Project Reflections
| Date | Place | Reflections |
| 1-24-06 | Roosevelt | It was nice to get back in touch with what is going on in the garden. we were able to set up 3 dates for future work in the garden. It was good to get the incouragement of knowing that there are days that I will be able to get into the garden and get work done. |
| 1-25-06 | Garfield | even on my first day back in the classroom for the winter, I have noticed a great deal of changes in the students. Aside from their developement having come farther the all seem to act so different. they all seem to be more disagreeable, grumpy, tired, agressive, restless. I was very discouraged by something that i saw in the classroom today. the children were making paper bag dragons for the lunar new year and they were assigned to glue paper triangles onto the bag all pointing down to be the scales. One very intelegent boy was making beautiful patterns with the scales and a few of then were not pointing downward. When this was seen by one of the teachers she told him to fix it and when he began explaining why he glued them on in such a way she ripped them off of the bag and pushed them all down the "right way". there was so much hurt in his eyes and he no longer wanted to do the project at all. |
| 2-1-06 | Garfield | There seemed to be a lot of tension flying around the classroom today. The childrens apitites seem to be very low, just not intarested in food. I wounder if it is the food that they are being offered. Every day it is a grain, a fruit and milk. Though they all seem tired recess is still their favorite time of day, or so it seems. |
| 2-2-06 | Garfield | It was so fun working with the children putting puzzles together and remembering how it was so difficult when I was their age and feeling their excitement when they finally finished each puzzle. It seemed to be quite difficult for the teacher to keep their attention durring story time. they really did not seem to want to share and several of then were acting out. |
| 2-3-06 | Longhouse | It was great to be a part of such a wonderful celebration. helping to set up for the lunar new year celebration was such a fun experiance. It really got me excited for the following day's events. I was very proud to be a part of such a beautiful day. |
| 2-8-06 | Garfield | Today in the classroom their were only 3 activities at morning free play, playdough, painting and making valentine's. I noticed that without the other normal 1 or 2 more the children all seemed to be a little crazy. there was much more acting out and mis behaving then I have normally seen in that classroom. There is a boy in the afternoon class with so much anger inside of him. it makes me so sad to imagine what his home life must be like, All day he is "killing" toys, distraying things, yelling, saying mean things, not minding and growling at people and things. He does not want to play with others. It makes me so sad to know that there is not much that I can do for him but hopefully I will be able to help him,even in the smallest way, in what little time we will be able to spend together. I find it difficult working with children that are not my own because I find myself wanting to be a mother to all of them. |
| 2-11-06 | roosevelt | It was great to get back in the garden. The weather, unlike previous days working there, was beautiful. It feels great to get out and do something productive especially when it is something as wonderful as making a garden for children. |
| 2-17-06 | Garfield | with wind chill it was 14 degrees today and the wind is crazy. There was an excitement in the air with the lights flickering. They seemed to all be very loud and roudy, they could not stay focused yet when it came to recess time a lot of the children including me had not energy and did not want to run around or play. |
| 2-23-06 | Home | I spent time on the phone with my mother discussing proschool age lesson plan ideas. She was a proschool teacher in our home growing up so that she would be able to home school my sister and I. She had some good iseas but non of then seemed to be nature based enough for the assignment. |
| 2-25-06 | Home | I began to think about what I will be presenting to the class for my final presentation and thinking about that led to a big breakthrough for me. I will not discuss it too much but I learned alot from this class that was not held withing the cirriculem. |
| 2-26-06 | Home | I began to write exactly what I will be sharing with the class in my final presentation. I felt really good to say what I have learned out loud because I feel that it is something that I have known for quite some time and have just not wanted to admit to myself. |
| 2-27-06 | Melanie's House | I was at my limit today, in somewhat of a panic because in a rush to get everything in my personal (family) life and school life done , I over looked what week it was and that the classroom lesson plan was already due. I decided to visit Melanie. I showed up at her house crying and stressed, she gave me a big hug and we saat down and discussed ideas for lesson plans, looked over some craft books that she had and settled on a project that we will be teaching together to the proschoolers at Garfield. |
| 2-27-06 | Home | I spent this time cutting out paper picture frames for each kid for out lesson plan project. |
| 2-28-06 | Home | MORE CUTTING!!!!!!! |
| 2-28-06 | Roosevelt | This meeting was sort of discourging. Basically I found out that there will not be any more work that I will be able to do in the garden before the quarter is up. overall I am not satisfied with the amount of garden work that was available from this project. |
| 3-1-06 | Garfield | today melanie and I carried out our lesson plan. We had the kids paint on paper towles with food colored water to be glued to frames. we also read a book to them about mixing colors and had them talk about what colores they had mixed and what coloers had been made on their paintings. It was a very enjoyable day. In the morning cladd however we layed the papertowles out flat and let them paint, we found out quick that this is a very messy way to go about the project. So for the afternoon class Melanie suggested that we ford the papertowles in quarters first and then they would soak up more of the water and they would have 4 of the same pattern on their work of art. The kids seemed to enjoy this a lot more too. |
| 3-3-06 | Garfield | today we had to go back and finish out lessonplan. Not that the papertowles were dry they were ready to be giued onto those beautiful frames that I spent hours cutting. The paintings turned out so beautiful. |
| 3-3 & 3-4-06 | Synergy | The hilight of my 6 hours at synergy was, by far, the Saturday night talk by elain Grinnel, followed by starhawk. I also attended on Friday, the trashy fashison runway show and a talk by Peggy Dylan. Elain grillel gave such a beautiful presentation of her hand crafted baskets and drums. this wonderful woman had dedicated her life to to practices of her ancestors, and teaching her family the joy and pride that comes with being a member of the Jamestown S'Klallam tribe. It was so intaresting to her her speaking the native language in and outside of her telling of traditional stories. She also graced us with beautiful druming and singing. If fealt so good to see a woman so in love with who she is and her tribe members who have come before her. Stakhawk, a spiritual activist, gave and eye opening and insperational talk on our part in saving this world. I feel so lucky to have been able to hear her speak and to learn from her and all of the beauty that her knowledgeable words bring. Her posative outlook on solving the problems that this planet faceare so impowering. She said "We are not past the point of no return". I loved how she reffered to humans as we while talking to us that night, it was as though she was talking to herself as well as us, not saying "this is what you must do" but "this is what we must do". she took us on a anaizing trance journy through the soil in which we felt as though we were no bigger than one cell and felt the magic that happens in the soil, the very ground that we all walk on. On Friday My daughter and I went to the trashy fashion runway show. She got such a kick out of the "silly cloths" as she put it. The manner in which these cloths were slightly unfunctional made it seem not so much a was of saving the planet as it was a spunky and fun outfit to go out in friday night. all the same there were some really cute and intaresting styles. Last but not least I attended 1/2 of the talk by Peggy Dylan on transpersonal education. Due to an issue with my daughter I was not able to stay the intire night without distracting the other listeners. It was strange to me how Peggy was talking about applying possative and not negative energy to achieave ones goals and there I sat putting outas much possative energy as I could conjur up to try and get my daughter to behave and it seemed to me that the more possative I put out the more negative she put out. Maybe I was not meant to hear what peggy had to say or perhaps I was just not ready to learn what she had to teach. though I did not get to attend the full lecture I feel that I was able to absorbe information that will be useful in my life. All of the activities I attended thisweekend had a positive influence on my life be it through self-refletion, inspiration, information or simply sharing a good laugh with my daughter. I feel lucky to have been able to attend this converntion. |
