Before winter break, MSEL completed our long-awaited Project Week. During Project Week we split into five groups of five people, each group completing a different task relating to the use (and abuse) of bottled water. There was Student Body Campaign, Teacher and Administration Cohort, Research and Marketing Cohort, Cafeteria and Athletics Cohort and finally the Documentary Cohort (see links!). Each group strove to put the word out that the use of bottled water has a negative impact on our society. We tried our best to convince others that drinking water from a plastic water bottle is unhealthy to the human body as well as the environment. Project Week was stressful, but also fun. The week gave us the chance to get our voices out there and negotiate with students as well as adults, building skills we’ll definitely use in the adult world.
The week started out extremely disorganized. It seemed as if we had a lot of time, but time flew by and suddenly we were at the point where time was up and projects were due. At points, the groups were going in different directions and they didn't seem to be working as a team. I felt a bit of "negative energy". There were disagreements and it was difficult to complete tasks. If we worked more efficiently as a team, I think it would have gone more smoothly. On the up side of things, we were able to show our different talents and creativity to volunteers and our teachers, as well as our peers. Though there wasn’t much homework during project week, the documentary group worked all throughout break to complete their amazing film. It was fun to have the freedom to walk around and do creative activities. As a result of our energy and hard work, we were able to communicate with health classes, present to the administration, do water taste tests around the school, bring filtered water to basketball games (something we’re still working on—thanks Cathy Licht!)), get a slew of teachers on board with us, and generally begin to increase consciousness about bottle abuse around the school. With Project Week behind us, we now have started the New Year with the study of energy and the effort to present to our parents what project week was all about.
Energy is now the theme in all of our MSEL classes. Starting with Biology, we watched Earth: A User’s Manual, a film about different types of energy and the positive effects of diverse energies in our society. Some of the types of energy sources we've looked at are solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear. They all have different impacts on the environment, positive and detrimental. The most popular energy efficient sources are wind and solar. Wind doesn't cause pollutants and isn't costly, but it kills birds and disrupts the beauty of the land. Plus, locations of the instruments for wind are limited. Solar is good as it doesn't make noise and there are no moving parts. You can actually get partially reimbursed from PG.&E for the cost of the panel over time. There are tax incentives when upgrading to solar energy. However, solar doesn't work at night and takes up a lot of roof space to use properly. The most commonly used energy source around the world is nuclear energy. Although nuclear energy may be popular it creates radioactive waste (not to mention tension between nations). We also learned about types of energy in World Geography.
The different types of energy sources that we learned about in Geography are solar, wind, geothermal, hydro-electric, nuclear, oil, natural gas, agricultural bio-mass, tidal and coal. Half of these listed are renewable. The renewable energy sources are tidal, solar, wind, geothermal and hydro-electricity. The remaining sources are non-renewable, meaning that you have to get more and more every time you use it. We are warned as a society that oil and natural gas can contribute to global warming and are not cost-effective. It seems that if the world was more knowledgeable about the other types of energy they may be more apt to try them. Mr. Madsen split us into groups to each make a poster giving information about each source of energy. We've had the last week to complete this goal and to take notes on the final projects and score each one. We also learned how to make professional looking posters that represent us with polish—increasing our ethos, if you will!
In Language Arts we have been learning about the spiritual, emotional and linguistic side of energy. For one assignment we had to find advertisements that said one thing but really meant another. For example, if a vacuum cleaner store said "Our vacuum cleaners suck!” the first thought that comes to mind is the vacuum cleaner is not good, when what they are actually trying to say is that they suck up dirt. Another assignment was finding words that mean the same thing but have a different emotional energy toward them. One good example from class was Sophie's example of "quiz vs. test": a “quiz” doesn't sound half as bad as a “test.” But they are actually the exact same thing! The way that language is used can be essential to our goal at MSEL, as we need to be able to inform others of what we've learned. To try to make changes in our society can be difficult, but to be persuasive and learn how to market to others through speech is incredibly important.
To close my blog, I offer you a sample of my poetry:
Project Week was full of excitement, and full of stress,
full of worry, we did our best,
This place we call MarinSEL, has given us a chance to ring the thinking bell,
Creativity and hard work,
mind-blowing teamwork,
Put together to succeed, this weeklong project... we succeeded indeed!
Volunteers wanted to help out; they tried and tried but had no doubts,
A week went by, we wanted to be done,
but what we didn’t know?
The real stressing had just begun!
From presenting to classes, parents, teachers too, we couldn’t help but to
Put on a show....
MarinSEL is only brand new,
And we want to tell the story to you.
