I visited Marylin at Many Paths to Knowledge

I visited Michelle at Explore Alaska Southeast

Three c

I visited Alicia at Science Exploration

Module 3 : landscapes and cultures...

Explain:

  I found this week's essential question very relavant to me - The culture we live in is shaped by our landscapes. I have always believed that historically it was true here in southeast Alaska (it was obvious that people lived by the sea and depended upon it for it survival) and in Fairbanks when I went to college (just look at a map - waterways were such an important source of food and transportation that most villages are located along a river of some sort).

What I thought about this week was that this shaping is still going on. I see my students shaped by the land around them, just as the people of the past did, but more often now I see kids shaped by things in the global world, because that is now part of the landscape - television and computers bring new thought, ideas, and identity into a place that was never there before.

I guess in a way our landscape is changing, growing to include these new things and ideas, and our culture is growing with it. As we have learned, the land is always changing with erosion, volcanos, and other geological processes, but now rather than change slowly, it is growing at an amazing rate.


Extend

  In the third grade we focus very heavy on the continets, so I will try and see if I can get the Teacher's Domain website on Pangea to work onthe school's computer. I have also used Google Earth to take the kids on a "Virtual tour" to the country that they are studying. (Incidently, it is blocked on my school filters, but the kids showed me how if you log in to google maps first, you can bypass it and still use the program, somthing I didn't know).

I will do this because I think that if the kids can get an idea ofthe landscape, they might get a better understanding of the people who live there - that when the student who studies Sweden or Norway will make the connection on why those Vikings spent all their time at sea.


Evaluate:

This unit was relavant to my class for the reasons outlined above. It also reminded me that each kid who transfers in to my class has come from somwhere else, and has a connection to that place.  I grew up and am teaching in the same town I was born in. I have a deep connection here, but that student has a connection to somwhere else. If I can figure out what that connection is to then I have a much better understanding of who that person is and what is important to them. And connections are what teaching children is all about.

Module 2: the three "e"s

Explain:

I must admit that it is hard to fully explain what I have learned from the module, so to do this I’ll try and explain what my point of view is after the past week’s module. From where I stand,  truly knowing anything requires connecting it with how we live our lives. To really understand anything we must feel some connection to it in some way. In the Indigenous way of knowing, this means that whatever you learn must fit you’re your worldview somehow – if it doesn’t, then you can’t comprehend it.  From the Western science view, you must understand the various parts to make up the whole. In science things must be proven, but in traditional knowledge things must be felt to be understood.

As a learner I think I fit in better on the traditional side of the scale. I think of things first how they fit into the bigger picture and then go from there.  If I can understand the whole thing and see how something fits in, it is easier for me to understand the small part and its significance. However, if someone can fully grasp both ways of knowing, then they have a much deeper understanding of the concept that goes beyond the surface and into the cultural and spiritual aspects as well. It is that understanding that I think we all seek.

Extend:

As at teacher I always look at ways to use what I learn to help my students. It would be nice to show the videos from Teacher’s Domain to some of my students and colleagues, but the computer filters at my school make it impossible (I can’t watch any video, I have to leave the school to find a computer that will work). I think what I will use the most from this is a simple awareness that if I want my students to really grasp a concept; maybe I should try and get them to see it from more than a Western Science-centered point of view.  The more connections a person has with anything, the better they understand it.   I can bring in elders to explain the importance of salmon in their culture and spiritual history and make a completely different set of connections that when I teach external anatomy and life cycle.  Each set of connections is different, but each is vital for my students to have if I want them to truly understand the importance of the resource that they will inherit as future Alaskans.

Evaluate:

            This module was good for me for the reasons that I explained above – in this day and age with mandatory testing, reporting, standards, etc, we are always driven to teach things that we can quantify in hard and measurable data. I know that as a teacher I feel the push to teach things that I can test for, and therefore prove competency in.  Unfortunately, many of the traditional values are not quantifiable, or testable, or tangible, and therefore are pushed to the back burner and sometimes forgotten outright.  If I want to serve my students then I need to take into account that those ways of knowing are just as important to fully understanding a concept even though I cannot test for them.  My scores will probably suffer, but my students will be more successful learners. Ultimately, that’s why I’m here.

My favorite place

This is a picture of Annahootz Mountain, a place that i like to go to hike, hunt, and just explore. this was hte first time it was sunny when I was there.

I was born here, at Sitka Community Hospital,  (Matt Hunter's dad delivered me). Sitka is a city by Gulf Of Alaska, and i have spent my life exploring the steep mountians, deep fjords, and thick rainforest. IF you go back into the center of the island, there are a few glaciers, but they are really hard to reach.  One thing that I like about Sitka is that there is such a diverse ecosystem here. One one side of the island is rainforests and huge Sitka spruce, the other side is more sparse, with much more rock and ice. Up above treeline you get into alpine, where nothing grows taller than six inches.  Out in the sound, an extinct volcano has deposited a layer of ash that stunts growth in the surrounding areas. Archeologists are still finding caves with evidence of refugia around southeast so it's a really exciting time