I'm Stoked, Pumped, Amped, & Ready To Go!

Because...

I START IN THE CLASSROOM TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!

ps. stay tuned for the drama of Field Science and PE!

...but not tonight. I'm tired...

Sweet Dreams :)

Well Shoot...

Gosh darn it, I did it again.

Life got crazy for awhile there... between finishing up my first 6-week term, preparing for the two mini terms, family visiting from Canada and the Billings in town from North Carolina...I sacrificed the blog. I do sincerely apologize--you haven't missed anything too extremely important, but I'll back pedal for those of you who wondered where I've been all month! And well, because some of the things that have happened you just wouldn't believe.

Let me wrap up the first "term" (the six-week term: science, child development, art, and social/ethical perspectives)

We pretty much covered Science, but on our last day of class we had a bunch of different experiments to do. One was observing pill bugs that Kip brought in. Under a microscope we saw that one of those pill bugs was actually having babies...it was disgustingly, the coolest thing I had seen yet. I tried to take a picture to share with you, but it's blurry and looks plain strange. So here's this instead:

Kalysta :)

ART with Children:

Okay...I like art. I'm not good at it, but I like it. Well, this class was awesome and first and I really had high hopes for it but I didn't end up learning as much as I had hoped--and it's possible that that was my own fault. The book assigned was the driest art book you could have imagined, which made it near impossible to read. The information wasn't nearly as important as what we were reading in other classes so I often opted for "skimming" (aka not reading). This never got me in trouble, because we never really discussed it. So, what I'm trying to say is: I wasn't motivated because I wasn't being held accountable for the material. Kind of a lame excuse for a grad student, eh?

Here's where art got really complicated. We had a professor, who was a sweet lady but she exhibited all stereotypes of that crazy art teacher--you know? the scatterbrained lady who didn't quite know what was going on, but was talented? So, in addition to her we had a "student teacher" (aka an elementary teacher who was eventually going to take over the art classes at LC) who was supposed to be teaching our class (and observing our other professor for the other cohort's classes) This isn't exactly how it worked out. And while no one would ever say it...there was a power struggle of teacher and it was painful to watch. But, it was certainly a nice break from a days of heavy classes and mind-blowing material.

What really made me mad, however, was one day at lunch. A group of us were minding our own business, eating in the student center when some girls in our cohort approached the table saying, "have you heard what cohort 2 is saying?" We hadn't so we asked what was going on! Well, all we were told is that in Art we were going to watch a movie (okay? so, what?) The movie will not be explained before hand (uh, it's Art...I think I can figure it out?) and we will not debrief afterwards (ooh, do we get out early?). This is all we were told. We head to art and on the board says, "War Dance," the screen was down and she was ready to press play. When everyone was seated she said, "we're going to watch War Dance...it's a moving film...some of the other classes got upset..." Then the movie began--it was about the war in Uganda, which is already something I've been invested in (by way of rallies and fundraisers..) and it breaks my heart.

The movie was set in the Pantango Displacement Camp where the Acholi tribe has been moved. It is this people group that has been severely affected by the LRA (Lords Resistance Army). The children are abducted and forced to become child soldiers, the women are abducted to become sex slaves and everything is just so far for humane. Well, the people in the camp are somewhat safe and are under the government's constant armed watch. The movie follows the lives of young children who have been orphaned, or torn from their family, or who escaped from the LRA as a soldier, etc. Our professor was right about one thing...it was extremely moving. The children, with such raw emotion, explained how they watched their families get murdered or how they were forced to kill strangers.. To say the least, our entire class was in tears. After probably one of the most vulnerable moments of the film the screen turns blue and the lights were flipped on--break time. What? Now? We don't want to look around and see everyone's red, puffy eyes and hear the sniffles. If we weren't close before, we certainly were now. After the quick break we were told the movie got better, more motivating and encouraging... HA. Certainly not. The film's underlying plot was that these children were preparing a dance for the annual Ugandan Music Festival. They were the underdogs, the war children and not even expected to show up. They end up winning an event, but it's certainly not gratifying enough to erase the previous two hours of the documentary. The film ended and class was over. No one knew what to do, or what to say. We just walked out in a silent daze. That was that.

