Return from Outward Bound!

I'm back from my Asheville Adventure and my Outward Bound Course. I loved figuring out my way around Asheville. Evergreen was an awesome and inspiring school. I sat in on/graded graduation panels. These are basically portfolio projects of 8th grade with reflections on the student's entire Evergreen experience. One student talked about Outward Bound a lot. The emphasis on community, environmental stewardship, learning expeditions, and outdoors expeditions was really neat. I hope to find a similar school to teach at. I'm really interested in the Expeditionary Learning Schools model. It seemed to keep students engaged and helped them be reflective. The science lab was really neat. Students had made dioramas of green homes.

Outward Bound was an incredible and challenging experience. I enjoyed getting to know my crew and instructors. I'm now hooked on rock climbing. I back packed with a very heavy pack. The Four Pillars of Outward Bound (self-reliance, craftspersonship, physical fitness, and above all, compassion) are values I hope to use as a basis of my actions and I hope to promote them in my future students. I learned fun games (some of which I might use as icebreakers for our first workday tomorrow) and teaching strategies. NCOBS rocks!

I am excited to meet parents and students tomorrow for our first workday. We are going to do icebreakers, do a little bit of organizational stuff, and start weeding :-).