Year in Review: 10 Most Popular Posts of 2015

In just a few days I'll mark the 4th year of my blogging journey. This year brought numerous requests for presentations on blogging with several more anticipated in 2016. No doubt these requests and my most popular blog posts would not be possible without you, my readers. If you haven't yet joined the blogosphere consider making 2016 your year. Let these ten most popular posts of 2015 serve as inspiration. Even if these topics aren't in your wheelhouse find your passion and your voice and share it with us all because blogging doesn't have to be polished like an essay; it's a great opportunity to creatively express your views.

Here at Learning to Muse popular posts in 2015 include book reviews, posts about my sons and posts about my professional passion of re-imagining public education.

#10 Dreaming of a Teacher Powered School

Call it a long shot, but I've taken steps toward realizing this dream by forming a team of students, teachers, and administrators creating a concept and designing a proposal to rethink high school in the XQ Super School Project. And, you? What thoughts can you add about how our public education system needs to change?

#9 As My Oldest Son Starts High School, Here's What I'm Thinking

This post brought comments on social media from other parents faced with sending their children to high school or even to kindergarten (since the photo with the original post included one of my son on his first day of kindergarten). Update: We're off to a great start as my son had a strong finish to his first semester of high school. He started the year by advocating for himself and landing in a specific science class he desired; he's performing well in all of his classes and he mostly keeps up with his progress without much pestering from us. He likes English class for the first time; we suspect it's helped that the assistant cross country coach is also his 9th grade English teacher.

#8 Hiking Upper Fish Creek Falls in Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Who doesn't love Colorado? With all the outdoor activities and beautiful scenery, you won't be disappointed. Since I've been collaborating with colleagues in Colorado for the past few years they assured me our trip to Steamboat Springs would be fantastic. Of course, we were not disappointed. Our incredible family trip with relatives included multiple hiking opportunities. We loved Steamboat Springs and even found ourselves dreaming about a move to Colorado (Oh wait, it wasn't just this trip--I've been thinking about a move to Colorado for several years now).

#7 My Favorite Quotes from Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird

If you're a writer or a reader follow Anne Lamott on Facebook for witty and wise commentary on being a better version of yourself. I kicked off 2015 reading Bird by Bird and sharing some of my favorite quotes. Not included in that post was another favorite quote-- "For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth...They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die." I also think they show us how to be better writers which is one of the many reasons why I personally choose to read at least one book a week.

#6 Students Should Create, Compose, & Connect Digitally

Troy Hicks and Jeremy Hyler share strategies for engaging students in using technology to create and connect. Gaining increasing momentum in America is the Student Voice (#stuvoice) movement connecting students across schools, districts, and even states. Fortunately, my youngest son has even joined the fun with our Kentucky statewide group, and he's learning and connecting with other students also interested in improving public education.

#5 Reflections on Writing with Deanna Mascle

As parents and educators, Deanna and I share experiences both of us have had with our sons, and we also share multiple links to resources for upping your game as a writing instructor. This post is fun for parents or educators (or both).

#4 Most Likely to Succeed Book and Film

If you haven't read this book or seen the film, you are missing out. Dintersmith and Wagner provide details and ideas for how we can re-imagine public education in America. Further, they provide statistics and examples of why we need to change public education. Follow Dintersmith's blog for information about his ongoing book tour and personal mission to push education change.

#3 Using Blogging to Connect, Learn, & Magnify Teacher Voice

Read this particular and very popular post for suggested blogs to follow and read. After joining National Blogging Collaborative as a volunteer writing coach this year, I personally found myself connected to even more bloggers--all on a mission to elevate the voices of teachers. If you do decide to get started with blogging this year, check out the free supports available from NBC. 

#2 Smart Parents: Parenting for Powerful Learning

In one amazing week, this post became my second most popular read blog post of all time (not just number 2 this year). In case you missed it, I'm sharing it here again so you can learn ideas for student-centered learning. Fellow parents--this book is for you, too, because we can learn more about how our children learn from us about how to persevere, set goals, and persist through challenges.

#1 What Connected Educators Do Differently Describes My Own Connected Journey

Even after 4 years of blogging, this one post skyrocketed to the number one place of all blog posts at Learning to Muse. This post is for educators specifically, especially those looking to connect with others.

