Time Keeps On Slippin'

I have been remiss in blogging. Already we are in week three of summer, and it is slipping through my fingers like sand.

We started our art class and have added the first layer:

It doesn't look like much, but there will be many layers on top of this; the point was to get past the blank, white canvas. This didn't take very long, and it was kind of rushed, which is rather astonishing when I consider all of the time I have stretched out before me.

Ha.

Seems like there is never enough time; however little or much we have to do, these tasks seem to expand themselves to fill up the day. I am always amazed at how much we do during the school year when summer rolls around; seems like we must be superhuman to get all of our daily stuff done (grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning) on top of school things (planning, blogging, resource-gathering, etc) when, during the summer, it is difficult to get the dishwasher emptied after the dishes are done (we have been known to use all of the dishes out of the dishwasher. Makes putting clean dishes away a snap!).

This is hardly a complaint. Summer is time to let your mind wander, to swing in a hammock, to do nothing but watch the lint grow in your navel. Summer means fresh blueberries, swimming, walks up the mountain and antique browsing or movies on the most humid days.

Summer is for lazy contemplation, relaxing and thinking deeply. We are indulging in all of these things. And you?

Summer On Tap

Some events we have to look forward to this summer!

HoneyFern is taking an art class that starts on Monday; the class, called Bloom True, is with Flora Bowley, is offered online and will last for approximately five weeks. Stay tuned for paintings!

Our project to build a tiny house is moving forward with the generous help of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company; our books are in the mail, and we are learning more everyday from this page on Facebook.

Nous prenons une cinq-semaine une classe française avec Summer Osborn dans Cobb d'ouest. Ce devrait être un grand hasard pour parler avec les autres étudiants et améliore notre conversation!

I am also reading six new papers about motivation, chatting it up with The Met School's Nancy Bain about developing learning plans with reluctant learners, and embarking upon a professional development spree that involves lots of reading and yoga.

In the middle of all of this, I would like to pick blueberries and can tomatoes and go for hikes with the puppy and monitor our stream and gaze at my navel. The summer does not seem long enough for all of these thins, but we will do our level best!

Tumbleweed Tiny House Project

HoneyFern is, as always, reflecting this summer on how to make school even better for next year. Part of our approach is going to be a more formalized move towards individual learning plans and active, applied learning; the Big Picture Schools do this is on a "small" scale (still much larger than HF; they were initially funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation initiative for small schools), and I have already been talking with them about how to implement certain parts of the individual plans.

However, one of my students has leapt way ahead of me, indicating that for her curriculum next year she would like to build a house. My first thought was the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. I stumbled across this company ten years ago and have always wanted one; now, they have generously agreed to support the project with reading materials and are connecting my student with other students who are doing the same thing next year. They have also invited her to post guest blogs on her project to the Tumbleweed blog.

This is what it is all about! I have already had someone volunteer to be the student's expert mentor for this project, so not only will she be connected electornically with a larger national community, she will also have local, IRL support. She will also be investigating clean energy like solar power in the Future City competition this fall, so she can apply this group activity to her work with her tiny house.

This is what school should be like!

And Just Like That...

...the first week of summer is over.

Goodness, that was fast.

I managed to avoid nearly all semblance of work this week (except teaching myself about quantum mechanics and reaching out to some very interesting schools to talk about how to better create learning plans with students; more on the latter, later!), and to cap the week off, my computer staged a very dramatic mini-death whereby all of my "favorites" were wiped out. I narrowly avoided losing all my files - you know, silly things like report cards, administrative records and the book I have been working on for a year now. It has been interesting trying to reconstruct what I can remember as being "important" in my favorites and letting everything else go. Must be that they weren't that important to begin with, and isn't the internet itself just one big "favorites" bar?

Makes me feel better to think of it that way.

So chemistry starts next week, and we are starting by making a cheeseburger, complete with burger, cheese, bun, pickle and mayonnaise. If that isn't applied chemistry, I don't know what is. Search this site for "cheeseburger chemistry" to get all six videos (including tomatoes, which we are going to skip, for now). Awesome resources in general for different topics in chemistry!

Have a great weekend!

The Extent of My Avoidance

Today was an odd day.

I have work to do (a class to design, one that requires prep and some background building for me), and I didn't want to do it SO MUCH that I cleaned two bathrooms, made cookies, weeded the garden and handled some chicken hygiene instead (trust me when I tell you that whatever you are imagining, it was much, much worse).

And STILL there were many, many hours to fill with avoidance.

