boston service week (aka, my first trip to downtown boston!)

last week, our students were on february vacation (that's right, they have a week off in february AND april. what's up with that??). that meant we got to hang out in boston for a week serving in urban parks, learning about civic engagement, and exploring a fun city!

MONDAY
after our community meeting and chores, we hopped into the vans and trekked out to boston.

once we arrived at the blue hills reservation (the chickatawbut education center to be precise), we ate lunch and headed out to clear out some small pine trees from a forest buffering the road. this may seem a bit anti-conservation-esque at first, but we learned that that stretch of forest has been known to house some sketchy activity, so clearing the road is good for police and other park officials to view what is going on. also, there is a walking path along that way, so removing the saplings before their roots start to ruin the paved path is great for keeping the park accessible (and keep maintenance costs down with not having to repair the path so often). but, the best conservation benefit was that by clearing most of the saplings and allowing only one or two in a stretch to remain, it is more likely that those one or two trees will make it to maturity than if all of those saplings competed with one another for space and light. plus, sometimes it's just really fun to use a bow saw and haul trees through the woods.

TUESDAY
we began at a farm (brookwood) doing some more trail pruning and brush clearing. when it started snowing, we moved over to clean exhibits at the trailside museum. my favorite part of the day, though, was hiking up to the blue hills observatory where we got to see the inner workings of a weather station. i'm not sure if all of you know this about me, but for a really long time (and still sometimes today), i've wanted to be a meteorologist, so i was pretty darn excited to see all of the cool weather equipment : ) the neatest contraption by far was the magnifying glass (crystal ball, rather) that measured the cloud cover. when the sun shines, the light goes through the glass ball and burns a hole onto a paper underneath. the paper is designed to reflect the time of day so that observers can go back and figure out when the sun was shining and when it wasn't. so simple, but so cool.

tuesday night, all of the corps members and staff had a family fun night full of games, props and skits : ) fun times indeed!!

the week before winter vacation!

and there was an early release for snow AND a half day. that cut our lesson load a bit!

MONDAY
a planning day...not very eventful. a couple of us walked around the pond looking for animal tracks. here's a list of what we saw:

- lots of squirrel tracks (they go EVERYWHERE)
- cute mice tracks
- what we later identified as shrew
- either canine (dog) or beaver...

in the evening, a few of us went to a farmer's gathering in north adams to mill around and help take down tables at the end. i had some really great food and met some interesting people : ) usually a good way to end the day.

TUESDAY
our only full day at school. our lesson with 6th grade went really well. we had them looking at their ecological footprints, starting with just one aspect (food, clothing, transportation). it was interesting to see the wide variety of thought processes as well as the depth of understanding about how we live our lives and the products we use to keep our lifestyles consistent.

after that lesson, we got ready for our fun with 4th grade. we did a bunch of water activities to illustrate dissolving, surface tension, ice expansion, and evaporation. gooooood times! caleb and i had lunch and then recess duty (see previous blog entry for recess details).

our next stop was 5th grade. it was our best lesson yet! we reviewed adaptations and let them create an original bird using adaptations. they were really excited and engaged throughout the lesson.

i spent the afternoon hanging out with drama club filling in for some of the girls who were absent.

: )

anatomy of a recess.

today caleb and i had recess duty. no other teachers. just us, a radio, a playground, and a bunch of 5th and 6th graders...here are some of the highlights:

- i wore a super cool fanny pack first aid kit.
- i had fun talking with one of the 6th grade girls about her desire to become a writer.
- i observed a bunch of a 5th graders huddled in a corner being secretive 5th graders.
- i played "evolution", a game involving turning from an egg to an ultimate being (via chicken and human stages) through rounds of rock, paper scissors.

: )