Women in Wyoming Equality State

A red-haired retiree (Liz) from Oregon greeted us when we began our guided tour of the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historical Site. We learned Liz and her husband travel around the USA volunteering at various historical sites. When we met them at the end of June, they had been in Laramie, Wyoming only since May. Lucky for us, our guide's love of history made for an interesting tour of the facility and grounds.

Wyoming Territorial Prison

One of my favorite parts about our visit included learning about women in Wyoming, including these interesting facts shared with us by our guide as I asked her questions about women's rights in the state.

•  In 1869 Women in Wyoming were granted the right to vote, and Eliza Swain of Laramie cast the first vote.
• Nationwide the first female Justice of the Peace was in Wyoming.
• Wyoming elected the first female governor in our country in 1924.
• Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cody Stanton traveled to "the land of freedom" in 1871 via the Transcontinental Railroad.

While there were some female prisoners housed among infamous outlaws such as Butch Cassidy, the woman who captured my attention on our visit was May Preston Slosson, who was one of the few women granted the right to purse a PhD at Cornell University before the twentieth century. She served as Chaplain at the prison from 1899-1903. She was also an advocate of the women's suffrage movement.

Replica of wagon used to transport the prisoners

Slosson gave many speeches about her time as a female chaplain in Wyoming--The Equality State and proclaimed "a woman's rights to absolute equality with a man, in education, financial independence, social and political opportunities." She eventually moved to New York City with her husband and there remained a strong advocate for brining a better world for women, even marching in the 1917 Women's Suffrage Parade.

Slosson was a painter, poet, teacher, speaker, and advocate for women

Other reasons to appreciate Slosson include the facts that she was an artist and had a love of learning and knowledge.  She "cherished books, especially literature and poetry." She at one point taught at at Hastings College in Nebraska and believed that her one gift, one thing she could do--"I could sway an audience."

We spent only 24 hours of our vacation in Wyoming, but I must say it was an experience not to forget, with the massive amounts of open land and the history represented in Laramie. 

Wide open land in Wyoming

I'll leave you with a photo of a beautiful sunset from our one night in Wyoming and a quote from May Slosson "Literature has been the passion of my life, my chief recreation and a resource when in trouble. A long walk under the open sky is reading's only rival."

Sunset in Laramie, Wyoming

Hiking Upper Fish Creek Falls in Steamboat Springs Colorado

Fish Creek Falls

Amazing sites and a steep hike topped our day yesterday as we hiked Upper Fish Creek Falls in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Our hike started off easy with a 1/4 mile hike to an overlook for viewing the beautiful Fish Creek Falls where we snapped photos and stood in awe of the 300 foot waterfall. Refreshed, happy, and at ease with the start of our hike, five of us continued on with the next section of the hike to the first bridge about a 1/2 mile in on a gravel trail. We stopped to look at signs about the various trails and determined that we would hike above the falls, taking us slightly closer to the Continental Divide Trail (since reading about people thru-hiking the trail last year, I've been curious about how close we could get when we ventured to Colorado).

This also provided an opportune learning time for my sons to ask about the Continental Divide. What better way to learn this aspect of geography than hiking within miles of the Great Divide of North America?

From there we began our hike upward on a moderate to difficult hike slowly and steadily gaining elevation. After another 1/2 mile, two members of our group of five decided to turn back because the incline takes a toll on unacclimated lungs. My sons, however, were determined to move forward, and I, too, wanted to challenge myself with a more rigorous heart pumping hike, so we pressed onward with the climb. After approximately 2 more miles of hiking up, we came to another bridge with more incredible views of the water and forest.

Rocky path near the top

From the second bridge we had about another 1/2 mile traverse of rocks to make it to the top of Upper Fish Creek Falls. At times, we climbed using our hands to keep us steady. Making it to the top with my sons was exhilarating (and exhausting). We spent only 10 minutes at the top before climbing back down the rocks and heading the path to the bridge and foot path to the bottom of the falls.

Climbing with our hands

The hike down took us much less time, and my oldest son, a cross-country runner, enjoyed taking the lead and hiking solo to the bottom to meet my husband and his brother who awaited us. Ever the runner and lover of outdoors, he made it to the bottom and came back up to find my younger son and me carefully working our way down the rocky pathway. Seeing him made us smile, knowing we were that much closer to the finish.

