Impacting Wilderness

The theme for the second creative journal post was along the lines of how we impact wilderness. With all this hype over climate change and the rise in greenhouse gases there is this lovely image that pops into my mind, what the earth looks in the Pixar movie WALL-E, just complete death. I don’t think the whole idea of WALL-E was too off the charts to be completely honest! Yeah having garbage piles the size of skyscrapers may be a little radical but the whole idea of Earth just being a dead ball isn’t far from what humanities distant future may look like.

On Mondays class we were presented with this idea of what wilderness is, In my opinion wilderness is still everywhere it’s just humans are covering it. In the Canoe pedagogy it is stated that “Wilderness and nature are often represented in dominant discourse as spaces of leisure, as places to unwind or, alternatively, wind up for an expedition.” and I somewhat disagree because I believe that wilderness is still the land around us, it’s just that our current society is changing the land. At the end of the day the land we call home is still part of nature, its just european settlers have changed the chemistry of the land to their liking. I try to represent this in my drawing by showing that there is this beautiful landscape past the smog, and death that is our current society. The reason I related WALL-E into this blog post is because how long is it going to take until all of the “untouched” natural beauty landscapes are affected by our current way of life?

When I was in elementary school my grade 8 teacher always told me “if humans were just to disappear from the earth, everything would go back to normal within 2 years” or something a long the lines of that and I am curious with that statement. Is there a point where we have caused so much damage as a society that the Earth is no longer deemed repairable? Sure there ended up being ‘a’ form of vegetation on Earth in WALL-E when it is clear that the whole planet is seemingly dead but is there any way of truly knowing if we have completely killed our planet?

To be Eco-literate

When looking at a majority of the Eco-literacy poems/love letters I saw a common theme of “what I love about the environment” which is in no way a bad thing. However, the way I view Eco-literacy is not “what you love about the environment” but “what you do for the environment”. Many of the poems also shared this theme of “what I do for the environment” but two poem’s/love letter’s spoke out to me, Mckaila and Harper’s. Both of them had a straight forward approach where Mckailas was talking about what she does for the environment, and why its important, and Harper’s was mainly bashing “Before the Flood” for having a butterflies and rainbows theme even though the film contradicted itself. I had similar opinions with “Before the Flood” because the whole point of the film was to spread awareness, but Leonardo DiCaprio was contradicting himself by flying all around the world in a private jet, having crew wearing a Canada Goose jacket.

“Project-based learning not only provides students with important experiences—co-operation, mentorship, integration of various intelligences—but also makes for better learning.” I chose this quote from the Capra reading to represent my feelings because I feel as if Eco-literacy is being hands on. I feel like if you’re going to be Eco-literate, you will make it a part of your life style instead of stating how you’re going to change. As I stated before in my poem post was that I felt bad because of how small my poem was but I was trying to make a point. The point I was getting across was that rather then putting so much emphasis about what I want to change about myself in order to become Eco-literate, I would rather be blunt and state the facts that humans need to change in order for there to be beauty in this world. Which is why I took a pledge to become a minimalist (I actually donated more than half of my wardrobe just so I could get rid of clothes I wasn’t wearing). To be Eco-literate is to actually do the things you pledge to do which is why I reach out to everyone saying that go ahead and recycle, use less water, or produce less garbage! You’re only helping the Earth.

Haiku’s can be meaningful!

So since Mac’s are act stupid sometimes, I am going to transfer my beautiful piece of art to this post!

“Beautiful desert sky,
lit underneath the star light,
where no light will shine”

I felt bad because I feel as if I did not put as much effort into my poem as others may have (because of the content) which is why I wanted to explain myself a bit more. What I am getting at through this poem is that it is not humans that make the earth beautiful. Take the desert for instance, one of the more hostile places in the world; scorching hot during the day, freezing at night and no vegetation for any life. Yet at night since there is no light pollution what so ever you can find the clearest, most star-filled skies in the world. It is not humans that make the world beautiful, the earth is already beautiful, we just need to respect it as it is.

Where I wish I could be all the time.

So here I have you a tubaware container of snow, my reminder of my past experiences in the mountains. This weeks theme of creative journals was “storying the environment” and this is my interpretation of the story of the environment.

The reason I have decided to scoop up snow to show my interpretation of the creative journal theme is because I truly want to take nature with me everywhere. I have a strong bond with the mountains, specifically snowboarding in the mountains; for the most part whenever I day dream it is most likely about snowboarding. Given it is ironic that a saskatchewan dreams of the mountains this is the way I believe I take the mountains with me everyday I go. The snow in container eventually melts which symbolizes me physically not being in the mountains; However I am in the mountains every day in spirit because I know the snow does not melt in the mountains/

William Hammond states in The Creative Journal: A power tool of learning that “The environmental education (EE) journal is consistent with brain research which has shown us that drawing and writing something we have just experienced fixes that experience in long-term memory and stimulates relational thought”. This statement I strongly believe in because there needs to be a physical connection when learning about the outdoors. How else am I supposed to take the experience of the mountains with me without making a physical connection? When I scoop up the snow I am wishing I am scooping up the snow in  the mountains which gives that physical connection to the outdoors.

