Hockey Stick Table

Ever since the middle of summer I have been doing a little project with recycled hockey sticks. I love the game of hockey, and I know that I have many sticks that don't get used after awhile or they break, so I gathered up my sticks, got some from the local hockey rink, and some from friends that didn't need them. With these sticks I constructed a coffee table. I have recently just finished making this table and am proud of my accomplishment. It makes me feel good that these sticks didn't just take up space or get thrown away into our over crowed garbage dumps. I also have to say that it looks amazing, especially since I got someone to paint the Toronto Maple Leaf logo on it. That makes it even more special and adds more character.

YES Program

I was really nervous for today as I didn't know how the group of students that we got were going to react to our presentation. It ended up not being that bad and the students seemed to enjoy themselves. I loved teaching in that environment and loved having a group of students who were so well behaved and passionate about the environment. I wish that all classrooms were like that as it is every teachers dream not have to deal with classroom management. I will pray for a class like that but I do not believe that it will happen any time soon, as I am yet to meet one. It helped that the students wanted to be there were willing to share what they believe in and what there concerns are. I found that the sessions flew by, it was like just after you started it was over. We did manage to get through all of our activities and learn some of the ideas that the students had around issues about the environment. I think that the event was a success.

Reflecting on Camping Trip & planning for YES program

I really enjoyed this class as I found it beneficial to hear what other people's thoughts and feelings were about the trip. I found that many people had the same feeling and thoughts that I had. I think that it is important to reflect on these experiences as a class when they are finished as it brings closure to what everyone has gone through and experienced. You also get an idea of what you would and wouldn't do next time if you had the chance to do it again. You also get to reflect on why things went the way that they went and what could I have done to prevent it from happening. Also as a teacher you can benefit from these talks as you can get an understanding of how the students feel and what they did and didn't like in order to change our teaching.
I really enjoyed the time that we had to get with our groups and talk about how we were going to present our topic to our group of students at the YES program event on Wednesday. At first I was afraid as our group drew the how to deal with government topic. This scared me as I do not know much about the government and it does not spark my interest. It ended up being easier than I thought it was going to be and I believe that we have made it as fun as we can make it with the time that we have. I hope the students love it

Camping Trip

What an experience this was! I don't think I have ever put my body through something like that before. I feel that before we left we should of had a session where we were taught ways to sleep and be with the conditions that we had. This would have better prepared me, and I would have packed more clothes and things to keep me warm. I really enjoyed the tips that Lori shared with us on Saturday as it helped a bit that night. I really enjoyed learning about what she does. It re inscribed my learning knowing that there are programs out there that take kids outside and teach them about the outdoors. I think hat it would have been amazing to have Lori do more things with us ( would have been amazing if she did the whole weekend).That is the way life goes, and I enjoyed learning from her.
One of the most beneficial experiences that I had was going to the Green Ranch and working. It was nice to help Tim out especially knowing that he does most of the gardening himself. It was also a good way to warm up. It was also great to listen to Tim's story after supper on Saturday. It made me even more grateful that I worked on the farm, as I had no idea that he supplied restaurants with food.
I really liked that the focus of the weekend was food sovereignty as it related a lot to my groups action project around food consumerism. I do wish that we would have been more involved in the choices that were made. I think that maybe the weekend would have been cheaper and not as much food would have been wasted. It is just hard having to pay extra for classes that you don't except at the beginning of the semester. Maybe being given marks for going would have been awesome to as many of us had to change our plans and sacrifice things to go.
Flying wild was really great and gave everyone a chance to relax and forget about being cold. It was awesome to plan to an activity and actually laugh while doing it. By that time everyone was over tired so everything was funny. I wish there would have been more free time, it was like everything was jam packed and every moment was planned for. I would have loved some time to myself and time to student and do homework seeing this is a busy time of the year for university students.
Don't get me wrong I had a great time I just wish somethings would have been done differently. It did not help that midterms and assignments are due and instead of doing that we were camping. Made it hard to have fun as I was stressing. There were things that disrupted and re inscribed my learning. I came away with things that I would and wouldn't do if I took students camping.

Bike Trip

This was one of my favorite classes as it involved two of my favorite things; biking and the outdoors. I really liked the idea of a scavenger hunt as it made us pay more attention to our surroundings while we were riding instead of just going for a bike ride and getting to were we needed to be. It was also fun just to get away from the university and enjoy the outdoors and to forget about school work. I really enjoyed playing at the skate park, the park at the science center, and going to the bird sanctuary. I found the bird sanctuary really interesting. It is only my second time going their and I just found it this fall. I can't believe that I have lived in the city for four years and have never gone. It was amazing to see the different kinds of birds, especially the pelican. It was cool watching him try and eat the chip that we fed him as it was hard to chew because of his beak. I think that this would be a great place to take students to help them learn about birds and they should know about the experiences that they have right in the city. I would definitely take a class their if I get a job in the city. I think that this trip also gave us a chance to create a kind of community within our class as many people road together and were able to visit during the trip. I think that this was a great set up for the camping trip and a good way to help us get excited.

Curriculm Presentation

I really enjoyed the presentation that Dean gave us today as it helped me think about the unit assignment that is due in a couple of weeks. I think that it was beneficial for the students who do not know very much about unit planning yet. I have had this presentation a couple of times but I still took some things away from it and have a feeling of where the curriculum is going in the future.
For the second half of the class we discussed the camping trip. I found this was very beneficial as I am confused about what is going on and how things are going to work. It was great to get into a group and discuss our jobs of our meals that we are in charge of. I think that it would have been more beneficial if we just took on the responsibility of the food and prepare it during camp because I can see not everyone contributing to the meal preparation. This is way different then what I was expecting and am kind of nervous about how things are going to go over next weekend. This was disruptive to my learning as it is a funny and weird way to plan a trip and I am not sure that I would do it this way if I was planning a trip. I feel like the food is going to cost a fortune as the menu seems like things that are not really necessary and hard to make over the fire. I get that we are trying to focus on food sovereignty but think that their is a cheaper and easier way to go about this.

Resources

Today it was great to have some class time outdoors as it has been a horrible September with it being cold and rainy. It was really interesting to see how a solar oven is set up and how it works, as I have never even seen what a solar oven looks like before. This re inscribed my learning as it made me think of the possibilities that I can use in my classroom with a solar oven. I think that students would really enjoy learning about a solar oven and being able to cook something in a solar oven. I also really enjoyed experiencing the large earth ball. I think that it was a great activity to do outdoors and their are many things that you can do with an earth ball. I do question the safety of some of the games that we played with it as a teacher, but as a student I loved them all even if some of them were kind of physical. In the classroom we would just have to state some safety rules to avoid injury. This would be great resource for teachers to have in their class and be able to take outside on a nice day and learn about the environment. It was hard to come back inside after being outside. I really did enjoy the resources that were presented when we were inside as it helped me think about how and what I can use in my classroom to help my students with their learning. This helped me also think of the 4 P's of Planning resource assignment that is due soon and gave me some ideas that I can use in that assignment.