The cross-country runner taking a break to wait for us

We experienced feelings of joy, happiness, and accomplishment upon making it back to the first bridge and the bottom of the falls. Elated for the heart pumping and view inspiring experience with my sons, we walked the 1/2 mile back up hill to the parking lot. 3 1/2 hours start to finish. Total elevation 8,770 feet.

Three of us at the top

At the top

Visiting Piedmont College for Alumni Weekend

Piedmont College

Nestled beautifully in the mountains of Northeast Georgia, Piedmont College offers a top-notch liberal arts education. Read about what it did for me.  On a recent Saturday we returned to our Alma Mater for Alumni Weekend. My husband and sons as well as my parents and in-laws all met in Demorest where we stayed in an amazing house my in-laws found and rented for the weekend.

View from bedroom window at house we rented in Demorest

Though we hadn't been back to Piedmont in fourteen years, my husband and I were warmly welcomed back by professors who reminisced with us about the days when we were students. They also dreamed with us about the future of education (higher ed & K-12). Our conversations focused on the importance of education being

• thoughtful
• purposeful
• creative

English Professor Lisa Hodgens thoughtfully nominated me for the 2015 Excellence in Education award which I accepted at a ceremony on Saturday night for my contributions to education on the local, state, and national level. Knowing the nomination came from Lisa made it meaningful, and when asked to give a few words at the ceremony, I became choked up from gratitude for my experiences at Piedmont. Without a doubt, Piedmont provided the understandings I needed to develop a thoughtful, purposeful, and creative approach to teaching and learning.

At the awards ceremony, the Alumni Office (some of the friendliest staff) played a video of snapshots from my time at Piedmont with photographs of some of my favorite people and experiences. My opportunities at Piedmont included traveling each spring to the Southern Literary Festival where we would hear great authors read their works of literature. In 1995 we visited Ole' Miss in Oxford and toured Rowan Oak where we saw William Faulkner's penciled handwriting on the wall.

We also traveled with Dr. Hodgens abroad to England the summer after graduation. There we studied Shakespeare with the Royal Shakespeare Company, attended numerous plays, and explored the historical cities of Oxford and London. Experiences such as these can't be traded for book work, and I'm grateful for the thoughtfully and creatively designed programs Piedmont offered.

Not all of our experiences involved travel; we also engaged in meaningful discussions in our classes. My entire Master's program provided a purposeful look at education, and especially worth noting was a graduate school course titled American High School taught by Dr. Hilton Smith. We read books by John Goodlad and George Wood and discussed numerous critical studies by Ted Sizer and Debra Meier. Our open-ended discussions of these texts encouraged us to develop our own philosophy of education and mine certainly included an emphasis on student choice and interest.

Piedmont College

During Alumni Weekend, we enjoyed touring the campus, seeing all the renovations, attending a reception at President Mellichamp's house, celebrating at the awards banquet and attending a play afterwards in the new Swanson Center Black Box Theatre. Fortunately, we made it back to campus for brunch on Sunday with Hilton Smith and his wife Sara Tucker. Our conversation went straight to catching up on education trends, policies, and practices as we exchanged ideas, perspectives, and stories--the kinds of stories that keep us going in a world of education where we feel like people have sometimes forgotten to be intentional. However, with our dedication to the larger purpose, we carry-on hopeful to make an impact through thoughtful, purposeful, and creative education geared toward providing students choice and interest in their learning. Of course, you might recall my previous blog post where I discussed my correspondence with Hilton and my dream of a starting a Teacher Powered School.

We enjoyed this fantastic play by the Theatre Dept. Alumni Weekend

Sunday Salon: What I Read Online February 23-March 29

A month of balancing out of state travel and family life leaves me full of good online reads to share. Obviously, I won't be sharing everything here or the blog post would be way too long, but here are some of my favorites in the past month.

The hotel in Seattle where we met for our NT3 Learning Session 

New Ways of Thinking About School

I Wish Someone Had Intervened  by Heather Costaras conveys the story of a young girl whose needs are not being met in a traditional sit still school environment. Posts like these further emphasize the reason I remain in public education. We've got to make some changes for kids.

Every Child Deserves a World Class Education. Check out the #UpforSchool campaign.

In this post, an NBCT explains how she persevered through the National Board Certification Process even when it was tough.

Yet another reason to re-think our school models--Suspended Students Lose Millions of Days of Instruction While Out of School, a Washington Post article by Donna St. George.

We Should Be Teaching Our Students Like Yoda Taught Luke, a terrific article about personalized education by Vicki Phillips in Wired.