I believe that there is a general connection made when someone can translate their feelings into a physical piece. Some people for their creative journals made drawings, I scooped up snow and explained why that makes me feel connected to the outdoors. I feel in order for a memory to become concrete in someones mind that it needs to have a physical connection just as writing down a word a million times as a student will help the student remember that word. We need to make that physical connection more in order to get a better understanding of the world around us.

So This Is What I Learnt!

So through out ECMP355 I learned many things. I learned how extremely easy it is to create a network using social media forms such as twitter due to the saskedchat. I also found applications that could be used to bring the classroom together digitally such as twitter, and google+community (maybe even Facebook).

As I have stated before, prior to ecmp355 I hated social media more than anything because it only appealed to me as a method to party details, and a whack load of drama. I also knew of the Amanda Todd story (but not that much) and I honestly thought the reason this tragedy had happened was because of social media sense another reason why I hated it. However, when Amanda’s mother Carole was a guest speaker for our class I realized the positives that came out of this case (every cloud has a silver lining). Sadly enough because of the death of Amanda Todd (and many others I assume) we as educators can prepare students for the darkness that comes with the internet rather than completely avoid it as a whole. Myself as an educator will be able to prepare students for the side of social media that I so rightfully hate, and in a way hopefully avoid another death due to the digital world. This I feel like is what I can take most from this class is the fact that I have a reason as a future educator to familiarize myself with social media and the internet in order to prepare my students as well.

Overall, I found the class very intriguing and I experienced a very personal growth of my own which was actually having a presence online for once. I leave you with a little children’s book style story using StoryBird that summarizes my whole experience of ecmp355.

 

So I feel like I let the class down.

When reading through the expectations for the final post and what you actually had to posted I have a feeling of self doubt. From the looks of what others have done through google+, Twitter, and WordPress I feel sort of ashamed because I feel like I didn’t respond, and that I didn’t have a strong presence during the class. However, when actually thinking about where I came from and what I actually have done (considering I thought I was helping you guys out just not in the conventional way).

I did have a twitter presence where I liked, retweeted, and even recommended reads/ other twitter handles to follow as future educators such as..

https://twitter.com/bdreger96/status/732961732096729089

https://twitter.com/bdreger96/status/740202601799524352

What do u think of this #ecmp355? Texting and walking may become illegal in some areas of the world! @kbhildebrandt https://t.co/Wd2gmJ8E3s

— Jessica Henrion (@JessicaMHenrion) June 8, 2016

 

These are just a few examples of how I have reached out to fellow classmates, and followers.

Sadly I did not respond/comment as much as I wanted to on WordPress but I feel as if I did acknowledge these opinions/comments and blogged accordingly or brought them into my own life and built off of them. I also did not focus as much as I feel I should have on Google+ but again I did acknowledge the links, and opinions stated.

The point I kind of want to make here is the fact that I was by far not a social media person at all prior to this class. I did not have a twitter presence at all! I did not blog at all.. I basically avoided the internet unless I was told to. The fact that I actually had a twitter profile picture, and I also followed people let alone actually tweeting; I find that I took a huge step forward into this digital citizenship. The point that I am trying to make is that I feel like I did not do the most “twittering” or blogging in the class, but I feel like I did a lot considering where I was at before ECMP355.

The things I can take from this class are:

• The fact that I am actually reading twitter (I have made it a part of my routine TBH)
• I approached touchy subjects through my blogging which managed to get me on one of the top posts of the week
• I have a stronger digital citizenship because I considered the possibilities of employers looking at my social media (private IG, and private Facebook, professional looking twitter)
• I have expanded my network through saskedchat
• More aware of cyberbullying due to Carole Todd
• More aware of the positive side of the internet and how it can be used in the right way as a teacher.

So even though that I feel I did’t participate as much as I should have, I have a feeling that I am in a way better spot then I was at the beginning of the class!

Thanks for Everything

So Idk where I am at..

So to be completely honest (I think I use that phrase a lot..lol) I don’t know if drumming is for me. I don’t know if its the fact that my schedule is hectic with work and drums are loud and I can’t play past 9:00, or if its just not for me. An amazing thing happened though after I saw Shakey Graves open for City and Colour (Id almost say Shakey Graves was better) I noticed a different kind of playing style that I have never heard before. Shake Graves when he plays by himself manages to not only fingerpick (which is hard) but also keeps a relative beat with a Tamborine and a bass drum with his right and left food; and I gotta say that it sounded fricken amazing. So, I am the adventurous type and sort of completely forgot about all of the other drums and focused on the bass/kick drum and playing guitar and I gotta say… I feel amazing. I feel as if I just found a new method to my madness considering I wasn’t thinking drumming was for me! 

