The last week of September slipped into October when we weren't watching. The last apples were bought from the Farmers Market and a chilly bite began to lace the air.
The last weekend in September, a bunch of IslandWoodies went to the Harvest Fair. It was a beautifully sunny day and the farm hosting the event was full of hay rides, pie contests (the head IslandWood chef, Jim, was the head judge!), barbecue, sheep sheering, giant zucchinis, live folk and bluegrass music, pony rides, corn-on-the-cob sharing, fresh hot apple cider, and happiness.
The week that led from September into October was extremely overwhelming because even though we hadn't finished our two summer quarter courses (and still haven't), we started our three fall quarter courses and our year-long practicum course. Talk about a heavy courseload! So now, in addition to our Natural History & Ecology and Classroom Management courses, we also have Child Development, Science Methods, Environmental Education: History, Issues, and Methods, and our student teaching practicum. I'm starting to figure out how to balance it all, but it does get overwhelming at times trying to juggle all of my coursework in addition to teaching in the School Overnight Program and my two campus jobs. My two jobs are EEC Marketing Assistant and EEC Media Relations Blogger. As the marketing assistant, I give tours to prospective grads and figure out good ways to publicize the EEC (Environment, Education, & Community) graduate program to potential students all over the country. Plus, if someone else is giving the tour and wants to show a grad cabin to the prospective student, I get paid for a half hour of cleaning my room to keep it presentable for the tour. Sweet deal, huh? Not many people can say they get paid to clean their room! For my other job as one of the EEC bloggers, I will be contributing entries to the official IslandWood EEC blog that anyone who is interested in the program can read to get a better feel of what we do here and what we think of it. There are two other bloggers, Ally and Diana, so we're going to switch off weeks we write. I'll let you all know if I write anything on that blog that I think is noteworthy.
The first full week in October, we finally started teaching! That week was team-teaching week, so I was in a team with two other grads, E.J. and Lily. The week was exciting since we had been waiting so long to actually be working in the field with kids, but it was also challenging in many unforeseen ways. The kids we had were a handful, but trickier than that turned out to be the task of melding the instructors' three very different teaching styles into something the kids could rely on for the week. The kids never really got into a rhythm since we expected very different things from them, but I think they still had a good experience. I learned a lot from my team teachers and picked up a few things to try from their teaching styles, but for the most part, I was relieved when the week was over. Thinking about not only how to teach the kids and have a successful week with them but also having to think about how to have a successful week with my team teachers was too much to handle and I eagerly awaited when I could have my own group.
That weekend, I had a handful of very special visitors! My mom came for the whole weekend, and my Gramma and Aunt Terri came for Sunday afternoon. I loved sharing my IslandWood world with all of them! My mom got to meet lots of my fellow grads that I've been talking so much about and sleep in my wonderful treetop loft. We had sweet mother daughter talks and cuddle times, thoroughly explored IslandWood, and spent a morning kayaking.
That week, I did a lot of studying and classes, but I also got to visit my liaison school, Roxhill Elementary, and teach them an IslandWood pre-lesson, something to whet their appetites for coming to IslandWood! I did a lesson in both 5th grade classes where the kids got to collage together their own mural of an ecosystem as they learned about the different abiotic, biotic, and cultural parts! It was a little chaotic at times, but all in all lots of fun!
That night, Greta, Susie, and I went to the Pumpkin Walk, an annual event put on by the Bainbridge Gardens where there are over 300 Jack-O-Lanterns lit up along a pathway through the gardens. Some were even in themed displays! So cool!
Three weeks ago, I finally began solo teaching, the core reason why I'm here! I had my very own group of nine 5th graders from Concord International School to teach and explore with for four days, and it was a blast! Concord is very ethnically diverse and seven of my nine kids were latino/a, which I loved! Our group had such a fantastic energy and zest and really bonded through the ups and downs of the week.
Some days there were no discipline issues, while other days it felt like I was constantly having to address something. One of the days there were no issues was Harbor Day. We had a great brainstorm session on what a watershed is, watched a short video about the cultural history of Blakely Harbor (it used to be the biggest mill in the world!), then trooped down the trails to the to see it for ourselves. We had fun exploring under rocks to find crabs, played detective to find evidence of the mill, and spotted a Great Blue heron on a rock a little ways away.
The rest of the day we had a humorous lunch, hiked the Lower Loop trail, and did some very peaceful activities on the Suspension Bridge. On the bridge, all the kids laid down on their stomachs to observe the world around them and under the bridge then wrote about it in their journals and shared what they had written with the rest of the group in a relaxing gathering in the middle of the bridge. This was probably my favorite time with the kids all week and I really saw some of them come out of their shell.
We also saw tons of banana slugs that day! It's an IslandWood tradition to kiss or lick a banana slug to feel the tingly sensation on your lips or tongue, so 6 of my kids, their teacher who was spending the day with us, and the chaperone all kissed banana slugs that day! I was so proud of them!
(We found the Frog Rock, one of Bainbridge Island's quirks!)
When my Gramma and Aunt Terri came on Sunday, we went out to eat at The Public House (fondly referred to as the Pub), ate ice cream in the autumn sunshine in front of Mora, strolled through town a bit, and toured IslandWood on golfcart since my grandma couldn't hike the trails. It was fantastic having three generations of women here together! And Gramma and Aunt Terri brought me yummy homemade applesauce, strawberry-rhubarb preserves, and a bowlful of crisp apples from Terri's garden!
