Project Reflections
| Date | Place | Reflections |
| 1/19/06 | Long House Garden | I visited the Long House garden for the first time just to check it out. I surveyed the site and noted in my journal comments and questions I had. The biggest thing that stood out to me were some drainage issues that will lead to erosion problems over time. I think these can be easily fixed with a shovel and proper plant selection and placement. There are also a couple of little aesthetic things I would change were it up to me. |
| 1/21/06 | The Greenery | The Education/Curriculum group met for the first time. We discussed two areas of enfaces: education theory and curriculum. We will each develop a proposed reading list and meet next wednesday before class to make final selections. |
| 1/24/06 | Gray Middle School | I met with Sheila Swift who is the office coordinator at Gray Middle school, which is rite by my house. She was very friendly and seamed excited that someone would just walk in off of the street offering to help. I explained my involvement in this class and went over the syllabus and classroom participation contract with her. She took a copy of my ID and course materials. She explained that I would first have to meet with the principle and discuss the matter with her and obtain her approval. Sheila said that she would pass along what we had discussed and set up an appointment for later in the week. I hope that I am able to do my classroom participation at Gray because it is not only close to my home, but I know many of the students and their parents from the neighborhood. |
| 2/6/06 | The Long house | This weekend was the Lunar New year Calibration. I attended both the Thi Chi workshop and the celebration events on Saturday. Both were really great experiences. The performances on Saturday were really great. To me though, the greatest part of the whole thing was the Thi Chi workshop. I found it to not only be educational in the academic sense, but in a deeply interpersonal sense as well. I hope that Mr. Al Huang will be able to return to TESC in the future. |
| 2/13/06 | The Long house |
This weekend I had the opportunity to get out and do some work with some of my fellow students in the long house garden. We cleared out a bunch of dead underbrush and dead fall, trimmed back blackberries and picked up around the sight. I think that it is great that there is an exhibition garden that not only focuses on indigenous species but also encouraged hands on student involvement as well. I find this to be somewhat unique in my experiences. with colleges and universities. |
| 2/23/06 | Runaround Hell | I am frustrated in ways that academically appropriate words can not express! I have put a considerable amount of effort into setting up some classroom observation in a location that is reasonable close to where I live. I have not only been put through the royal runaround, chided and chastised for my efforts as well. When a person who I will not identify flat out asserted this week that I bare culpability for the failure of this process to go more smoothly I damn near came unglued. They are quite lucky that I have such respect for Hirsh and Marja and this program and do not want to do any thing to cast a shadow of disrepute upon them or I would have unleashed a tongue lashing upon the aforementioned nameless party that they could not imagine in their worst nightmare. I am quite sure that they have no idea what they are dealing with, but this is all non-topical. I see now why it is so hard to recruit and retain good high quality teachers. Good personnel get tired of the B.S. and head off to the private sector to get paid while the dumb asses who could never make it in the real world seek the sanctuary of a government job in middle administration. I am thoroughly disgusted. |
| 2/26/06 | The Peterson's | Yesterday I went with some of the students to the visit the Peterson's. We were invited to attend a memorial and initiation ceremony at the tribal long house. As a person who thinks of myself as a sociologist and anthropologist (although I'm sure that the real pros would say I lack qualifications) I thought it was a wonderful experience. I grew up among the Nez Perce people and have studied in quite a bit of detail their culture, but I have not had the opportunity to really look at the cultural practices of other native peoples. I've lived here in the area for several years now and have wanted the chance to get out and observe some of the coastal tribal traditional practices. I was absolutely fascinated by both the similarity and differences in ceremonial practice between these people and those whom I had been around in my youth. There was quite an ensemble of drums participating in the ceremonies and the sound of them all inside of the smoke house was incredible. I loved it. At one point one of the spiritual elders, who Merilee told me was quite respected and looked up to among the community, came and sat down next to me and we had a very nice little chat about the ceremony taking place. I thought It was very gracious of him to visit so freely with me, an outsider, about such things. I was so impressed that someone in his position would even care about what I thought, much less take the time in the middle of such a busy event to talk to me about it. I am very grateful to the people of the tribes and the long house society for being so gracious to allow us to come and be a part of something that is so personal to their community. I think it speaks volumes to the overall character of the community that they not only tolerated our presence, but made us feel welcome and a part of what was going on. I made a couple of new friends on this day, and I sincerely hope to have the opportunity in the future to return to them the hospitality that was shown to me and my colleagues on this location. |
| 2/27/06 | The CAB | Yesterday the curriculum group got together to discuss the fruits of our individual research. It seams like things are going to come together nicely. Rather than each of us developing individual lesson plans we are going to focus on the theory of multiple intelligences as a structural framework for lesson plan development. We all think that this will be much more useful to ourselves and our colleagues in the class. |
| 3/13/06 | The Peterson's | This weekend some of us went out to do some work in the Peterson garden. I absolutely think they are some of the coolest people. I have learned a little about gardening and plants working in this garden, but what I've really learned about is life from having the opportunity to just visit with Pete and Merilee They are truly wise elders. And, they have the most incredible collection of native art in their home. I felt as though I was growing intellectually just by being there. The one thing I am going to miss most not being in the program next quarter is working in their garden. |
| 3/15/06 | Somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind | Well, today is presentation day. I guess it's all over with but the cryin'. Most of my project work this quarter has been reading and doing research. for the curriculum group on my own. Now I guess we get to see how well it all comes together in the real world. I am very thankful to all of my group members for the work that they have done. They have been the true creative and inspirational force behind the project. Especially Stephanie who has put a lot into this at a time when she has had tremendous adversity in her personal life. I really have just been a gatherer of information to support their ideas. I feel lucky that they have allowed me to be a part of their project, and I thank them for being so patient and listening to all of my ranting ramblings. I think what we have done is very cool and I hope people like it. I think that this framework is a truly useful tool for not only education but for communications in any setting. If all goes as planed the presentation should be fairly slick and fun for everyone. I can say that it has opened my mind to issues of teaching and communicating that I have not considered before and I certainly intend to integrate this approach into my own teaching style.
In the end, I must say that this class has been a lot of fun. I will admit that I was a bit skeptical at first. But, I have learned things about plant biology, communications, education, holistic/naturopathic healing, emotional well being, the role of art, the value of varying cultural perspectives and the list goes on. These are all areas of knowledge that I feel I was fairly knowledgeable about to begin with. I think that says a lot for the value of this program. I know it took a fair amount of effort to set up this program, and I think it takes quite a bit of courage to present a program like this in a public institution, even Evergreen. With that in mind, I would like to end by saying thank you to Hirsh and Marja for all that they have done. I wish I could participate in this journey through the wheel of the seasons from start to finish. But time is so short. There is much I have to do. Life is about choices and at some point I must consider more than my own personal self interest in the choices I make. But know this; I will take a little piece of all of you with me on my own journey around the wheel of life and, if I'm lucky, I will pass it along to the next generation to continue the cycle. |