So I don’t know if this is the end of my drumming career or what not but it felt weird not strumming a guitar, but I also love the kick drum so I incorporated the two; if you check out my twitter I have a small snippet of how I sound with this new method (it isn’t perfect but I am working on it). Wish me luck 🙂

So does this mean I can do CS100?

One of the crazier things of playing Minecraft Hour of Code is changing the view of the code so you can see how it actually looks… Computers are fricken crazy, and computer programmers are even crazier. I never took any computer science classes ever in all of my years of being a student, I knew it was hard but I didn’t know it was as confusing as it seems. I just can’t comprehend how a programmer can create a world such as Minecraft (If you have ever played it, it is huge) but also to add detail to every individual block so you can discriminate what is ground and what as an animal.

I believe computers have definitely advanced our society greatly and that is why I believe having reliable programmers is probably a good thing. Considering that there is the option now to basically never put graphite on a piece of paper again (just use a laptop) shows the advancement in our society. Computers are a much easier and efficient way of processing our thoughts on to paper than pen and paper; saves the trees (hippy talk) and is just all around easier. However, computers are a product unlike pen and paper and need to be made not only physically but programmed as well. A computer is like a brain that doesn’t know what to do and if there is nobody to tell it what to do (a programmer) it will continue doing nothing. So 100% we need innovative programers in order to not only program computers but come up with new ideas to make them better!

#holycrap

I’m gonna go ahead and say this right now that saskedchat was fricken crazy! Never have I been so immersed in social media to the point that my phone was blowing up along with my laptop overheating; What a great experience and I prompt anybody to try it! One of the many experiences that I will be taking from ed chat will be the fact that I was actually utilizing twitter…(crazy hey?) but if you know me through blogging, I have a very persistent hate for social media such as twitter. However, I was actually using twitter in a positive way to gain relationships with fellow colleagues and get educated. That in my opinion is the most meaningful experience I will take from ed chat is the fact that I was actually using twitter which truly shows how I am opening up to social media more and more now!

 

Working with kids.

After watching the documentary Sext Up Kids it just brought me more attention of this issue, and how I completely fell into the actions described at a grade 8 level. Just to jump right into it though I have a question to ask.. What is it that women are fighting for? Now I don’t mean this in the wrong context but on one end I see the f**cked up market appealed to young teenagers specifically females as proclaimed in Sext Up Kids; However I also see the other end of the spectrum where women should be able to wear what ever they want to be confined to their own feelings. During the documentary I was inclined to the understanding that all women feel as if they need to perform in order to please men. After the documentary I started thinking more about Facebook where you see a lot of opinions that revolve around the idea that women should be able to wear whatever they want regardless of how much it reveals. So I am sort of confused on what this fight is about and I need some help bringing this opinion to light

HOWEVER! One of the biggest eye openers for me was working for YMCA before and after because I was working with kids, which is great because I am going to school to become an educator. I gained very great relationships with coworkers and students but there were many days that I questioned what exactly was going through some of these kids heads. Regarding the teenage life portrayed in Sext Up Kids I have one thing to say regarding my opinion stated in the last paragraph…. THERE IS NO REASON FOR A GRADE 4 TO DO THEIR HAIR AND WEAR MAKEUP FOR PICTURE DAY. This was the biggest eye opener for me because at the age of 12 there is absolutely no fricken reason for make up to be a part of that childs life at that point in time; I don’t think it should be a part of society to begin with but at fricken 10,12 years old?!?! WTF!!!! I understand both points I made before, yeah the market aimed towards teenage girls is messed and is aimed towards them becoming more revealing, I also understand the point that women should be able to wear whatever they want because men can do it making us equal (we should be equal to begin with). I still feel like regardless of which opinion is given, a 10 year old does not need to enhance their appearance in order to please people. A 10 year old shouldn’t even know what make up is, I sure as hell didn’t.

Now this seems like a very touchy topic and I don’t know how this blog post is going to portray itself to everyone in the world, because you are not sitting in person with me to understand my context. I am just going to say to defeat any turmoil that I believe in equality.. I don’t believe that a person should not have to enhance themselves in order to please the world. I understand why there is a market telling girls and women to reveal themselves and I hate it in my opinion because it is down right disrespectful. However we as the consumers have the choice to buy the products or not, we can change the market. If we don’t buy their stuff they will change because the consumers are ultimately the ones that control the market. #Change

Its just one ant.