Training Log Archive: barb

Excerpts from my brainstorming emails with the 5th grade teacher at the Morse school; the goal was to write up a grant application (bus costs, printing, A meet entry fees) and to include relationship to Massachusetts' learning standards ("frameworks"):

FALL focus: Use maps to navigate efficiently from point to point. Culminating projects: compete in a national orienteering meet.

SPRING focus: Team-building and problem-solving. Culminating project: as a team, use topographic maps to plan and execute a route that visits off-trail locations in the woods. Penultimate project: build a 3D model of the woods they will actually be visiting; use it to do the route planning.

• 
  History and Geography #6. Distinguish between political and topographical maps and identify specialized maps that show information such as population, income, or climate change.
  We will be using topographical maps that include specialized information of great use to them in their navigation.
  
• Earth and Space Science #14. Recognize that the earth revolves around (orbits) the sun in a year's time and that the earth rotates on its axis once approximately every 24 hours. Make connections between the rotation of the earth and day/night, and the apparent movement of the sun, moon, and stars across the sky.
  We will be learning about the position of the sun in the sky at various times of the day -- and how we can use that in navigation. This makes it very real.
  
• This one is grades 6-8, and we'll be laying the groundwork for it: 1. Recognize, interpret, and be able to create models of the earth's common physical features in various mapping representations, including contour maps.
  
• Technology/Engineering: 3.4 Identify and explain how symbols and icons (e.g., international symbols and graphics) are used to communicate a message.
  
• From the appendix to science frameworks - suggested additional activities.
  Standard #1, grades 6-8: from a contour map, build a model that shows the physical features of a selected area and the loations of wildlife/plants.
  Grades 3-5, Standard #12: Visit local sites that show the effects of glacial advance or retreat on the landscape (e.g., drumlins, kettle ponds). (There are glacial erratics in the woods, for example.)
  
• Just generally: getting out in the woods, observing things - and then following up in an inquiry-based way, on observations that the kids have about the plants and animals, or man-made features (like the mysterious stone walls in the middle of the woods).
  
• There is definitely some math - scale, estimation...
  
• Health - http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/health/1999/109...
  
  • So this is definitely a physical activity
    
  • Teamwork is mentioned in the frameworks.
    
  • Section on mental health - being able to deal with emotions in a constructive manner will be part of this; decision-making; communication.
    
  • Section on interpersonal relationships: communication
    
  • Section on safety: communicating in an emergency; role-playing potential scenarios; working out action plan ahead of time.
    
  
  
• I have not head time to look at the English Lanugage Arts; that might be relevant too. http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/ela/0311.pdf
  

Later:

Looking at the standards has given me some more ideas. I'm looking at the English standards.

I know that I could easily get a writeup of the kids' experience in learning about orienteering and competing in a national meet written up in the NEOC Times (the local club's newsletter). It's quite likely I could even get it published in Orienteering North America. Why don't we think about having kids work on narratives that describe their experience, starting from learning about it? At a minimum, there could be a regular reflection written, maybe a paragraph or two, after each of our activities, and we could then draw quotes from that to build the story, plus photos. Another approach might be for the class to do a group composition. Maybe the individual pieces could be written by kids as homework or something, and then they could talk as a class about how to pull it together into a story. Wouldn't it be neat to see a published product of the kids' group writing?

We could also consider seeing if the local paper(s) would be interested in doing a story on the kids' experience. Or maybe some kids might like to write an opinion piece about this way of learning, or about the value of orienteering to education, or who knows.

Grade 5 students, from page 27 of the ELA standards (March 2011):

1. Write opinion pieces on topics of texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information. (details omitted...)

2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. (details omitted, but they include the option o fusing illustrations and multimedia!)

3. Oooh! Oooh! Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear sequences.

• 
  Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.
  
• Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, description, and pacing, to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.
  
• Use a variety of transitional words, phrases, and clauses to manage the sequence of events.
  
• Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.
  
• Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.
  

Wow, keyboarding skills are part of the grade 5 standards. type 2 pages in a single sitting... They say to use technology to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others. Hm, here is another idea: there is an orienteering training blogging site called AttackPoint. I record my (paltry) exercise there. Kids could each create an account, and then if they do training (running, biking, or actual orienteering training), they can log it. This would allow interaction because you can read and comment on each others blog. "Good work!" or whatever. Like an old-fashioned Facebook for orienteers.

Later:

Also, we could probably get a "How to orienteer" piece posted on the Orienteering USA website in the Education section. Certainly in the NEOC section.

So, choices that kids might have for a final written product would include:

• Narrative of their experience
  
• How to orienteer
  
• Opinion piece about the value of orienteering or this project-based learning

Night orienteering with Isabel at Nobscot. It was very pleasant orienteering with her. She's good at spotting features and has a good attitude...

Beginner - Splits

The junior high field trip was postponed to October 7th due to weather.

The Graham and Parks 5th grade classes have started training for their outing to Fresh Pond.

I'm starting to work on the Morse School 5th grade activities for the year. In an exciting development, the entire class is going to compete in the CSU A-meet sprints in October, as a field trip! They've made special arrangements to keep the kids past the normal end of the school day.

C • Sprint 6

To the federal courthouse, where I was randomly not selected for grand jury duty. 23+15 were selected for a jury tackling health care fraud and terrorism; 5 more were selected as alternates for an existing grand jury on organized crime, which is the one I thought would be amazing. On the way home I rode past Hanover Street, and instinct diverted me into Mike's Pastries where I purchased four scrumptious looking canolis. Canolis from Mike's were a regular treat back when I was an undergraduate, THIRTY years ago...

favorite word found on the internet today: unexpectancies

OK, so there is no AOC on the googlenets, so I guess it is wide open. Maybe we can get advice at Helmund.

C • trail-o 5

Tomorrow is World Alzheimer's Day. Figured I'd mention it now as I'll have forgotten by tomorrow.

Parked in the loading zone at Dunkin Donuts, and was hoping one of the police people would challenge me so that I could make a carbo loading zone joke. Instead they just smiled and said hello.

Met this morning with the jr high teachers in preparation for Friday's field trip. I have one kid in a wheel chair, who was rescued from an orphanage in Afghanistan a couple years ago, and brought to the US for surgeries. The Cambridge woman who brought him back has adopted him, I think, anyway, she goes as his mom. He is going to be in phone contact with the teams, and keep track of where they are. Not as technology-friendly as GPS tracking, but it gives him an important role and will be helpful for us to know where the teams are. He's also learning Catching Features, so he'll be able to give the team a demo at the assembly afterward.

Izzy is sick, and it's too bad because she can't play soccer for the time being. Bronchitis or something.

hospital to Harvard to home