In The Power of Professional Capital by Andrew Hargreaves and Michael Fullan I learned about other countries in the world who treat their teachers like professionals who build a better nation. We can do this, America! It means we have to change our ways of thinking about teachers and teaching though.

Why I Quit Teaching by Adam Kirk Edgerton serves as an excellent reminder of why teachers should be treated like the professional adults they are.


Students at this School in NYC Get Jobs, Not Grades. Imagine the possibilities if we would think about making this type of school more accessible to more students in America.

Teenagers need playtime too. Nothing reminds me of this more than my own sons who consistently complain about how much they have to sit still at school.

The power of we in distributed leadership models within schools. Read this article if you care about new ways of leadership in our public schools.

Women, Leadership, and Self-Improvement

Read about amazing women who have accomplished much in life and also think about why we still need more women in particular fields Women's Work: Why We Need More Women in Media by Paula Kerger.

The 7 Habits of Truly Genuine People was a good reminder to me as I think about improving myself as a person and leader.

I've been thinking lately about the important connection between leaders and readers, so I found a few articles online on the topic including this one titled Is Reading Boring?

Though I'm not hugely into fashion, the article For Michelle Obama, Clothes That Lean In caught my attention because of the focus on Mrs. Obama wearing appropriate clothes for her mission to promote girls' education worldwide, and I certainly am into that.

This App Makes Your Phone Buzz When You Approach Places Where Women Made History. Not much else to say. Love it.

For fun & because I like to travel and enjoy watching Kentucky basketball...
Though it was a close call last night when Kentucky played Notre Dame, I read this second article a week earlier--Kentucky basketball is huge around here, and the biggest story right now relates to the historic number of wins. John Clay claims Kentucky will go all the way unbeaten. Of course, it's always fun to see Kentucky reflected positively in The New York Times.

As we continue planning our family summer vacation to Colorado, this article from The New York Times caught my attention since we will be staying in Steam Boat Springs for a large portion of our trip. The restaurant sounds lovely, and I look forward to trying the delicious sounding foods mentioned.

A view of the Space Needle from my room

Seattle, Washington remains one of my favorite cities in America to visit, and fortunately, I had the luxury of working there most of last week.

My work in the past week highlighted again the importance of teacher leadership. In our third learning session of the Network to Transform Teaching (NT3), we shared ideas across states and we made specific goals around the two aims. Read more about that work here.

I appreciated the focus on improved learning experiences for students as the reason why we need teachers leading in our schools and districts.

Sunday Salon: What I Read Online January 26 - February 08

My work week on January 26th began with a trip to Denver, Colorado. Coincidentally, The New York Times published this article titled What to do in Denver the week before my trip. Though I didn't get to take in all the sites suggested in the video, I did enjoy a couple of meals at local venues. My colleague and I enjoyed lunch at Earle's before a meeting downtown at the Colorado Education Initiative, and we were treated to dinner downtown that same evening. The following day we worked all day with teachers who were analyzing student work and planning revisions to their common assignment units before heading out to the infamous Steuben's (one featured on Diners, Dives, & Drive-Thrus) for dinner.

Morning walk in North Denver

Education

Students in Northern Kentucky took their desire to be makers into their own hands and created this makerspace.

Education is the most powerful weapon to change the world--read about a film exploring this truth.
Pressure for high-stakes standardized tests is apparently ruining creativity in China. Read more here.

"It's now more important than ever to teach students to think and speak critically" says Terry Roberts in this article.

Visions for Shared Leadership from district administrator Mike Stacey are encouraging.

In education (and other field) we are inundated with big data. In this article we are reminded of the importance of human perspective when we analyze data--yes!

Book review for The Test features a school right here in Kentucky using more performance based assessments to measure student learning.

Science teacher, Patrick Goff, writes about re-thinking the way we do science fairs, and I love this idea as a parent and as an educator.

We had the opportunity to see Jack Andraka live last weekend. If you've never heard him, I'd suggest listening to his dynamic TED TALK.

Health/Adventure

For inspiration to stay active, read about the American man who ran 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days.

Humanity
 
As we approached the anniversary the 70th anniversary of prisoners being liberated from Auschwitz,  hear and read a survivor's story here.

Female Militants published a manifesto about it being acceptable for girls as young as age 9 to be forced into marriage. How is this possibly right?