The next weekend, I took advantage of an offer that one of IslandWood's board members had donated to anyone who wanted to go: a private tour of the Tacoma Glass Museum led by the museum's curator and the head artist of the featured exhibit, Preston Singletary. Preston Singletary is a renowned Native American glass artist and his pieces were very beautiful. I didn't take any photos inside the museum, but here are a few from outside.
The rest of the day we had a humorous lunch, hiked the Lower Loop trail, and did some very peaceful activities on the Suspension Bridge. On the bridge, all the kids laid down on their stomachs to observe the world around them and under the bridge then wrote about it in their journals and shared what they had written with the rest of the group in a relaxing gathering in the middle of the bridge. This was probably my favorite time with the kids all week and I really saw some of them come out of their shell.
We also saw tons of banana slugs that day! It's an IslandWood tradition to kiss or lick a banana slug to feel the tingly sensation on your lips or tongue, so 6 of my kids, their teacher who was spending the day with us, and the chaperone all kissed banana slugs that day! I was so proud of them!The rest of the week was somewhat of a roller coaster. We had a fine night hike, until I came back to the prep room that evening after dropping the kids off at their lodge to hear that one or two of them, unbeknownst to me, had been mischievously throwing gravel at another group who was gathered on a landing below while we were doing silent solo sits on the pond dam . The next day had to begin with a serious talk from the SOP coordinator, so that got us off on a little bumpy start plus many of the kids were coming down with colds, so the morning was a little more frustrating, but after a lunchtime discussion about how we had to turn things around, we had a fun afternoon on the Floating Classroom and examined marine invertebrates in the lab. We wrapped up the last day with an exciting garden exploration, dynamic People & Places mindmap, and a reflective letter to themselves activity in the Living Machine. It finally felt like everyone really understood the rhythm of being in Team Rain and I wished that I could have had them for a couple more days.
I felt very close to all but one of my kids and thought I had built a good rapport with all but that one, since I kept having to address discipline issues with him. During the closing Friendship Circle, all the kids at IslandWood have a chance to give gratitude to someone or something that they are thankful for from that week. That Thursday, many kids were thanking their instructors and I casually glanced around the circle to see if any of the kids I had become close with would thank me. Then I heard a voice from across the circle saying, "I'd like to thank my instructor, Zoë." I looked and it turned out to be the one kid I hadn't thought I had reached! The one kid I thought hadn't liked me! And lo and behold, he was the one thanking me! It really showed me that if you keep believing in a child and showing them that you value them as a person no matter what they do, they're going to understand and appreciate that. I saw that sometimes we impact our kids more than we realize. That moment really tied together my whole week beautifully, and my kids and I all gave each other big hugs before they got on the bus. I think I'll always remember them for what we went through together my first week of solo teaching and how much I learned from them. They're great kids and I was able to tell them individually on that last day how much I know they're going to change the world. I miss them already!
The weekend before Halloween was a long weekend for Cohort B. I went to the pumpkin patch with Minna, her daughter Anneli, and Ilya on Saturday, which was so much fun! How can you beat getting to go with a 2-year old on her first trip to the pumpkin patch? It was sunny and beautiful and we bought too many pumpkins and ate sweet corn right off the stalks.
I decorated my porch with all the harvest bounty from the pumpkin patch too! How festive!
Saturday night was Kate's 90's themed birthday party, which was supposed to be a dance party but ended up being a late night Taboo marathon complete with pages of hilarious memorable quotes.
Sunday and Monday were spent finishing my species accounts, which are page-long reports and drawings of 15 IslandWood species, ranging from the Big Brown bat to Old Man's Beard lichen. Sunday was also Howl-O-Ween, the Halloween event IslandWood puts on every year. I took a quick study break to peek in on the end of the event.
Especially impressive were the pumpkins that IslandWood's kitchen staff carved. They worked on them all week!
On Tuesday I gave my first tour to a prospective grad, which was a lot of fun. She kept saying the same sorts of things that I did when I first discovered IslandWood, like "If I designed my own graduate program I don't think it would be as perfect as this!" and I got to honestly say to her that I said the same things when I was a prospective student and I still think they're true. Then I took the ferry and the "Frog Car" (IslandWood's Prius) over to Seattle to lead an informational meeting for the parents of Roxhill, my liaison school, with Soren, the head of school partnerships. It went well and I got really excited for my Roxhill kids to come the following week!
Last week they finally came, and I got to try on the liaison hat for the week, which was a new and exciting role for me! I had a great team of other liaisons, Charlie and Liz, since their schools were here this week too, and we rocked the liaison duties! I love those kids!
More to come on that later since there's so much to say about it and this entry is long enough. More to come on our pumpkin carving party, Halloween, and a brief weekend foray to Portland in the next entry too!
If you made it through both installments of these entries, you're a rockstar. Summarizing 2 whole months is a big task and I even feel guilty that I left some things out!
As always, I love hearing your thoughts and feedback, so please don't hesitate to drop a quick comment.
Love to everyone,
Me
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