The Final Day

Well, this is it - the last hike of the MAEE program: Amphibians and Reptiles. I haven't had too great of experiences with sixth graders in the past, so today was quite the pleasant surprise. Perhaps it was because they were a smaller group, and the parents only got in the way if it was absolutely necessary. Overall they were inquisitive, bright, responsible, and interested in the things I was showing them. Starting with an overview of herps and a chance to hold the baby water snake, I was able to take the group around the wetland looking for reptiles and amphibians. Considering that there weren't too many around, I also mentioned a few random facts about wild edibles and other plants and animals that we saw. The group seemed to really enjoy our time together.

I was pretty relaxed throughout the hike (perhaps from my lack of sleep?) but I think it worked well with this group. My teaching style is definitely more relaxed, and so I appreciate when my students can go along with it. I was kind of surprised that they could sit and discuss herps without jumping up to see the snake I was holding (I'm used to first graders!). And while there were a couple times I lost their attention, most of the time when I began talking I felt I was being listened to.

The finale around the fire pit in the council house was splendid. We each had a little entertainment for the students. They were such great sports and seemed to really enjoy their time here. It's hard to believe that only a few years ago I had such difficulty talking in front of groups. Slowly, this nervousness and fright has faded away. My words no longer completely vanish in front of large groups. It was nice to play a little game for the kids and be comfortable doing it.

I've learned a lot over the course of the practicum, and I am overjoyed at this final group. While I was quite stressed from lack of sleep, it seemed like today incorporated so much of what I've learned about teaching (inquiry, empowerment, multiple intelligences) and so much of who I've developed as a teacher (setting rules in the beginning, being relaxed with dry humor).

Exploring Nature

Exploring Nature with second graders was probably my favorite program. What a joy to have such a nice way to begin the final week. I find the complete openness of this program really valuable - to simply explore nature. One of the girls asked me why every school day wasn't outside. What a perfect question! She explained that she was still learning about stuff, but it was so much more fun. It summarized so much of what we have been learning about the importance of environmental education, and its value in the education system.

I think the biggest challenge for me is still learning names in such a short period of time. I feel that I haven't really improved in this skill since beginning the MAEE program, and I'm sure it will be a long long time until I can. It's just really difficult for me to memorize names to faces in a couple hours. I've tried the tricks and mnemonics and repeating the names, but it still ends up the same - just as it has my entire life.

I have seen improvement in many other areas, however. I am no longer nervous to teach, and I feel that I can confidently go into a program without the fear of forgetting something important. I feel like I have a style and ongoing theme - a great thing to have developed in the last eleven months.

It was a great day teaching, and encouraging that a little girl liked it enough to say she wished every day at school was like it!

I'm not rocking this cycle

One more day. I am tired. My feet hurt. Rock cycle went well today. We operate like a well oiled machine most of the time. We had everything we needed. Busses were close to on-time. We had plenty of pit and bog time. It was a great field trip, I think, for a group that hadn't been to ML before. It went really well. I thought as we waved goodbye to the busses that we had made them feel at home, excited, smart and welcome. What more could you ask. I'm beat, though. Standing in the sun in the pit was tough for me. It was the first time I'd done it with really concentrating on the keys, though. I thought the students and parents were very happy to be learning in such an exciting place. I thought today about which of these programs I like the best. I may volunteer once in a while here, and would want it to be really great for me, as well as students. Sugarbush would be the first choice. With first graders. Then maybe any really nice hike day. And farm craft with kindergarden was pretty awesome. Oh, and farm craft mill with dementia patients was very enriching, and fun. It's been a year. Thats the long and short of it.

Rock Cycle - one more time and done. I have taught this program several times it is very comfortable now. Yesterday I did the intro ppt and today sara did the intro ppt today. She did a good job, keeping the kids engaged. They were getting restless near the end. It was due to a very long bus ride to Merry Lea from Plymouth. They were an excited and excitable group. The were very interested and participated with me very well.
Over the last two Rock Cycle's I did pit, beach and bog. Pit is fun and kids loved finding rocks, many kept asking what type of rock is this. I would point them to the sheet and go through the dicotomomus key to figure out the type of rock. Then we would use the laminated sheet to try an narrow down from type to more specific individual rock names. After a few times, several students started to help classmates use the keys to decide on rock names. Sharing is a great way for the students to show their rock and tell some of its features or info about it.
Beach and bog are a blast. I wish I could do this program all the time. Students seem to develop a good understanding of where the water went and how the bog was formed. They really like to dig into the muck soil and feel the temps and smell the stinky. I like taking a different route back, so students can see the esker from a different view.

