It Works!

After brainstorming possible reasons for our lifeless plants and sick fish, our class went to work problem solving. Life has returned!

Google + Hangout . Paul Salopek . Out of Eden Walk

Google + Hangout with National Geographic Fellow Paul Salopek answering questions about his epic journey across the world by foot.

Perspectives on Columbus and the Americas

This past week, we were joined by Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, Ph.D and his history students for an exploration of Columbus and the "discovery" of America. Some students created passports, discussing the journeys of explorers seeking new routes to India prior to Columbus. Others analyzed artistic representations and journal entries before creating their own, reflecting the perspectives of both Europeans and Native Americans. The notion of "perspectives" was central to these explorations as students noted how Columbus and Europeans were portrayed by Europeans and how this differed from the portrayal of Native Americans.

Thank you to Jesse and his students for creating this experience for us!

Out of Eden . Footstep . Neighborhood Walks . My Journey

We have been asked, as members of an Out of Eden Walking Party, to take neighborhood walks and photograph elements of our neighborhood that capture the spirit of our neighborhood. Our focus should be places that are special to us or perhaps even aspects that we have overlooked but that become particularly interesting upon closer inspection. This reminded me of one of the rules from Keri Smith's, How to be an Explorer of the World, which our school has been incorporating into our studies.

Rule #3 - EVERYTHING IS INTERESTING. LOOK CLOSER.

The students are in the process of completing their own walks which will be posted to the blog soon. Below are photos and thoughts from the walk I took on Saturday.

My walk began right outside of my house where fallen leaves had collected outside of our complex. Autumn is always a colorful time in our city.

This is the sky outside of my house as I left. The puffs of cloud against the backdrop of the deep blue sky made for a beautiful pattern.

Public art (sanctioned and otherwise) can be found throughout the city. This piece is composed of colorful stencils of more well known Western works including Munch's "The Scream" and Boticelli's "The Birth of Venus" among others. "It's All Been Done Before" has been painted below. 

These two shots are from the local farmers market which my family and I walk to weekly. We usually pick up food from our farm share or buy whatever looks particularly good to us that day.

After the farmers market, my family and I walked to "The Arb"  for some afternoon exploring. Although it is within walking distance to my house, I haven't spent a great deal of time there. I think I felt inspired by this "Footstep" to spend time in a place unique to our town and also look for what I had missed. Many of the leaves had fallen which made for a beautiful visual experience. There is also something special about the feel and sound of moving your feet through fallen leaves, as demonstrated by my two sons. We did make an interesting discovery during our wanderings - A Fairy Wood and Troll Hollow where those inclined can build dwellings for these magical inhabitants of the forest.

Out of Eden Walking Party

Our class has been selected to participate in the Out of Eden Walk's new learning platform for schools whereby we will be able to follow explorer and journalist, Paul Salopek, on his journey which began in the Great Valley Rift in Ethiopia and will end, after seven years walking, in Tierra La Fuego off the coast of South America. Retracing the steps of our human ancestors, his goal is to connect with individuals across the globe, share stories, and promote the concept of "slow journalism." This approach improves our understanding of current affairs by showing the relationships and historical context that help shape these events.

Along the way, we will be in contact with Paul and various schools where we will share our observations of his experiences as well as undertake a journey of our own, albeit on a smaller scale. These will included creating maps of our neighborhoods, taking walks which we will document, to share the familiar and discover the hidden. What we learn about our neighborhoods and ourselves will be shared with schools across the globe providing us with opportunities to explore the similarities and differences in our communities. 

Below is a trailer of Paul's Salopek's Journey:

Marianne North, Mary Kingsley and Alexandra David Neel

     Marianne North, Mary Kingsley and Alexandra David Neel, explorers and trail blazers, ignored societal pressures and expectations to become inspirational figures who made powerful contributions to our understanding of Botany, Ethnography, and Buddhism. We viewed this brief video as a class and created profiles of them based on what we observed.

 

Epic Tales . NaNoWriMo

     Inspired by the creative forces of the gods, our class undertook our own acts of creation giving shape and form to new worlds made of clay. It is these worlds that will serve as the setting for the epic tales that our class is writing. The students have been developing characters and using Joseph Campbell's concept of The Monomyth as a template off which to work. Strengths, weaknesses and goals have all been discussed leading to the insight that strengths can be weaknesses and vice versa depending on the environment. We are now beginning our stories, knowing that the writing process is a fluid one and that our characters may change as the journey unfolds. The important thing is to begin.

     Our class will be joining the Young Writers Program of the National Novel Writing Month Project. During the month of November, adults and kids alike undertake the task of writing a novel in a single month. The students were inspired by the challenge. There is a focus on word goals and the students discussed an appropriate goal that was both challenging and obtainable which they decided to strive towards as a class. While "word goals" can lead to an emphasis on quantity over quality, I don't think this has to be the case. A word goal can serve as an island or marker in the middle of a seemingly boundless blank page to a student afraid to begin. Our goals will evolve throughout the month to reflect our growing understanding of the craft. 

Having banished our inner editors, we are ready to begin.