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!