Explore (and teach)

Yesterday teaching exploring nature was lots of fun.  The group was very excited to be here, and had lots of energy and curiosity.  The weather cooperated and held off on the rain.  I wish that they could have stayed for a full 4 hours, because the hike easily could have lasted at least a half hour longer.  One of the students in my group was hearing impaired.  Thankfully his interpreter was along, and she did a wonderful job of interpreting his questions and comments.  It was interesting to notice that of all the students, he was generally the first one to notice something and point it out.
Since we were headed to the dipping pond first, I didn't want to spend a large quantity of time getting there.  I asked the students what they were hearing (bird songs), immediately realizing that for one student this would have no meaning, or be something he could participate in.  Realizing my error, I then quickly moved on to something else that focused on something we all could see (the hole in the dead tree that has a nest in it).  As a teacher, I desire to adapt and meet my students at their level and facilitate their learning.  Maybe that sometimes means I can't control, or plan for every contingency.  Hopefully, it means that I continue to learn and adapt to new situations.
Later, I was leading one of the bird hikes with the 5th graders.  They were all excited about the prospect of using binoculars. The first 20 minutes went well, most of the students saw a Baltimore Oriole & a Yellow Warbler.  I used my new ibird app to play an example of the call, and that was a huge hit.  It was a very full and packed day, and towards the end the group seemed rather done with seeing anymore red-wing black birds.  I had packed the bird migration game, and I should have used it for the last 5 minutes on the trail.  I was a little concerned about the time, and didn't want to start a game and then not be able to finish it, and so tried to occupy them with looking at birds for just a little bit longer. 

Exploring Nature is the best program ever

I love exploring nature.  It is just such an awesome program where the hike time really feels like an opportunity for inquiry.  I wish that more schools would request this program.  It is so valuable to have unstructured hike time.  Yesterdays group was so unbelievably engaged.  I don't think I have ever heard called my name so many times in an hour, as that group of students all dying to show me what they had discovered.   If we had been out there to look for something in particular, I might not have been able to give each of their discoveries all of the attention that it deserved.  It just felt so good really let them lead the hike.

In the afternoon yesterday I led a flower hike.  Though the time did not have quite the inquiry, student led feeling it was still really fun.  I second Tom's comment that those were really awesome 5th graders.  There was almost nothing blooming which was kind a bummer.  Still the students worked had to collect some flower specimens (from our decorative rose bush) for dissection.  It was cool to split them open and identify the male and female reproductive parts.  I was a little bit surprised that none of them knew what function a flower serves.  They could tell me that roots take up water and nutrients from the soil, and even that the leaves make sugar through photosynthesis, but not that flowers are reproductive parts.  That feels like a really basic piece of information so I really liked being able to focus on them understanding that.  Those basic things are the things that feel like epiphanys or "AHOHhhhhh..." moments for me, and it was  great to hear that coming from the students.

Nature's recyclers

Thursday, May 17, was Nature's Recyclers. This was a small group, only 18 students, and Tom and I were teaching. I was nervous about being unprepared, having a new topic, and not having much in the way of support materials. Carol advised us to use material from exploring nature, and we were forwarded a few additional pieces the day before the program. Here's what I got - again. The value of this experience, the Merry Lea field trip, is not about the content as much as the nature experience. And, that, very often is the hike. No matter what materials and agenda I put in my hike bag at the LC, a good hike is going to be one that engages us in what nature is providing that moment. Maybe the "being here now" part of the best hikes is as impactful as the wonderful things we see and hear and smell. As always, it was a pleasure to work with Tom. His calm, intentional demeanor is so helpful in any situation. Another good day.

Yes!

