Final Blog

I have begun to settle in back at home. So we decided to go camping as a family at Chenango Valley Park. Got'ta get back out there!

Any way there are so many things that I start to think of when I list what I took from our trip, what I have been thinking about since then and what I have shared with my friends and family.
But here's a few;

Part I

• I have known that things in the world are not looking so good fro quite some time now. I have discussed thistopic with Karl in other classes and we did a great deal of readingh and discussion in this course about the looming disaster of a 'perfect storm' with the culmination of peak-oil, climate change, economic, social, political distaers at home and abroad costing trillions...But what learned this time around is that we can make things better. It is posible to keep a place wild just s couple hours from Manhattan. The new technologies, and not-so-new, being sold in hardware stores now is very encouraging. People are getting excited about going 'green' and so am I

• Jon Dewey was right! The hands-on-method of learning by experience as well as reading and discussion was a wonderful thing to experience in this course. All classes should be more like this, if not just like it. Not for teachers, but for school-age kids ( and teachers). The kids could run the camp with a facilitator; cook, clean, garden, farm, build etc. and take content courses in the classroom in betwen. Then go out in the feild and experience the content they just duscussed. So simple.

• I also learned a lot about how 'good' most people are. I met a lot of really, really good folk on this trip and made some great connections. It is nice to see the trust, confidence, and personal experiences being shared and discussed with this group and those that helped us along the way. Kevin and Annie in the ropes, Ed Kanze out in the 'feild', Karl and Beth coordinating/teaching etc. and Jack and his family and crew taking care of things and of course the students that really helped each other out in many ways and showed a lot of courage and good faith in people...at least for me! Thanks!

• I also realized that I can challenge myself a lot more than I ever thougt I could. It was hard to go back to school at 30 but here I am almost done with my masters. It was hard to have two kids and get married while going to school as well but here I am with a greqat wife and two awesome kids. But I swear none of it was as hard as climbing that 60ft pine tree to that wobbly 3x3 platform that was waiting fro you at the top. But again, I had the encouragement and trust of people that just days before were total starngers (some of them) and I climed that damn tree!

• Possibly the most important thing I learned on a safety basis is that black bears can; SWIM, climb trees, run very fast and have no problem, eating dead meat. So when you see one you cannot jump in the lake, climb a tree, run, or play dead. I guess youo are supposed to try to scare them away! :(

I also learned alot of theings that I plan to use in my everyday life as well as the classroom and in other professional aspects of teaching. Hopefully curriculum development!

• I thought that it was interesting that there was very little contact with Native Americans within the ADK mtns. There was of course lots of contact in the Mowhawk Valley and everywhere else, but very little in the big mtns. Mostly it seems that the natives humted in the sumer/fall and went doen for the winter. Never establishing a colony. So when WW Durant came up to start the 'Great Camps' there was very little direct negative contact on the sites.

• I learned from our capable ADK guide Ed Kanze that the ADK's are NOT and old mountain range that has been eroded down. bUt rather a pretty new range that has ancient rock that was compressed by glaciers and now is beeing pushed up and rising, exposing some of the oldest rock in the world. It is also not being pused up by 'regular techtonic activity' but seems to be beeing raised becuase of a 'hot spot' that underneath that part of NY state. There are alos many differen 'sparatics' (rocks dumped randomly by moving glaciers) that are even older and are just laying about...very cool.

• Again, I was encouraged to see such beauty so close to ugly. True, it will be difficult to keep the beuty around, but people are doing it. The forests are coming back, the APA does somes thiongs wrong, but they have kept the ADK's pretty 'wild'. The economics are a tough factor to deal with in depressed communities like those in the ADK's, but there will be a balance met. If they can keep it claen and green, people will keep coming. It is so important to do our part everywhere, considering most of the damage being done to the ADK's that is , in part, destroying the local economies comes from coal burning power plants all the way out in freakin' Ohio...and farther. We can change this, get people involved by making them aware of the beauty that could be lost. Therefore, party in the ADK's so that all these 'corporate cronies' of 'those in charge' they can see what they are screwing up. Or we could tell them to just play dead when a black bear comes ; )

Karl and Beth, thank you so much for getting this class together. I have never learned so much from such a broad range of topics from such knowledgable people in such an incredible setting in my life. Thanks again to everyone else I hope you all have nice summers and growing careers!

Thanks,

-Josh

p.s.-If you have trouble getting Cortland to do it again maybe you could pitch it for teachers only, maybe all from one district to come together like we did. Then change the districts otr groups around (?)

Day 4

I am somewhat surprised and very proud of myself and everyone else in this class for what they did on this trip. The ropes course was at one point surreal. I felt like I was watching someone else's view of me doing the course. I am glad there is prof of our adventures.

