EDU 548 Reflections

**Please note that this was written a while back.  Due to a couple of reasons, I was unable to post this in August and recently came across it while looking for some other things.  I’m sorry that it took so long, but I felt that it was still important to post this entry.  I have passed my comp exam and will be completing my Master’s at the end of the Fall 2011 semester.  I have still been busy working as a substitute teacher.  I hope that things are going well with everyone… **

It was a lot of fun getting back to Raquette Lake.  Although I had been here many times in the past, my last trip up there was four years ago during the first semester that I was in the graduate program.  While there were some changes made to the camps, most of it was the same beautiful and fun place that I remember.

Speaking a little bit to Kathy’s post, it was a little strange at first to be the only person who didn’t already know everyone else.  While it did feel a little odd, I just kept enjoying myself.  This allowed my true colors to come out.  It’s a lot like getting to know the other faculty members at school.  You just have to make a concerted effort at meeting people.  The rest will come naturally.

I know that we spent a lot of time indoors, especially at the beginning of the week.  However, I understand why we did this.  The last time that I took a class that met at Raquette Lake, we had to continue with the planned itinerary outside in the rain.  Needless to say, it put a damper on the group’s morale.  I’m glad that this class had the flexibility of being able to shuffle the sections around in order to take advantage of the days where we had pleasant weather.  I wish that we would have been able to meet in Metcalf Hall for at least one session.  Although Carlson Classroom is a nice facility, there is nothing quite like sitting inside Metcalf Hall for a session.

It was very nice to be joined by John Slade during the book discussion.  He provided some really interesting insights about the book and about renewable energy.  I am looking forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy at some point soon. 

This class also had some fun “out-of-classroom” experiences.  The museums were a lot of fun.  Prior to looking through the class resources, I thought that teaching about the Adirondacks meant either doing so in a traditional classroom or doing so through “immersion” in the Adirondack Park.  It did not even occur to me that there were museums in the Park to learn about the history of the land and the culture of the inhabitants.  At the Adirondack Museum, I really enjoyed the artifacts and pictures of the logging industry.  It is amazing to see how far technology has brought this trade.  The exhibits about the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Games were also interesting.  I thought that it was interesting to learn about what the Olympic experiences were like and what it meant to Lake Placid.  The thing that impressed me the most about the Wild Center by far was that pond that was designed to come up to the bottom of the window line.  It is certainly something that you don’t see every day, but it is an impressive reminder about how man is intricately connected to wild (even though it doesn’t always seem that way).  Seeing all of the solar panels on the building’s roof was also an amazing sight.  I don’t think that I’ve ever seen so many solar panels in one place before visiting the Wild Center!

Ferd’s Bog and Black Bear Mountain were two other interesting locations that we visited.  This was the first time that I ever visited a bog and had an idea of what I was looking at and what I was looking for.  Although I usually say that the journey is the destination, our trip to Ferd’s Bog was all about the destination.  Walking out on the bog was a unique experience.  I have never done that before.  Walking with Kathy way out on the bog was even more fun.  It was a thrill to be standing on that spongy ground!  I’m just glad that we didn’t fall through the bog.  I understand the idea of conserving and saving the bog.  However, I believe that it is important for students to experience standing on the surface of a bog.  Similar to my experience last summer of walking on and feeling the Arctic Tundra, most of my students may be faced with these opportunities only once in their lives.  I believe that it is extremely important for those students to not just know about different landforms, but also to be able to “experience” them as much as possible.

Although my other class involved a trip to the top of Black Bear, it involved canoeing to it from Camp Huntington and hiking it in the rain.  This time around we hiked onto the trailhead from the access road that brought us to Ferd’s Bog.  After finishing at the bog and getting everyone’s gear set, we took a short walk up the access road to the trailhead.  I enjoyed hiking to the top of Black Bear.  The weather was beautiful and it was fun talking with my classmates on the way up.  After a lunch break and a nice photo opportunity, we started to descend Black Bear and make our way back to the cars and to Camp Huntington.

In addition to all of the above, we took part in some other fun activities while at Camp Huntington.  We took a nature hike to various locations on the point.  In all of the trips that I have made up here, I have never traveled that far and don’t believe that I have ever seen the church or Kirby Camp.  Seeing them both adds to the overall feelings of beauty that I have about the facility.  We were also able to participate in some low-ropes activities while we were there.  Some of those activities were new and some were activities that I had not participated in for a while.  It was challenging and fun to try to accomplish the tasks that were given to us.