We didn't have class until the next week (because of a holiday), and by that time we were over the dance part of the film (the part that was appropriate for class) and we wanted/needed to discuss the actual tragedies that these kids were suffering. Oh, and we might have mentioned a time or two that this movie was completely ridiculous to show in an Art class with no warning or debriefing on what we should focus on and take from the film...

Now that it has been a few weeks, I find it kind of silly--But it was also an important part of my summer so I figured I should blog about it.

The term ended with some fabulous (and by that I mean, horrendous) puppet shows, with puppets we created. Have I mentioned I'm not creative?

Meet Tamara (her twin Tia, not pictured)

Please don't have nightmares!

Social, Historical, & Ethical Perspectives

There's nothing too profound to say about the rest of this class. I enjoyed the discussions in this class, and the amount of small group work. My literature group read a book about Dewey and applying his theories in classrooms today, it was quite interesting and I think there are some things I'd like to do in my future classroom with his hopes and dreams for schools in mind :) My professor for this class was great. I loved how personable she was, her passion for teaching future teachers was so prevalent. She over-planned each day to the point where our syllabus was entirely incorrect. It was refreshing, however, to watch her model the trait of modifying her lesson plans to fit into our 2.5 hour classes. She also modified homework, which was heavenly. This was a great class, and I know we will all be better teachers having looked at these different perspectives of teachers, students, and teaching in general.

Child Development

This has been my favorite class out of all eight summer classes. It was one of my harder classes, workload wise, but I loved going to this class. It's possible that I loved this class so much because of the teacher. Nancy Nagel. What an amazing women. I have to admit, when I first met her--in the Halls of Roger Hall before the program began, I was a bit intimidated. Not to mention, getting her long emails of readings and assignments to be completed before the program even began! I kept thinking, I'm in for a rude awakening! Oh, how wrong I was! Nancy is the sweetest teacher, and if anything her passion for teaching future teachers surpasses anyone I've met so far. With only a few classes left, Nancy explained that she was retiring and our last class would be the last class she would ever teach. Everyone was so sad to think that we only had a few more days with her, when we expected to see her around all year. The last few classes were a bit emotional for her (which of course made us all emotional), but I'm so thankful I had the opportunity to have her as a professor and get to know her as a friend.

This is on the last day! Not the entire class, but a good number!

Remember how I said I wasn't creative? This is what I came up with for my final project in Child Development. It is supposed to represent where I was before the program begin, where I am now and where I hope to be in the future. Well, this is as good as it gets--and it probably took me WAY longer than you can imagine.

Science: I wish I could teach in the 70s!

Science class, since the zoo, has been fantastic as usual.

I’m really enjoying the inquiry based learning and identifying productive questions as opposed to relying on the “why.”

We prepared life science activities to teach to our class, which was so fun. We broke out the microscopes and really delved into the materials. We saw some amazing things. John Henry presented an activity involving a Magnolia tree on the south campus—and what a fascinating plant! It’s pollinated by Beetles, say what? That caught me off guard. Maybe this common knowledge to people, but I was never interested in science growing up and didn’t make much of an effort to really understand or remember the information. There are so many amazing things out there in our world, and as a future teacher it seems extremely important to bring the real-life-vibe to the classroom (Oh, hello Dewey—yes, some of your ideals are still relevant today!)

Ashley's activity: Parachutes

Kip, our wonderful science professor, spent one morning showing a slide show of pictures from his elementary teaching days. Teaching in the 70s? What a riot! His pictures and stories were fantastic. The school he taught at would be the equivalent of a charter school today. So, I suppose that allowed for a little leeway in his teaching flexibility—but my, oh my! He did some great things!

His kids dug for fossils, visited old forts where they were taught how to shoot guns, hung out in bars (while “examining mirrors” uh huh..), and other such shenanigans.

Kip is soon leading a trip to Costa Rica, meaning our first term of science ends tomorrow. Knowing that this is our only class under his instruction is quite sad. I feel as if we will all be better teachers after taking his class. I feel so privileged at this school!

