Final Thoughts*

There were several meaningful things that I learned from taking this course that I do believe will change the way I live my life both personally & professionally.
Personally & professionally I have learned the importance of stepping outside of your "comfort zone." Not only is it rejuvinating personally when you take the time to step outside and experience new things, but professionally, as a teacher, it brings the perspective of the students into light. I don't do it often enough and I know I have missed out in several oppertunitues in the past because of this. It's funny because when I show my family the pictures of me doing the ropes course & zip line the first thing everyone said was, "They MADE you do that??" Not one person believed that I would do something like that on my own free will.. it makes me happy, will I be signing up to do another ropes course next week? absolutley not... but I am so happy that I did it! Will I try new things and put myself out there more? Absolutley!
Another aspect of this course that I will be taking to the classroom is the respect I have grown to have for wildlife. I haven't turned myself into a "tree hugger" or anything, but I think twice before I squeesh the gross spider walking by... If a branch is hanging in my face, I will think twice about just breaking it off to give me a better view-- This is something I am going to take into the classroom as well, I want to show my students how to appreciate the wildlife that we do have. I want to bring in more animals for them to see (I had a parent bring in a bird & guinnea pig last school year), I want to grow more plants with them... why not!? The more they are exposed to these things the more they will understand them and in return appreciate them and hopefully some day educate someone else on the importance of preserving wildlife.
From completing our project, I saw how children can really "self" learn about different aspects of wildlife, which will in turn make them better aware of what is out there. If you provide students with the tools (video cameras, editing equipment, books, etc.) they will use them and they will suprise you! From this project I have learned to step back as a teacher, remove some of those added guidelines and let them explore. The ending result will be more than we could ever set up for.
I learned a lot about buying local-- this is something I am very eager to begin doing. There are a lot of farms in my area, but even more where my parents live. I know this isn't exactly "local" for me because I will be traveling 2 hours away, but why not pick up some of the local food when I am visiting my parents house!?
Eating seasonally*... something I do not do, but will be trying my hardest to do from this point on. If I make a concious effect now, it will only get easier later! I understand the importance of it and in the long run, 1 more person doing this can make a huge difference later.
I think all of these things, and many more can make a difference in our lives and begin to save our future. I will pass on all that I have learned to my students and my family in hopes that they pass it down to their families/students, with more people "knowing" we will see changes.

To build upon the things I have already discussed, there is a lot of information and experience that will effect what I do in the classroom. One thing I will do is take the time to take my students outside. There is no reason why I would do a lesson on leaf patterns inside- I will bring them out and have them gather leaves as well as other items to look at the patterns (Josh's project/pattern idea sprung this thought).
Now that I know more about acid rain and how it is/has effected our environment & wildlife, I will talk to my students about it. If they are 5 years old and know what acid rain is & maybe some things that it does to the planent, they will be ahead of the issue and hopefully be able to be a vioce in helping to stop it. There is no reason why anyone should wait until highschool science to learn about things such as this.
Another thing I will do is build up my students confiednce when it comes to trying new things. I think our group was wonderful in helping eachother out and really caring about each other, and beginning on day 1 of our school year, I want to help make an enviting classroom and atmosphere.. instead of being the encourager, I want my students to encourage each other.

I have really learned a lot from this course and am very happy that I had the oppertunity to take it. Thank you everyone :)

Final Blog

Overall, I had a wonderful Adirondack experience. I am so glad that I got the opportunety to take this course, it was even better that it was my final course at SUNY Cortland and it was a blast! I learned so much about the Adirondacks from this course-- I have also loved the ADK's but have only visited a couple of times, those times that I did visit though, I didn't have the appreciation for the area that I have now. Camp Huntington was a great place to stay, and again I appreciate the facility so much more now that I understand the history of it. The whole experience was great, I enjoyed every minute! Not only did I learn a lot, but I met some awesome people! :) Thank you Beth & Karl & thanks everyone else for making it an enjoyable week in the ADK's!

Wed/Thurs

We woke up Wednesday to wonderful weather, which was very exciting. We headed off to the museums, beginning with the Wild Center in Tupper Lake. The drive was very pretty along the way. The Wild Center was very cool, it was very informative on Adirondack wildlife. The pond outside was also really cool because when you were inside the water was almost level to the windows. It was great to see, I think that children would especially enjoy the Wild Center as there are so many things to touch and plants and animals to see. We decided to take a little walk along the pond and got some great pictures of the wild flowers and things like that. After the Wild Center we went on to the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake. This was great, I liked it a lot. There were several different buildings with different things happening in each one and I loved that about it. One of the greatest things to look at was the luxury train... it was almost strange to be inside of it and looking at the beds and bathrooms that people used as they traveled to the luxurious Adirondack's. :) We tried out some of the old toys and went into the old school house to see how it measured up to our schools, the funniest part to look at were the "rules" for teachers.. too funny! We ended the night with some canoeing and did some "guiding" for a fellow fisherman, haha. It was great to see so much.

