TTEC Summer Institute Reflections

Mike Cruse

Arlington Career Center

Arlington VA 

2015 TTEC Cohort 

         July 27, 2015

Spending the past week with peers at the National Conservation Training Center was a real gift, but I'll stop short of saying how blessed I feel to have been part of the experience. 

Honestly, I feel like the roses far outweighed the thorns, which isn't something I usually feel when reflecting on professional development.  The sessions were informative and the time and opportunity to collaborate with others made this a true learning experience. 

As the only teacher from my school, located more than an hour from the closest entry point to the trail, I wasn't sure how I could make the AT relevant to my students' lives. What I realized as part of our exploration of place-based education is how you have to start with the place students call home, before you can expand outside of that comfort zone. That is especially important when your students live in urban settings and come from minority groups that historically haven't been represented in parks and on trails. It was encouraging to hear about the National Park Services's (NPS) initiatives to promote greater diversity, reflective of 21st century America, as it prepares for its centennial. 

As a white male who works with a primarily, minority student population, I've questioned my role in addressing the gap between my world of the outdoors, and my students' comfort with urban environments.  I love cities too, and all the diversity that they offer, but I think we all need space to reflect on our lives. At the high school level, we ask students to reflect a lot, but if we don't give them access to some form of natur

e where they can experience what it is to be reflective observers and listeners, we may as well be asking them to write an essay without providing them with paper and pencil. 

Now I see my role more as a guide than as a teacher.  There is a lot that I don't know about plants, animals and the natural world.  I do know how being surrounded by it makes me feel though, and that's what I want to share with my students, one step at a time.  My hope is that by exposing them to new environments, they will grow into their own appreciation of nature.  That's bound to look different than my feelings about nature, which are part of almost every memory of my childhood. 

As different as our feelings may be, I have to trust that they will be struck with something akin to the awe I feel each time I watch a sunrise or sunset over the rolling hills of my native Central PA. If they feel that, I know that they too will care enough to preserve them, to save them from everything that ails our cities and planned communities. In the words of the NPS, I want to set them up to 'find your park'. If they find that place in the world, I'll know that they've found it inside themselves too.

Exploring the AT in our Backyard

Barbara Lindtner
Seven Generations Charter School
Emmaus, PA
2015 TTEC Cohort

July 15, 2015

After a few exciting days at the Front Royal workshop, it was obvious we had to explore some of the AT in our backyard in PA.  If we meant to design curriculum and take students out, we would have to hike it ourselves.

We wanted an area that could accommodate 3rd, 5th and middle school students.  And be a reasonable bus ride from the school in Emmaus Pa.   Using the maps Karen gave us, we scoped out our first hike-- the Allentown Shelter, along PA Section #4, Port Clinton to PA route 309.  It was accessible to parking (important for a school bus) and seemed like a gentle easy hike.

Once there, it was so impressive to see the amount of healthy understory—native plants, trees, and scrubs were growing in abundance.  One of the children hiking with us was a student of mine.  He was also impressed, and shared my amazement at how different the landscape and forest was from the preserve we hiked at near our school.  We arrived at the shelter to find a Boy Scout Troop setting up camp. The shelter was clean, empty and had some trail magic waiting for a through hiker. We sat down to have some lunch, adding some treats next to the Pringles can that sat perched inside.

Within minutes, a through hiker sauntered up and set his pack down.  We exchanged hellos and directed him to the trail magic and shelter book.  He grabbed the book and a treat, and climbed on a ledge around the corner from the shelter opening.  We learned that he started in Georgia in March, that it was very cold, and he was travelling with a large group, some in front and others behind. After lunch, we hiked back to the cars and talked about plans for our next hike.  An easy hike, 4.7 miles and gentle for all grades.  Several weeks later, two of us hiked on Section #1 Delaware Water Gap to Wind Gap.  We found a small parking lot on PA 191, and hiked in, past the Kirkridge Shelter and several lookouts to Totts Gap.  The hike was a little bit more difficult due to the rocks, but nothing our students couldn’t handle.  Due to time, we turned around and hiked back to check out the shelter. The shelter was clean and bigger than the Allentown shelter, with a privy and water. We hiked back to the cars and talked about how this would fit with our curriculum and how we envisioned it working with the different grade levels.  What strikes me is just how easy it is to get out on the trail.  Can’t wait to explore more!

Questing

John Applin, co-writer

5^th grade teacher, Capon Bridge Elementary School

Capon Bridge, WV

Rebekah Lang, co-writer

7^th grade teacher, Seven Generations Charter School

Emmaus,  PA

2015 TTEC Cohort

July 23, 2015

Introduction

Belonging to this TTEC cohort can be simultaneously affirming and frustrating.   In our meetings this week my pedagogy was  affirmed.  At the same time I find my pedagogy only scratching the surface of possibilities.  Questing is one example.