It's official guys and gals, I love what I do. I think that having a sort of marathon day like today really solidified that for me. Thus far we've certainly been worked hard at times, but we could still generally get home in time for the 3 o'clock showing of Judge Judy. Today I was immersed, from 9 to 7. I was dog-tired by the end of it, but not once did I wish that I was somewhere else doing something else. Admittedly, the group of students has a lot to do with that, and we were blessed with a pretty awesome group of 5th graders, but I can't deny the feeling I have inside right now. It's sort of like when your muscles are on fire and your hands are all blistered as you look at a big pile of split and stacked firewood; it's the feeling of being satisfied by a hard day's work. Thanks to all of you for coming with me on this journey, and for the impact you've all had on shaping the man I've become in these past 11 months.

Ok, enough of that profound, sentimental bologna. (Fun fact: I think the first thing I heard any of the students say today was, "Bologna is spelled really weird"...priceless). Something I think I've done well recently in the programs is giving the students more autonomy over their learning. For example, there were a few times on the hike with the Wolf Lake group that we stopped and took a vote on which way to go, what activity to do, etc. I did the same thing on the bird hike with the Harrison students today. Do you want to go in the forest or the prairie? There are different birds in each ecosystem!
Something I've struggled with has been being more aware of and more sensitive to various disabilities. My awareness of this has really been heightened by the volunteer training I went to last week. Right after that, I had a student on an exploring nature hike who communicated through ASL (American Sign Language), and was unable to run. It was just kind of tough for me know what to do that would make the experience better for him...but at the same time I didn't want to cater to him so much that it reduced the quality of the experience for all the other students. I think I did ok; everyone seemed to have a great time, and the ASL student was still able  to be actively involved. I'm sure there were things I could have done better, but as with just about everything, it takes practice and experience to improve.

5th grade fun, yet I missed the Abandon ship call

So today was a really fun day. I taught rock cycle the entire day and it was fun. The morning session we had  a lot more behavioral problems but all in all not bad. I let Matt do the intro on the first go around in the morning. He did a fantastic job. I did the pit which was fund and I couldn't believe a the different kinds of rocks the students were finding.  All the groups seemed to love looking for rocks.
I did do the intro for the second group that went ok. I had my moments of confusion but it was the first time I did the intro so I think I deserve a little slack. At one point I had most of the parents laughing but the students didn't get the joke but you can't please them all.
I did think canoeing was a little ridiculous. Most of the students had never canoed before and not all of them got to go at once. So when had to do it in shifts which was a pain in the but. Also I don't think that for the time allotted for canoeing it was an appropriate activity.
So one of the last things have to say is related to the second half of the title. I feel that Amy, Tom, Ken and I got left to clean up after we had already done a lot today. Now I realize that everyone had other programing today and did their fair share and that's find but so did the 4 of us. All I am saying is that It would of been nice to a least know most of the other people were leaving and weren't sticking around just an extra 1 1/2 hours to help. I know Tom and I could have used it with the canoeing.  I know that we are all getting ready to finish up and don't want to do any more than what we have to, but we still need to all pitch in and share the load.
With that said I'm not trying to be an a** hole or insensitive. I just need everyone else to know that's what happened and I feel it was a little unfair to the 4 of us. At the very least I would have liked to of know that's what was going to happen and not feel like everyone else abandoned ship without telling the others.

The 3 Letter Duo (officially the last blog)

Tom and Ken ( get it) totally put the wonder in wonderful wetlands today.  We both taught WW twice.  Each time our groups were in the mid twenties.  The students were loving it and the adults were loving that the students were loving it.  We split the day differently than originally planned.  Since we knew they would be going on hikes later in the day Jane had the idea of not including a hike in the WW rotation.  Instead, we had three 35 minute stations of , mayhem, dipping and pti/lab.  It was great.  Having more time with the mayhem game truly allowed me to convey the importance of restoring and maintaining our water quality.  Some adults came up and told me they thought the game had a great message.  At least someone learned something, haha. 

Last Friday I worked with the Wolf Lake 1st graders for Exploring Nature.  Holy smokes, what intelligent well behaved 1st graders.  Now I know why Wolf Lake Elementary has such a great record of passing AYP, annual yearly progress, the mandated national testing system.  Honestly, when driving through Wolf Lake I would not think, "this is a school that passes AYP."  Once again it is reinforced how important it is not to act on prejudgements.  The students and teachers of Wolf Lake are extraordinary.  They will be back for sure. 