Did I mention Kip is fantastic? He walked into the room carrying this little snake, saying "I walked outside and he was by the door... So I thought, I better take him in." Yes, Kip wrangled the snake and brought him in for so inquiry-based observations, of course. We named him/her Jasper(ina)

That's all for now on the science front! Without reproducing the activities here, there's not much more I can say!

I Dropped The Blog Ball...Forgive Me!

Hello!

So sorry for my extended absence! Grad school isn’t all fun and games, you know? (Regardless of the fact my last two posts featured field trips field studies). No, but really—there has been a LOT going on. A lot.

I just realized I left you hanging on a limb with my park & ride story. Well, I’m certainly over it now. But here’s the quick version: I rode the max back from the zoo and walked the four flights of stairs in the blistering sun to find my car. But when I arrived to my compact spot, I saw a not-so-compact car (aka 4x4 Super Truck) parked (crookedly) over my line. I was rather annoyed when I attempted to open my car door…and couldn’t even shove my purse (or “duffle bag,” as Ryan so nicely describes it) through the crack. Knowing full well that I was going to have to crawl through the door and over the seats (in a skirt, no less), I took a minute to pout—and I’m not ashamed to admit it! Burning my skin on the hot seats, I finally managed to crawl into my seat. No sooner realizing, of course, that the door was still open on the other side of the car. I wriggled my way back out and stretched as far as I could and slammed the door shut. I then carefully backed out of the spot, put my car in park and grabbed my backpack. I scribbled down a rather nasty note (minus profanities… I took the high road in the moment!), and left it under the drivers windshield wipers. I was certainly not pleased to find how inconsiderate some people can be. I told the driver that they were surely quite lucky that I did not hit their car, as it would have been easy. Oh well. I did take a picture of it that I had planned on sharing with you all…but alas; I cannot find my camera cord at this moment. But the picture doesn’t do it justice, and I end up looking like an overreacting fool.

That weekend I went with Ashley to the Hood River area in the Gorge (not George, which we kept saying to everyone we met…). It was GORGEous! Hardy har har…

We were in search of beautiful wedding venues! Ash is getting married next summer! When did we all the sudden become grown ups? Ain't this view grand?

This is Ashley: The Bride (I'm her Maid of Honor! That's right, folks!)

One of the venues had an old Fruit Company on their property, which was so rustic and beautiful!

Ryan and I went to his friend’s wedding that weekend as well. We thought we took pictures to share… but turns out we just took a bunch of videos, “Did it work?” “I don’t know? Did it click? I can’t tell!” Well, clearly not J Oh well…

Back to school, eh? Well…here’s the deal. Since I’ve been MIA for quite a few days I feel like it might be better to talk about each subject in a separate post. That way, this one post wont be a HUGE novel and those who just want to skip science and go straight to the arts (where the drama—no pun intended—happens) feel free!

Hope you’re enjoying the afternoon sunshine!

Oregon Zoo & 95 Degrees..

What a beautiful day for a zoo trip!

Don't get me wrong, it was a HOT, eight hours--but surely we survived! All three LC cohorts were meeting at the zoo entrance early this morning, which I was quite pumped for. No rush hour traffic! Yay! Well, as I drive past the zoo exit daily on the freeway I always see a sign that reads, "Zoo parking full!" Well, this got me a little nervy so I decided to park and ride the max the one stop it takes to get to the zoo. When I arrived to the max station, I quickly realized I made the wrong choice. Did you know people use the max to commute? What? Who knew!? Well, needless to say there wasn't a single spot to be seen throughout the four levels of the parking garage. I was determined since, at this point, the hope of driving to the zoo had diminished with each tick of the clock. FINALLY, the heavens opened up and I was able to park in the last of all last parking spots: a compact. Well, no problem! I drive a little Ford Focus, I'm compact! uhhh huh.... [to be continued later]

I arrived at the zoo, where I started for my "chimp" group mates! Since all three cohorts haven't converged since that first orientation day, I guess the zoo seemed like the perfect time to integrate. My group, the chimps, quickly split into smaller sub groups that would each choose a specific focus (animal behavior, habits, or ancestry/evolution) and tour the zoo keeping that topic the main direction of conversation. I decided I was interested in animal behavior, and was joined by three other girls in my cohort. Two other members were from cohort 3. Anyway, we headed off to study the different animals traits. We were also required to incorporate art into the trip--so, we did contour sketches of all the animals from which the data was collected.