I feel that I have learned more in these 5 days than in any other class I have taken. I will be able to use this knowledge in my professional and personal life. the history, culture, environment, biology, geography, technology, social interaction, physical exertion, personal challenge, trust in new friends, fun, knowledge, new and once in a lifetime experiences have given me a new out look on my life. I know its cheesy but its true.

THANK YOU KARL AND BETH!!

Josh

day 3

Today was a historical and cultural experience that I really enjoyed. We explored two ADK museums and natural history centers that explained so much about the history of the park. Seeing the animals and plants that thrive in the area and their contribution to the environment and the peoples of the ADK mountains was helpful in explaining the delicate balance that needs to be achieved to keep the ADKs how they should be. The effects that humans have had in upsetting that balance and in many cases working feverishly to maintain it have ben well documented in the two sites we visited today.

I have always felt that it is important to understand all of the elements that natural life has on an area as well as human impact on both. I watch the logging and feel sad, however, I write on paper and live in a wooden house, so wood must be taken from somewhere. What is the balance to be? None, all, some? Who should decide? Locals, APA, the state, Feds?

The main idea of these facilities, I think, is to just put the information out there in an accessible context and let people make educated decisions about these difficult topics. Of course the key idea here is EDUCATED decision. Hence the purpose of these museums and natural history centers. In difficult situations people are supposed to educate themselves well and then make decisions based on their learnings. Sounds easy enough, but will people do it on their own accord?

Josh

A very EDUCATIONAL experience.

Another great day! Getting outside and doing things that you do not usually do is a lesson in its self. "Experience is the best teacher". I have been contemplating the size of this park and its proximaty to our nations largest cities. There are people that have lived their whole lives never leaving the concrete "borders" of where they live. This shocks me. Sometimes it is because of $, sometimes not. To get to the Delaware Gap from NYC is a short distance, but people don't do it, even many who are able to do so.

I love the idea of bringing kids from urban areas to experience parks like the ADKs. While brining students here is a great idea, it does not have to be so far away. An afternoon trip in nearly any direction (except east) will get you to a park or a small wilderness area. The benfits of exposing people to this is exponential; awareness, expereience, health, observation skills, cooperation, making connections between nature and their own selves and lives...

Richard Louv (Last Child in the Woods) describes taking a group of urban students to a small field and meadow, not far from there school. They had never been there, when they arrived a teacher asked Louv what pland he had and where/what should the kids "do?"

"Nothing", he said, "just let them explore". Even some students wanted to know what to do. He gave them no instructions. It did not take long before the kids, and adults, were finding bugs, rocks, grass, discussing what types of plants they were, could animals come here? etc. they students talked about it for weeks, they wanted to go back but the admin istration thought it was to risky and a waist of "academic time", they haven't a clue about what real "academics" are.

When I teach I take my students outside as often as possible, even when the school nurse gripes about it (thankfully my principal also loves Richard Louv, Jim Trelese (Read Alod handbook) and many Alfie Kohn's ideas). My students are always asking to be taken outside to read or be read to. I

I cannot see the risk, or "waist of academic time" in any of that. I am just missing something?
My experiences here will be discussed, modeled, shared and taught as long as I can remeber them.

Josh

Day One

Today was great. I got up at six and went fishing, didn't catch anything but that was fine. I heard loons at 6:30 from across the lake and thought of the woman working track the amount mercury that the birds are ingesting. It was a sad to think that the wildlife in this area is such danger of being destroyed.

Thinking about the impact that people have had on the Earth, much of well intended, for example people coming here in the 1800's to experience its beauty. Most had no intention of making a negative impact o the area, but there were many indirect and direct effects on the region. In a way it makes me feel guilty for driving up here and walking on the trails that would clearly be completely covered in moss and other plant life if I didn't walk all over them, with thousands of others.

On the other hand, coming here, understanding some of the history, reading about the area and meeting very well informed locals (Ed K.) I feel that it is important to see places like this. If someone has never experienced a place like I would think that it would be hard to convince them to become actively involved in protecting it or even to make some lifestyle changes to help.

People NEED to get to places like this and experience them, not just look at pictures of it or watch it on the nature channel. The connections made from actual experiences is what motivates people to do the right thing...even before money!!

I have brought my family here before and plan on doing it again. Each trip made will make it more clear (at least tot me) why and what there is on this planet worth saving, aside from humans.

The way I see it, by saving places like the Adirondacks, we ARE saving ourselves. After all we are all connected on this planet (some of us more so to the loon than others!)

Arrival ADK Class Location

I drove up in a hurry from Ithaca and made great time. When I stopped at entrance to the park I realized I had plenty of time, so I took it coming up 28.WOW! I love the mountains air, smells, sounds etc. It really is amazing how much wild area there is on the east. I am from the west and quite frankly New York is a pretty small state and to think that all of the major parks in the west combined are still smaller than the Adirondacks.

I am excited to spend some time in this area and learn what I can about it. Really looking forward to the museum trips!!

Josh