A big part of this class was to think about a project to create that could be used in our classrooms.  I was unsure at first about what I should create, but eventually it came to me.  I decided to create a DBQ about the lifestyles of those who call and have called the Adirondack Park home.  It also gave me some practice in writing document based questions.  Writing an entire DBQ on your own is more difficult than it sounds.  However, I felt that this was a good experience for me.  After obtaining a variety of primary source documents, I created a question asking students in fourth or fifth grade to compare and contrast Adirondack life to the life that they live in their communities.  I also enjoyed viewing the projects that everyone else created.  There were a lot of good ideas and I hope that my classmates take those ideas and run with them in their schools.

We also were given an opportunity to do something that no other section of EDU 548 has done before: Travel to McCauley Mountain and ride the chairlift to the top of the mountain.  We ended up leaving Raquette Lake a little early to go have lunch on top of the mountain.  After paying the fee, we all took a ride to the top.  However, there was no wind turbine on top of the mountain.  Most of us all thought that the wind turbine that inspired Adirondack Green would be here.  Old Forge and McCauley Mountain were the inspirations for Balsam Corners and Bobcat Mountain.  Adirondack Green was the story of what could be.  Although I was disappointed that there was no wind turbine on top of McCauley Mountain, I did try to view it in John Slade’s vision.  The top of the mountain was indeed beautiful.  I stayed with Karl, Beth, and Kathy to have lunch on top of the mountain.  However, the skies opened up and it started to downpour during lunch.  At least we had a table that was somewhat covered by a tree.  After lunch, Kathy and I headed back down the mountain with Karl and Beth not too far behind.  I had never ridden a chairlift down a ski mountain before, so that was an interesting experience.  After we reached the bottom of the mountain, we all said goodbye and went our separate ways.

I am glad that I was able to take this course.  Although it was smaller than other years, I think the amount of people in the class led to a relaxed atmosphere and more in-depth discussions.  The idea of stopping to watch the sunset every night was also fun.  It was nice to return to Raquette Lake for one more trip as a student.  Rob is doing a wonderful job with the facility and I hope that he continues the good work.  It was a very refreshing course that gave me some new ideas and perspectives on teaching.  Additionally, I made a bunch of new friends who I hope will be successful in whatever they choose to do.  Overall, it was one of my favorite courses at Cortland as a graduate or undergraduate.

Thursday...The Sharma has bad Karma

After breakfast we had some “miscellaneous” time.  We had the option of doing some more kayaking or working on our projects.  While I would have loved to have gone kayaking again, I wanted to make sure that everything was set for my project.  I spent most of the morning working on it on the back deck of Hemlock Hall (the building where we are staying).  There is a beautiful view of Raquette Lake off of the deck.  So even though I had to do my project, I was treated to the beautiful sights, sounds, and smells of the Adirondacks (the pine smell today was just right).  After putting in a good morning of work, it was time for lunch.

After lunch we went out to the ropes course.  We did a few of the low ropes activities today.  Although I was disappointed that we were unable to do any high ropes activities, the activities that we did today were meaningful and can easily be conducted by me in a school setting.  We started out with two get-to-know-you activities: All My Neighbors and the Koosh Ball Toss.  We then progressed to trust and initiative activities.  The Koosh Ball Toss was turned into a problem solving activity, which we eventually solved.  We played Sharma, where we were blindfolded and followed the person in front of us.  Our Sharma, Rob, had us all hold onto a large piece of rope and follow him.  After a while we let go of the rope and followed a long network of string.  This was where we had to rely on the people in front of us.  Overall I would have to say that Kathy was an excellent Sharma for me.  Hopefully Lindsay would say the same about me (I thought I did a pretty good job).  After Rob closed the loop and had us go around the course for a second time, he eventually opened it and we found our way to the end.  After Sharma was the Spider Web.  The object was to get a rope that had a blue fish tied to it through all of the holes in the spider web without it touching the web.  I have never played that variation of the game before and found it to be a new challenge.  After the Spider Web we did the Lava Crossing.  It has been a long time since I participated in this activity, so I needed to do think about how to accomplish our task.  The task was to get everyone to the third platform using two small boards.  It was a little labor intensive and we went just over our allotted time, but we were successful with the activity.  I was very disappointed that we had to stop here.  I felt that we really started to flow as a group and I would have liked to have tried some additional challenges together.

Something that I was very impressed with was the addition of new elements to the ropes course.  The Sharma activity was a new activity which I have never played before.  Rob also told me about some of the other new additions to the course.  I am impressed with Rob’s forward thinking and his presence.  I am pleased that SUNY Cortland chose him to be the director and am confident that he will provide excellent leadership for the Center for Environmental and Outdoor Education for many years to come.