Questing is active learning.  Questers solve riddles posed as poems to gather clues.  As questers gather a clue, they record it with a stamp.  These clues add up to some treasure. As Delia wrote, students (young and old) “explore both familiar and new places, making exciting discoveries, building strong connections to cultural and natural heritage, and becoming stewards in the process.”  

In a strictly education (traditional) perspective the possibilities appear limitless.  Place based education is cross curricular.  There are no lines demarcating subject areas in real life.  Similarly, questing erases  the artificial borders separating reading, writing, math, science, and social studies.  Reading comes in the form of researching clues.  Writing comes in the form of writing those clues.  This process is made more rigorous as clues are written as rhymes.  Science, math, and social studies are all included in those clues.  Together, the clues lead to a “treasure”.  What captures my attention is that this “treasure” is intrinsic.  There is no tangible prize.  The treasure is learning for learning’s sake.

Place based learning is at work across the country.  What place does it hold in your educational toolbox?

Please download our TTEC group quest here!

Reflection

Years ago, I created “treasure hunts” for students I used to babysit as a way to edutain them. I’d write and hide clues around their property and then they’d get to go find them. Usually the reward was simple: they enjoyed puzzling and earned a “high-five.”  I had created them because my favorite babysitter had done it for me when I was little. I had no idea that these “treasure hunts” were done around the world under another name! As a teacher, I was well-aware of “webquests” and somehow never realized they must have started before the internet as plain old “quests.” It seems so obvious now!

If quests were engaging enough for the children I babysat to want to do outside of school, I can imagine they would be a huge hit in my classroom too! I have brainstormed several ways in which I could tie them to my academic standards (7^th grade ELA):

•  Send the students on a quest in the beginning of the school year as an introduction to the building and resources(or perhaps limit this to my classroom)
• Make a novel-specific quest that has students searching in the book and around the classroom for text-to-world connections
• Use Google Earth to create a hybrid version of a quest (but not a true “webquest”) in which students travel the same route as protagonists in a story (e.g. Huck Finn or Laura Ingles Wilder)
• Have students create a quest of their neighborhoods or homes as a writing activity (focused on specific word choice, meter, rhyme or other style traits) as well as a community building/personal sharing activity
• Use quest-style clues as a review activity before a final exam or culminating event
• Assign a back-to-school night quest for parents (with QR codes to scan) around the school building to make the night more engaging
•  Have students complete a quest or create one on the Appalachian Trail (or another local trail) to engage in nature and connect it to other learning (clues could relate to literature or non-fiction texts read as part of the pre-teaching for the hike)

Key Research and Findings

• Athman, Julie and Monroe, Martha, 2004. Julie and Monroe, Martha, 2004. The Effects of Environment-Based Education on Students’ Achievement Motivation.  Journal of Interpretation Research, 9(1):9-25.
• Chawla, Louise, 2007. Student Gains from Place-based Education. Children, Youth and Environments Center for Research and Design.
• Chawla, Louise. 2007. Benefits of nature for children's health.Children,Youth and Environments Center for Research and Design.
• Duffin, Micahael and PEER Associates, 2006. Why Use Place-Based Education in Your School? Four Answers that Emerge from the Findings of PEEC, the Place-based Education Evaluation Collaborative.
• Ernst, Julie Athman and Monroe, Martha, 2004. The effect of environment-based education on students' critical thinking skills and disposition towards critical thinking.Environment Education Research, 10(4): 507-522.
• Falco, Edward H. 2004. Environment-based Education: Improving Attitudes and Academics for Adolescents. Evaluation report for South Carolina Department of Education.
• Liebermann, Gerald A. and   Hoody, Linda 1998. Closing the Achievement Gap: Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning State Education and Environment Roundtable.
• National Environmental Education Training Foundation (NEETF), 2000. Environment-Based Education: Creating High Performance Schools and Students. Washington, DC.
• Place-based Education Collaborative (PEEC), 2008. The Benefits of Place-based Education. Warner, NH. www.peecworks.org
• Rosenthal, Jennifer 2008. Place-based Education Research and Studies. Annotated bibliography. Doctoral Student, Curriculum & Instruction, SUNY at Albany, NY
• Semken, S. Journal of Geoscience Education. 2005. Sense of place and place-based introductory geoscience: teaching for American Indian and Alaskan Native undergraduates.
• State Education and Environment Roundtable (SEER). 2000. California Student Assessment Project: The Effects of Environment-Based Education on Student Achievement.
• American Institutes of Research, 2005. Effects of Outdoor Education Programs for Children in California.
• They Remember What They Touch: The Impact of Place-Based Learning in East Feliciana Parish. Rural School and Community Trust.

Bears!

David Adamiak
Urbana Middle School
Ijamsville, MD
2015 TTEC Cohort


7/8/15

When one hikes the AT, it’s a topic of nearly every hiker. Did you see a bear? Was he aggressive? Did he go after your food?  Do you use the bear pole at the shelter? I just completed 6 days on the trail last

week.  I started in Harpers Ferry and traveled south to Thornton Gap in SNP. The first thru-hiker I saw said to me,” I just saw a bear with her cub just 10 minutes ago.  Make sure you keep your dog close to you.” ( I brought my trusty Border Collie, “Bryce” with me). On the end of the second day, I made it to the “Bear’s Den” campsite.  They had a tree with carving with a …you guessed it, a bear (see photo).

