It all started with an Autumn Adventures program with little Sam Ostergren, a challenging but very fun experience. Note to cohort: it takes A LOT longer to hike to Luckey's from the LC than you might think! We spent a lot of time just ambling along, looking at whatever we came across and playing a few games, and before I knew it we were quickly running out of time. So, we booked it for the last half+ of the hike, but were only 10 minutes late to lunch. Not bad, and I'm pretty sure the students had a great time.
After that, I had a whole mess of Farmcraft, including my first experience as the coordinator! What a fun change of pace that was. I really enjoyed giving the introduction. There had been a few of my own personal touches that I had been excited to add to the intro, and it was fun to have to opportunity to do so.
Of course, mixed into all that was our Rock Cycle observation day. I have taken (and enjoyed) a couple geology courses in undergrad, so I'm really excited to teach this program. I was a little discouraged by how disinterested some of the students seemed to be, but soon discovered that their interest just needed to be redirected. For example, Frances was talking about the esker, but all they were doing was looking for mushrooms and acorns and poison ivy. Although he didn't really seem willing to deviate from the topic, it was a good mental note for me to make for when I teach it. Plus I got to talk with the students about what they had been looking at as we walked back to the rock pit. I don't mean to fault Frances here, because I too have been in the position of trying to teach one topic while the students are totally interested in something else. It's a difficult balance to find, but I think I good thing to try is to acknowledge what they are interested in, and then ask them how it might tie into the topic they are supposed to be learning about.
It is a weird feeling now to be almost a week out of any teaching. I keep looking out my window to see Farmcraft groups and kind of wishing I was out there with them. I suppose I'll get my wish tomorrow. Hopefully I haven't gotten too rusty!
You have a great presence with kids Tom and I enjoyed thoroughly your little embellishments to the intro for farmcraft. I still have visions of deer popping volley balls on their antlers. I also wanted to comment on Frances and the Rock Cycle observation because I noticed too that Frances was rather unbending from his style which seemed to be more old school lecture than interacting with the kids. He definitely knew his stuff and I hope I can remember half the things he talked about when I do geology. I know we've talked about this before but I thought everyone would benefit from our conversation. When you have a program to do and specific things you want to cover, how do you acknowledge all the things like "wow, a yellow lady bug" and keep everyone on task. There seems sometimes to be this conflict in wanting to allow kids that chance for discovery and "sense of wonder" and also knowing that you have to move a group at a certain pace and cover certain points. In the autumn adventures there is a little bit more wiggle room and I like that aspect. But also, while philosophically I think kids should be allowed to roam freely in the woods with unstructured play, when I am responsible for them I feel a need to reign them in a little more at times. I've been wondering how others in our cohort feel about this.
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