When we returned to the Carlson Classroom, Matt gave a presentation about Risk Management.  One of the things that we did was that we learned more about an Emergency Action Plan.  Surprisingly, it is not as difficult to create one as I previously thought.  Matt’s example was very detailed and particular.  I probably wouldn’t go into that type of detail on every field trip.  I would probably think about some of the basics and collaborate with the other teachers who are attending to gather some additional information about our destination.  I would also make sure to ask my principal for more information about our district’s policies on field trips and preparation for field trips.  I believe that the key when going on any field trip is to be aware of one’s settings.  If you are aware of your settings you will be able to put some thoughts and ideas together that will minimize or eliminate the potential for something to go wrong.  I may not be creating a lot of detailed emergency action plans, but it is good to know how to create one.

After dinner we hurried out to the church for a concert.  There is a concert and lecture series held there over the summer.  Tonight’s concert was performed by a female barbershop quartet.  I sat outside with my peers and listened to the beautiful music while sitting in an Adirondack chair and watching the picturesque sunset over Raquette Lake.  We also talked and had some fun while we were there.  There were a lot of things that kept us busy this week.  It was nice to have some time to have fun with my colleagues.  After the concert was over we walked back to Camp Huntington.  I stopped to watch the group from Buffalo on the climbing wall.  I helped to give some encouragement as some of them were nervous about climbing.  Some made it to the top of the wall and some didn’t.  Despite this it looked like everyone that I saw put forth their best effort, and that’s all you can ask for.

At the concert we also carved a piece of fungi to give to Rob tomorrow.  This will serve as a token of our appreciation and as a way to permanently leave our mark on Camp Huntington.  This will be the fourth keepsake that I have helped create for Camp Huntington.  I left a piece of fungi with my PED 308 group in 2005, a piece of firewood with the Orientation Assistants in 2006, and a piece of driftwood with the Fall Leadership Retreat in 2007.  The piece of fungi is in Metcalf Hall, the firewood is in the dining hall, and I did not see the driftwood.  However, I believe that this is the most beautiful piece out of all of the ones that I have left.  I also think that it is up there in terms of beautiful keepsakes left by any group.

It is 10:35 as I write this entry.  Matt is sitting across from me at a table in our side of Hemlock doing some of his work.  I will probably look over my project one more time and then do some relaxing.  Good night!

Wednesday...Let's visit Ferd & The Black Bear.

After breakfast we packed our day packs and boarded the boat to Antlers again.  This time we had to say goodbye to our friend Tim Slekar and his family.  They were leaving today to attend an education rally in Washington, D.C.  After arriving at Antlers, we loaded into the cars and drove to Ferd’s Bog.  What I did not realize is that Ferd’s Bog and Black Bear Mountain are down that first dirt road on the left as you approach Antlers.  I’ve always wondered what was down that road.  There were some campsites and some privately owned cottages.  We reached Ferd’s Bog and took the 15 minute hike to the end of the boardwalk.

When we arrived at the end of the boardwalk, we were encouraged to step off of the boardwalk.  This was done to allow us to see that a person is able to stand on a bog and to see what it feels like to stand on top of the bog.  When I was walking out there it sounded like I was walking on Styrofoam packing peanuts.  When I stopped in one place it sounded like what happens when you pour milk onto your Rice Krispies.  The ground was soft, spongy, and very wet.  It reminded me of last summer when I discovered what the Alaskan Tundra felt like.  It was also soft and spongy, but it wasn’t wet (it was actually a little frozen...it felt like you were touching some type of gel).  Most of our class only ventured a few feet off of the boardwalk.  Kathy and I went about 90 feet from the boardwalk.  Kathy took pictures of the plants and wildlife while I helped her.  I figured that if my feet were already wet I might as well go a little farther and get an up-close view of other parts of the bog.  After a little while we returned to the boardwalk and hiked back to the trailhead.

After we all changed into dry footwear, we walked up to Black Bear Mountain.  We had to walk a little ways up the road before we came to the trail.  I hiked to the top of Black Bear in 2005 when I was here for PE camp.  The only difference is that we canoed to Black Bear and then hiked up.  I am glad that we went this way so that I could see the different sights en route to the trails.  The scenery on the trail was beautiful.  The view from the top was even more beautiful.  We ate lunch and enjoyed the views of Blue Mountain before hiking back down the trail.  We made it back to the cars and drove back to Antlers.  Rob arrived a few minutes later with the boat and shuttled us back to Camp Huntington.