Talking with through hikers at the end of day three at the Rod Hollow shelter, someone shared a story about how a hiker got attacked by a bear in his hammock.  Apparently he had an open can of tuna with him while he was resting. As a result, everyone put up their food on the bear pole that night ;-)

I got to see my bear just south of the Tom Floyd shelter.  He or she was fairly young.  I rounded a corner and surprised him.  He immediately ran a few yards down the trail and then turned left.  I was able to see him for a little while longer, for he traveled parallel at a short distance with me.  I never felt in danger.

My hike would have not have felt complete if I hadn’t seen one.

The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club

Donna Evans
TTEC Training

Homeschoolers, Sterling, VA

2015 TTEC Cohort

July 8, 2015

In preparation for the upcoming TTEC summer workshop in Shepherdstown, WV, I visited the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC), one of many local clubs along the Appalachian Trail tasked with preserving and maintaining this important resource.  The PATC is a volunteer-based organization located in Vienna, Virginia.  It was formed in 1927 to help build and maintain 240 miles of Appalachian Trail stretching from Pine Grove Furnace in Pennsylvania to Rockfish Gap in Virginia (the southern end of Shenandoah Park).  While the PATC still maintains this section of the AT, it also now manages more than 1,000 miles of hiking trails in the Mid-Atlantic region.

During my visit, on July 7^th, Staff Director Edna Baden showed me around the facility.  She spoke very highly of the TTEC program and Karen Lutz and Betty Gatewood who were involved in my training regarding the AT.  Edna gave me and my five year old son, Dean, a tour of the tool room.  We saw the tools used by the many volunteers to maintain the AT.  We saw the paint used to mark trees.  We visited the Board Room and the library which is filled with many fascinating books.  Members can check out these books for up to one month and learn all about the Appalachian Trail and related topics.

It was such a pleasure to meet Edna and other staff members at the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club to discuss ways that volunteers might share in and contribute to the mission of preserving the Appalachian Trail for generations to come.  I hope that I will be able to design helpful materials and make a good contribution towards that end as I participate in the TTEC program and beyond.      

Donna Evans
www.herbaleducator.com

Blog Book Illustration Contest in Maine

Rose Raymond

Library Tech

Granite St. Elementary School
Millinocket, Maine
2015 TTEC Cohort

June 19, 2015

Millinocket, ME In 2014 students at Granite St. Elementary School participated in an art contest sponsored by the Millinocket Literary Club.  Millinocket was designated an Appalachian Trail Community in July of 2013 and the Literary Club wanted the artwork to be a part of an advertising/fundraising campaign that would promote the Appalachian Trail and the Katahdin region.  Students were read, Ellie’s Long Walk, the True Story of Two Friends on the Appalachian Trail, by Pam Flowers.  A Mountain Adventure, by Patricia Griffith Morgan, about Mt. Katahdin, and S is for S’mores, a Camping Alphabet, by Helen Foster James.  Each book brought about discussions on what it would be like to hike, what you might see, and what you should bring.  I brought in my pack, a hiking pole, a picture of a lean-to, etc.  The only criteria we had for students was that they use the A.T. symbol somewhere in their artwork.  On week four Mrs. Grabber the art teacher took over the project, helping students put their thoughts about the A.T., Katahdin, and hiking on paper.  The artwork was amazing!  These illustrations were given to the Literary Club who selected one honorable mention and one winner in each classroom.  The winning illustrations were then given to the A.T. committee who had them made into postcards that would be sold throughout Maine communities promoting the A.T.  Proceeds from the sales of the postcards would go into the general fund of the Appalachian Trail Town Community.

The book illustration contest was a great wintertime project ending with a springtime assembly announcing the winners.  The winners were presented with their original artwork in a glass frame.

Summer Outdoor Fitness Goals

Jessica Leach
Granite Street School
Millinocket, Maine
2015 TTEC Cohort

July 18, 2015

As my summer vacation moves along I try to have outdoor fitness goals that incorporate the AT. For the past two summers I have taken on the 100 mile wilderness with a few hiking friends. This journey has made a huge impact on my life and world. It makes me really want to share what the woods, trails, hiking community and life on the trail with others can offer people, most importantly, young adults. I feel the challenge of the 100 mile wilderness is worth the hard work it takes to finish it. As I move forward in my discovery of the trail community I hope that I can give back all that I have received from the Appalachian Trail and the community that comes with it.

My goal as a physical education teacher is to give students that ability to choose which healthy goal they want to keep in their lives and hopefully part of that goal will incorporate being outside in some way whether it is in the woods, on the trail, or just enjoying outdoor sports.

I am posting a few pictures from the trail to show the great adventure we had with hopefully many more to come.