April 17, 2009
A Day in the Life
I never know what I will end up doing in a given day here. Over the past couple of days, I have:
1. Drilled holes in four buckets for our two small mammal collection stations in the rainforest on the campus grounds.
2. Took a University of Winnipeg teacher-in-training on a tour of the small mammal collection stations. She helped me re-dig some of the holes for the buckets.
3. Entertained visitor Rolene Walker, who is walking from San Diego to Chile to promote environmental awareness and renewable energy. She spoke to our 9th graders.
4. Led Dolly’s afternoon woodworking workshop class when she had a conflicting commitment. I did not know until that morning that I would have to teach the first day of a 6-week long woodworking workshop. I recruited two other teachers to help, and Dolly had the school secretary call in her brother-in-law to help ensure that no one lost a limb or a major organ like an eye. It actually went really well- we set up stations for sawing (the kids were asked to try all three different saws), drilling, routing, woodcarving, sanding, woodshaving, etc. I didn’t know the names of all the equipment, nor did I know everything about their use, but I had learned a lot a few weeks back from some friends of Dolly’s who visited, and we made up the rest as we went along.
5. Helped a student teacher and her university advisor to teach the 8th graders how to make wind turbines. We then tested the designs to see how much energy they could produce. A very engaging and scientifically sound lesson.
6. Spent a lot of time attempting to break into a classroom for which we had no key. Called the teacher at home to find out that she did not have a key, either. Kaz was finally able to get the door open by threading a broom handle through the vent windows and pushing aside the latch.
7. Typed a spreadsheet showing a draft of our integrated environmental education curriculum for grades 7-11. The rows show each grade level and the columns show the environmental education content that will be taught in the following classes: Science, Social Studies, Environmental Education, Land Stewardship, and Math. The result is based on many conversations with the high school teachers, a fair amount of research and experience, and the context of the school. I think it’s brilliant, but will ask Dolly and a variety of others to help refine it.
8. Met with various teachers. The 3rd grade teacher came by for suggestions of resources with 3rd grade level information on mammals. The high school Math teacher came by to vent some frustrations, and the high school English teacher wanted to talk to me about Kaz’s work in her class since she was not here for parent-teacher conferences before Spring break.
9. Taught the Preschool class how to use a balance.
10. Researched second language acquisition after being asked to teach the Preschoolers in Spanish. I thought that was an odd request since the school purports to teach in English, and my own experience has been that 4 year-olds will effortlessly pick up a new language. I found a lot of research to support my contention that it would have been much better to teach them purely in English than in the broken Spanish I had to use.
11. Made my lunch- cooked up raw hamburger and red peppers on the gas stovetop in the staff kitchen. Added some chunks of cheese on top, let them melt a little, then shared it around with anyone who was there.
12. Taught third grade and fourth grade- we had them look for evidence of mammals on the school grounds. We found horse scat, large half-eaten seeds, and evidence of homes between tree roots, among other things. We also showed them the small mammal traps in the woods. One 4th grade girl went home and made her own similar trap in her backyard using leftover ceiling material and some buckets, and the next day brought us the mouse she caught. We were so impressed! I want to go home with her on the bus on Monday and get a picture.
13. Attended an Administrative Staff Meeting at which the following topics were discussed:
a. Computer Room Use
b. Graduation Ceremony Planning
c. End of Year Outing for Faculty
d. Trading of Some Offices
e. Earth Day Plans for the school- the older kids will be providing programming for the younger kids.
14. Team interviewed two candidates by phone to replace Dolly when she returns to her home in Wisconsin in June.
15. Did my playground duty- had fun talking to some of the little girls.
16. Helped Dolly write emails in Spanish to various local School Board members with whom we would like to meet.
17. Attended a session on teaching using science inquiry led by the father of a former exchange student to the school. He was visiting just for a week and is a Professor of Education in New York.
18. Helped another intern find some materials she needed for a class.
19. Talked with another intern about her student teaching- she is frustrated that her mentor teacher does not give her any feedback.
I mentioned in earlier posts how our office is like Grand Central Station, and how Dolly has the equivalent of five jobs. It is really hard to keep up sometimes, and Dolly and I hardly ever have ten uninterrupted minutes in a day. As such, she has just asked the Director of the School if we can work offsite for a few days to flesh out our curriculum design for grades 7-11. It is impossible to concentrate on that in our office, and so far, I have done most of that work at home. We’ll see what he says, but knowing Dolly, even if he says no, she will do it.
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