Mud Pies
Although the temperature outside is in the single digits as I write this, I can close my eyes and imagine creating mud pies in the spring. Come with me if you want…
Want Better Discussions? Frame the Conversation
Teachers can improve student to student conversation nonverbally by paying attention to their position in the classroom…Thoughtful classroom movement also helps the teacher manage the classroom by discretely redirecting students.
Want Better Discussions? Just Wait A Few Seconds.
…the way teachers respond to their students greatly impacts the authenticity of the discussion. It’s not surprising that teachers who interject their own ideas and/or reject or rephrase students’ ideas, kill the conversation off quickly.
Want Better Discussions? Questions are the Answer
Teachers ask a lot of questions, but many of those questions target basic knowledge or recall. We can make our discussions more effective by beginning them with “What”, “How”, “Why”, “If…then”–open-ended questions that require more thought.
New Year, New Intention
So I’m driving home from yoga class listening to an interview of Sue Grafton, the great detective writer and thinking I need to just write a little bit every day this year. Well, is it too late since yesterday was the first?
And then I realize I’m hungry, and I see that the garbage can is tipped over blocking the driveway, and it’s the first day it’s gotten out of the negatives since last year. So maybe I should actually take a walk. And check to see if the little free library needs to be restocked.
And also the Energy Audit guy is coming in ten minutes. And I have at least two text messages that came when I was in Downward Facing Dog, and no telling how many phone calls. Oh, and I still have a yoga class to plan. But here I am, at my computer, putting my intention of writing each day out into the world.
And feeling excited about it!
Resolutions. Intentions. Whatever. If we take them too seriously, they can set us up for failure, discouragement and self flagellation. But no change comes without action. No goals are met unless we do the work. And chunking down the work is key to progress. At least for me.
So, here’s my first chunk of writing for 2018. Inspired by Sue Grafton who was working on W in her series of 26 detective novels, one for each letter of the alphabet. Talking about how she’d keep writing about Kinsey Milhone after Z is for Zero. But that didn’t happen. She left a missing piece, and an inspiration for me.
Devastation in Puerto Rico
Shelly Johnson, Martha McCormick and I planned to travel to Puerto Rico this Tuesday. Next Step was chosen to present at the North American Association of Environmental Educators’ (NAAEE) Annual Conference in San Juan this week. Our presentations were planned, and we were looking forward to learning about a place we had never visited.
Instead, we have anxiously followed the news as two storms approached and hit the island, and through the weeks since. Here are some of the things we learned–
- Eighty-four percent of the population in Puerto Rico is still without power nearly one month after Hurricane Maria.
- According to the Washington Post, only 63 percent of the islanders have access to clean water.
- Just 60 percent of wastewater treatment plants are working. Food supplies and medical systems are inadequate.
People are dying. Three weeks of recovery, yet so many US citizens continue to live in devastation. This is unacceptable.
If 3 million people were suffering in a different part of the country, perhaps even Iowa, I can’t help but think the response would be different. Constant media coverage would put a spotlight on the slow recovery. A stream of politicians would visit. Certainly, the president of the United States would not be threatening to abandon relief efforts.
Obviously, our conference was cancelled. The organizers have scrambled to make some of the conference topics available online. We’ve been invited to submit the materials we would have presented to a virtual conference site.
Here are some of our plans. Focusing on these projects has been difficult because my mind dwells on the families living in such desperate circumstances in Puerto Rico.
SESSION TITLE: Keeping Environmental Education Programs Fresh: Aligning with Next Generation Science Standards
SUMMARY: Naturalists’ interactions with school groups have a major impact on the next generation. By tweaking programs as school curriculum evolves, naturalists can expand their outreach.
- Participate in an interactive online NGSS scavenger hunt to learn about Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
- Align your own programs to NGSS with a template. An example is provided as well.
- A description of Next Generation Science Standards, tips for aligning programs with the standards, and sample before/after lesson tweaks are in our slides. Contact us for a copy.
SESSION TITLE: Teaching with Mini Wind Turbines and Solar Panels: Opportunities and Challenges
SUMMARY: Renewable energy production is on the rise, offering both benefits and challenges for our next generation. Learn about these technologies as well as strategies for incorporating them into STEM learning experiences for students.
- Experience a sample activity from our middle school renewable energy curriculum: VIP interviews.
- To explore opportunities and challenges in renewable energy, take on various perspectives from the assertion jar. Find the Assertion Jar lesson in our middle school service learning curriculum. This renewable energy add-on provides specific statements.
- Build mini circuits using materials from the Teachers Going Green teaching kit. Then search for energy lessons on the website.
- If you would like a copy of our slides, please contact us.
Even though we don’t get to travel to Puerto Rico this year, our hearts are with the people of that small island. If you’d like to donate to the recovery efforts, here’s a link that may help you decide the best route to do so.
