Day 3

Harbor Day! We began by finding our location on the campus map in their journals and getting familiar with a compass. Now, how do we get from here to the Pond?



Our first adventure of the day was embarking on the S.S. Debbi, making our way out to the middle of Mac's Pond. I tried out doing a sound map - they had to symbolize any sounds that they heard during 10 minutes of silence. There were plenty of dogs barking and children laughing in the distance to keep them busy depicting the sounds on their paper.



Everyone got a chance to crawl through the hollow log



We crossed the suspension bridge and dropped maple seeds off the edge, watching them helicopter their way down to the forest floor.






Down at the harbor, they got to explore for awhile. The boys were super excited about finding a shot gun shell among the rocks. They were a lot less excited when I took it away from them. We did some Andy Goldsworthy style art on the beach, although the morning tide hadn't washed up much for them to work with.




We did "Each One Teach One" back up the steep hill, where they each got the chance to become an expert in a plant and teach about it to everyone else. Making it up the hill, I gave them a scavenger hunt to do at the cemetery, and we talked about why we would even come here in the first place and what we can learn here. "Because our lives are made up of other peoples' stories!"




We stopped at the Mill Worker's Cabin to do one of my favorite activities, from the book Material World. The author of this book travelled around the world and looked at what an average family owned. Not only did he make lists of all their stuff, but he somehow convinced families to drag out everything they owned outside their home for a picture. The results were amazing. The kids passed around pictures of what families from Ethiopia, China, Mexico, Samoa, etc look like. We got into discussions about what the most important material things to them are (phones! Ipods, my XBox!) and compared them to what these other families had. They concluded that although many of the families in the pictures had much less stuff than they had, they still looked happy with what little they did have. They thought that the Indian family wasn't very happy because nobody in the picture was smiling, but I told them that a lot of Indians don't like to smile for pictures :)






We had been trying to solve the mystery of what happened here 100 years ago. They were collecting cultural clues as evidence that would help them discover the history of this place. Our last activity of the day was (besides eating chocolate chip cookies) watching the video about the mill at Blakely Harbor. Wait, there was a mill?

Day 2

Day 2 started off with my students creating a mind map of what they think a watershed is. To start the day off right, not a single one of them said that it was a shed or building that holds water! They're an IslandWood instructor's dream group!



We headed into the Marsh Loop trail, where I was excited to try out a new activity that I made up! I paid a visit to Ace Hardware on Sunday and picked up a huge stack of paint chips, and I gave one card to each student and gave them the task of finding something in the forest that matched each of those colors. Once they were urged to look closely, they were amazed at what shades of green they found!



This activity came to a screeching halt when a Code Marsh was called. One of my students fell into the marsh! Luckily, another instructor was doing a peer observation on me at that exact moment and was able to walk the soggy student back to the lodge to change. Crisis averted!



Not to be shaken, the rest of us continued on and paused by the edge of the marsh to -carefully- collect macroinvertebrates to take back to the lab.



We paused to listen to some birds and used the IW ipod to try to identify the species. The students thought it might be the yellow-crowned kinglet. Maybe, maybe not, who knows. I don't know my birds! We paid a visit to the bird blind and encountered bufflehead ducks. We used the ipod's speaker to call the ducks and they responded! Gotta love technology in nature.




Our hike back to campus would not be complete without a game of flashflood and camoflauge.



When we got back to the Learning Studios I gave them some bird identification books that they used to research the buffleheads.



We checked out our macros under the microscopes and painted watercolors of what they found. We released our critters into the tanks in the Living Machine once we were done. Long live the macros.




I couldn't believe it, all this was accomplished before lunch! We had our pb&j and turkey sandwiches on a picnic table outside the dining hall.



Lucky for me, my mentor Ray was nice enough to come out and facilitate the team building game Gutters for me. He even tied it into Watersheds!



By accomplishing their task, they earned the right to enter the teams course. They rocked Nitro and Whalewatch was a breeze! They did it so fast we had extra time to fit in another mind map, the ABC lesson (Abiotic, Biotic, and Cultural), and finished up with a rousing rendition of "Know, Know, Know Your Trees". Not only that, I got them back to their lodges 15 minutes early!





Learning that can be joyful and empowering and inspire a sense of wonder?
Mission Accomplished.

