The Little Park Project That Could…..
5/25/2018
After working extremely hard to get the Abbott Loop Community Church to support an access site from their property, we ended up needing to look elsewhere. Hoping for a strong partnership with the Anchorage School District, we then worked to open an access site from the Parking Lot of Spring Hill Elementary. This, too, backfired as the ASD Risk Management and Safety Department eventually denied our requests. We were still determined to improve the trails and build our obstacle course when the Park Foundation told us that they were not willing to honor our grant without access. Fortunately, we have Elise Huggins on our side, and she was not about to let this project go. While our class was in Costa Rica, Elise look a closer look at the area to try to come up with a reasonable alternative. Then she saw a little slip of land that bordered Lake Otis between Spring Hill and Hanshew. She found that this land actually belongs to the RA Park! This find allows us to create an access point off of Lake Otis and closer to our new school site! On Wednesday, we went out with Elise and marked the trail access route as well as the obstacle course route. We also checked the soil for “rockiness” and clipped some low hanging branches for bike riders. It felt good to move beyond the planning stages! As the summer progresses. Check your email for workdays! It would be great to get a crew together to build trail and install the obstacles We will keep you posted! Lessons Learned...
5/18/2018
Learning: it’s what we are all about. Every lesson, experience, and interaction we have with our students is a learning moment, a chance to inch closer toward our goal of “exceptional learners and independent thinkers.”
Spring trips are a unique and important experience at PNA; a chance for students to stretch themselves and be ever more independent. Many of our students had the learning experience of a lifetime last week when we went on our spring trip to Costa Rica. They visited farms lived in family homes with generous hosts, helped leatherback turtles nest, rafted, and swam. Of course, any field trip or travel experience is about learning new things; that is a given. And our students learned SO much! But during this trip, WE as teachers did some learning: about our students. What did we learn? That these young adults are truly exceptional. Day after day they were challenged with the new and unknown: new people and unknown words, foreign foods, LARGE insects, heat and humidity, bumpy, winding roads, avalanches of new information, and so much more. And every single day they stepped up and made us proud. They were kind, respectful, and interested; patient, bold, and courageous. They made many new friends everywhere they went while deepening their current friendships with each other. They readily (and without complaint) jumped in to do hard work; to try new foods; to embrace new experiences; to test the waters. It was a wonderful way to bring our school year to a close. We will finish our final week of school knowing that our students have made great strides and forward progression in their learning journeys. **Families: The photos below are but a tiny sampling of our trip. Be sure to check out the Google Drive folder of photographs that we shared with you earlier this week. |
Sarah Mariner
Ms. Mariner earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Science from Colorado State University, and was awarded a teaching certificate through the University of Alaska, Southeast. Her varied background includes being an environmental education field instructor in Massachusetts, Colorado, and Baja, Mexico. She also served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. Archives
April 2021
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