After a brief break we ventured down to the kayak dock where Matt provided a tutorial on how to kayak.  I learned to kayak here during PE camp.  We learned our basic moves just off of the kayak dock and then proceeded to canoe around Big Island.  Matt gave a good presentation which served as a nice refresher for me.  This time we went traveled past the front dock of camp up to the Kirby Camp.  It was such a beautiful day to do this.  The sun was shining brightly and that fresh pine smell of the Adirondacks was present.  On the way back the clouds and sun interacted brilliantly to create a memorable view of Big Island.  I then helped to put the kayaks away and got ready for dinner.

After a magnificent turkey dinner, we returned to the Carlson Classroom to talk about consumerism.  We started off by viewing the video of “The Story of Stuff.”  While I agree with many of the points that they make, I still believe that some of it is propaganda and some of the things presented were taken out of context.  Still, I believe that we need to change our mindsets on why we buy things and what we do with things once they are no longer needed.  There was also a discussion about how we as teachers can do this.  One idea that was brought up was an activity about needs and wants.  In addition to determining what the needs and wants are, students would determine how much all of the wants would cost.  While I think that this can be an effective activity, I believe that teachers need to build the confidence of students so that they can “run to the beat of their own drummer.”  It shouldn’t matter what other people believe.  If my student believes that something is needed, he or she should obtain it.  While others may attempt to pressure that student into purchasing a newer version of something (that we would consider a want in this case), the student would be able to hold his or her ground and keep the old item if that is what he or she desires.  It’s not an easy fix and there is still a long way to go in order to get to where we need to be.

It is about 9:30 p.m. as I am writing this.  I am working in the Carlson Classroom and Kathy is also here.  I will now do some work on my project before going to sleep.  Good night!

Tuesday...Road Trip

After breakfast we jumped on board the shuttle boat to Antlers.  The big adventure of the day was visiting the Adirondack Wild Center and the Adirondack Museum.  Our first stop was to the Wild Center.  This was about an hour drive from Raquette Lake.  I drove with Julie and Matt in Karl & Beth’s car.  I ended up sleeping during most of the drive to the Wild Center.  The Wild Center was a beautiful place.  It was built on the site of an old sand and gravel quarry.  It is now a space dedicated to education about the wild spaces of the Adirondack Park and the staff is doing an excellent job of helping the natural landscape grow back.  It contained many interesting displays about Adirondack natural history, past and present.  I really enjoyed the display about the glaciers having had the chance to see the Exit Glacier in Alaska last year.  There is a pond that is next to the museum that gives you the feeling that you are actually in the pond when you are looking at it from inside the museum.  I thought that was an amazing feeling.  After about 1½ hours we traveled to the Adirondack Museum.

The Adirondack Museum had a lot more exhibits than the Wild Center.  While I think that information about the wild is important, I found the exhibits here to be much more fascinating.  After eating lunch here, I started exploring the exhibits.  Among my favorites were the rail car, the one-room schoolhouse, the 1932 and 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, and the Adirondack Furniture.  After spending about three hours here, we got back into Karl & Beth’s car and made the trip back to Antlers.

After dinner we had a large-group discussion about our individual projects.  I am looking at creating a DBQ about the lifestyles of inhabitants of the Adirondack Park.  I helped to write a DBQ once as a project in 9^th grade history class.  This will be the first time that I will be doing one on my own.  I feel like I took a lot of good pictures at the museums today and will combine those pictures with some excerpts from books and data that I am able to find.  We will have some time on Wednesday and Thursday to work on the project, so I feel confident that I will be able to put together a quality piece of work that I can use once I find a full-time teaching position.

Beth finished our classroom session by reading a passage from an Adirondack short story.  After that I went to the Sauna.  I thought that everyone had left without me since no one was at the meeting place.  So I went to the sauna on my own and discovered that I was the first person there.  It turned out that I was the first person to arrive at the meeting place.  I did see three deer eating grass as I was walking out there; it was a peaceful sight.  The group was much smaller tonight than it was yesterday.  But I had a fun time with Kathy, Nicole, Tim, and Tom (Camp Huntington’s intern).  After a quick warm shower I wrote this post and went to bed.  Good night!

Monday...If Woody said it, then I'm on board.

