Hello Raul, David, and Gary,

Raul posted a message that we were to send a brief update on where we stand. As I am either silent or verbose, my brief update has turned into a more massive compilation of responses to Learning Rubric 2. As this is my first quarter at Evergreen, I would enjoy any feedback (comments, suggestions, advice, jokes, etc.) any of you would like to provide. You can chat with me face to face as I usually attend class, or I can be reached anytime through email.

<>Thank you, Kealani

When I read the program description for Patience, I knew it was the program that I wanted to take.  Having attended the academic fair and talked with students taking Recognition, I knew it was the program of my dreams.  But, I thought it was all too good to be true. Every couple of weeks I'd log onto the Recognition website, reviewing the information provided there.  The information didn't change, so I starting planning what I'd study. During the summer months, I carefully plotted all the academic knowledge that I should cram into my head in the next year.  However, my strategic plan of study began to unravel the moment I walked into the Cedar Room on the first day of class. 

The aroma of the wood surrounded me, enveloping me in memories of my last week of summer.  I'd travelled to New Denver, British Columbia in order to live in cedar domes, while creating culinary delights for ten women on a Yoga retreat.  While there, I also found time to luxuriate in saunas, hot tubs, long lake walks, and scenic mountain voyages (spotting much flora and fauna). The week before the Yoga retreat, I'd helped straighten and roof a shed for a wheelwright in Northern Idaho. Suddenly, I realized that I didn't want to be in class. After the past two weeks of creative activity employing multiple intelligences; I wanted to be out doing, being, living. 

I expected my three professors to walk in, hand out a syllabus, and drill me with all their expectations for the coming year.  In other words, I expected there to be a grid of strings, restricting acedemic movement within certain areas.  Essentially, I expected that my summer "syllabus", which drew primarily from my logical and linguistic intelligences (standard acedemic fare), would be the typical style of study expected.  Instead, I was shocked to find that this wasn't so. I learned that I had total freedom. I left the second day of class inspired to develop a new plan of study, one that would be deeper, incorporating my multiple intelligences. 

My first three weeks followed a cycle. I'd think of a brilliant possiblity of study, I'd research it, and then my enthusiasm would fizzle out. I couldn't imagine spending a whole year studying it. Then, another idea would pop into my head, and I'd repeat the process.  Massage, human resources, counseling, cooking, writing, dancing, researching world mythology, and reading women's literature were just a few of the topics I obsessed on then disgarded.   I had so many thoughts of what I could do.  I explored these ideas on the internet and at the library--looking through books, tapes, movies, magazines, newspapers, and websites.  I participated in many inspiring discusssions in class, on the bus, in the library, through email, and over the phone.  

The world was my classroom, and my head was spinning with ideas. And yet, in that third week, while my boyfriend had a 100 pages of notes, assignments, and calculations I had nothing concrete. I seemingly had nothing.  Aside from a few concrete webx responses, all I had were unrecorded conversations,  untracked books, and unprovable research. I panicked. What had I been doing? Had I become paralyzed by the possibilities? What had I been thinking? How was I going to prove to my professors that I had been learning, studying, growing?
 

I felt overwhelmed, my academic history the antithesis of the freedom inherent in the Patience program. I went to a highschool that was based upon a medieval curriculum structure (trivium and quadrivium).  All academic studies were intensely rigorous, and intensely monitored.  My studies at the University of Idaho were easier yet still contained the same structure of student-teacher interaction and expectations--likewise, my two quarters spent at Whatcom Community College.  I had choosen Patience because of it's freedom. But now, that very freedom felt too free.
 

I felt I needed structure. Thus, the weekend before week four, I sat down and once again asked myself the four questions I'd been repeating to myself over and over and over: (1)What do I want to learn? (2)How do I want to learn it? (3)What do I plan to do with what I learn? and (4)What difference will this make? Only this time, I wrote out a tentative plan for my quarter.  Once I had something down, I started to calm. I started to realize that all that research had paid off, that somehow in the process of all the chaos I'd figured out what I wanted to do. Essentially, I want to live out a multiple intelligence education.  In the next year, I hope to employ as many intelligences as possible.
 

