Cachin' in the Cold

I was truly amazed at the level of participation from everyone in this semester's Geocaching event! People really came prepared - and, it was certainly chilly - so it seemed that may have helped everyone have a good time. I know that I thoroughly enjoyed both the earlier preparation in the semester and the hiding of the caches on the morning of our activity. Though, as with any program...I found I had to be prepared to the "unexpected".

One of the caches I had already "staked out" and for which I had written the clues (A good place for Pishing), was based on the my plan to place the cache at the base of a nearby birdhouse. Much to my surprise, the birdhouse was gone on the morning I hid the caches! A quick change in clues, but lack of change on the map, resulted in a little unintended confusion for the folks trying to find that cache. That, and the North/South confusion on two close caches leads to the adjust my plans for next year's hiding.

Probably the most interesting piece, though, has been reading everyone's posts about the caching event. There are so many different ideas and perspectives, yet the overall feel is that the time in the woods was a key element of success and very much appreciated. From my perspective, I was truly impressed by the ability of many of the teams to work collaboratively and supportively, even working through the frustrations of not finding a cache right away. This is an amazing group of students, and I feel fortunate to learn a bit more every time I work with you all

"Leaf Dancing"

Our first blog is supposed to describe a new outdoor activity in which we've never participated. I think I"ll get a bit creative here and offer up the activity of "leaf dancing". Before you get to laughing too much, it's no me doing the dancing part - it's the leaves. And, here's the explanation:

This past week I was hiking with our dog along a dirt road and came upon a magnificent, large, and isolated tree which was still hanging on to most of its gorgeous, golden leaves. We stopped (my dog was primarily interested in checking out who else had been there) and I looked up to just enjoy the view. As we stood there, a huge wind came up and started blowing all of the leaves. They were raining all around us. Some were blown on us, around us, and some were even catching up-drafts and heading back up in the air. It was absolutely amazing to be in this space hearing nothing but rustling leaves and feeling and seeing them fall on us like rain. It became one of those "moments" in your day when you realize you just encountered something special.

I had not participated in this in a very long time (and don't remember when I last did). And, I would imagine it's because it required me to be in the right place, at the right time, and to give myself the time to stop and just revel in the moment.

I would participate in this again primarily because it turned out to be an activity that truly offered me emotional restoration. I felt regenerated, I felt reconnected to the land, I felt as though it had been quite a gift (I may be sounding a bit esoteric and spiritual here, but, hey, that's part of the whole outdoor experience for me).

Fall 2010 - Outdoor Education & Leadership Course

This semester, we're trying the three different methods of reflecting:

1) Private reflections
2) Reflections shared among all of the class members
3) Reflections shared via public blog

And, to make things a little more interesting, I'm going to Blog along with the class! I'm looking forward to the first official Blog of Journal #3 and haven't quite figured out what new Outdoor Recreation activity I'll engage in just yet.

My first blog for our Summer course in Outdoor Ed & Leadership

I have asked the students in our Outdoor Education & Leadership course to reflect on their experiences throughout the semester. Journaling is one of the tools we used in the reflection process. This semester, for the first time, we included three phases of journaling:
1) Phase 1: Writing in journals privately and only sharing them with the instructor;
2) Phase 2: Writing responses to guided journal questions and posting them on a class Blackboard so colleagues within the course could also view them; and,
3) Phase 3: Writing reflective responses to guided journal questions and posting them to a public blog.

I look forward to reading blog postings and would be happy to hear any thoughts from others who may have encouraged public blog postings as part of a course assignment!