One of my friends on the journey is also an art teacher. In my last post, I mentioned getting distracted by the details along the trail-- I think it must be an art teacher thing! We were both getting called to catch up because we had stopped to take photographs of colors, patterns, the light filtering through the trees, and (my personal favorite) SLIME MOLDS!
My sister the biologist/ ecologist identified this as "dog vomit" slime mold. SO COOL.
I think that noticing details along the hike is a little characteristic of my teaching style... I can see the big picture, but I take the time to focus and give attention to the smaller details. This takes action in my teaching. I feel that it is important to celebrate small, sometimes overlooked, successes to make students feel special and encourage their creativity.
Beautiful textures, colors, and patterns... Small creative successes.
Now to the next important lesson that the trail (or not trail) reminded me of. Keeping a positive attitude, staying patient, and staying persistent throughout the tough stuff. This is something that I really struggled with throughout my first year teaching. The second hike that we went on was on a trail that required hiking up and down large hills and fording 2 large creeks (YAY!). I was SO EXCITED to start this hike. It was a little off the beaten path and I got to jump in and hike through creeks.
There were a number of times when we had to bust out the map to figure out where we were headed... But I was still having a blast.
The trail was awesome until we came to an open firebreak with an un-mowed path and TICKS. My friend found 6 ticks on his leg. BLECKKKK! I grew up in suburbia- piano lessons, neighborhood swim team, playing on my backyard swing set-- nice non-tick activities. I immediately clammed up- I stopped talking, smile wiped off my face... NOT A HAPPY CAMPER. I moved to the back of the line and let the rest of the group do a little bushwhacking while I took some time to reflect. I realized that I needed to take this as a learning opportunity to recognize the things that we going right that day and how lucky I was to be in nature among friends. I needed to quit sweating the small stuff and "keep calm and move on." After a few minutes of prissy pouting I was back to my normal positive attitude and happy to continue on with the hike.
Then my friend chased me with a dead snake. I can't find too much of a lesson in that one.
Until next time, I will be preparing for my cross country journey with my sister. Happy trekking :-)
I do love how you make mold look cool!
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