So I made breakfast for The Child and her friend, as well as lunch and dinner (The Child must think it is heaven; this rarely happens. Dinner, yes, generally, but three meals retrieved for her? In one day? Hardly ever.). This is the extent of my avoidance.

I also folded two loads of laundry. And put them away.

This is the extent of my avoidance.

I love my school, and I love what I do, but this speaks to the very deep need for something of a break. There are tasks I must complete in order to be prepared for next week, but I am going to be a little gentle with myself and allow myself a break, to avoid work a little, put some things off, maybe be less productive. Next year promises to be even more challenging than this one, with several students online only, several coming to HoneyFern regularly, and three AP classes off-site. I am going for 501(c)3 status, getting audited (at my own request; for continuing accreditation) and taking several professional development classes for the fall. I need to rejuvenate and take some time to clear my head before I move forward.

So every morning I am going to linger over coffee, pick blackberries and eat them with raw sugar, dawdle over my favorite cooking blogs and check in with my Tweeps, then maybe get started. I would like to have a little bit of summer every day, and I am sure The Child would like that, too.

Off to catch some fireflies....

Resource Friday...er...Thursday

So today is our last "academic" day, the day where we tie up loose ends before spending our official last day at the Georgia Aquarium (dolphin show, here we come!!). Because we will be "out of the office," and because I have been so lax in blogging, I am posting "Resource Friday" today.

This week has been a flurry of curriculum-seeking activity as I prepare to teach a  six-week course in chemistry to an ELL. How do you get an understanding of chemistry that is intriguing and throrough without simply memorizing? And in six weeks?

You start by making a cheeseburger, of course.

Visit this link and type in "Cheeseburger Chemistry" for six short videos on six parts of the cheeseburger; concepts include states of matter, fermentation, physical/chemical change and more. A great intro to how chemistry is used in real life.

Great article on making homemade mayonnaise that hammers home the concept of solutions v. emulsions, too. I think we will take this whole series and make lunch, starting with pickles the first week (they need some time to ferment!).

Another great chemistry resource is The Periodic Table of Videos from the University of Nottingham (yes, where Robin Hood is from!!). Each element has a short video that features some sort of chemical reaction (lots of explosions) and an interesting explanation of what each element is for.  The presenters are pleasantly British and universally good-humoured (note the British spelling for authenticity).

Along those same lines, these periodic tables in words and pictures have each element, where they are found in the world and a description; families are color-coded. No atomic numbers, but this is a great way to show the relevance of the periodic table (I am always seeking to answer the inevitable question, "Why do we have to know this?") and a good starting point for the non-science-minded student of any age.

The Innovative Educator has an awesome blog this week that profiles a school with a remarkably similar framework to HoneyFern. Nice to have company in the endeavor, even if only through cyberspace!

And finally, on a personal note, here is what we are doing on this long weekend to start off summer - making peach butter! I can't think of anything I would enjoy more than to capture the taste of summer in a jar. Nothing like opening the seal on sunshine in the middle of the winter.

Have a great weekend!

Stretching Minds Through Experience

Our last day of school is on Friday, and, as usual, I get reflective at the end of the year. This has been a crazy ride, our second year, full of ups and downs, with some spectacular experiences and some truly great people, but what sticks out for me the most this year is our field experiences. In 180 days, we were out in the world, learning, for 42 days.
Here is a bit of what we did:

Plays:
Much Ado About Nothing
Taming of the Shrew
Macbeth
A Christmas Carol
Don Giovanni (ok, an opera, but still)

(Mad love goes to The Shakespeare Tavern, not just for their brilliant work but also for the behind-the-scenes tour and Q&A after Macbeth. What an incredible experience that made each play so much richer!)

Museums:
Fernbank (Darwin exhibit and Imax film, Galapagos)
Bodies Atlanta (just...wow. GO.)
Georgia Aquarium (our final trip of the year on the last day)

Overnight: Tybee Island Burton 4-H Camp (So. Much. Fun.)

Other:
Yellow Daisy Festival
Geocaching - four expeditions!
Stream Monitoring - monthly, all year
Food Pantry - 2x/month at Hollydale United Methodist Church


It is hard to believe how far we have come this year, and next year seems like we will be out in the world just as much! Looking ahead, I see a the high ropes course at Wahsega (or maybe the Flying Squirrel - who knows?), more plays at The Shakespeare Tavern, La Traviata at Cobb Energy Center, Tellus Museum, Booth Western Museum, and the High Museum. One student is planning on building a tiny house; another wants to design and build a chicken coop. We are delving into Spanish literature and the second year of French.

A mind stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Here's to stretching minds!