**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.
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