It was extremely interesting to walk the zoo with a specific focus, as opposed to aimlessly wandering taking time to view the animals and chuckle at the little kiddos smacking the glass panes. We found that all the animals had very similar repetitive behaviors. They would sway back and forth, keeping their feet stationary or pace a particular path back and forth. We wondered if they was natural behavior (perhaps indicating stress?) or primarily due to living in captivity? The zoo speaker who gave us a small presentation at the end of the day said they don't quite know why the animals do this. He assumes it's because many of the exhibits have recently been remodeled, meaning the animals have to readjust to the new habitats. This all makes great sense, expect...I feel like these are the same patterns you'd see on any given day!

We met with our Art, Culture and Creativity's professor at the giraffe exhibit where we became major road blocks in the path as she lead a lesson on contour drawing. We looked brilliant as we squinted one eye and put our pencils in front of our eye to measure lengths and angles. Boy, we were cool! Actually, I did end up with a drawing that I was quite pleased with. Jan, my art professor, even said it was "beautiful" and "striking!" I was ecstatic! Especially with her last remark, "You got it, Makenna! You captured it!" YES. darn tootin, I captured it!

Cara and Katie were also quite happy with their giraffe drawings!

James and Charlene [cohort 3 had a hat theme today, I'm not sure it was planned...]

After we left Africa, we headed over to make a quick stop in Asia to see the elephants. One elephant had an extremely intense behavior pattern, and swung his trunk back and forth--It was actually quite sad to watch. I didn't care for it so much, regardless of how cute it seemed at first glance.

I LOVED this exchange between a momma elephant and her baby. I can almost imagine the dialogue:

"Eww! You smell bad, Momma!"

"oh yeah??"

"Oh dang. Foiled."

The polar bear exhibit also lead to an interesting conversation about their provided habitat. But they were sure playful and active today! Even in the 95 degree heat!

Cara sketching. Cohort 1=Pure Talent.

Well, the rest of the day was quite nice. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the Africa Cafe with more of our cohort, and sketched away all the lovely little (and not so little) animals. We laughed, we sneezed (dang allergies) and we observed.

zoo day= success.

That is... until I arrived back at the Max station.

But we'll save that story for later when the sunshine isn't waiting for me!

Until then, later gators :)

-Makenna

Whoops..

Hello Readers :)

So sorry about the novel of a blog I just posted. If you made it all the way through, wow! I'm impressed. You're a true friend!

I'll try to keep it down next time, I just get so excited!

Field Trips and Show & Tell!

Hello Pioneers!

(You understand the significance of "Pioneers," right? No, It's not a reference to "Pioneer Women," [though she is quite fun!] --Lewis & Clark were pioneers! It's my new mascot! Since I'm now an official Pioneer, I just assumed you would all become instant fans! No? Hmm. Well… I tried, Lewis! I gave it my all, Clark!)

What a week...seriously, what a week! [And it's not even over yet!]

This week has been kind of a whirlwind. Homework is still mountainous, but becoming more and more doable with each passing day. Some teachers say, “Oh, just skim this chapter!” Sounds great, right? Not so much. Skimming stresses me out ALMOST as much as art class stresses me out (we’ll get to that soon, don’t you worry). I can’t skim. If I’m told to read something, I’m all about the highlighting key phrases, circling words multiple times and arrows streaming around the margins connecting points. So, when someone tells me to skim—I panic. I begin to read one or two words per line, jumping and skipping from paragraph to paragraph—NOTHING good comes from skimming. But, I’m working on it. It seems this skill will be extremely beneficial throughout the rest of the year. The 200 pages of reading a night would get a little daunting for an entire year…

Lets go back to my Arts, Culture and Creativity class. I’m aware that this sounds like a fantastic class—and it really is. I enjoy learning new techniques on incorporating/integrating the arts into the core curriculum. The first day of art our professor handed out a glob of red clay to each student. I thought to myself, what a GREAT class! Well, now that we’ve moved on to contour drawings and paintings…well, lets just say I didn’t inherit my father’s artistic gene. Give me a camera, and I’ll be golden…but that blank piece of paper and loose instructions (that really aren’t so loose, sneaky professors!) and I freeze. And the thought of presenting my “art” to my cohort (classmates) produces something resembling an anxiety attack. Luckily for me, children seem to applaud all artistic efforts (as does my cohort! Thanks guys!)