For weeks now, I've been following the story of Raif Badawi, and was pleased to hear his flogging was once again postponed, and I keep hoping for his freedom.

Remember the nearly 300 Nigerian girls who were kidnapped? They are still not free. Here's a reminder.

A story about girls from Chibok who escaped and are now returning to school, defying the militants.

Music/Art/Business
Madame CEO, Get Me a Coffee articulates some of the gender bias woman still endure in the workplace.

A story about Bob Dylan's speech at the Grammy's was a fun read as was this article about the intersection between art and literature.

8 New Jobs People Will have in 2025 was intriguing.

A delightful Google Doodle on the birthday of poet Langston Hughes.

Breaking Down the Silos Between School Finance & Teaching and Learning

Last week I once again stepped out of my comfort zone, big time. I attended an education finance training in Chicago where the majority of the attendees were CFOs or other business types who provide technical assistance to districts and schools as they align instruction priorities and finance decisions.

Several of the comments made by my table partners alarmed me, and I pushed back on them too. Take this statement--

"We can't have people so close to issues involved in decisions about how we spend money."

                             --anonymous person at my table

Really? Wow. No. I couldn't let that one slide. I believe there are teachers who are logical minded and plenty smart enough to help make decisions about how we spend money that will impact their students. So, of course, I calmly brought this up, and was repeatedly smacked back down. I'm not one to stay down for long though. Advocating for teachers as part of decision making processes is important to me, so that's what I did. By the end of the session, I had a couple of people beginning to see my perspective.

"Someone from leadership needs to determine what needs to be fixed and take steps to fix it"            

                            --anonymous person at my table

Another shocker. Why should it be someone at the top making decisions about how to fix problems? I learned recently about some of the best places in America to work, and each of those places values the input of everyone on every level in the company. Can't it be the same way in our school systems? Students, teachers, janitors, administrative assistants all are people who might have suggestions for budget issues in our public schools.

Beautiful Chicago at Night from the Air

Honestly, I can't say I've previously paid much attention to how money is spent in our schools, but I've decided I need to change my perspective on this, and I was inspired by Irvin Scott from the Gates Foundation who said he used to not think much about the finances either, and then he determined that if he was going to think about wisely spending money on the resources needed for instruction, he needed to understand the bigger picture. He recited a poem for the group and reminded us of the high expectations we need to establish and maintain for our students. Sometimes we need resources for helping us maintain these high expectations. The image he shared was perfect. We want students on their tip-toes reaching our expectations, and we certainly don't want students to stoop to meet our expectations. Again, all the more reason to think about how we spend our money to impact student learning.

According to reports from Smarter School Spending, only 8% of schools and districts compare investments based on student achievement. I'm not sure why this surprised me. I worked in schools and districts for nearly fifteen years, and countless times I saw money wasted on various fads or initiatives that were not necessarily aligned to any learning goals or objectives.

Educator friends, I encourage you to learn what you can about finance decisions made in your schools and districts. How? If you're all about instruction---step out of your comfort zone & learn something new about finances and make your voice known in a logical and smart way.

Finally, though, I think it's essential that we break down the silos between the people in finance and the people in teaching and learning. By working together, we have a greater chance of making smart decisions about how money in our schools is spent. If you need tools to help you make smarter decisions, you might consider checking out the tools I learned about last week.

Visiting Historic Fort Clinch State Park on Amelia Island

Standing atop an outer wall overlooking Cumberland Sound

I've pretty much been cooped up in my house for the past six weeks with my broken right ankle. Thank goodness for virtual technologies and the ability to work from home. However, this has also meant infrequent outings for business and even more infrequent outings for pleasure, and I am longing for a trip, big time. Travel is a need for me. As I usually do, I've been reading about far away places and even nearby places, and of course, this is all making me want to travel even more. With school back in session and my inability to drive myself anywhere right now, I'll have to settle for armchair travel. In fact, I think I'll spend some time in the next couple of weeks of my still limited mobility thinking and writing about a great places I've visited in the past few months starting with Fort Clinch State Park on Amelia Island.

Fort Clinch State Park is one of those must-see attractions you hear about when planning your family vacation, especially for families like ours who enjoy a mixture of learning and lounging. Though these cannons look impressive, we learned during our visit that no battles were ever fought at Fort Clinch, but it was occupied by soldiers during the Spanish American War and during the Civil War.