Don’t worry, don’t hide in the shade,
Joining MarinSEL was the best choice I’ve made.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
Welcome Back and Looking Forward! By Teagen Leonhart
Hi Everyone-- students, parents, colleagues and community,
Finally the rain has come and with it a sense of getting down to a new semester, taking the lessons learned in stride, and generally feeling accomplished and excited about our journey in MSEL so far. I thought I would take a moment and reflect--for your benefit and mine--on what I have learned as part of this academy. As a teacher, I am a great believer in making the unseen seen--allowing others behind the "scenes," as it were, and revealing the inner workings of things. And what better time to do this than a rainy day when I have stack of tests I'd rather put off, a hot cup of coffee, and the weekend ahead.
Choosing literature for a class with environmental themes and finding connections between different subject areas: what a fun challenge! I have felt this from the start and it continues to be true, though, as happens as ideas evolve, I have come to see that sometimes a loose connection can be as powerful as a clear one. After all, our MSELers are still high school students and there is every manner of subject matter, theme and skill that I serve them to cover, regardless of the fact that we have a focus on water, food, waste or energy. I will attempt here to explain the curricular choices over first semester and give you an idea of what is coming. I know it is a leap of faith to have your kids in an academy that's built as we go, and I want to reiterate my thanks in your trust in our abilities. There will perfect fits and valiant efforts that don't pan out, but all in all, I'm so pleased with the kids efforts and accomplishments so far, and endlessly impressed with my team, Saum, Jesse and Dave.
We begin the year with a focus first on poetry so that we might review certain skills concerning approaches to text. Over the course of one's academic career, annotation plays the role of bridge between a text, a reader and an author; it helps organize vast and complex texts into manageable ideas. As these kids are reading LOTS of things where they are not the intended audience (i.e. college level material at times), these skills are crucial and I have seen a world of improvement thus far. Plus, poetry is a great doorway to knowing people, and as we're in this for the long haul, building our relationships was as vital as any academic skill. We moved from poetry into observational writing, using as a core text "A River Runs Through It," by Norman Maclean. It's a beautiful story and gave us a model for looking closely at our immediate environment so that we might gain insight about the forces that shape the environmental culture of the school (or lack of it thereof). Next, the kids looked closely at their own ecological habits, and we all found--literally by holding onto our garbage for 24 hours--that despite our best intentions and identifying as "environmentalists," that we had a long way to go in abandoning our wasteful and addictive habits around convenience and vulnerability to cheap trends. Since then, I am seeing a LOT more Tupperware and reusable bottles. The papers were thoughtful, insightful and often funny, and helped us get honest about who we are and what we are doing here. These are choices I may repeat, though I may seek another story in doing so. They liked it, but weren't enthralled....then again, they don't always need to be in rapture, and the writing/thinking outcomes were achieved.
We continued on with a reading of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, a book many kids won't encounter till they are seniors. But our freshmen found much that resonated with them on this classic heroic journey. Siddhartha, like all of us, is an imperfect character who must make many mistakes and face many ugly, challenging or distracting forces along his path to "enlightenment." We had some wonderful class discussions around this book, rooted in the four Noble Truths of Buddhism: that life is suffering; that suffering comes from desire; that to end desire meant the end of suffering, and in order to achieve this, one can follow the Eight-fold path. Simply put, the Eightfold-path outlines the steps of leading a life of integrity, vision, altruism and purpose. Though it's hard to grasp that in Buddhism this enlightenment may take several life-times to achieve (Meredith: "You mean you have to START OVER every time!?"), I think we all saw that as an academy we are just starting off on our journey, and will encounter many of the same forces Siddhartha did. We may not reach nirvana all at once, but we can certainly live a life of integrity and purpose, and every small victory we make is in its own way a journey. And what better message to absorb than that a great portion of our earth's suffering is rooted in human consumption of unnecessary and ultimately unfulfilling material objects? Incidentally, the Eight-fold path fits beautifully over Joseph Campbell's heroic Journey and we had a lot of fun finding parallels between these two narrative paradigms (for lack of a better phrase.) If you are interested in any of the supplementals we have used or would like to know more about any of these elements, please let me know.
Project week was quickly upon us and I will let John give you his input below, as I think many of you are quite aware of its great successes and frustrations. I will also post the documentary in a link, if you would enjoy and inside view no blog post can reveal. I fairly swooned with pride over what our kids were able to accomplish in just a week; I can't imagine what ground they will break in the future. What an amazing group--I am grateful for them every day.
