Great Cormorant
Phalacrocorax carboClass: Aves
Order: Pelecaniformes
Family: Phalacrocoracidae
Status: Secure worldwide,
Recommended for
threatened status in Maine, 2/07
By Timothy Finn
Great CormorantPhalacrocorax carboClass: Aves Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Phalacrocoracidae Status: Secure worldwide, Recommended for threatened status in Maine, 2/07 By Timothy Finn |
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Daily Reflections |
Personal Teaching Connection |
| Monday
A full first day here at the Endangered Species summit. Our morning reading focused on the disappearing grasslands of the American prairies. We then had a productive workshop on planning and implementing a technology rich expedition. The Fading Footprints expedition of 2002(?) illustrated the key EL components of guiding questions, kick-off event, focused research, field work, expert speakers, student demonstration of knowledge, community service, differentiated instruction and student production of high quality work. We will be developing a similar expedition this week although we will have the benefit of recent technological developments. In the afternoon we were treated to an endearing presentation by naturalist-animal rescue specialist David Sparks. This "kick off" event involved great "Maine" stories and up-close contact with various wildlife. If you are having wildlife problems at your home David is the man to call. Skunks and bats seem to be his specialty  although he can also handle overfed peregrine
falcons. After David, Ellen Norton led us in part one of a
multi-part water coloring workshop. Will my watercolor rendering
of the
Great Cormorant replace the detailed photograph now appearing at the
top of this page? Time will tell. Side trips of interest: nesting peregrine falcons in the bay, large tanker ( the Eagle Subaru) docked at the Portland Pipeline Company. An LNG tanker? Another photo of David Sparks:  |
Product
Design Lots of personal teaching connections in
the
formative stage of development. The Fading Footprints expedition
is directly applicable to our IC's ecology unit. A key question
to address, however, is how much time should we devote to the
project? Also, should I try to find ecology connections in the
history of ancient Greece and Rome or should I use the ecology unit to
develop background knowledge of topics which will be developed more in
research papers? It is clear, however, that I must do much more
with technology in the classroom. Ideas include: a class or IC
web page, more active use of graphics and images to generate interest
in
topics.  |
| Tuesday Another full day here on the coast of Maine. We devoted our morning to field work with two Maine Audubon biologists studying the endangered piping plover and the least tern at Goose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport. The piping plover appears to be a very gentle bird. Its diminutive size is accompanied by a low peep for a call. But, they can be very aggressive with each other. The least tern is even more aggressive when humans approach its nest. Several of them dive bombed our guide as she went up to the nest to check on its contents.  Other bird species spotted; bonaparte and herring gulls, snowy egret, teal swallows, willets and finches. Species list here.  Our first afternoon sessions focused on reading about and discussing the Fading Footprints expedition. We then had another water color lesson in anticipation of completing our renderings of our various birds. We are now working on web page development. Side trips of interest: Another tanker arrived in the pipeline terminal (Eagle Trenton). The Eagle tankers are registered in Singapore and have a capacity of over 100,000 gallons of fuel oil. Also, I came across a graveyard near the beach from a settlement dating back to 1658 which was abandoned in 1675, resettled and wiped out in a massacre in 1703 and then permanently settled in 1730(?). Lots of history around here: Liberty Ships produced in WW II on the site of pipeline company's tank farm. |
Anatomy
of an Expedition Key components of an expedition: guiding questions, real field work, collaborate with experts, independent research, literacy, acting like a professional and production of a real world product. It is coming together through internalization. Ideas for our IC: Have several expeditions with each one primarily driven by the content needs of one subject area. Our first expedition should focus on ecology. Social studies can work in some ancient Greece and Rome connections but more could be accomplished by addressing public policy issues which come out of a study of ecology. The key will be to frame relevant, challenging guiding questions.   |
| Wednesday The day began with one of the tankers leaving port in the fog. I could sense the massive ship moving through the water just beyond the jetty, its engine throatily humming. We were then off to Scarborough Marsh for a canoe ride in the estuary as well as an informative presentation by Linda Woodard. Linda used lots of stuffed birds and the enthusiasm of the curator of our Little Nature Museum in Weare, NH. Our afternoon session gave us an opportunity to learn how to use iMovie. Not a lot of success here for me. Our day ended with another water color lesson and studio time to paint our bird. |
Fieldwork
and Community I'm now ready to set up web pages for my classes. This is probably the most useful skill I've acquired this week. Our IC can certainly make use of a web page for assignment notices and links to articles, documents and images. I'll also be able to use web sites in Economics and AP US History. The trick will be to keep these sites updated. iMovies have tremendous potential. Our students will love to work on these partly because its fun to see yourself on camera. Working with technology also requires lots of thinking. Technology is a great way to hook students into content and to get them working at problem solving. |
| Thursday The bird is done!!! You be the judge (see above). Remember, it is a Great Cormorant. In our morning sessions, Scott took us through the assessment components of the Fading Footprints expedition. He presented lots of useful descriptions and examples of assessment practices. We then formed teams of 2 to 3 people and began work on our topic pages. Our team is developing a page addressing assessment and differentiation. It has been a frustrating task at times. I've learned how not to create a web page. You really need to think the product through (backwards design) and then sketch out your key components on a piece of paper. While we have content for the page, we are struggling with the presentation of this content. We need more images, samples, more effective use of color. Dave and Ashli have been very productive. We finished painting our birds in the afternoon. Ellen Norton is an extremely talented artist and art teacher. She has done a wonderful job of introducing us to water colors and has patiently taken us through the process of producing a realistic image of an endangered bird species. |
Differentiation
and Assessment Planning! Planning!! Planning!!! The key to a successful expedition is detailed planning starting with the completed product. Understanding by backwards design . . . Key implications for my teaching: A deeper understanding of and commitment to the use of expeditions in my teaching, understanding of web page design and the use of web pages for specific courses, a deeper understanding of how and commitment to using images and art in classroom instruction.  |
| Friday Each group presented their topic pages to the class. The presentations were an opportunity to get feedback on the content and layout of our pages. Lots of helpful suggestions resulted and we spent the afternoon finalizing our topic pages. Our final task involved people who had completed their pages volunteering to create index pages linking the various sites within our web site. These sites included a main index, species index, topic index, crew index and media index. We are now waiting for the 7 pm deadline to arrive which will mark the end of our time working on the web site. |
Technology My main goal for integrating technology into my instructional practices is to create and maintain highly effective web pages for each of my classes. I'd like to use these web sites to communicate assignments to my students and their parents. The more important use would be to link students to documents, images, maps and problems. I envision a a time when I can teach these courses without expensive textbooks simply by using materials available in the public domain on the web. Another important immediate use of technology is to integrate images, video and documents available on the web into class activities. I'll use these in lectures and presentations. Students will use these in their presentations. One final technology I'll be able to use is my digital camera. It would be nice to document class activities, and the activities of the cross country and track teams, on the digital camera and make them available on a web site or produce paper copies for use on a bulletin board display. Technology can be used to enrich the type and quantity of content presented in classes as well as to deepen the personal experiences students and athletes have in school. |