Unexpected Turns in Life
When asked where we live, I joke that my husband & I live in a halfway house. We are renting a place located half way between our previous life and our next life. You see, we sold our home in Beaverdale, where we’ve lived most of the last 20 years. We are building a new home in the country but it’s not finished. So, we live halfway between.
The opportunity to buy land in the country was unexpected. And, more unexpected was that we wanted to buy the land and live there. We had decided the house in Beaverdale was the last time we would move. And, the land was the “farm” my family bought and moved to the summer of 1973 when I was 10 years old.
An unexpected turn in my childhood, moving from the suburbs to the country. I threatened to run away when my parents made me move to the farm, away from all my friends. We moved anyway. The farm came to represent turbulence and change, the unexpected. I tried to go there as seldom as possible after my parents split up and mom moved back to the area we’d lived pre-farm.
So, I was surprised that I wanted to buy it when Dad passed away. But, perhaps the thing you have expected while reading this, I learned the land on which that farm sits is not the origin of the turbulence and pain. I love the land. And, I am half way home.
Let’s Figure It Out
As we go spinning around the sun, we tend to mark anniversaries. I have one coming up tomorrow. It’s been 11 years since I cleaned out my desk at Iowa State University Extension in Polk County and started my work here at Next Step. I was there til 8 pm on my last day! Who does that?
Someone who is way too invested in work? One who has trouble letting go? Or maybe a person who has bitten off more than she can chew?
Probably all of the above, and more. Just this spring I threw out a box of slides I brought home from work eleven years ago. I was cleaning up my studio and came across several unfinished projects that brought a lump to my throat. I really wanted to make that apron, string those beads and create that lamp.
One thing I appreciated when I started Next Step was time to plan without feeling pressured by multiple deadlines. As my business has grown, and we’ve gotten busier, I sometimes feel hurried again. But the pressure has never gotten as great as it was when I was doing youth development work, writing grants, managing staff and all that went with it.
Owning my own business provides a lot of freedom, but it can be pretty demanding too. The roller coaster of work and no work can be scary. It’s much harder to know if you’re really good at what you do, kind of like looking into fun house mirrors. And of course the variety of people can put you off balance.
Balance is always a challenge. It helps to know your priorities. For a while I had this order–children and other living things, work and me. That’s changed significantly since the kids are grown. Some say if you don’t take care of yourself you don’t have anything to give others, but that’s still a tough sell for me.
I think these secrets to life, love, happiness are ever emerging. After a few careers and nearly 67 trips around the sun, I’m still learning. That’s what makes an adventure!
Make Art. Cats Do
It’s winter in Iowa. An odd winter, but winter nonetheless. No snow to speak of; temperatures vacillating wildly from single digits to 40s and 50s. Yesterday an ice storm hit, but today temperatures in the 30s have melted it all away. No winter wonderland for us; we’re yearning for sunshine or snow to color gray winter days. I’m not the only one in the house with cabin fever.
The cats have started doing art projects. This morning Rosy created the slipper piece, artfully arranging one of her catnip toys in my sheepskin slipper on the carpet by the front door.
Several days ago my daughter sent me a photo of her cat Silvia’s work in her food bowl.
Tater continues to refine a fiber piece on the arm of our favorite brocade chair, in spite of consistent and considerable discouragement. Art Critics!
I have a book called Why Cats Paint: A theory of feline aesthetics. I tried to get my cat Bitsy to paint a number of years ago, with limited success. Cats are famously independent after all.
She did check out the pastels and help me watercolor. I’m pretty sure I have some samples of her work tucked away in my drawer for refrigerator-quality projects. But now that Silvia and Rosy are showing real promise, I will definitely be organizing some cat-friendly studio space.
If cats can make art, we certainly can! Get over any fear that you “can’t draw” or that you’re “not creative.” Get out that yarn, those beads and baubles, tissue paper, scissors and brushes. Clear away the clutter and paint your world. It may be winter, but we don’t have to be stuck with gray and white!
Suit Up and Show Up
Nobody died. But it feels like a tragedy of major proportions. We have a president-elect who has openly expressed contempt for women, people of color, immigrants, Muslims, disabled people and LGBTQ folks. What have we done? How do we respond to this?
I honestly don’t know, but I have some thoughts in this first 18 hours or so of pondering. My first reaction was that I don’t know if I can live in a country so hateful. Sometime around 2:30am the sky was bright, and I looked out several windows for the quarter moon I expected to see.
Instead I saw the sky filled with stars, unusual in the middle of Des Moines. The view of Orion’s bow and arrows gave me my first glimmer of hope.
Somehow this morning I was still hoping to wake from a nightmare. But the stomach ache was real. What to do?
I got out of bed, put on my walking clothes and went for a walk. The sunrise was beautiful; the autumn colors magnificent. I decided my best response is to suit up and show up. Get dressed and do the work as best I can. Every day.
We will need to take bigger steps as citizens if our country is to survive in any semblance of peace, fairness and justice. Take it local. Stand up for people who have way more at stake than I do. Be fierce, but diplomatic. Be a nasty woman, but with grace.