Looking forward: at the moment, we are focused on the "energy" of language and image, having just viewed Missrespresentation, which deals with how media's portrayal of girls and women serve to propagate low self image and the attendant, self destructive behaviors so tragically common amongst females of all ages; further, it delves into the insidious agenda at work that aims to keep women out of leadership positions and what needs to be done, looking forward, to ensure that girls are empowered, working together, and confident in their abilities to do whatever they want. There's a message for boys too--that they don't have to be a hyper-masculine, testosterone-driven, violence machine to be a young man; they, too, are allowed to feel and be human, and we all have to work together to overcome false and stereotypical expectations placed on us by a society that profits on our insecurity. We've also taken a hard look at why there are so few boys (those ground-breakers!) in our class and thought about how we can make environmentalism more accessible and attractive to boys in the future. As one female news anchor in the film reminded us, you don't need t wait for role models who look like you to come along--just DO what you want to do and BE the role model. I think this is true not just for boys or girls, but for al of us as we journey toward creating something truly new amidst plenty of naysaying and negativity. We adults have to deal with this as much as they do, and we are in it together.
So: big stuff! I'm sure you'll hear about their response papers over the weekend, as they all had a LOT to say on this issue (Nivie: "I get really emotional about this!" Me: "Me too!").
We'll continue along with a focus on the "energy" of language and they'll have lots of chances to use it in powerful, personal and empowering ways. We've also ordered The Milagro Beanfield Wars, which will help us tap the power of human energy, and people coming together to make necessary if controversial changes in their communities. I'll have them do a a brief research project on a social or political movement of their choice and they'll likely do a short presentation on these, accompanying their training with Toastmasters, which will happen in Seminar. Looking further ahead we'll get into food, so if you'd like to buy a copy of Grapes of Wrath, you'll be able to read along with us. I have more supplementals than I know what to do with for this unit, and as it comes closer, I can be more specific about these choices. Finally we'll finish the year (as I see it now) with a little Shakespeare during our Waste unit. I think Romeo and Juliet is a mainstay for all freshmen and I will let you interpret how this tragic story relates to the theme of waste!
These are all projections and subject to change, but I want to communicate with you all a much as I can in the shaping of our collective vision as an academy and community. I could go on at length about what this means for me, but that stack of papers is beckoning, a bell is ringing, and there is work to be done. As always, I welcome your questions and comments, and hope you'll continue to provide encouragement and feedback to our bloggers, and to all of us.
A very happy New Year to all, and look for John's blog this very weekend!
Green is good!
Ms Leonhart
Finally the rain has come and with it a sense of getting down to a new semester, taking the lessons learned in stride, and generally feeling accomplished and excited about our journey in MSEL so far. I thought I would take a moment and reflect--for your benefit and mine--on what I have learned as part of this academy. As a teacher, I am a great believer in making the unseen seen--allowing others behind the "scenes," as it were, and revealing the inner workings of things. And what better time to do this than a rainy day when I have stack of tests I'd rather put off, a hot cup of coffee, and the weekend ahead.
Choosing literature for a class with environmental themes and finding connections between different subject areas: what a fun challenge! I have felt this from the start and it continues to be true, though, as happens as ideas evolve, I have come to see that sometimes a loose connection can be as powerful as a clear one. After all, our MSELers are still high school students and there is every manner of subject matter, theme and skill that I serve them to cover, regardless of the fact that we have a focus on water, food, waste or energy. I will attempt here to explain the curricular choices over first semester and give you an idea of what is coming. I know it is a leap of faith to have your kids in an academy that's built as we go, and I want to reiterate my thanks in your trust in our abilities. There will perfect fits and valiant efforts that don't pan out, but all in all, I'm so pleased with the kids efforts and accomplishments so far, and endlessly impressed with my team, Saum, Jesse and Dave.
We begin the year with a focus first on poetry so that we might review certain skills concerning approaches to text. Over the course of one's academic career, annotation plays the role of bridge between a text, a reader and an author; it helps organize vast and complex texts into manageable ideas. As these kids are reading LOTS of things where they are not the intended audience (i.e. college level material at times), these skills are crucial and I have seen a world of improvement thus far. Plus, poetry is a great doorway to knowing people, and as we're in this for the long haul, building our relationships was as vital as any academic skill. We moved from poetry into observational writing, using as a core text "A River Runs Through It," by Norman Maclean. It's a beautiful story and gave us a model for looking closely at our immediate environment so that we might gain insight about the forces that shape the environmental culture of the school (or lack of it thereof). Next, the kids looked closely at their own ecological habits, and we all found--literally by holding onto our garbage for 24 hours--that despite our best intentions and identifying as "environmentalists," that we had a long way to go in abandoning our wasteful and addictive habits around convenience and vulnerability to cheap trends. Since then, I am seeing a LOT more Tupperware and reusable bottles. The papers were thoughtful, insightful and often funny, and helped us get honest about who we are and what we are doing here. These are choices I may repeat, though I may seek another story in doing so. They liked it, but weren't enthralled....then again, they don't always need to be in rapture, and the writing/thinking outcomes were achieved.