Wow, what a day.  A full day of teaching.  2nd grade in the morning and 5th grade in the afternoon.  We had large groups this morning - I don't think I even counted but I had lots of parent support.  The kids were really into it and we almost could have spent the whole time on one stretch of trail.  They were really into finding insects at first, then we took a stretch of path and I showed them where some salamanders had been found in the past and then onto the dipping pond.  Not nearly enough time at the dipping pond and it was amazing no one fell in considering how crammed they were.  Two strainers fell in because the water was so low.  The afternoon had that fifth grade energy and since they had been here since the morning I think they were feeling pretty comfortable with their surroundings.  I lead a hike for amphibians and reptiles.  We did see one snake but it got away pretty quickly through the cattails and I couldn't even tell what kind it was.  When we had a stopping point I thought I'd try to disspell some of they snake fears and myths and ended up with a few of the guys telling stories of cutting off heads, poking in the eyes, burning in fires.  They were all trying to outdo each other with gore until the teacher and I put a stop to it.  I wasn't sure how to deal with that one exactly other to let them know it was innappropriate and talk about what good snakes do us.  All in all, a good day but tiring.  I'm glad I didn't have the fifth graders all day cause I'd really be pooped.

The unhike and WW

Well, my shrub carr hike at Nature Fest was a bust. No one want to go mucking around, they all wanted to canoe. Who can blame them?

Wonderful wetlands today went over pretty good. The homeschool groups always go over well. We stayed to teach at one station, while the different age groups traveled among us. 4 of us and 4 groups, all of decent size. I am glad we got to work with all of the groups. The time length was about perfect. I did the watershed activity from Project Wet and then sorting at my station.
The watershed activity is super. I had it rain, then talk about what we saw. Add topography, rain again then discuss new observations. Then, students added the human features cards. Next, I handed out the pollutants. We went around the circle and added the pollutants (you know chocolate sprinkles for animal poo) to our map one at a time. A final rain storm preceded a discussion of the pollutants. After discussing our observations, I asked how could we improve our human features and pollutants on our map. Many students toyed with the idea of the waste water treatment plant near where the most pollution ended up.
Sorting was fun and exciting for the groups. Although, there were a few screams from a few girls. I am glad that each time we arrived the dipping group had some specimens for is to identify. The younger two groups kept asking, "What's this?" I had to keep handing out the laminated ID sheets. They wanted to be told the creatures name and move on. The older students did great with the ID sheets. They mainly wanted to know where to put them. Swamp gas worked! Yea! Good job collecting Laurina.

Big Snake!

Today we had homeschoolers for the wetlands program.  Two of the older boys pulled a two foot water snake out and took it around to show the other kids.  It was great.  I could tell they'd caught snakes before and were pretty fearless about it.  They even knew about the anticoagulant.  I led the hikes and for the scavenger hunt I had them in pairs and asked who wanted to be paper and who was pencil.  Then I taped the list on one kids back and the partner had to look for things and mark them off.  Then they would switch.  It was silly and they seemed to enjoy it.  Plus it kept them together in pairs and they didn't have to deal with keeping up with a piece of paper.  The older kids were too advanced for a scavenger hunt so we  pretty much just hiked around and talked about things.  I think I taught them a few things they didn't know.  Many of them hadn't eaten cattails before or knew how a red winged blackbird builds its nest in the cattails.

What do bird watching, job interviewing, and nature fest have in common?

So as everyone knows I had a job interview today. Meaning that I missed out on the natural history hike and also the program I was originally supposed to help with. And due the fact I haven't taught in a while I will be talking about Nature Fest and a little about the bird watching walk I went on with Lisa's undergrads.
Overall Nature fest wasn't a complete bust for me and my wetlands training. I had one person who was brave enough to come to it. That person was Josiah, who I know and interact with when in Goshen. The session went really well, it helped that he was very familiar already with a lot of the chemical testing methods and knew what the chemicals were and why we were testing for them. So for the most part if was fairly relaxed and informal. It was really nice to teach someone else the procedures of the monitoring and have him actually be able to go out and do the sampling. So overall it was really good and if there is next time I hope to have more people come do the training.
So to make up for the hike that I missed I went out the Lisa and her undergrads to watch for birds. I must say, I didn't have my head on straight and forgot to bring binoculars so that limited me to what I could look at. However, it was really fun and I saw some very interesting birds. I think that her student's really enjoyed looking for birds and were happy to be out, even if it was 7am.

