Daily Reflections
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Personal Teaching Connection
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Monday
Today
we woke up to the fog - and the fog horn. Although it was
overcast, the setting is beautiful and as the morning progressed, we
could see the boats on the water. We began  working
on our species
page after a thorough introduction from David and Scott. Ellen
needed to check in with me about my hawk - did I want to change to a
different bird, one that was easier to paint,
or keep the one I
had? I searched for a different picture and decided that I wanted
to stay with the hawk. I am not sure I made the right decision,
but nevertheless, I will continue.
After
lunch, we were treated to a lively presentation by David Sparks -
of Spark's Arks in Windham, ME. He showed us many different
animals, starting with dead bats, an endangered (to Maine) box turtle,
a chinchilla, a bard owl, a skunk, a fallow deer (born July 4 and  currently being bottle fed), a flying
squirrel, and a very long boa
constrictor! He was very entertaining and knowledgable! I
was one of the crew, along
with Bill and Courtney, who videotaped the presentation. We had
learned about videotaping the 5 shots last night, but I am sure I shot
too much for too long and will have many bits of useless video to
cut! But practice makes perfect.
THEN, we went to art!!!! This was the time when I questioned my
decision to keep the Cooper's Hawk - because we had to grid the page
and re-create the image onto another page to prepare for our final
painted picture. I was definitely out of my comfort zone!
But after some challenges with the head, beak, and feet - I finished
what we needed to do. Bill and I were the last ones done with the
artwork, but I felt like I created a fairly accurate representation of
the Cooper's Hawk. I only hope I don't ruin it when I paint it!
After a nice dinner, we are once again at the computer working on
our reflections and researching our bird. I didn't spend much
time researching - to me it was more important to understand what we
were doing... It has been a long day,
but well worth the time and I have learned a great deal!
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Product
Design
Wow!
I have many thoughts about what we have learned so far... I would like
to talk with Dene about incorporating aspects of Fading Footprints when
she does animals. Creating a website would be fun! I also
wish I had known about all the Google tools when we were working on the
mini-golf course. We spent so much time trying to save pictures
and documents and we didn't need to do it!
I really value the tips we got on videotaping! We have so much
footage to go through for the mini-golf expedition - it will take
SOOOOO much time. Again - if I had known then what I know
now! Oh well, there is always next time.
I really appreciate knowing how to actually grid a picture and transfer
it to another piece of paper - it is hard work, but Ellen explained it
so well, that the steps were easy to follow. It reinforces how
important it is to have concrete easy to understand instructions!
I am so excited about using the Netscape composer to publish the
Geography unit that Karen and I created! It will be so cool and I
also want to talk with Kate about using some of these ideas for housing
the curriculum! The possibilities are endless!
It was a good day!
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Tuesday
After our
morning meeting, we boarded 3 vans to take off for Goose Rocks Beach -
we were in search of the Pipping Plovers and the Least Tern - birds
that are endangered in Maine and have protected nesting sites at Goose
Rocks. We met up with two Maine Audubon rangers who explained our
task. There were 14 pairs of nesting pairs of Plovers and we were
to help to identify the adults and chicks of the plovers. It was
overcast for much of our time on the beach and very difficult to see
the plovers, but we managed to see a few. The List Terns were
present and Joy, the Audubon ranger, told us that the terns have gotten
very familiar with the ranger's uniforms and will often get very
protective of their nests and dive bomb them to have them get away.
After lunch at the MeKernon Center, we read an article about the
anatomy of an expedition and held a short discussion of the
article. It was helpful again  , to discuss the
relevant parts of
an expedition.
With that done, we were off to art - to practice watercolor
techniques. It was difficult and I began to get an appreciation
for artists abilities again. I was definitely out of my comfort
zone. I have reservations about my bird!
We had a mini lesson on iMovie and were able to download the video's we
had taken at the various events and presentations. I didn't get
very far, but can now work on the video's without downloading the film
from the camera.
It was a good day - I learned a lot, but have many more questions and
hope that by the end of the week, I will have the answers.
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Anatomy
of an Expedition
The
material we covered today has reinforced in my mind how important
identifying the product for an expedition really is. It is
critical that all the teachers and students have an understanding of
where they are going. Having the roadmap planned out with its
final destination known will make the difference between a successful
expedition and one that doesn't work well.
When we plan another expedition next year, we need to make sure that we
have a final product in mind - and each student would create their own
piece of that final product. The product criteria sheet that we
received says, "That the broad concepts can be applied to a number of
specific examples are available and developmentally appropriate."
This is critical!
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Wednesday
 Today
we started out early!!!! Breakfast was a 6:30 and we departed for
Scarborough Marsh Nature Center for our canoe trip down the Scarborough
Marsh. I was a bit nervous about this, but soon realized that my
fears were for nothing. We saw many different birds, a
snowy and a great egret, a willett, common terns, and a few
others. We didn't see any mammals like we were told we might see
- but it was great. While it was foggy and misty we were able to
see the grasses and occasionally houses and bridges in the
distance. It was very peaceful and I was glad that the weather
was the way it was - not hot and steamy like it could have been.
