Braiding of the Love Letters

Although there were many great love letters & poems in the group that I was in, I found Jenna DeBoth's and Mikayla Boen-Wira's to be the ones that I really enjoyed the most and the ones that I wanted to braid with.

Firstly, I wanted to comment on the medium in which Jenna wrote hers.  The limerick style was fantastic!  It really blends both of my fields of study -- English and biology -- quite well.  The addition and rational behind the word "Hyperbole" was hilarious due to the fact that limericks are all about hyperboles.  Mikayla and I both took a letter approach, but that is where our stylistic similarities end.

Jenna and Mikayla took a bit of a hypothetical approach to their assignments.  They both wrote to the idea of a person. Jenna's was to a "perfect" eco-literate person, and Mikayla's was to her future children.  Mine, however, was to a friend of mine who I believe to be far along on the path to eco-literacy. Seeing as I wrote to a person who actually exists, I was able to bring in some specific eco-literate activities (ethical eating, commune living) whereas Jenna and Mikayla mentioned some more general ideas of eco-literacy (which isn't meant to sound rude / discrediting).

I think one thing that we all agree on is the complexity of what it means to be eco-literate.  As Fritjof Capra states in his 2007 article "The definition of sustainability implies that in order to build sustainable communities, we must understand the principles of organization that have evolved in ecosystems . . . [t]his . . . is what we call "ecological literacy"" (10).  In one way or another, all three of us touched upon this idea within our writing (re: commune living, Mikayla's children looking back to her time).

Letter to an Eco-literate person

My letter can be found here.

Creative Journal #3 -- Response to Leo's speach

Prior to Tuesday's class, I had not heard Leo DiCaprio's UN address in it's entirety -- bits and pieces, sure, but not in full.  Honestly, I was quite impressed by it.  I mean, I don't want to just give him a bunch of credit for giving a damn about things everybody should give a damn about, but he seems to hold legitimate stakes in environmental issues.  He knows what he's talking about, he made many legitimate points, and most of all, he showed genuine passion.

I mean, I know he's an actor.  He gets paid to be ingenuinely genuine.  Whatever, it's fine.

His mention of industry is something that really resonated with me, and that's what prompted me to draw this picture.  As we become eco-literate, we should become more and more aware of what is really happening in the world.  We should become more critical of what we buy and where/who we buy it from.  With "Eco-Friendly" becoming a  huge buzz word, more and more products are boasting about how they're the eco-friendly-est.  But what does that even mean?  What is the minimum effort that has to be put in before something can be called "Eco-Friendly"?  Who decides the criteria of eco-friendly products / companies?

This makes me think of the SK based company Ten Tree Apparel  who boast being eco-friendly by planing 10 trees for every article of clothing that is purchased.  This is a pretty cool idea, and if they really have planted 4.5 million trees, as their website claims, then that's awesome.  That being said, the folks who started the company have no issues hopping on a private jet to fly to Las Vegas. Hey, that's their thing, right.  They're not the only ones who have, do, or will fly on a private jet, but when their company is promoting eco-friendlyness, flying across the continent doesn't really refelct those ideals.

Humans "Saving the world"

Much the same as the "Environmental Science as a scenic landscape" rhetoric, I absolutely hate the idea that we need to "save" the world.  Not due to the fact it doesn't need saving, but when it's put in terms of us "saving" the planet, it removes any and all owness from human beings.

We are the ones who did this.
We are the ones who spend unfathomable amounts of dollars to tear the face of the planet up
We are the ones who are polluting at a terrifying rate.
We are the destruction

We're not saving the planet from anything but ourselves.  This is why I drew this sketch.  Think of it like a math equation.  If people didn't exist on the planet, the earth would still (likely) be the same.

So it's not our job to "Save" the planet.  It's our job to unfuck the planet.

Creative Journal Entry #1

All right, so this is my first entry into my creative journal.  At first glance, it's a bit barren, I know -- but I'll take this time to explain it.

I decided to delve into the question "What does Environmental Education look like?" At the risk of sounding outrageously pretentious, environmental rights is a topic that I have an extreme amount of feelings towards.  So much revolves around the health of the environment, and it frightens me that people don't understand this.  Luckily enough, I've had the opportunity to teach Environmental Science 20 already, so I've gotten my feet a little bit wet in the marsh that is high school environmental education, and that is where I got the inspiration for my sketch.

Generally speaking, when someone brings up the topic of the environment, a mental image of some kind of peaceful scene will be birthed in the minds of the listener.  You know, the image of a sunrise/set, a beautiful green landscape, some silhouetted birds flying silently across the sky, and trees as far as the eye can see.

I really detest that idea.

This is why "MORE" is written across the sketch.  Environmental Education should be more.
There should be more talk about the impact of humans on the environment.
There should be more talk about political impact on the environment.
There should be more talk about the travesties that are happening on a daily basis.
There should be more talk about the complete disregard of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people in terms of environmental destruction.
There should be more action.

ESCI test

Test

Documenting Growth.

Link to lesson plan 1.

Target sheet for lesson plan 1.

This lesson was taught on March 18th -- the second day we were out in the field.  I was obviously incredibly nervous, tripped over my words more than I should have, and I wasn't clear with my instructions.  Because I wasn't clear with my instructions, the students didn't work as well as I had hoped.  We went to the library to use the computers, but most of the students sat with their friends and chatted.  Students from other classes were also chatting with the students from my class.  It was just a terrible period overall.

My co-op suggested that I set up clear rules for the computer lab. I allowed only two students to a table, they weren't to sit with anyone that wasn't from our class, and the expectation was that they were using their time to work on the assignment.  I kept those rules throughout my time at Miller, and re-iterated them each time we were going to the library.

Link to lesson plan 2.

Target sheet for lesson plan 2.

I've always had an issue with dating my work, and it was no different during my pre-internship.  Essentially what I'm saying is that I don't remember exactly what day this was on.  I believe that I taught this on the 28th of march, so about two weeks after the first lesson I provided.  This one went far better, and the evidence is right on the target sheet.  I established what I wanted students to do, I went over the rules for the library, and the period went incredibly smooth.

I was far less nervous, as I was already roughly two weeks into the placement, and I knew what expectations I had for the class.  I was able to lay out exactly what I wanted from the students.