What a day

Man o man what a day. Today we split into three groups and blitzed the Tamposi property. I went out on the mountain bike and connected a whole bunch of our existing trails to create loops and the other two groups found like a zillion more trails for the map. We didn't have time to get the points on the computer today but Monday morning it'll happen for sure. I'm a little bummed that this was our last day in the field but at least we went out with a bang and I was definately pooped by the end. Oh yeah by the way this post is for Thursday but I didn't have time to do it after class because we had a kickin good time at Jenn's cabin on Pawtuckaway lake. Good times. Gonna be a busy weekend but I look forward to wrapping some GIS stuff up on Monday. Booyaka

A day out of the sun.

No matter how much I love being outdoors, sometimes it's really good to spend a day out of the sun. I feel like I actually had energy towards the end of the day which was great and on top of that the group and I got a lot done on the paperwork front. I had an awesome day of true experiential education, I went into the day with some knowledge of how GIS software works and after playing with it for hours I feel much much much more comfortable with it. In fact I think our map draft came out pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I'm psyched that we're supposed to have good weather tomorrow though so I can get back out in the field and wrap things up.

The place to be for me.

I have to be honest here, when we weren't off exploring today I had a pretty hard time focusing. It's been quite the adventurous week so doing some inside work was tough, even though it was about a bazillion degrees outside. I know it wouldn't have been good for any of us. I was finding myself zoning out into later August when I spend the week up on the lake kickin back, whittling, paddling, and playing scrabble. That special place will truly be great when it comes, rain or shine.

adventure, excitement, a jedi needs not these things

Today was amazing, I must not have any Jedi in me because I was totally digging the adventure and excitement today. We found a bear print and that was awesome. We found the deer stand and that was awesome. We found the Ewok village and that was awesome. The weather was beautiful. Pretty much can't ask for too much of a better day at school. I'm starting to become very comfortable with the handheld GPS unit and that's pretty cool. I still get a total kick out of how you can find something based on sattelites a bazillion miles away. In fact that is the way we found the deer stand. Jeff Geary gave me some coordinates from his winter tracking study and we were almost dead on with the GPS unit it was the coolest. Geocaching world championships here I come.

First day of exploration

So today our group started our initial exploration of the Tamposi unknown (and a lil known too) and it was superior. To be honest we didn't find all that much stuff, but I thought it was a cool feeling to not have success on the first day. This showed me that what we were doing was a worthy cause because if our thorough exploration didn't turn much up then how could anybody else hope to find anything. I'm psyched to know that we might be able to lead people to cool things via map by the end of our project. I'm an explorer!!

Supah Kumah!

We discussed for quite some time the idea of making Kumar's ideas on living simply a reality in modern America. I truly enjoyed the conversation with my group because it allowed me to look inward to how simply I live my life and whether or not I AM sweating the small stuff. Today's discussion has given me much to meditate on and I look forward to integrating the comments of my peers into my personal philosophies on simple living and how to best enjoy life and spread this enjoyment to others. I believe I need to bake some bread, the real question is cranberry or wheat?

Clashing cultures

I loved Derek's activity today in response to the Cajete article. I think it's fantastic whenever games can be integrated into the learning process. I feel that students are much more apt to remember the idea behind the game than they are to remember a lecture on the subject. Role playing is an amazing tool to use with sooooo many topics. This topic was a particularly good choice and I learned a ton about myself, the subject, and the learning tool. Thanks Derek! I am also tempted to widdle my own mini totem pole now that I've truly thought about which animal might fit me best as my totem. Thanks Sarah and Jenna!

A sense of place

I think that it's amazing how different the phrase "sense of place" can mean to so many different people. I'm not amazed because some may differ from my own but how it explains so much about why people have such a hard time understanding one another in a discussion focused upon the phrase. This helps me to better prepare for facilitating such discussions. At the moment I am feeling that the best way to do so would be to have everyone first take some quiet reflection time and think very hard about what the phrase "sense of place" means to them. Once this is done I would have people share what they chose to regarding how they might define the phrase. Only then can the discussion begin. I believe that this self preparation time is necessary so people can think out what they feel they might want to say. Otherwise people are forced to think on the spot which can sometimes lead to misunderstandings based upon poor word usage and the like. Anywho, I felt this was the best section of my journal to blog today because something I felt I had a good handle on was shown to me in many new lights and I am thankful. I now have a better understanding of my own sense of place philosophies based upon the dialogue I was able to try my hand at participating in today. Yay for discussions with hidden results!

My EE poem

The Invisible Guest

A forest of ferns,

everyday ordinary ferns,

to me.

A launchpad to others.

To some a means for existence,

impossible to walk through

without brushing at least one.

I wonder,

have I been brushed by another,

or maybe even caught.

I could search and search

and still not find this invisible passenger,

this invisible threat.

I wonder,

has something found me?