Interior Buildings

Shaped like a pentagon, the fort has outer walls and interior courtyards along with interior barracks.

Outer Walls at Fort Clinch

Officers' quarters were much more plush than the soldiers' barracks, and we enjoyed seeing both and listening to the historic reenacters from the Civil War Era. They explained to us why they were wearing Union uniforms. Federal troops controlled the fort for most of the Civil War (even though there was a brief take-over by the Confederates). In fact, the fort was mostly used as the base of Union operations, allowing the Federal troops to gain control over the Florida and Georgia Coastlines.

Soldiers' Barracks 

Officers' Quarters

  

We enjoyed climbing to the top of the outer walls and looking out over the Cumberland Sound, and we also enjoyed capturing interesting photos of stairwells and walkways.

Kentucky and Colorado Teachers Collaborate to Create Units of Study with LDC Modules Embedded Within

Seattle, Washington

From Seattle to Colorado to right here in Kentucky the collaborative spirit has been an important  productive struggle for teachers and partners participating in the Common Assignment Study (CAS). In the CAS, Kentucky and Colorado teachers continue to lead the way with the implementation of new standards in both states.  For the past year, teachers from Kentucky and Colorado have been collaborating to create units of study containing embedded Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) modules.  Hundreds of students in each state have been impacted by these high quality units, and dozens of teachers have learned from one another about what makes an effective unit and what quality student work looks like.

This summer we expanded our participation from 24 Kentucky teachers to 64 from five different Kentucky districts. Colorado has similar numbers of teachers from multiple districts participating in the study. To launch the expansion, The Fund for Transforming Education in Kentucky hosted Colorado educators and all our CAS partners twice this summer. We held the first session in northern Kentucky at Dixie Heights High School in late June. High School English Language Arts teachers and middle school history teachers joined forces to revise the units they implemented in 2013-2014 based on the results of student work they analyzed together using CAS partner created protocols. Joining us at this work session were school and district leaders from participating sites because we continue to learn the importance of school and district leadership with ensuring successful implementation. The leaders need to hear from teachers about what they need (time is always a big one) for collaborating with colleagues.

My son running XC on beautiful day in Lexington, KY

Our second session, in mid-July, was held in Lexington at Edith J. Hayes Middle School, and included a larger group of high school social studies, middle school English language arts, and both middle and high school science. Following the same protocols used at the June convening, teachers again worked to refine lessons and collaborate with teachers experienced in the CAS project and teachers joining new for the first time this year. This intentional design allowed teachers new to the project this year to work collaboratively with teachers who created the initial units last summer. This approach, though not easy, encouraged the newly joining teachers to take equal ownership of the units they will teach in 2014-2015.

As The Fund's Initiative Director for this project, one of my favorite parts is the equal focus on process and product. Yes, we're working to create units, rubrics, and protocols, but we are also experimenting with collaborative processes across school, district, and state lines. I'm not alone in thinking collaboration is a valuable part of our Common Assignment Study.  When asked what they liked about the collaborative process at the summer convenings, here's what we heard from some of the teachers...

"collaborative efforts of a lot of great minds"

"I liked that we came from different backgrounds"

"multiple perspectives"

"Collaboration was streamlined, and everyone was more comfortable speaking up"

"Again, collaboration with like minded experts always leads to new and productive ideas.  I always get better with my craft when surrounded by comrades."

Loveland, Colorado

______________
Other posts about this project by me & by others

Common Assignment Study Gears Up for Second Year

Online Tools for Collaborating Across States

Common Assignment Study Post 1

Bridging the Digital Divide in Classrooms by Brison Harvey

Introducing Common Assignment Study  A three part post by Brison Harvey

A Storify all about the HS English Spring Unit by Colorado Teacher, Danny Holloweg

Learning While Vacationing on Amelia Island

 

Summer Beach on Amelia Island

After a long winter, a full academic year, a job search for my husband, and my many travels for work, our family finally took our much anticipated summer beach vacation.  My father-in-law and his wife rented a beach house for all of us to enjoy time together on Amelia Island in Florida. One of the best things about the place he rented? A screened in private pool. Between midnight swims and afternoon pool games, we certainly enjoyed maximum family time in this pool.

My brother-in-law who flew in from Colorado captured this awesome pic of the pool.