Speaking of my cohort, what a fabulous group of people! I love each and every one of them. They each have their own personalities that really add to our classes—it really makes going to class for hours each day, worth it. It’s only been three weeks, and already I feel like I’ve known these people for years. We spend nearly 7 hours together each day, so I guess that’s natural! But, enough with the sappiness…

Here’s my official apology for those who are forced to endure story after story about the funny, intelligent, and ridiculous things my cohort says! Thanks for at least pretending to listen! You’re quite convincing, really!

I also feel like I should apologize to all those in the dining hall yesterday watching the World Cup—we apparently chose the wrong table close to the TV and shouted and screeched and laughed for an entire hour. Oh well, they were probably the pre-service high school teachers. Whatever! Not that there's animosity within the education department...

Today was so fun! After our normal Social, Historical and Ethical Perspectives (SHEP) class we hauled over to the Children’s Museum where we were given green stickers (aka the green light) for being in the museum without being accompanied by a child J Yes, we were those creepy students with notebooks standing around the exhibits and watching your children play and interact—and we learned a lot, thank you very much! The museum was GREAT! It’s based on the theories of Maria Montessori and the Reggio-Emelia school in Italy. Studying the theories in the book and through discussion, I wasn’t sure I really agreed with these theories. After seeing it played out in the museum and being aware of Montessori’s intentions, my eyes were completely opened up to this way of teaching. I could definitely see the benefits of learning through play and inquiry with real-life tools and child-sized furniture. In this place, the children were competent. They were figuring everything out for themselves (minus those pesky parents all up in their child’s grill—“No, little Johnny, the boat goes in the water like this!” or “Suzy, are you crazy? Don’t swing the doggy by his leash!” but eventually, most parents seemed to relax and let their kiddos explore! Thank goodness!).

After our guided tour and personal observations, we gathered together in a classroom where I presented my artifacts to my cohort. Each day two new people share artifacts and our classmates can ask questions. Now, don’t you dare call it Show & Tell! What do you think this is? Elementary school? Uhh…okay so maybe.

Anyway, my friend Sean presented his artifacts before me. We were standing at the front of the class, when Sean breaks out this Tupperware container. You know what he pulls OUT of the container? Well, I sure as hell didn’t want to know. But I quickly found out, being that I was mere inches away from said Tupperware. BUGS. Not just ANY bugs—but a hissing cockroach. It was named peanut…or marmalade…it’s really hard to say. I was too busy having a heart attack in front of my class that I forgot to listen. The other bug was some walking stick thing…I don’t know. All I know is Sean thrust the leaf with the walking stick thing in my face, “Wanna hold him, Makenna?” No Sean, I’d like to pass out…but thanks. Needless to say, I began my presentation by saying, “Well, first thing you should know about me is that I’m utterly terrified of bugs, spiders, and all creepy crawly things.” (to which, Sean gasped more audibly than you could ever imagine).

You’ll be happy to hear that I survived. Who knew a trip to the Children’s Museum could be so extremely lethal! But that’s not dramatic, right? J

Well, there's so much more I'd love to tell you. But in reality, my allotted blogging time was up quite a few seconds (or minutes...or..well...nevermind) ago. So, that's all folks!

Tomorrow is ZOO DAY! I'll try my best to remember and take pictures...but I'll be so busy observing the animals behavior and sketching away in my "tablet" (not to mention trying not to drown in a pool of sweat in the 90+ heat..) we'll see what happens!

Enjoy you're evening, readers!

Sincerely,

Makenna