Thus, here it is, the first of my many revised and tentative plans:


Patience-Fall 2004

Educating the Mind, Body, and Spirit

(Employing Multiple Intelligences in the World)

Literature of Patience: 4 credits
Writing/Personal Exploratory: 4 credits

Individual Project Work: 8 credits

 Writing

Response papers: Week 5, Week 7, Week 8
WebX interaction

Research (practice?) on how to write Evaluations
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As this is my first quarter at Evergreen, this aspect of my studies is primarily structured to prepare me for the evaluation process.  My response papers will draw either from ideas I encounter from my reading, from the webx, from the learning tool prompts, or from requests by you.  Applying myself in this area will give me the necessary practice to confidently complete my evaluations.

Literature

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire-0826412769
Intelligence Reframed by Martin Gardner-0465026117
A People's History of the U S by Howard Zinn- 0060528370
The Art of Changing the Brain by James E. Zull-1579220541
Native American Testimony-Peter Nabokov- 0140281592
Teaching to Transgress by Bell Hooks-0415908086
Choice Theory by William Glasser- 0060930144
Decolonizing Methodologies by Linda Tuhiwai Smith-1856496244
Natives and Academics by Devon Mihesuah- 0803282435
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy by Steven C. Hayes-1572309555
Methodology of the Oppressed by Chela Sandoval-0816627371
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This is a valuable body of literature. Through encountering the ideas within these books, I hope to learn more education, choice, and freedom. This knowledge base will then propel me, allowing me to directly apply this knowledge in my next two quarters.

 Individual Project Work

1. Yoga: 1-2x/wk
2. Aerobic/Strength/Stretch Exercise: 3-5x/wk

3. Meditation:
           
-Exposing myself to various religious/philosophical viewpoints on reality/life/being (derived from I Ching, Bible (NIV), Bhagvagita,
Astrology, etc.)
-Attending 2-day Yoga Meditation seminar in Seattle mid-November

4. Volunteer: Conversation partner
-I've applied to be an EF Conversation partner. I'm waiting for a response. If this falls through, I'll look into non-profit agencies.

5. Travel:

-San Fransisco: Kasey Chambers concert, tour of city/museums, meeting a newborn (exploration of the experience of motherhood)

6. Counseling:

-I will be seeing a counselor every week for cognitive strategies in improving life/emotional conditions.

7. Nutrition/Cooking

-Continued research and practice in cooking, nutritional values, healthy diets, etc.
 

Through my individual project work, I hope to suppliment my academic work, making it more applicable to the intelligences of my mind, body, and spirit. Typically, when I am in school I sacrifice my body for my mind. Essentially, I am more unhappy and unhealthy. I tend to have more migraines, and more colds.  Through my project work (which strongly ties in with my kinesthetic, interpersonal, and existential intelligences) I hope to live a more balanced lifestyle.  This balance will be the foundation on which I hope to build on in the next two quarters.

Tentative Winter quarter plans:

-Read remaining Patience books: The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav, Ceremony by Silko, Broad and Alien is the World by Ciro Alegria (travellers toPeru),Genocide of the Mind by Marijo Moore
-Read additional books on mythology, religion, gender, and sexuality
-Learn Dreamweaver in order to build a webpage for my winter and spring experiences

-Travel to Portland.

-Possibly attend the Art of Living course, a six day meditation/yoga/spiritual training

-Start developing some photography techniques

-Enroll in a dance class (Orissi, or other)

Tentative Spring quarter plans:

-Travel in Hawaii: visit each island, experience my cultural heritage
-Native Hawaiian studies: history, mythology, and language

-Learn hula: two halau's are a possiblity, or study with sister-in-law

-Practice photography

-Continue website

-Help plan and facilitate a Yoga retreat in Hawaii (with Yoga instructor worked with in New Denver)