Campfire

Nature Fest was a lot of fun for me.  I believe it is important to provide these fun experiences for the entire family.  Until I was thinking about trying to blog, it didn't occur to me to think of this through the lens of teaching experience.  Campfires are easy in a situation of Nature Fest, because they draw everyone like moths to a flame (young & old alike).   The s'mores were a great hit.  I am always amazed at the power of story telling.  I borrowed the Keepers of the Night book from the library to have at the campfire.  Several requested another story after I had finished the first.  Paul of course it is an excellent story teller, and his boys were requesting that he then tell more stories.

Fun Under the Sun

Hello again fellow bloggers.  I would like to give a shout out to all the bloggers on this site who are seven days from completion. 

Saturday morning was a lot of fun.  Amy, Sara and I teamed up to deliver a great child adventure.  Sara and I started them off with the scavenger hunt and then on our way to the first destination stopped by the Earth House Region and Amy got the children completely enticed to build their own Earth house. 

This added a key element for the success of the scavenger hunt.  The group went to south Kesling Meadows, Thomas Woods, Reith Village, Kesling Pond, Hayloft, garden, animal barn and finished in the kitchen for some icee pops.  The group collected one, two and sometimes three items from first four destinations to later build their Earth houses.  It was a good morning.

This afternoon I spent my last day with the YMCA Wolflake group.  They had a fantastic time.  The day was complete with using the nets to swoop up butterflies for a closer look, snatching tadpoles from the vernal pond and gazing at reptiles and amphibians in front of the observation tower.  The father of two sisters, Lexie and Natalie, came to pick them up and commented when he saw the salamanders.  He came to pick them up a few weeks back, when Amy taught an amphibian lesson, and saw salamanders for the first time.  He said he had never been on the property and looked intrigued.  He is hooked.

See you in the manana.

The final push!

It seems odd to blog now since we haven't taught in weeks, but I can certainly write about my excitement for this final practicum period! It's pretty hard to believe that just 8 days and 5 school programs stand between me and the end of this program. It's fun to look back on how much I've grown personally in my teaching abilities over the past 10.65ish months. Coming in, I definitely held the idea that teaching was standing in front of a backdrop of some sort (blackboard, projector screen, forest, pond, etc.) and lecturing for 45 minutes or so. Since then I've learned the value of inquiry, student-led learning, Socratic questioning, and other valuable (and far more effective) teaching strategies. Seeing the difference in how the students respond to these other methods has been so exciting! What a great reward for the time and effort we've all put into honing our craft here at Merry Lea.

I also wanted to touch on the volunteer training that was just held in the Barn on Monday. I have very little knowledge about the autism spectrum, and even less experience working with individuals who are on it. This workshop was really valuable to me. I now have a much better idea of what to look for in determining if someone is on the spectrum, and I feel much better-equipped to give those students an effective learning experience. It was also a somewhat painful workshop for me. With this new lens of understanding, I was able to look back on some of the students I've worked with this year, and realized that there were a few who probably were on the spectrum and I should have worked with much differently. Of course, we're learning (at least) as much as we're teaching in our practicum, so I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on myself, but it's hard not to wish I could go back and do some things differently. Oh well, at least now I have a greater sensitivity to the condition and a bigger, better set of tools to work with those individuals: be sensitive, be transparent, be consistent, be literal, and tap into what motivates THEM!

PS-Here's to a strong finish everyone! :)

Nature Hike

I had eight year olds for the two hour hike.  I was prepared to do a lot more activities than we had time for so I could give them lots of choices along the way.  I tried to pay attention to varying stopping and looking and moving along so that we'd end up at the vernal pond at our correct time.  It worked pretty well.  I included an art activity that really held their attention for even longer than I thought it would.  We used various flower petals and leaves to make our own paint by rubbing them onto water color paper.  The students were really excited when a white flower made a yellow mark. Violets and dandelions work really well for this activity.  I also did the string and the ant activity where the kids get down on the ground and follow a piece of yarn with a magnifying glass.  This went over well also.  When we got to the log rolling I had stuffed my bag with one of the laminated sheets i had made of things you find under a log.  I also had printed it out and cut out individual invertebrates for the kids to each have one to find.  I told them they would be collecting information like scientists and they would take turns three at a time just counting how many of each critter was there.  This went over so much better than just having them all crowd over the same log fighting over who gets to hold a worm.  It was a very good day.  What I did to facilitate learning was to give them choices, show them how to explore things up close and use their observation skills.  What I would like to have done better is to involve the adults more than I did.  I realized I never got to know the teachers names, although I was proud of the fact that I did learn all of the kids names.