I felt that today was a good first day here at Camp Huntington.  We started our day by taking a nature hike to different parts of the peninsula.  I really enjoyed it because I have never been to most of the places that we went to today.  Our first stop was to the Barque.  I have passed by the Barque and walked around the deck of the Barque every time that I have been here.  I even slept on the deck on one night during my last trip here.  However, I am pretty sure that this was my first visit to the inside of the Barque.   While it was small by my standards, it was pretty impressive when you think about the fact that it used to be a houseboat.  For a boat that was built at around the same time as the camp, they had a great deal of technology on board (e.g. flush toilets, ventilation system).  After we finished on the Barque, we walked past the ropes course to the church.

I had always heard that there was a church on the peninsula, but I never visited the site.  This was because I did not know how to get there and there usually was not enough time to explore when I visited in the past.  The church was breathtaking!  The cedar shakes really made it stand out.  The inside was equally as breathtaking.  It looked immaculate and could easily have mass celebrated if that was desired.  You can even see Antlers from the church.  We then departed the church and ventured out to the Kirby Camp.

Although the group was split for the voyage to the Kirby Camp, we all eventually made it there.  It was a rustic yet peaceful setting.  There were a lot of flies there, but I’m sure that you would get used to them (and use bug spray as well).  Out of respect for the individuals renting the camp, we left to go back to the Carlson Classroom.  However, Tim’s wife managed to spray Tim in the Face with bug spray while she was spraying their son.  According to Tim, it felt just like pepper spray.

The remainder of the day was spent in the classroom.  We changed the schedule and did many of the indoor activities today because of the heavy rain that was predicted.  The remaining time before lunch was spent setting up our blogs.  It took me a while to complete everything because I did not have a Gmail account, but I was able to get the template set up just before dinner.  After a tasty lunch of pulled pork, we had our discussion about Adirondack Green with author John Slade.  Although I did not remember all of the little details about the book, it was interesting to hear his thoughts about why he wrote the trilogy.  He wrote it to try to educate schools about what is possible with both clean energy and community service.  I would love to try to integrate this book into my teaching in some way.  Even if it is only as a read aloud book (with certain words edited), I think that it could be a powerful teaching tool.  John Slade even autographed my book and posed for a picture with me.  It was a thrilling experience.

After John’s presentation, we watched a video about the history of the Adirondack Park and the Adirondack Park Agency (APA).  I have mixed feelings about the strictness of the APA.  Under certain circumstances it is a good agency that is helping us save the park for future generations.  Under others it places unnecessary constraints on homeowners looking to make improvement on their lands.  If a person were complaining to me about the APA, I would need to look at the specifics of the situation before casting judgment one way or another.

After dinner, we listened to a presentation on sustainability and clean energy.  There was talk about the idea that climate change is occurring, but that no one with political power is recognizing it.  We discussed in greater detail the idea of Peak Oil.  Now that the “low-hanging” fruit has been picked, we have to get the items that are harder to obtain.  In that regard, one of the destructive methods of obtaining coal is open top mining (I’ve also heard it referred to as strip mining).  After seeing footage of what it looks like, I can understand why Karl is very upset over this practice.  Another opponent of open top mining is actor Woody Harrelson, star of movies such as “The Cowboy Way” and “Money Train.”  He briefly spoke out against the practice in the video.  Beth and Karl also presented several examples of how they now try to lead a more sustainable lifestyle.

After a long day in the Carlson Classroom, most of us took a trip to the sauna.  I did not know what to expect having never visited the sauna at Camp Huntington before.  After sitting in the sauna for a few minutes, we went out to the beach area of the lake (nearby) and jumped in.  I was freezing when I left the sauna.  Tim said that it would make a big difference by sucking it up and submersing ourselves.  After experiencing the initial shock of the water, I found that he was right.  We went back into the sauna and created some steam from the stove.  This got us all sweating.  We repeated this cycle three more times before we walked back to camp.  I thought about doing some swimming at the dock, but the whole sauna experience made me feel tired.  After a nice warm shower I came back in, did some work on the blog, and went to bed.  Although it was a loaded day, the sauna was the perfect thing to get me ready for bed.

Back on the Horse

Hi Everybody,

My name is Jason and this is my blog.  I am currently in the master’s program in health and should be completing it this fall.  This is my seventh trip up to Raquette Lake, but my first trip back here since 2007.  I have usually been to Raquette Lake in order to participate in teambuilding activities (twice with the Honors Program, once with the Orientation Assistants, and once with the SGA Executive Board).  I was also here for a two week class during the Summer of 2005.  One of my most memorable experiences here was helping to facilitate the annual Fall Leadership Retreat in 2007.  I am thrilled to be back here and to be working with this group in taking this class.  No matter how long it has been, it is always a wonderful yet calming experience when I come to Raquette Lake.