Day 1

Monday: Day of Arrival

My students arrived very enthusiastically at 11:15, dropped off their stuff at the lodges, and joined me at the Friendship Circle. We had lunch as a big group, talked about the IslandWood rules, and then headed out as Team Lightning for the very first time. We started off by giving each other nature names. I decided to go with Eagle Erin this week. Next up was a solo hike....nothing like an abrupt entrance into nature and solitude! As they arrived to the Pond Shelter one by one, I could tell who had followed the "hug a tree" card because they were covered in moss. They were obsessed with hugging trees for the rest of the afternoon. On the way back we stopped to admire the shelf fungus and the maple trees (and giving it lots of love).



We made a stop in the Dining Hall and asked the chef what's for dinner. Turkey and mashed potatoes, surprise surprise! They also met Wade, our friendly dining hall scale that weighs the students leftover food.



Our next stop was to the gear room where they borrowed their rain pants and rain jackets for the week We played a game of Earth Eyes, then set out for exploration! I had hidden their IW journals around the admin wild zone, and their challenge was to find the hidden cultural items. I obviously hid them a bit too well and one of them was never recovered. Luckily I always carry a spare journal in my backpack just in case; I inconspicuously placed it by a log when no one was looking!

I had them journal about what their perfect week at IW would look like, and that lead into the community agreement where we discussed how they were going to achieve those things. "Earn the right to do these things", "Respect each other", "Keep our hands and feet to ourselves", "Listen to each other". Go team Lightning!





We discovered some deer prints and deer poop on the way back to the lodges. Fascinating stuff to a 5th grader.



As I was walking back to the lodge, I found out that my chaperone was from Malaysia! Not was she just from Malaysia, but from Penang! And not JUST Penang - she grew up in Fettes Park, right across from Island Plaza! We were practically neighbors! We talked about chicken rice and the best hawker stalls in Penang. That made me really excited.

Day 0

Allow me to introduce myself. Hi, I'm Evergreen Erin.

Tomorrow at about 1:30 I will be officially responsible for the week-long health and happiness of 7 fifth grade students + one chaperone at outdoor school.

Thus begins a typical teaching week at IslandWood.

As if I don't have enough to do already, I'm going to try to write about my teaching experience throughout the week.

This is what I know of this week so far:

I have 3 girls and 4 boys, one of which "doesn't like ice cream". When asked what they are afraid of about IslandWood, 6 out of 7 responded "nothing". The other student responded, "Not being able to call home." Tough cookies.

The weather is supposed to be sunny which makes me hopeful. What's not so hopeful is that it is quite late and I am going to wake myself up before dawn to go run. However, there's no better way to start the day than a few quiet moments on the beach, watching the sun rise.

Until tomorrow,

ee

Nature is neat

I think beauty's in the details. Forests are nice, and sure, trees are lovely too. But check out these gnarly roots!



And the bark of this Madrona tree!




This picture blows my mind, although it's a little bit too tiny to fully appreciate. I've been a little bit obsessed with this question lately and so I will ask it here: How many shades of green can you see?

Overwhelmed

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by life right now. A LOT overwhelmed, to be more correct. There's so much going on in my life: school, teaching, classes, relationships, and life in general. It's impossible to do it all.

But they're all good things. They're all exciting things: once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. This is my only chance to be at IslandWood, my only shot to live on Bainbridge Island, and I certainly can't replace or relive my relationships and the point of my life that I'm at right now. I'm surrounded by so many interesting people, places, and ideas. I wish I had all the time in the world to give myself fully to all of these things. But because that cannot be the case, some things have got to go. I have to prioritize my life according to what's most important to me, and inevitably things (even good things) will have to be let go. Say it isn't so!

How amazing it is to think about how overwhelmingly blessed I am! I am surrounded by so many good things that I can't humanly take it all in. My cup overflows. God is good.

A trip to the Peninsula

When Reuben was visiting for his last few days before he flew back to Malaysia, we took a short trip to the Olympic Peninsula. It was amazing!

We stopped by the visitor's center in Sequim and got some advice on where to go. The old man volunteering there told us about a beach in Sequim that we ended up going to.





More beach art. Andy Goldsworthy is my latest hero. It's amazing how many colors you can find on a beach!



We stayed at a B&B right on the cliffs of the coast.






We travelled East to Lake Crescent and visited Marymere falls






...then continued on to Lake Cresent, hiking the Spruce Railroad trail. We stopped for lunch. The lake is deep and water turquoise.








We found a cave where the old WWII railroad ties had been dumped in.