While the beach house included a full kitchen and a grill outside, we did dine out three times during the week. Once because we had just made it to the beach and still needed to shop for groceries, another time because I had a craving for fish tacos, and a third time when we feasted on local seafood at The Crab Trap, a family owned and operated restaurant.
 

My youngest son tried crab legs for the first time.

Florida is one of the nine states in which I have lived in my life, so I'm well aware of the weather there. Though it is the sunshine state and we did have sunshine everyday, there was also a typical rainy afternoon and evening. This allowed plenty of time for reading, watching movies, and playing board games together. My father-in-law's wife, Connie, is a master at Scrabble, and it's rare that anyone can beat her. We all tried though. Monopoly was another favorite, and there was certainly time to enjoy a long game of it.

Thankfully, we didn't see any large and dangerous creatures (sharks or alligators) on this trip, but we did enjoy seeing a graceful praying mantis, a turtle, a few crabs, a couple of  armadillos, and plenty of seagulls. These creatures along with the ocean were all perfect reminders of this amazingly beautiful world in which we live.

Since the house where we stayed included a fully outfitted kitchen, we had no trouble making meals as a family. Something about being away from home made even my son want to help prepare dinner. One night my brother-in-law and husband grilled salmon and made a delicious kale salad for the family to enjoy.

 

When you have two parents who are educators like my sons do, you know and expect that your family trips will include educational experiences.  While the bulk of our week on Amelia Island was spent swimming in the ocean, collecting unique seashells, lounging by the pool, diving for pool torpedoes, devouring seafood, playing board games on rainy Florida evenings, capturing photos of various live creatures, and chatting with family over grilled feasts, we also made time for an afternoon visit to a Civil War Era fort at Fort Clinch State Park. 

View from the top of the fort

Now we are all rested and relaxed and ready for another academic year!

Sharing Poems and Exploring Mammoth Cave

The Historic Entrance to Mammoth Cave

Descending into the dark and cold Mammoth Cave with 80 fifth-grade students, I couldn't help but think about all the writers and explorers before us who also entered at the cave at the Historic Entrance. In the weeks leading up to our visit, I read  Ultima Thule by Davis McCombs for my book of the week, and then I re-read the poems aloud to my ten-year-old son, a few poems each evening the week before our trip. Isaac and I have been to Mammoth Cave previously on a family trip, and I accompanied his older brother two years ago on his school trip, but this was the first time we read literature specifically associated with the cave prior to visiting.

With Poem in Your Pocket Day occurring the day before our trip, Isaac chose McCombs' poem Brush Fire to carry and share with his classmates at school. When we entered the cave the next day, we made our first stop in the cave dome that sits directly below the Mammoth Cave Hotel.  This stop reminded us of Brush Fire where we read of forty acres burning and the Hotel surviving while a group below is explores, oblivious of the fire raging above them.

Isaac carries Brush Fire for his #PocketPoem

The persona poems in Ultima Thule fed our shared interest in history, especially since the first few poems are persona poems told from the voice of former slave guide Stephen Bishop. Bishop was a slave owned by Dr. John Croghan, the owner of Mammoth Cave between 1839 and 1849. When not leading guided tours, Bishop explored the depths of the cave and found hundreds of miles of passageways including what he called The Bottomless Pit.
                    Before I crossed it on a cedar pole, legs
                    dangling into blackness, here the tours....



"Now, when I turn off the lights you have to promise not to scream." Our park ranger and tour guide calmly prepared us for the portion of our tour that would lead us over a steel grate looking down into The Bottomless Pit. However, before leading us into Dante's Pass and over the pit, we stopped in front of the Giant's Coffin (a large rock formation) and he turned off all the lights, so we could experience a pitch black darkness possible only this deep within the earth. Isaac says the Giant's Coffin stop was one of his favorite on the tour because he enjoyed the park ranger's stories and the momentary experience of complete darkness and silence.

Inside Mammoth Cave

The next sections of our hike required more stooping and crawling through narrow passageways as we descended into the fourth of five levels of the cave before again ascending some of the 500 steps we climbed on this moderate intensity historic tour. We saw names and letters on rocks and considered the people who came before us and recorded their visit with candles.

Candlewriting at Mammoth Cave

After two hours of exploring cave passages and learning about the rich human history of Mammoth Cave, we exited the cave feeling full of new knowledge gained through experience and enhanced because of our study of poetry.

Exiting Mammoth Cave

Spring 2014 at Mammoth Cave, Kentucky