Today was by far my favorite.. we did the ropes course and zip lining & it was amazing! I am so glad that I went through with it and did the course!! I definitely pushed myself WAY out of my comfort zone and was beyond scared doing it, but it felt great when it was all done. Climbing up the zip line was crazy.. I didn't know I even had that type of strength, but zipping down was a blast! One thing I really thought about, as Annie told us, was my students and how they feel sometimes,. those moments when you can't understand why they don't want to do something or they wont play a game, they are uncomfortable and that was how I was feeling walking across that thin cable wire. It definitely puts you in the perspective of those students-- Another thing to think about is state testing, the pressure we put on these kids to pass these tests is like the pressure we felt when we made our way up to the top of the course and then had to walk down and across the line on our own. We build them up for this huge test, get them all nervous for it, and then throw them into it to complete on their own.. just like we signed a little waiver, learned a few tips, and then climbed out way to the top on our own to complete the course. We were scared, we couldn't think straight, we were sweaty, some (cough) swore, it was just nerve racking. It's something that I will always keep in the back of my head for sure! And I am so glad we got the chance to do it. I'm not sure if I will be doing a ropes course again.. but I definitely will be trying to find a new zip line to tackle!

Tuesday in the ADK's

Although it felt nothing like a Summer day, it was a good day to be in the ADK's. This morning we went on the historical tour of our campus, following a video on the "great castles." I am really glad that I got the chance to see inside of the buildings-- they are so neat and it is amazing just to see the structure and design. I can't believe how well the materials have held up! My favorite, I'd have so say is the woman's boat house! It was very cool.. but why did they give them such tiny beds?? haha.. It was very cool though and I would love to see a house like that floating down the lake, that would be a site.
I finally learned to kayak! That was my favorite part of the day... that is one of the things that I REALLY wanted to learn while I was here. It was much easier than I had anticipated-- I was really scared of tipping right over, they look more wobbly than they are I guess. (I didn't fall in). I warmed right up after paddling for awhile and got a great arm work out :). But it was very pretty and kayaking is something I def. plan on doing more often!

Bog/Bear Mtn.

Today was a great experience. I was very happy to get outside and explore a little bit of what the ADK's had to offer.
It was my first time on a bog (as far as I know anyway).. so that was something new and exciting. I really just learned about bogs from doing some of the readings for this course, so it was neat to finally see what I learned through books in real life. I loved the fact that we had our own personal tour guide of the bog as well, because without him I never would have stopped to listen to birds or look at different plant life and actually touch plants and learn new things about them. Relating to the classroom-- to often we just tell our students about things life bogs, but never bring them out to see one in real life. It is just a whole new experience and understanding when you are actually face to face with something like that.
The hike to Black Bear mtn. was very nice and pretty relaxing. The view was great. I love getting to the top of mountains, you always appreciate your hike and the view so much more. That feeling of accomplishment and appreciation is great-- I love that about hiking! Again having a guide was another added bonus, I even learned about snakes (although I stilll wouldn't touch one) I did stand much closer to it than I probably ever have before! But even something like showing students how the snake was eating would be great, because again we talk about food chains and learn about what animals eat, but don't go out in the wild and see it happen with students.
Over all it was a great exploration! :)

Questions

This is my last course before graduating in August. In my program there is an "elective" option, and I was told that a lot of people choose to take this ADK course.. I talked to some others in my class and heard all great things about it, so I decided I would do the same.
I wanted to be a teacher honestly for as long as I could remember.. I use to play "school" all of the time and finally my parents made one of our closets into a mini classroom for me and I hid in there for hours "teaching" all of my students. I knew even before going into my freshman year at SUNY Potsdam what I wanted to be and how I was going to get there.
I love teaching an I will absolutley make a career out of teaching. I am currently teaching a grade that I never thought I would like, but I love it simply for the fact that I am teaching. My ultimate goal is to develope a variety of teaching strategies that will benefit all of my students and help them understand the importance of learning and growing. I want to be able expose my students to things that may never have been exposed to if they hadn't been in my classroom. I want to be able to show them that learning is fun and help them appreciate themselves as well as their education. To do this I need to find new resources and explore the world myself.
My goal for this course is to simply take in the whole experience. I want to be able to take the experience I had and bring it into my classroom next year. And also, I obviously want to have fun. I love the outdoors, I love the ADK's (hiking, swimming, fires, etc.), and I just want to take everything in while I am there. :)

Introduction

Hi! :) My name is Alison, I am a Universal Pre-K teacher in Auburn and will be finishing up my Master's at Cortland this Summer! (Yesssss.) I have mixed emotions about this class-- I have never done something like this before, but I am excited about doing something out of my "comfort zone." I do believe that as an educator you should try to do many things outside of your comfort zone, it really can make you think about what your students feel like sometimes! I am really looking forward to this trip, I have heard only great things about it and I think I am lucky to have the chance to take this type of course!