We continued on with a reading of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, a book many kids won't encounter till they are seniors. But our freshmen found much that resonated with them on this classic heroic journey. Siddhartha, like all of us, is an imperfect character who must make many mistakes and face many ugly, challenging or distracting forces along his path to "enlightenment." We had some wonderful class discussions around this book, rooted in the four Noble Truths of Buddhism: that life is suffering; that suffering comes from desire; that to end desire meant the end of suffering, and in order to achieve this, one can follow the Eight-fold path. Simply put, the Eightfold-path outlines the steps of leading a life of integrity, vision, altruism and purpose. Though it's hard to grasp that in Buddhism this enlightenment may take several life-times to achieve (Meredith: "You mean you have to START OVER every time!?"), I think we all saw that as an academy we are just starting off on our journey, and will encounter many of the same forces Siddhartha did. We may not reach nirvana all at once, but we can certainly live a life of integrity and purpose, and every small victory we make is in its own way a journey. And what better message to absorb than that a great portion of our earth's suffering is rooted in human consumption of unnecessary and ultimately unfulfilling material objects? Incidentally, the Eight-fold path fits beautifully over Joseph Campbell's heroic Journey and we had a lot of fun finding parallels between these two narrative paradigms (for lack of a better phrase.) If you are interested in any of the supplementals we have used or would like to know more about any of these elements, please let me know.
Project week was quickly upon us and I will let John give you his input below, as I think many of you are quite aware of its great successes and frustrations. I will also post the documentary in a link, if you would enjoy and inside view no blog post can reveal. I fairly swooned with pride over what our kids were able to accomplish in just a week; I can't imagine what ground they will break in the future. What an amazing group--I am grateful for them every day.
Looking forward: at the moment, we are focused on the "energy" of language and image, having just viewed Missrespresentation, which deals with how media's portrayal of girls and women serve to propagate low self image and the attendant, self destructive behaviors so tragically common amongst females of all ages; further, it delves into the insidious agenda at work that aims to keep women out of leadership positions and what needs to be done, looking forward, to ensure that girls are empowered, working together, and confident in their abilities to do whatever they want. There's a message for boys too--that they don't have to be a hyper-masculine, testosterone-driven, violence machine to be a young man; they, too, are allowed to feel and be human, and we all have to work together to overcome false and stereotypical expectations placed on us by a society that profits on our insecurity. We've also taken a hard look at why there are so few boys (those ground-breakers!) in our class and thought about how we can make environmentalism more accessible and attractive to boys in the future. As one female news anchor in the film reminded us, you don't need t wait for role models who look like you to come along--just DO what you want to do and BE the role model. I think this is true not just for boys or girls, but for al of us as we journey toward creating something truly new amidst plenty of naysaying and negativity. We adults have to deal with this as much as they do, and we are in it together.
So: big stuff! I'm sure you'll hear about their response papers over the weekend, as they all had a LOT to say on this issue (Nivie: "I get really emotional about this!" Me: "Me too!").
We'll continue along with a focus on the "energy" of language and they'll have lots of chances to use it in powerful, personal and empowering ways. We've also ordered The Milagro Beanfield Wars, which will help us tap the power of human energy, and people coming together to make necessary if controversial changes in their communities. I'll have them do a a brief research project on a social or political movement of their choice and they'll likely do a short presentation on these, accompanying their training with Toastmasters, which will happen in Seminar. Looking further ahead we'll get into food, so if you'd like to buy a copy of Grapes of Wrath, you'll be able to read along with us. I have more supplementals than I know what to do with for this unit, and as it comes closer, I can be more specific about these choices. Finally we'll finish the year (as I see it now) with a little Shakespeare during our Waste unit. I think Romeo and Juliet is a mainstay for all freshmen and I will let you interpret how this tragic story relates to the theme of waste!
These are all projections and subject to change, but I want to communicate with you all a much as I can in the shaping of our collective vision as an academy and community. I could go on at length about what this means for me, but that stack of papers is beckoning, a bell is ringing, and there is work to be done. As always, I welcome your questions and comments, and hope you'll continue to provide encouragement and feedback to our bloggers, and to all of us.
A very happy New Year to all, and look for John's blog this very weekend!
Green is good!
Ms Leonhart
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