Teaching Rock Cycle in IN with my mind is WA

Sorry for the late post.  I have been somewhat distracted lately.  It has been very difficult for me stay focused and centered here in Indiana when my mind is in Washington.  This was how I felt on Thursday when I taught Rock Cycle too. 

Sometimes you just don't feel like teaching on the day that you are scheduled to teach.  I guess the trick is learning how to compartmentalize your life for a couple of hours and leave all of your own stuff at the door.  I wasn't as bad as Joe the failed naturalist.  I didn't tell the kids any details about my life, but I may have lacked my normal enthusiasm.  Some kids are going to be excited and engaged on their own and others are not going to care about the rock cycle no matter what we do.  Then there is that group in the middle whose learning will actually be effected by the quality of our teaching and our attitudes.  There are always some in the group who might just fall in love with the idea of spending the day outdoors if we can be present and happy no matter how we might otherwise feel.  Figuring out how to do that in the next four weeks is my challenge to myself. 

Feathers and Frogs

4/24/12

Feathered Frenzy – Homeschoolers

Last Thursday I had the eight year olds in feathered frenzy.  Ken was doing the introduction and asking all sorts of great questions about birds and spring and the kids had a lot of very knowledgeable answers.  Homeschoolers really do benefit from concentrated one on one attention.  It did leave me wondering if there was much left to teach them and if I could keep their attention but as the day unfolded I realized they were really into the experience.  The morning was all about the birds with the stations and went pretty seamlessly.  We all were wondering if the “feet” portion was going to go over for a full ten minutes so I brought in colored pencils and divided up a page into four squares for the kids to draw the three different kinds of feet and the blank for a fourth foot that they made up or had seen on a bird.  The time was filled and then some.  Yay, art!  As Carli mentioned in our wrap up, the afternoon was such a contrast from what we had done in the morning.  There was very little about birds but was engaging nonetheless.  There is so much going on in the woods and meadows right now it would have been hard to keep them focused just on the birds and so I think most of us opted for doing a variety of activities.  My group wanted to see the meadow and where I had found the water snake.  I decided to take them to the edge and have them observe where they thought the water might be.  You can’t see the water from where we were but I told them to look for plants that looked different than the surrounding plants.  They went right to it.  That was cool.  We ended up at the dipping pond and the kids helped me find tadpoles for the snakes.  They also were great at catching frogs and we got the pan and the key to the life in the wetlands and identified critters.  I didn’t know until the end that one of the Mom’s with me was a Montessori teacher.  She complimented me on how I had given the kids choices and provided a variety of things and didn’t try to make the entire group always do the same thing at the same time.  That felt really good.

Teaching Reflection 1

The only teaching experience that I had the opportunity to serve this week was the Feathered Frenzy. I have always been excited about birds, so I was looking forward to this practicum day. The day went as many of the teaching days have, but it did seem that it was hard to keep the student's attention. There were many times at the stations where it seemed like they didn't care what I was saying, they only wanted to play with whatever was in front of them. I had the second grade age group (7 year olds). The hike was much different, in that they would be attentive to the lessons I was going through.

One of my favorite parts of the day happened near Onion Bottom. We were scouting a pileated woodpecker and I asked the kids if they remembered Woody Woodpecker. A few did. We started making a laughing noise, and the pileated responded. The kids really got a kick out of this, and it was hard to get them to move on. Around to the other side of Onion Bottom and we saw a huge water snake and several bull frogs and a blackbird singing above. It was a grand moment. All of this ended with a finale at the observation deck: three groups converged together to see dozens of water snakes and frogs swimming in the water below.

