18 July
*Inquiry based teaching was easier than I expected--I didn't have to keep a slew of info at the forefront.  *Keeping quiet was easier than I thought it would be too. :)

Today I had my facilitate reading. The topic was Inquiry. I must admit I didn’t connect with the three readings. Lara helped me come up with a topic (seeds) to facilitate the conversation. And then I went hog-wild imagining activities. What fun! I had to stop and remind myself that this lesson was not really about seeds.  

When I worked as a Park Ranger giving tours my husband helped me get over my shyness. He said, "If you don't tell them about it, they won't know." It helped a lot. It made the experience of standing in front of a bunch of strangers more about what I could give them than about my fear. Fast forward to the inquiry/seeds lesson planning...I realized I had to partially set that paradigm aside and give students time to observe and figure things out for themselves.

The lesson itself was easier than I thought it would be. It was nice not being laser-focused on mountains of information to convey. Asking questions and leaving silences for comments and questions made the whole lesson was much more relaxed, it flowed. Many people were familiar with the sprouting bean activity but they liked the addition of corn kernels, unsprouted seeds and advanced sprouted beans and corn so they could see the tremendous changes a seed goes through. I was tickled by this response. It is nice to realize people are seeing something familiar in a new light.

At the Little Packets of Magic: Gallery of Seeds we looked at different seeds. I think people sometimes make the mistake of thinking something is simple because it is small. I enjoyed watching them pick the seeds up too get a closer look, Mary sharing her seed dispersal ditty and hearing what people knew about seeds and the political/ethical/economic issues regarding seeds.

I don’t think they thought much of the last activity when I gave them the instructions. We went outside and looked for seeds in the landscape immediately around the building. But they said afterward that they were amazed by the quantity of seeds available…and their faces lit up. It was a perfect moment. 

Kim said the lesson felt unstructured. I'm of two minds about that. On one hand I'm very happy she felt that way. I want delivery to be smooth, relaxed and to not interfere with their learning process. The transition of ideas and projects should flow easily. But the lessons can't seem loosy-goosy either. People tend to not value things that come too easy or are dismissive if delivery is disorganized. I guess I have to assimilate that student perceptions will all be different and I can only control my contributions.

We finalized our projects and went out to the first site today. Woohoo!  The plot was along Rt125 in the forest. Thin vegetation but it took us a while to get through it. I learned a few new forest plants. :) We'll get smoother and faster as we go along. We plan to go to the powerlines later...when we are more practiced!