"You Pick Your Day and Then You Go"
9/28/2018
On a windy and rainy morning last weekend, 9 Middle School students rendezvoused at Kincaid Park for the first Outdoor Club outing of the school year. My husband always says, “You pick your day, and then you go.” Well, we had picked the day, but the weather wasn’t really what we had had in mind. Nonetheless, everyone showed up, some more prepared than others, ready for the adventure and to have a good time with friends. Apparently, these kids subscribe to my husband’s mantra as well. Weather must be a mental state. Middle School is a time of tremendous social growth. PNA’s Outdoor Club is designed to promote this growth in a healthy way by maintaining the cohesion between students and even deepening their ties. Amazingly, it all comes back to play for the better in the classroom. This supportive network of friends provide a security for students to try new things whether it be athletic, social, or academic. Off we went, down that first long hill, in the wind and rain. Cold, wet fingers made it hard to grip the handlebars so we dropped the bikes and sprinted down to the beach and back to warm up. From then on, the weather was just an afterthought. Being a social event, we made plenty of stops along the way. Most stops involved food, which is always a plus for Middle Schoolers. By the time we arrived at our destination (Westchester Lagoon), the sun had come out, and everyone could have kept on riding! I’m glad we picked that day. I was able to see that these Middle Schoolers are made of the right stuff. Their mental state is sunshine! Deeper Reading
9/22/2018
I am a reader, thanks to my mom. Reading by her side from my earliest days, I learned from her that books transport you instantly across the world and time and space. I learned that I could have hundreds of friends who taught me all about life and who made me laugh, cry, and see myself in new ways. I learned to reread old favorites, search out new genres and authors, race to get to the end or slow down to savor rich language and complex characters. Reading was our shared love that we could count on even when we were miles apart; a gift that continues to give me joy every day. And as a teacher, I’m thrilled to be able to work with students to bring them this gift as well... Research and experience continually affirm this important truth: the more students read, the more they succeed. Reading regularly, for pleasure, is positively correlated with most of the metrics for success we know: mature and varied vocabulary; writing skill; content and cultural knowledge; moral compass; perseverance and “grit;” college and career readiness; even success on standardized tests. (See the infographic below.) Reading literature of all kinds has deeper benefits than these for our maturing students: by entering a character’s world they practice facing difficult situations and challenges and can begin to safely work out for themselves who they are and how they would respond. Moral dilemmas and conundrums; tough relationships with friends and family; the highs and lows of adolescence; all these crop up on every page. As our students read daily, respond creatively and thoughtfully, and discuss their reading with each other, they sort out their own feelings and ideas and take those steps closer to independence. We spent this past week establishing Reading Workshop routines so students read widely and deeply, experiencing all that reading has to offer. We emphasized students taking time each day to read novels: building stamina, fluency, and vocabulary as they read ever more complex literature. In addition to reading in class, students are expected to read novels outside of class for 20-30 minutes daily. This might happen right after school; in the car on the way to practice; at night before going to sleep; or even in the morning during breakfast. We also started our Reader’s Notebook: a place to record the thinking that they want to remember, the ideas that are developing, the questions they are having. The thinking that is recorded there forms a foundation for literary analysis and book discussions. Students also routinely keep records of their reading: how much they’ve read each day and which books they’ve finished or abandoned. These records will help them form a picture of themselves as readers and to set goals for growth. Our first Reading Workshop unit is a “Deep Study of Character.” Through class mini-lessons and on the spot practice in their own reading, we’ve been exploring characters: their many traits and how they propel a story forward; and the complexity of characters who can have admirable as well as not-so-admirable traits. We will continue this unit in the coming weeks. Our class is filled with voracious as well as reluctant readers, and I will enjoy the challenge of propelling their reading journey forward. It’s a gift that I firmly believe each person deserves to have. (And now I’m off...to read, of course!)
Normalcy
9/20/2018
Normalcy? What is that? For the PNA 8th grade, it means settling in to routines, doing homework, participating in sports or other extracurricular activities, recycling chores for the school, taking math tests, staging a scavenger hunt for EKers, heading to the woods to study ecosystem interactions, planning, rehearsing, and running an all school assembly, starting an eleventh hour silverware drive for the fall festival, going out to lunch, putting in some time moving wood for the Park Project, investigating, writing and revising like journalists, reading for deep study of character, and just plain laughing like 13 and 14 year olds. Normalcy around here is exhausting, challenging, satisfying, and can even be pretty fun. Never Give Up
9/15/2018
Do kids these days know what it means to work hard and persevere even when the end goal seems intangible or impossible? The PNA 8th graders certainly do, though they may not have always thought so.. Two years ago, when they were in 6th grade, they wrote a proposal for a grant from the Anchorage Parks Foundation to help them develop trails within Ruth Arcand Park. Students often used this area as an outdoor classroom, but trails and spaces were found to be challenging to access and use effectively. The then 6th graders wanted to fix this problem and the Anchorage Parks Foundation agreed, awarding them a $20,000 matching Challenge Grant to do so. To receive this grant money, students would need to match the amount in either volunteer work hours, in kind donations, or fundraising. The next school year, with the help of Elise Huggins from Earthscape Designs, the now 7th graders designed access routes, and decided on trail development. They looked at the budget and researched what they could feasibly do with the grant money that would fill a niche and be accepted by all community users. They spoke to landowners, neighborhood residents, and at community council meetings. They designed access routes, but were rejected by landowners. So they redesigned, but then they met another roadblock. They redesigned again! As their teacher, I wondered if this project and their efforts would end in failure as each of their steps forward seemed to be thwarted by bureaucracy and the constant change of landowner requirements. By the spring of last year, even the Anchorage Park Foundation and Anchorage Parks and Recreation Department were beginning to wonder if this project was going to get off the ground. If the students were ready to throw in the towel, they never voiced or showed it. Instead they pushed on. Then, PNA announced it was moving locations. Initially, this seemed like the final nail in the coffin. However, this change made us look at the project in another way. This was just the shift we needed! In the few weeks remaining in the school year we redesigned yet again, but this time, we could access the park from a public location. This last week, we just had our first whole class workday in the park. We completed the building of the balance beam section of the obstacle course, and moved and installed huge beams for the zigzag run. Students and parents smoothed out trails and spread wood chips. Parallel bars and a climbing wall are on the way and should be installed by the end of October which is also the allotted time for the completion of the work for the Challenge Grant. One benefit of all that redesign planning time last year was the amount of volunteer hours we could count toward our matching grant. Since last November, over 650 volunteer hours have been documented toward this project amounting in roughly $30,000. These hours alone meet the requirement for the matching Challenge Grant from the Anchorage Park Foundation. While there is still work to do, students are realizing the lesson of perseverance and hard work as they can finally see the fruits of their labor. The size, duration, and challenges of this project have been deeply seeded within these student. The pride and satisfaction of the resulting end product will remain with them forever reminding them to never give up. |
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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