Upon our return, we started our iMovie workshop, but I spent more time
talking with Scott about fieldwork - planning for kids - how many go at
a time and how does it work. It was good to hear that all the
students didn't go at the same time. The experience for the kids
was more valuable and easier for all the teachers. Eventually, I
did the iMovie tutorial and managed to go through it ok. This is
definitely something you have to practice, but I did manage to create a
movie of David's daughter making a peanut butter and jelly center.
During lunch I had a conversation with Raka and David and learned about
a book called How the Way we
Talk Can Change the Way we Think by Keegan and Lahey. It
sounds like a book I should get. I will - when I get home!
After lunch - we returned to art - it was better than I expected!
Ellen was right and said that the paper makes a HUGH difference!
The paper for our final artwork was much better than what we used to
practice and it made the work much easier. I finished the
background and let it dry. I will start the bird tomorrow.
It needs to be finished tomorrow night! I hope it comes out well.
Finally, we returned to the studio and worked on our webpages and
reflections. David and Scott evaluated where we were and we did
our first drop on the server of our site pages. THEN WE WENT
OUT!!!!
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Fieldwork
and Community
Yesterday
I felt that the most important part of the planning for an expedition
was defining a product - today I feel that having an authentic
fieldwork experience is important. In my conversation with Scott
I began to understand how King structures fieldwork so only 10 to 12
kids go out to do fieldwork at a time. All kids are prepped for
fieldwork at the same time - it could take a few days or weeks - then
over the course of 6 days or so - the actual fieldwork is
conducted. By the time the kids go out to do the work, they
know what they need to do and the teachers are the facilitators to the
process, not overly involved. At King, usually a few core
teachers go with the students to do the fieldwork and the others stay
at school.
Once a group of students complete their fieldwork, the next day is
spent working with their data and another group of students goes out to
collect their data. This seems important to me, since all
students are engaged and working and the teachers can give the students
the attention they need.
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Thursday
Today
was a full day. We started with a discussion of assessment,
differentiation and the Final Product. We saw the final product
of a previous summit which helped to clarify where we were going with
our website. Scott showed us many of the materials he used in his
class and how he used them. This prompted a few questions about
assessment - and how kids are graded.
We picked areas of interest we wished to explore or demonstrate our
understanding and I am working with Lennie and Tom on "Anatomy of an
Expedition". We worked on planning our work and distributing the
tasks before lunch.
Today was a beautiful day and we were able to have lunch in front
of the cafeteria - it has been so long since we had
sun - we all appreciated it very much.
I
think I dreaded going to art - but oddly enough I really
enjoyed it - the final product is above... the picture to the left is
what I was trying to recreate. How did I do? After about 3
hours I finished my picture. The sense of accomplishment I felt
was HUGH! I truly want to have students feel this excitement.
Once finished with my picture, I returned to work on my topic
pages. I stayed up late getting obsessed with a small detail, but
it was worth it in the end - eventhough I didn't know I would be
basically redoing it again on Friday!
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Differentiation
and Assessment
There
is an opportunity in these
expeditions for all students to do their best work - they can do their
best work and get an A
if they work at it - and there is appropriate scaffolding in place for
that to happen for ALL STUDENTS.
This was the greatest message that came out of our work today!
All students can be successful if we plan well, and scaffold the
process of learning. It takes some work, but should be the goal
of planning any expedition. I remember the sense of
accomplishment Shaun L had when he crossed the high wire at Camp Kieve
- he was so pleased with himself - and I know how I felt finishing my
painting today - we need to set up our expeditions so kids feel this
way most if not all of the time!
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Friday
Today
has been a blur! We are really in crunch mode and while I usually
take on more tasks than everyone else, I found myself not able
to! I spent all day working on our web page - it is much better
than it was last night and I really appreciated the feedback given to
us at the feedback session. We distributed the tasks very well -
Lennie has a wonderful way with words and images, Tom worked tirelessly
on the videos - and all in all I am pleased.
I must admit to being tired today - we have learned so much, and while
I am tired - I am not sure I want to leave - this has been great - I am
so happy that we have the contact list so we can keep in touch - or at
least when we attend future conferences we will have more people to
know!!! Thanks to Dave, Scott and Ellen for the time they spent
away from their families and the terrific "warm and cool" feedback
given to us throughout our stay. It has been wonderful.
Also, this is truly a
marvelous place to be to attend this type of conference - because even
though we have been inside, we have been able to look out and see this
wonderful view! It makes it even better.
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Technology
My
immediate goal when I return from this week is to create my own
website which will host a webquest I wrote with my colleage
Karen. I am very excited by the fact that I have done my own
pages and have the resources of our very own website upon which to draw.
After this, I will probably
start a wikispace for my new team - but that isn't as much of a
priority.
I
am a hands-on kind of person, what I need to do is just do it - I
expect that when I start doing this at home, I will run into many
situations that will require answers, but I hope I will find the
answers - afterall I have Bill to ask!
I
have been a devout PC user for my entire computing life - having spent
this week using a MAC I now would like one. I suppose it would be
too much ask for Andover to switch platforms. In light of the
fact that this will probably be unlikely, in order to get to my goal, I
just need time.
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