Upland Sandpiper Bartramia longicauda Status:  Threatened in Maine By:  Kira Wilsterman

• Length: 10 inches
• Long yellow legs, small head, long neck
  
• Thin, short bill
• Very large dark eye stands out against pale face
• Black rump and long tail, with dark bars
• Dark outer wing contrasts with brownish inner wing in flight
• Often perches on fence posts or stumps
• Sexes similar

Journal Entries

Daily Reflections	Personal Teaching Connection
Monday The day started with sun shining through our window before 5:00 am.  I'm not used to the sun coming up until after 6:30.  I slept until about 6:45 and got up and went for a run/walk with Courtney.  We wandered through campus and went along the path by the beach and ended up in a nice quaint little neighborhood with cute houses.  On our way back we ran into Leah who had just finished a run and was heading into the ocean.  We thought she was a little crazy for going into that cold water so of course we stayed to watch.   After a quick shower and breakfast we had our morning crew meeting and headed downstairs to map out Fading Footprints and then begin our bird's webpage.  I have the Upland Sandpiper.  A cute little bird with long legs who looks like he likes to strut.  I was a little nervous at first because I have never made a webpage and had a hard time figuring things out.  I got a little more comfortable with the whole process and so far so good.  I did however cut and paste my information from several sites on Google so thanks for your help!  After an okay lunch in the Campus Cafeteria we had our "Kick Off" with David Sparks.  He is an Animal Rescue Guy who brought several cool animals for us to see including a box turtle, skunk, chinchilla, five day old deer named Firecracker, an owl, and a snake.  He was a great storyteller and I really enjoyed the entire hour!  I got to hold the seven foot long, 30 lb snake and Ashli, Courtney, Robin and I took a picture with the Owl to take back to Oakhurst and show off! Next, we had a super quick transition into an afternoon of Art with Ellen.  She taught us how to grid the picture of our bird and then use the squares to make it easier to draw it on the white paper.  Then we traced it, scribbled over the backside and then traced the front with pen onto fancy watercolor paper.  I think we will begin painting tomorrow.  I'm pleased with my picture.  I think I did a pretty good job.  I finished pretty early and was really looking forward to our personal time this afternoon but it was pouring down rain.  So instead I went up to the room and crawled under the covers and took a nap.  I woke up to the delicious smell of dinner cooking and went down for a very nice dinner in the glass porch.  Afterwards we came back downstairs to share our pictures and see how we can put them into Google for all of us to see.  Super cool!  I finished (I think) my webpage and am pretty tired even though I took a nap.  Super busy day.  Lots of good information and learning.  Looking forward to tomorrow because we're going to have some fieldwork outside at this beautiful location!  Hopefully the weather will cooperate.	Product Design Well, lots of good stuff to take back to school and share with the staff and the students.   Looking forward to seeing how the week goes and what else there is to learn.  I need to be thinking about how to better tie in what I've learned and what I'm going to learn into our  Owl Investigation, Space Expedition and our Leadership Expedition and of course how to utilize the ActivBoard!  Can't wait for that!  I really liked the webpage designing and think we could use that during Investigations and Expeditions to share with other EL schools.  That would be very helpful to access other plans.  I also loved learning about the i Photo/Google Image Sharing page.  That will be a great way for parents and teachers and students to share pictures on field trips, etc.
Tuesday Another great run this morning starting around 7:15.  Made it a bit further into the neighborhoods.  Lovely houses and lovely views of the ocean.  Got back just in time for a quick shower and an even quicker breakfast before departing for Goose Rocks Beach for some bird watching.  We met Joy and Jordin who told us all about the piping plover and the least tern and we saw several of them both adults and chicks and eggs!  Wished we could have had a bit more time to explore the area but we were running a little late.  Great van ride to and from as we cut through Biddeford (Betty Ford) and Kennebunkport.  *inside joke  Made it back in time for a quick lunch and then right into reading an article and thinking about how Expeditionary Learning would look best at Oakhurst.  Best part of this lesson was being able to choose our reading location.  I went and got my towel and layed in the grass in the sunshine.  Frustrated a bit thinking about the whole planning part and the lack of time we have for good solid thorough planning for an expedition.  Also a bit frustrated because it seems we always are with middle and high school teachers at these conferences and wish we could talk a bit more to other elementary teachers and how they best plan for investigations and expeditions.  Then we went straight up for our art lesson.  I felt a little overwhelmed with the 45 minute mini-lesson.  I understand that we have a very limited amount of time to learn a maximum amount of stuff but I could sense some anxiety around the room.  Once we got the paints and the paper it was a bit better.  We painted a tree scene and an apple an a can and I started on my fruit bowl but then got tired and stopped.  Afterwards we had some free time and the four of us went for a walk out to the lighthouse again and took some great pictures.  This is a really beautiful location and I'm thankful for all of the outside time we get.  We are about to have Thai Take In for dinner and then we have an evening session together.  more to come..	Anatomy of an Expedition So, I need to start thinking about some fieldwork for our investigations and expeditions.  I want to be able to take the kids to more places this year and also bring in more experts.  I'm beginning to realize more now the importance of backwards design.  That's been really difficult for me in the planning of these expeditions because I'm not sure which direction they're going to turn and what the student's interests are, etc.  Planning is key and we've got to figure out a way for us to get together more often and use our time more wisely.  I would like to also talk with Clairemont and Winnona Park 2nd grade teachers more and share our ideas and plans and experts.
