Hen's Egg (AKA The Idea for my Expedition)

As all of my students and some of my friends and family know, I teach at Duggan Middle School, an Expeditionary Learning School in Springfield, MA. This blog has been created as part of a Fund For Teachers grant to support teacher growth and curriculum development during the summer. Early this spring I wrote a grant to fund my expedition along the Connecticut River. I figured that some of you might be interested in reading some excerpts from my original grant proposal.

If any of this is confusing to anyone, feel free to post questions, and I will try to reply. I know that some of the words here might be difficult for my students. (Remember you can go to WordCentral.com to look up the meanings.) On the other hand, my students are probably the ONLY ones who know what a learning target is.

Here's my grant proposal:

"So, I started browsing through the social studies curriculum frameworks to look for content that might drive my team's next expedition. I was caught by the concept of civilizations rising up around the river. I connected this idea to the fact that Springfield has risen up right alongside the Connecticut River. Although the river runs right through our city and, at one point in history it provided an abundance of economic uses and recreational opportunities, today it is largely ignored. As I reflected on this reality, I started thinking about all of the ways I could teach the content in my frameworks while also helping our community to renew its connection with the river. The more I thought about this idea, the more it seemed possible to build an expedition around the river. I proposed my idea to the social studies, science, and math teachers on my team, and they all agree that we can create a fantastic expedition around this topic. They also feel that their curriculum for the next year can be taught through this lens....

This summer I would like to learn to kayak and then kayak on some local rivers, mainly the Connecticut. I would also like to explore the connection between communities and their rivers. In my work, I would like to meet several learning targets.

1. I can experience an expedition of my own in order to better understand how my students feel and think during and expedition. (I selected a kayaking trip as this expedition because I am passionate about outdoor pursuits but have never had any official paddling training. I am both excited and intimidated about the prospect of being able to develop this skill.

2. I can learn more about a topic that will unify our team's curricula for the 2008-2009 school year. And, as a subset of that learning target, I can identify the best section of the Connecticut River to take my students on an introductory river camping trip this fall.

3. I can determine what big ideas and guiding questions about the river will maintain students' interest as we teach the content of our expedition.

4. I can learn more about how communities have worked together with various partners to enact change in their communities, and I can use this knowledge to devise ways to renew our community's interest in its river.

5. I can keep a journal of my learning in order to better understand how a journal is used as a centerpiece of instruction in an English Language Arts class.

6. I can blog my adventures to help my team members stay connected to our expedition during the summer and to pique my students' interest in the expedition topic and guiding questions."