Why Walk When You Can Fly

First Day Slideshow

First Month - make slideshow

Back To School...

Looking forward to starting another year at Tarrant High School! It has been a great summer, and there is a lot to look forward to in the new school year. From Positive Behavior Support to Ipod touches for the students, a new superintendent and many returning faces who made our work great last year, we all should look forward to starting a second year in the new building with enthusiasm, belief and high expectations.

Focus for the school year:

Be resourceful, Be respectful, Be responsible

A few things I have been up to over the summer...

Red Mountain Writing Project, "Teachers teaching teachers"

For the month of June, I participated in a workshop with 22 other teachers from the Birmingham area with the focus of improving writing from the elementary to college level. Affiliated with the National Writing Project, RMWP creates an environment in which teachers learn, discuss, encourage, and perform for other teachers.

During the month, "fellows" learned many ways to incorporate technology usefully, prepared a demo lesson based on their content, presented a daily pic, daily text and daily log for the class, discussed various scholarly articles, and did a book study according to their grade level. This momentum culminated with the celebration retreat in Gatlinburg where we planned for the next year and future of the writing project in Alabama.

Check out the website at rmwp.org to participate in upcoming events, seminars, and workshops!

Legacy Summer Institute

Thanks to funding from the new "Protect the Environment" license plate for Alabama, Legacy Partners in Environmental Education "creates environmentally responsible citizens through balanced, fact-based education that considers diverse environmental views." For one week, many of the finest leaders in environmental action and education came together at Birmingham Southern College for an action packed week of learning, experiencing and investigating. Led by Toni Bruner, Program Director for Legacy and Roald Hazelhoff of the Southern Environmental Center, participants began with a tour of the SEC, pool turned into building, and the Ecoscapes garden with a fabulous reception catered by Crestwood Coffee.

Other activities included canoeing Five Mile Creek, a tour of American Cast Iron Pipe Company, trips to Petals from the Past, Turkey Creek, and Ruffner Mountain LEED certified Nature Center. Guest speakers included: Nelson Brook of Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Dr. Doug Phillips of Discovering Alabama, and Big Dave and friends from Camp Mcdowell's Environmental Center. All in all an amazing week of adventures in our own Alabama, the beautiful and as Roald would call it, "the beginning of the Appalachian Trail."

Check out their website for more upcoming events, http://www.legacyenved.org

Esalen Institute

For one week, I also traveled to the coast of Big Sur California, where a small utopia has been carved out from the sacred lands of the now non-existent Essalen tribe of Native Americans. This spiritual center has been created to explore "human potential" and has been bringing together philosophers, psychologists, artists, and religious thinkers since 1962.

While there I had the opportunity to take a workshop and participate in dance, yoga, meditation, gardening, and painting. I also observed the Gazeebo school at Esalen in which I saw students running to class and teachers who looked the students in the eye and said,"Welcome, how are you? I'm so glad you came to school today!" I also had the opportunity to be part of a discussion with twelve Gazeebo students who have since grown up and returned to Esalen. Facilitated by their teacher, the students described what they are doing now, remembered various moments at Gazeebo and recounted various beliefs and lessons which they had carried with them into the real world. A remarkable definition of this experience relayed by one of the students was that Esalen is "a place to open your heart." From my experience of harvesting sea kelp with a midwife of thirty years to visiting the home of John Steinbeck's birth, I would agree that Esalen is a place to open your heart to a way to live your life, a place "where miracles not only happen, but happen all the time."