Wednesday So we had a pretty early morning...no run today.  Didn't feel too hot when I woke up either.  Thought I was coming down with something.  A little sudafed and emergen-c helped a bit.  We left at 7:00 am and had a short ride to Scarborough Marsh where we met Linda, Jackie and Ruth and learned about some of the wildlife that lives in the marsh.  Then we tripled up and got into our canoes for a little excursion.  I was in a canoe with David and Bill.  We saw a variety of birds and had a great time taking pictures and being out in nature.  It was really foggy this morning and we were worried about not being able to see anything but it made the trip a bit more interesting to me.  On our way home in our fun van we made a quick stop to Lenny's Chocolate House where we saw a 1700 lb. chocolate moose.  We're in the process of making a species page out of our research to share with the group.  Should be pretty funny.  When we got back we learned how to edit an imovie.  Seems pretty easy but time consuming.  I wanted to try to edit some film that we've taken during the summit but all of the cameras were being used so maybe later.  I was getting pretty hungry and pretty excited about lunch because it smelled like fish and chips.  I have really been looking forward to eating seafood in Maine and haven't had a bite!!  I was sorely mistaken because when we went upstairs we had pizza and chicken wings.  Afterwards it was time to paint our birds.  After a couple of tries on the background I finally stopped and left it as it was.  It was supposed to be more green but turned out to be more blue.  Oh well...then I started on the bird itself and got his legs, beak and a little of his body painted.  Might work on that a little later or might just wait until tomorrow.  Now we're wrapping up our afternoon with an evaluation of what we've learned.  Haven't taken mine yet.  A little nervous but should be okay!  :-)  We're heading out for a night out in Portland and hopefully I'll be able to eat some of that good lobster I've been looking forward to having!!	Fieldwork and Community The fieldwork was great today.  Again, something I need to work on this year.  I really enjoyed learning about the imovie process but it seems pretty time consuming but would look really cool on the Activboard.
Thursday Well, after an evening out in Portland to an okay restaurant called Bull Feeny's...never did get any seafood... got up to go for a run that ended up being a walk on the beach.  Gorgeous day today.  Lots of dogs on the beach playing and running and fetching.  Cool morning.  We met this morning and were told that we were going to make a web-page for our site and I'm working with Leah on the Fieldwork section.  I've found some pictures and some websites we can link to and written some text and she's working on some imovies so we just have to get together to put it all together on a page.  Hopefully it won't take too long.  Not sure really what to do so we'll see how it turns out.  We finished our bird pictures today too.  I like mine okay.  I tried to use the watercolor pencils instead of the paints and it turned out to be a bit too harsh looking.  From a distance it looks pretty good.  All of them are great considering how nervous we all were about the whole thing.  Ended up taking a nap this afternoon because I couldn't think anymore and now I'm thinking about going outside because it's so beautiful out there!	Differentiation and Assessment So I've learned how to make a web page and attach links and pics and edit movies and do sound and our page looks great!  I wouldn't say I've mastered it but with some more practice it will definitely get easier.  Not sure how easy it would be for 2nd graders to actually do but it would be nice to have our own website.  They could take the pictures and do some filming and they could pick and choose what they want on the site.  Hmm??  We'll see.
Friday After a not so good night's sleep and waking up around 6:00 I left early and had a fabulous run this morning.  Went in the other direction and ended up in Bug Light Park which used to be a shipping yard during WW2 and then followed Harborwalk Trail on this little path for a few miles and then back to campus for a cool down walk on the beach.  Today is the warmest day so far this week.   Leah and I finished our webpage and I have to say that I'm pretty proud of us.  Our videos rock!  All props go to Leah though because I didn't do any of the editing..just some voiceover.  Our feedback from our peers was all positive and we tweaked it a bit and I think we have it just right.  FINALLY our secret Lenny page was discovered on the big screen in front of everyone and it was a hoot.  I think he's going to make it to our species page after all.   So, now I'm finishing up my page, our Fieldwork page is done and I guess I'll step outside for a bit to get some fresh air and then see if I can help with any of the other Index pages.	Technology So, I was thinking this morning on my run about how much technology I've learned this week...creating webpages,  filming, editing, sound, taking pictures, uploading photos to Picasa, imovies, etc.  I thought and thought about all of the tech stuff we've done and I'm so excited to take this back into my classroom and back to school to help my team...etc and as I was running I was trying to figure out what the coolest thing was that I learned this week and what I think is the coolest is how EASY this all is.  Who knew??  I'm so glad that I was able to come to this Summit and gain all of this new knowledge and I'm so excited to share our website with not only my fellow teachers but also my friends.