May 16, 2013
Today was my first day teaching. We had pretty good weather, a mix of light rain and sun. Thirty-two middle school students came to H.J. Andrews from Fern Ridge Middle School. I had a group of six students and two chaperones. The kids were excited to be at HJA and some had been before. They were all a part of an adventure elective program at their school, and had stayed up at HJA the night before.
I started the day with the tree climb, however the kids stayed engaged throughout the rest of the day. Today was difficult for me as a facilitator, because halfway through the day I got a bad stomachache. Thus, in the afternoon my energy was low and I was teaching the two lesson plans, Whater Water Sheds? and Those That Decompose, that I was least familiar with.
Another hurdle I hit was that some of children were a little hyperactive immediately after lunch and I had to work to get them to settle down and focus on the lesson. A couple of the boys were trampling the mosses, and kicking and throwing sticks. To get them quite I first tried using “quiet coyote”, however the students that were being disruptive to begin with, were too distracted to notice, and then too wound up to quiet down once they did notice. Next I raised my voice to get their attention, but then immediately lowered it to a low volume that mandated quiet in order to be heard. Once I had quiet, I asked for their respect when I was talking and to please respect the forest. The next day I implemented pre-correction and made sure “no throwing” was in the rules from the outset of the day, which was successful.
May 17, 2013
I had a much larger group of nine students from Prairie Mountain School today. The class total was 37. They were a little squirrelier and a little less interested in being at HJ Andrews than my first group. The class arrived late, at about 9:45, so we modified our lessons to be about 65 minutes each and broke for lunch at 12:00-12:10. Today I did the tree climb in the second half of the day, originally I was set to do the climb last, however James’ group arrived late to lunch and needed more time to decompress, so my group did the climb directly after lunch to accommodate.
The students were full of energy on the Discovery Trail, and one child said that he was bored with the lesson. Though we found many decomposers, we finished the Discovery Trail a little early, and James went a little over on What’re Watersheds? I knew that I needed to get some of the excess energy out of my students if I had any hope of them engaging in What’re Watersheds? So we played everybody’s-it tag and sharks and minnows in the gravel area at the top of the Discovery Trail while we waited for James’ group to move on. Playing games was definitely a good way to reengage the students while also ridding them of excess energy.
During What’re Watersheds, my students were dragging because it began raining and they were ready for lunch. Two boys were especially disengaged, so I paired them up together and worked with them to build their Look Out Creek watershed model. Working alongside them really engaged them, and I was able to remove myself and they continued to build their model independently with the same focus and energy. I used this tactic for other activities throughout the day.
May 24, 2013
Today’s group had good energy; again they came from Prairie Mountain School. My nine students were a diverse group with a range of attention spans, interests, and eagerness. One of my boys was a bit of a wanderer. He was quite shy and couldn’t stay focused during instructions or discussion. Early on, I tried to engage him by asking him to repeat what I had just said, or what other students had said. However, I found that rather than engaging him, he closed up and became a bit embarrassed. Since he wasn’t disturbing the group by looking around and not paying as close of attention, I let him explore his surroundings and reached out to him on an individual level for important discussion points. Above all, I wanted him to have a great experience at HJ Andrews and though he wasn’t always engaged in the group activities, he was definitely engaging with his surroundings.
All three days I had incredible sit spots in the tree. Right before ascending, I told all that I was going to lead the way up to the first stop, where we’d have a five minute sit spot, then I told them they could go at their own pace. Once all the kids were at or near the stopping point, or at least on the ropes, I called their attention and told them that I was timing a 5-minute silent sit spot. I asked them to look around and notice the different sights, smells, and sounds of the canopy and to really savor the moment. Usually there was a bit of talking at the beginning, which I calmly but sternly ended. After each sit spot, and especially after the one today, the mood of the climb changed: students were much more contemplative. They focused more on their surroundings and the personal journey rather than beating their friends up the tree.
