Ahaa!! You just provoked an epiphany for me!!! This is what I've been trying to put my finger on all term for both classes. It was nice to learn what I can do! I haven't been stretched academically or creatively like this since I was a kid! I loved playing with this stuff. I loved using this stuff to satisfy a creative vision. I loved experimenting with new things. The joy was working with people who get it and who challenged me to go way outside my zone and pony up some new skills. The headache I've had for the last week is a new brain size! It is nice to be valued for the things we all bring to the table. I'm copying this into my blog but your last email brought that into sharp focus! Thank you!
This is a copy of an email I responded to a colleague who mentioned "Always nice to know that the kind of people that I want to work with see value in what I can do :)" That's what's been lurking under the surface of my thoughts on this semester's classes! It's been amazing to be connected consciously with what I can do mathematically and technologically and to be surrounded by people of the same tribe who challenge me and allow me to challenge them! This has what I've been struggling to get to all semester!
I really believe this is the core of all great learning experiences for everyone. This is what we work to bring to our classrooms! It's about the skill and art of learning.
Now, onto the Monster Lobe class! Fun! After listening to the presentations I'm a fan of the multiple retaining wall idea first and then second, diverting. Low maintenance, less wear and upkeep than a road, Cost and long term solutions seem to be at the forefront. Whenever we approach this problem, for me, it's not the highway that's the issue, it's the pipeline. Making changes to that will be hugely disruptive in stopping oil production, and making any changes to the pipeline are just hugely expensive. After living on the Slope for 16 years, anything done to the permafrost seems to have multiple unintended, expensive consequences. Each road we built in a village needed a 7-10 foot gravel pad to insulate the permafrost to keep it frozen so the road wouldn't collapse because the permafrost melted.
The only thing I would change about our presentation was to have some outside resources cited to lend some more credibility to the presentation.
I think educators are constantly trying to live for that moment where they see that joy of learning light up in a students face. We have to remember though to experience it ourselves from time to time to remember what it's like :)
ReplyDeletePrecisely!
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