Cultivating Wonder

Officially Smarted

Geez... I have no idea what category this one goes in!  All and none I suppose.  Today I was 'Officially Smarted' for the second time.  This time with no glasses, long hair, and some odd hood thingee they put over my head.

In all reality graduation ceremonies, even though they are long and often quite overdone with visiting professors talking about too many buzz-words, are moving and very special.  I think the best part is walking down between all of my professors and seeing all their faces again, knowing they supported me through the program, and knowing they always will support me.  I'm so glad I've had this opportunity.  It's an odd mixture of feelings.  This year has been the hardest I have ever worked in my life, it's been completely exhausting and I can't wait to be done.  I'm also very sad it will soon be over.  Luckily I get to go out with a bang.  One month of really spending time with my Cohort B folks and two weeks in Costa Rica with the science nuts.

Thank you my family, friends, mentor (YAY BONNIE!), cats, fiddle, poetry anthologies, music in my car, students and everything and everyone else that supported me this year.

Parkrose Middle School

In the spirit of learning more about schools and districts I spent the day at Parkrose Middle School in outer Portland.  I was supposed to see a certain science teacher today but she fell ill.  Instead I got the opportunity to see several classrooms in math and science.  The opportunity was priceless.  I love seeing how teacher's have set up their rooms and how they handle classroom management issues.  Parkrose is implementing a schoolwide program using techniques usually employed in ESL classrooms across the whole school.  This includes using lots of pictures and leaving diagrams and words on the walls in the classroom for a long time giving students the opportunity to integrate the information at a deeper level.  I also shared my mentor's idea of a "show what you know" assignment that differentiates instruction for many learners allowing them the opportunity to design their own homework.  A big thanks to the principal at Parkrose Middle School for being a wonderful host!

Sacramento and Sunnyside

As the 8th grade began their week of burping babies, changing diapers, and learning about genetics I took the day to visit two other schools in the Portland area.

I spent this morning with the staff at Sacramento Elementary School in the Parkrose district.  My family and friends have some connections there so I met my dad there to get a brief tour and explanation of the programs they have implemented there.  They have incredible success with a population where over half of their students are below poverty level and a significant number of students are English language learners.  Having spent my year in middle school and high school it was refreshing to see where all those students start again.  The second graders were so cute that I almost questioned my career choice.  However I love getting deep into issues and debates something that your average elementary school student is not prepared for yet.

After a brief snack and a quick hop on the freeway I dove into the Civil War with  students at the Sunnyside Environmental School.  I met a teacher who works there a couple of weeks ago at the TOSA meeting for science standards.  Sunnyside runs an integrated program with students from 6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th grade in the same classroom.  They also employ an integrated curriculum often focusing on one thing for an entire week or quarter for a class.  At the current time they are focused on the Civil War and were adding paint to the two towns (a Northern town and a Southern town) they had researched and designed.  Today they named their towns, decided where in Pennsylvania or Georgia they would be placed, and did watercolors of the scenery in their respective towns.  In the end students will have created a journal about their experience of the Civil War.  This year is a 'river year' at Sunnyside (versus a 'mountain year' or a 'forest year').  The students had a huge mural of a river posted on one wall of the classroom and much of their studies this year will focus on the importance and ecology of river systems.  I loved visiting Sunnyside and would bend over backwards to get the opportunity to work in a program as well integrated as I saw today.  I hope that more schools in the area and across the country begin to adopt a more interwoven and integrated curriculum in all their subjects.  For now I have a new friend, new resources, and new ideas about how to integrate science in my future classroom.

YAY!!!!

I arrived home this afternoon to a phone call from my Mom (there is a sale on Columbia Sportswear coats apparently) and a letter from E.T.S. (Educational Testing Standards) in my mailbox.

I cracked that baby open with trepidation... The last thing I want to do is spend $230 again on 5 hours of miserable awful horrible torture.  It amazes me how inhumane the procedure is for taking the tests.  5 hours and a 5 minute break.  I couldn't even drive my car my brain was so fried.

The good news is I passed with lots of room for wiggle!  Even though I forgot a calculator and had to rewrite two of the essay questions because I wrote them on the wrong page.  The gauntlet was thrown before me and I have been proven worthy.

On Adolescent Development

At the completion of my adolescent development class this summer we were asked to take all of the theory and method we learned in class and rebirth it into our own personal theory of adolescent development.  This paper sounded daunting at first but became something I truly enjoyed and had enormous fun with.

It dawned on me that the indicators one looks at when we examine a successful classroom are not so different than those that one looks at when they are evaluating the health of an organic living environmental system.

From there the idea took off.  There were brainstorms taped to my walls.  I had sketchbooks filled with concept maps.  I read about adolescent development, I read about ecosystem management.  I categorized my thoughts.  I wrote down all the things I wanted in my dream classroom.  The result is a paper I think sums up my thoughts on how a good community works in any context.

Here is a quote from this paper.  It says just the thing I have been thinking to myself for years:

"Part of the reason I am so interested in studying the elements of ecosystem and environmental health in parallel with the elements of social and cultural health is a firm belief that they are deeply interrelated and interdependent.  As I look at the deteriorating social connections and the seemingly inevitable destruction of the environment around me I return to the belief that in order to heal our physical and natural environment we must heal our communities, and that the only way we can truly heal our communities is to focus on the physical place that we live in.  Our relationships to each other and to our sense of place in the world are vitally important.  Schools are intertwined in these communities and environments and they are responsible for educating the next generation of environmental and social stewards who will be handed the responsibility for caring for each other and the places they live in.  Adolescents are full of enthusiasm, energy, hope and idealism if only adults are there and ready to facilitate this energy and help kids realize that they can and are making a meaningful difference.  This is what is most important in education, and all the other things we do to foster and nurture the healthy development of adolescents lay the foundation for this dream and this hope."

Download Paper

On Posting Papers

I've decided to post some of my work from my studies at Lewis and Clark here.  Largely these have been my focus for the last year and having them available from anywhere in the world helps me, it also reminds me to go back and look at the work I have done as I move forward.

I've posted this explanation post for the date that I actually began my program at Lewis and Clark.  From here on the papers will be posted on the approximate dates that I completed them.  Happy reading!