it snowed every day this week...i think it's weather's way of making up for the snow we haven't had this winter.
MONDAY
adjusting back to the life of lesson planning and teaching...
TUESDAY
taught 6th grade, 4th grade and 5th grade. the lessons were all okay. nothing spectacular...and i was trying to get over a nasty cough. not a bad day, but not amazing.
WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY
snow days! the days are running together in my memory, but each one involved A LOT of snow shoveling, a few snow games, and making animal tracking stamps. all in all, nature dumped about 3 feet of snow on us by wednesday night...and then rained on us all day thursday. our winter wonderland on wednesday quickly deteriorated to a slushy mess by thursday's end. it was a good night for boardgames and a good book.
FRIDAY
it was still snowing, but the interns all broke out into different projects. i went with a group to notchview, a place with cross country ski and snowshoe trails. our main task was to pack down the trails with our snowshoeing and pick up any big branches so the trail groomer could come in. i got paid to snowshoe all day. the snow was gently falling all day. at one point on a trail appropriately called "elbowtucker" for how narrow it is, everything was white around me. i felt like i was in a cloud. i haven't experienced that feeling since when i was actually hiking in the cloud forest of ecuador.
when everyone finished with their day's projects, we all met to talk about Hawley Nature Camp, an event we host in april.
my day ended with finally being able to watch some of the olympics... : ) beautiful.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
life in massachusetts.
here are some random thoughts about life in massachusetts.
- there is a dunkin donuts on every street corner. dunkin donuts appears to be the starbucks of new england.
- massachusetts drivers are crazy.
- the accents here are very entertaining.
Monday, February 22, 2010
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!!
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!!
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