Training Log Archive: barb

We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us.

Lovin that positive feedback about the MEES workshop:

I loved your presentation! I was just walking in with another teacher (5th grade) and I was raving about it. I teach 4th grade language arts, science, coach 4th and 5th grade sports, and run the Lower School Community Service program so I can see all sorts of possibilities. The really funny thing is, I am a terrible map reader and get super confused when trying to locate places. I loved the challenge yesterday!
I'll check out the [NEOC] website and see if there is something I might enjoy attending.

She was raving!

Here are some changes I want to make to my presentation (note to self):

Start off by showing the map of the team challenge, and say, can you imagine a group of 4 kids, two of whom who have never ever been to the woods before, navigating to all these checkpoints in less than 90 minutes, with only a map and compass and with no adult help, and coming back with two full bags of garbage they collected along the way? Is this possible? I'm here to tell you that it can be done, with only 3 classroom periods of advanced training, plus one homework assignment, and a lunch period. And the kids have a blast. What's more, they go on to ace their standardized testing on topographic maps, and set the groundwork for great teamwork in class the rest of the year.

Maybe follow with a slide showing the 60 off-trail team controls, and say: 80 kids in 20 teams of 4. 60 hidden controls marked on a map. Can they retrieve them all in 90 minutes? Can they even come close? How is this possible? Or something like that.

Add a summary of the logistics from organizers' point of view.

Add the resources into the presentation.

Funding thoughts.

Outcomes: check in with the kids and teachers on the effect on teamwork and school relationships, to be able to say something definitive. Alter the slide on MCAS test to give the data.

Add Catching Features to the resource list. Play it during the presentation. Play the video with Ross & Sam congratulating the kids; this will be a nice tie-in to the early slide showing the US Team.

C • Awesome 1

So cold. But I have the gear for it. To school for my 4th-to-last-ever parent/teacher meeting at the junior high (so sad!), and then to work.
Later, home

More feedback:


Thank you for a very useful workshop. I am planning a series of watershed field trips with fifth graders and although we won’t be orienteering on those day, I picked up a lot of great ideas for working with the chaperones and ways to make the activities more engaging at each stop along the watershed (the kids take a bus from pond to stream to bay, and collect water samples and other environmental info). Now they will collect tickets (Points) for completing their data sheets and picking up litter.

I recently set-up a GPS trail and letterboxing trail at my reserve for families during school vacation week. The cold weather was a deterent but I’m hoping that they take off as the temperatures rise.

School and Interpretive Programs Coordinator
Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
DCR

I'm psyched! I have a 100-slide presentation ready to go for this morning's workshop in Worcester, at the Massachusetts Environmental Education Society's meeting "Navigating Environmental Education in Massachusetts: Mountains to Marine"

"Map Navigation: Teaching Orienteering -- We will discuss a case study of an orienteering curriculum used in the Cambridge Public Schools. Participants will try a map navigation activity and come away with ideas for how to incorpoate map navigation learning in (and outside of) their classrooms."!

Thanks Sam & Dave for feedback!

C • awesome 1

My workshop went well. There were ~25 people there, all very cool people: teachers, rangers, educators. The best kind of people. I gave my presentation about the curriculum I've developed with the junior high, and variations. They asked questions to understand details of how I pull it off. My idea was that, even though they might use orienteering differently in what they do, to see an example in some detail might be inspiring -- and pieces of what I do might be relevant. The guys from Outward Bound asked the most questions. I encouraged them all to come to NEOC meets.

I feel like John frickin Boehner though, getting all tearful at what I myself am talking about, when I talk about how amazing the kids are and how well they do.

I made a quick map of the campus from Google maps plus my-topo, and got there early enough to set 6 controls. The workshop was an hour and 15 minutes, so after an hour I let people go out and do the course in teams, if they wanted. Others stayed in the classroom and we talked some more. I got some very positive feedback, and felt good about it, like I hadn't wasted their time.



Afterward I checked out the City Sprouts workshop and talked to a few people including Susan from an organization focused on environmental ethics and transcendentalism, founded by Don Henley and others to fight development encroaching on Walden Pond. So Hotel California is stuck in my head.

C • Hotel California 2

C • JFB 1

to my cancer biology class, and back.

Found and wore the new rain pants I'm in love with. It's not raining, but it is cold and windy.

I came home in between work and class in order to help David with his homework. Sometimes I read his reading assignments to him because he has trouble with reading a lot of stuff quickly. At one point he was supposed to answer the question, do you feel more aligned to the Transcendentalists, or the Dark Romantics? He's a Dark Romantic. I'm a Transcendentalist. No surprise. But funny synchronicity to have two encounters with transcendentalism today.

toe red/swollen today after yesterday's jogging. I felt that I was being gentle on it. Maybe I need to try running barefoot.

Work commute

To work, in the rain.
Last week I went running a couple times, and also wore (and ran in) some flippy flops. One or both of those things aggravated my broken (pre-WRC-rogaine, November) little toe which is still red and swollen.

I will be teaching a workshop at the Mass Environmental Education conference on Wednesday. The attendee list looks great: 24 people including teachers, scout troop leader, recreation program directors, education coordinators, park rangers, naturalists. My plan is to tell them about orienteering, the curriculum I've developed in the schools (team orienteering), and NEOC's event calendar. There will be a couple of people from MA DCR (Department of Conservation and Recreation). If anyone would like to preview/critique my powerpoint slides, let me know. I could use the feedback.

... and, home.

Dear Ms. Bryant:

Thank you for contacting the Lee County Port Authority. We apologize for the delay in answering your e-mail.

There are some bike racks located in the employee parking lot, at Air Cargo Lane and Terminal Access Road. This area is visible to bus drivers and should provide a more secure bike parking area for the customer. We do not recommend parking the bike in any other location.

If this area is not acceptable, the other option is chaining it to a tree or pole in the long term lot, but this would put the bike in a landscaped and possibly watered area. Therefore, you would need to contact Standard Parking at (239) 768-1818 to inform the parking operator of the length of stay so the bike will not appear to be abandoned.

If you should need further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Lee County Port Authority Public Affairs
Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW)
Page Field General Aviation Airport (FMY)
www.flylcpa.com