Today was my first day teaching. We had pretty good weather, a mix of light rain and sun. Thirty-two middle school students came to H.J. Andrews from Fern Ridge Middle School. I had a group of six students and two chaperones. The kids were excited to be at HJA and some had been before. They were all a part of an adventure elective program at their school, and had stayed up at HJA the night before.
I started the day with the tree climb, however the kids stayed engaged throughout the rest of the day. Today was difficult for me as a facilitator, because halfway through the day I got a bad stomachache. Thus, in the afternoon my energy was low and I was teaching the two lesson plans, Whater Water Sheds? and Those That Decompose, that I was least familiar with.
Another hurdle I hit was that some of children were a little hyperactive immediately after lunch and I had to work to get them to settle down and focus on the lesson. A couple of the boys were trampling the mosses, and kicking and throwing sticks. To get them quite I first tried using “quiet coyote”, however the students that were being disruptive to begin with, were too distracted to notice, and then too wound up to quiet down once they did notice. Next I raised my voice to get their attention, but then immediately lowered it to a low volume that mandated quiet in order to be heard. Once I had quiet, I asked for their respect when I was talking and to please respect the forest. The next day I implemented pre-correction and made sure “no throwing” was in the rules from the outset of the day, which was successful.
May 17, 2013
I had a much larger group of nine students from Prairie Mountain School today. The class total was 37. They were a little squirrelier and a little less interested in being at HJ Andrews than my first group. The class arrived late, at about 9:45, so we modified our lessons to be about 65 minutes each and broke for lunch at 12:00-12:10. Today I did the tree climb in the second half of the day, originally I was set to do the climb last, however James’ group arrived late to lunch and needed more time to decompress, so my group did the climb directly after lunch to accommodate.
The students were full of energy on the Discovery Trail, and one child said that he was bored with the lesson. Though we found many decomposers, we finished the Discovery Trail a little early, and James went a little over on What’re Watersheds? I knew that I needed to get some of the excess energy out of my students if I had any hope of them engaging in What’re Watersheds? So we played everybody’s-it tag and sharks and minnows in the gravel area at the top of the Discovery Trail while we waited for James’ group to move on. Playing games was definitely a good way to reengage the students while also ridding them of excess energy.
During What’re Watersheds, my students were dragging because it began raining and they were ready for lunch. Two boys were especially disengaged, so I paired them up together and worked with them to build their Look Out Creek watershed model. Working alongside them really engaged them, and I was able to remove myself and they continued to build their model independently with the same focus and energy. I used this tactic for other activities throughout the day.
May 24, 2013
Today’s group had good energy; again they came from Prairie Mountain School. My nine students were a diverse group with a range of attention spans, interests, and eagerness. One of my boys was a bit of a wanderer. He was quite shy and couldn’t stay focused during instructions or discussion. Early on, I tried to engage him by asking him to repeat what I had just said, or what other students had said. However, I found that rather than engaging him, he closed up and became a bit embarrassed. Since he wasn’t disturbing the group by looking around and not paying as close of attention, I let him explore his surroundings and reached out to him on an individual level for important discussion points. Above all, I wanted him to have a great experience at HJ Andrews and though he wasn’t always engaged in the group activities, he was definitely engaging with his surroundings.
All three days I had incredible sit spots in the tree. Right before ascending, I told all that I was going to lead the way up to the first stop, where we’d have a five minute sit spot, then I told them they could go at their own pace. Once all the kids were at or near the stopping point, or at least on the ropes, I called their attention and told them that I was timing a 5-minute silent sit spot. I asked them to look around and notice the different sights, smells, and sounds of the canopy and to really savor the moment. Usually there was a bit of talking at the beginning, which I calmly but sternly ended. After each sit spot, and especially after the one today, the mood of the climb changed: students were much more contemplative. They focused more on their surroundings and the personal journey rather than beating their friends up the tree.