End of the Line

The Language and Landscape blog (and program) are parked for now. I've had a blast teaching the first cohort in this unique program and we'll see if there is enough interest in doing it again next year. While putting together report cards for the students I had a chance to read the stories that came out of the GeoNarratives projects, some of which the students referred to (and read from) during presentations.  These works of creative non-fiction were pretty cool, and definitely made me want to learn how to structure these for future students, to get more out of them and ensure they go through more formal editing steps. Here are some thoughts about one of the GeoNarratives projects: http://thielmann.blogspot.ca/2014/01/geonarrative-paula.html.

Thanks to the students for your patience as we put this unique experiment through its paces.

Takeaways

I can’t believe we’re almost done. This has been a fun experiment in combining English 11 and Geography 12. In particular, a few things stood out as valuable and interesting for me as a teacher:

• Field trip to Wastewater Facility and the comments that showed that students knew that what happened there was important and necessary for the health of the Fraser River, but at the same time quite gross and smelly. 
• Field trip to the Lheidl T’Enneh exhibit -- I learned a lot from the tour, and I thought your questions going in were very solid. I very much appreciated how you enjoyed your time at the riverside. 
• Friday Seminars -- great discussions and nice to get to know you better: shared quotes, discussions about music, leadership, special places, cool stuff and “findings” you came up with in response to the prompts 
• Thoughtful responses to some of the blog prompts and TED talks,especially on environmental themes. 
• Pretty good results for the 3 or 4 map and airphoto interpretation exercises -- these are difficult and most of you did quite well 
• Field trip to UNBC -- I think many of you made great connections to university life (social and academic) 
• Field trip to Ancient Forest and seeing how students reacted to the woods in different ways. 
• Emphasis on Topophilia -- you had a variety of opportunities to write about places that have significant meaning to you and I saw that some of you kept pushing to really understand what made these spaces important, both in descriptive writing and in probing the “psychology” of place. 
• Variety of reading and writing -- I was impressed with the books that many of you chose to read (or were already reading) and also the fine writing from a few of you who dedicated time to expressing your thoughts with polished writing on your digital portfolios. 

And, like any course, there are a few things I probably won’t do the same way again:

• Into Thin Air -- might give this a pass next time around. This was highly recommended by other English teachers but I think only a few students were interested in the story. I do wish we had more choices when it comes to class sets of books in the bookroom. Also, I need to sort out how to make lit circles work better, and find other methods for students to share their independent reading.
• Flex time -- not in this format anyways... I think many of you were still not ready to use independent time for either open ended inquiry (your questions) or assigned tasks (my questions). This will be important for you to figure out before you do any post-secondary schooling. 
• If you have suggestions for how I could make Lit Circles or Flex time work, please let me know.
• addition (after reading your comments): Less direct lectures on Geography and indirect assignments on English, and more direct lessons on English and integration of English into Geography themes and vice versa. There was a lot of "English" in our course, but maybe too much of it was assigned to Flex and therefore was skipped by those for who Flex did not work. I think this was a challenge for me because the Geography 12 outcomes are very specific (e.g. geomorphology) and require direct instruction whereas the English outcomes are more abstract and can be learned in a variety of direct and indirect ways.  I knew exactly what Geography had to be included, but was more "dreamy" about the English side.

What did you take away from the "Language and Landscape Program?"

Resource Sustainability

One of the last topics we addressed in the part of course devoted to "Geography" was the set of connected issues, debates, and solutions related to the sustainability of resource use in Canada and the World.

This is a "bonus" assignment (optional) -- if your other work is done (Thoughts on Shakespeare, January Novel Reponse, GeoNarratives Project, etc.), then consider visiting http://geography12.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/kayapo-courage/ and completing the activity that Ms. Inden has designed for her students.

Leave a comment on their blog with your response... ask me if you need some prompts or help refining your ideas.  You may wish to develop your response on a separate document first (you are welcome to place this in your portfolio).

Habitats and Lions

Our lesson for today focuses on LIFE - the geography of species and the importance of understanding, rebuilding, and conserving habitats. The Kevin Richardson video above shows one facet of this topic: "giving back habitat and restoring habitat, that would be utopia;" the protection of "iconic species" such as the lion. In BC we might feel the same about grizzly bears or spirit bears (white-furred black bears). In fact, someone very similar to Kevin Richardson exists in NW North America in the person of Charlie Russell. Here's a short youtube video documentary on Charlie's work studying bears in the wild.

What did you think of the "Lion" video? Is it ok for humans to get close to large, wild animals? What other iconic species draw humans into conservation efforts? What do you think our provincial and federal government should do to improve conditions and promote species diversity (endangered or otherwise). Assuming you agree (and feel free not to), what can individuals (like you) do to promote conservation and sustainable animal habitats? What role to corporations (e.g. forestry, mining, oil & gas) play in this ongoing challenge? What other, smaller, "non-iconic" species deserve our attention?  Leave a comment below with your thoughts on some or all of these questions.