If I could change anything about the day it would be to talk about dinosaurs. Instead of ignoring science and history, I think it would have been incredible to talk about the history of birds, and how a majority consensus of paleontologists think that modern birds are living remnants of a line of theropods. How cool for young children, who are already excited about dinosaurs and birds, to find out that they are linked through evolution. There is no debate among credible scientists regarding evolution; it seems dishonest to ignore this, or worse, teach random myths in its stead. I do understand that the group specifically requested no talk of scientific fact evolution, and that our primary goal is to get kids excited about being outside, and excited about the natural world. And yet, how short-changed these children will be once they get out of their homeschool group and into the real world. As an educator, I respected their request; as a scholar, I can only shake my head.

ww 4/20

Wonderland Wetlands April 20 5th graders are remarkable. Is age10 a crossroads, a milestone, in development? Tom, Aaron, Laurina and I had groups of 17 ish in the four stations, and it seemed easy and effortless (except setup and cleanup). I was hesitant about wetlands. The addition of a hike seemed like the best fit for me. I've taught wetlands once or twice, and observed once. I felt like I didn't really have enough knowledge of macro invertebrates to do justice to the sorting station, especially with smart 5th graders. I ended up doing sorting and the watershed activity for all four of the groups. I'm glad I did. Being face to face, nose to nose, with students at the sorting station reminded me of many important things I've learned with teaching this year. We are facilitating discovery. We are asking questions. We are taking a personal interest. We are modeling honesty and authenticity. We are the teachers. The sorting station is all about discovery. The large group size made that challenging at times, but redirecting attention and passing around spoonfuls of cute macro invertebrates worked. I got much better at this by the third or fourth group. The watershed activity was presented in the same 30minute block as sorting. This is all about asking questions. And listening to answers. Why should or shouldn't the waste water treatment plant or the landfill be located on the hill? I relaxed significantly by the 2nd or 3rd group, and that allowed me to treat students more personally than when I was trying to get things right, in take 1. The personal connections over the sorting table were my favorite part of the day. Honesty - if you don't know, you gotta say you don't know. I don't know some of these creatures. what can we find on the key to help us ID them? It's been a great year of teaching.

Wetlands

I love leading hikes.  I love seeing what's out there.  I love when students point out things that I missed.  I love the new growth and the sound of the birds.  This was my first time to teach WW.  The fact that it was my first time made me somewhat more nervous than  those last 4 weeks of Sugar Bush.  I found the lab time challenging, from the standpoint that after about 4 scopes the students seem ready to do something else.  The first group was especially fidgety due having spent time on the bus, watched the power point and then be asked to sit yet again.  The second group, having hiked first, seemed much more ready to sit and look at the specimens.  I did like having two halves prior to lunch and then the other two, rather than trying to do rotational stations.  Logistics is critical, and can make a huge difference in the flow of the day.  It was also especially wonderful to have support (Jane) to care for the fire and prep some pieces between groups.  I learned the importance of thinking through all the pieces of the day, this is why lesson planning is important. During Sugar Bush, so much of that was done for us, that I didn't get that same sense. 
My highlight was seeing the goslings with both my hiking groups.

Wonderful wet 5th graders in a wetland

I taught wonderful wetlands last Friday, which was really fun. I did the dip netting with them to find the macros. It was really fun to be out there with a good group of students like we had and it was really nice to be out in the water. However, the one thing that really bothered me was the lack of teaching and more supervision of the students that I had to do. Yes they were a good group but it seemed like all every 2 seconds someone was yelling out for help, because they were stuck or they fell in. All in all I must of had about 12 students fall in and get completely soaked. Which was funny for the teachers and myself.
I really tired to teach the students about how to search for macroinvertebrates and how to properly identify some of the basic ones in the field. However, the for the most part they were more concerned with not falling in. Which a lot of them didn't do so well at.
Dispit the somewhat lack of teaching I did, it also seemed like the students weren't that interested in dipping at all. Which was a really downer for me considering I love sampling and collecting macros. May be it was just the group that we had and other groups will be more interested in sampling.
I also must comment on the schedule that we used that day and how effective it was. the movement of the groups was really fluid and the whole day ran nicely. So I would recommend using that schedule again with the larger groups.
One thing that was discussed was cutting down the power point and moving the macroinvertebrate slides to somethings where they learn about them at the sorting station or dipping station. That way it cuts back on the amount of time the students are sitting up in the loft and more time out sampling or learning.

