file will not work on a Mac. This "separate-file-download" option will be provided once payment is made.

Also, unfortunately, the Garden Simulation Software and some of the free software bonuses will not function on a Mac. I apologize for the inconvenience to Mac users, but at this time, these issues cannot be effectively dealt with.

If you are not completely satisfied with your purchase for absolutely any reason, contact me, Michael Kaufman, via phone (616-447-8643) or e-mail (info@guarding-our-earth.com) for a prompt and complete refund.