Herpes More Popular Than Birds- Say Homeschoolers

Last week I was a part of the education team involved with delivering the Feathered Frenzy program.  I was a little nervous for the day to begin, because it became evident that these students knew a lot about birds.  A lot of them knew more than me.  Once we got into groups and began the first station the nervousness immediately disappeared.  It was so much fun.  My group had students around 10 years of age.  They were calm and cool.  As it turns out I was able to teach them some new information.  It was a great morning.
After lunch we went out on the trails to look for birds.  We heard a couple birds, but that was the extent of our birding.  The group became fascinated with butterflies hanging around the Autumn Olive.  One boy found a couple red-back salamanders under two separate logs.  As I could tell they were very interested in herpes we made our way to the vernal pond.  Most of the students had been there before and new the routine.  They had a great time collected macro-invertebrates and naming them.  They found caddis fly larvae and a right handed snail.  That was a good sign.
Lastly we made our way to the observation deck at Onion Bottom.  What an experience.  There were water snakes all over the water, giant bullfrogs, turtles, and tad poles the size of my fist.  It was a stupendous ending to our nature hike.
I fostered student learning by allowing them to choose what we did while on the nature hike.  I facilitated learning by asking questions related to our experiences and answering questions they asked me.  What did not work was using knowledge learning during the morning stations to identify birds, but I am pretty sure they do that at home.

4/24

Last week I had the opportunity to teach at the only Feathered Frenzy program scheduled for this season. I am glad I got to take part in this homeshcool day, with many of the same students we’ve worked with before at other programs. The program is similar to other programs at the Learning Center with a powerpoint presentation, stations and a hike. This time all about birds. The presentation is a good one for the material, Paul went through it with zest. The stations all ran smoothly, but the feet station was a hard one to fill the time with. I was with the older students, 13 and up. I got them to walk like or act like they were using the different types of bird feet. They looked silly, but were having fun with a kinesthetic activity. The nest making part of the nest station was great. Many in my group were very inventive and creative in constructing their nest. 

The hike was intended to be about bird sightings. The salamanders, frogs, toads and snakes out on the trail was more enticing to my group. We walked as pairs. Each group with a set of binoculars, to search for and identify birds. Most of them ended up in my hike bag before long. And, most of the shoes were wet before we returned to the Learning Center. On the hike, all of the students interacted well with each other and myself. There were many questions and many good ideas and answers from other students in the group. This walking and talking on the trail is great. I hope to be able to include more natural history interactions into my future classroom.

This week, I will be doing a Rock Cycle and Exploring Nature. I am excited about the Rock Cycle. I taught and did the intro in the fall. It’s a really fun program to teach and learn. The school wants a swamp gas demo, this could be interesting...

Wild and Wonderful Wetlands

This past Thursday, I got back into the practicum swing of things with what I would probably consider to be my favorite program: Wonderful Wetlands. Why it's my favorite I can't say for sure, I think I just really like the diversity of all the activities. You've got a nice somewhat-formal powerpoint lecture to kick it off, there's a chance for the kids to sit down at a stereoscope and do some laboratory observation, there's the down-and-dirty hands-on experience of dipping in the wetland and then sorting the macros they find, and of course there's a an energy-burning game that even carries an educational message with it. Oh, and the new addition of a fun and engaging hike around the wetland is the cherry on top!

Aaron, Sara, Laurina, and I had the privilege of working with a great, inquisitive, well-mannered group of 5th graders. It was a big group though, and there's NO WAY the program would have been as successful as it was had Jane not decided to stop by and see if we could use any help. She was our fire-starter, bell-ringer, and all-around awesome supporter. We were using the new WW schedule, which worked really well overall, I thought, but when that schedule is used, there must be an additional person on to be support/coordinator. Also, when that schedule is used, the people teaching that day must do some dipping as part of the set-up routine, since there will be one group of students who are supposed to be sorting before any macros have been collected.

I tried something a little different with the scopes, which I thought I should share, although I'm not sure if it was a success or a failure. Rather than having them sit at a scope for a minute and then rotate until everyone had gotten to see everything, I had the students just stay at one scope with one specimen for five minutes while they drew a picture of what they saw in the scope, and wrote down some observations. After that, I went around the room and had each student talk for 30 seconds or so about what they observed. It seemed to go pretty well. I'm not sure if the students were really exposed to as many specimens as they would normally be, but I felt the skills they practiced in making observations and then presenting on those observations were a worthy trade-off.

One last thing! The students REALLY seemed to like the wetland hike. We tried it with the scavenger hunt and they were all really into it. I highly recommend including the hike when you teach!