Sooooo… At the beginning of my video I said ECS not ESCI do not worry it is the correct video… my bad….
Here is the link to my video https://youtu.be/ZKYe2l7WPDA .
The resources I used were: my visuals, Braiding Sweet Grass, David Orr, Making (some) Sense of Feminist Post Structuralism in Environmental Education Research and Practice, and course material.
In the article Making (some) Sense of Feminist Poststructuralism in Environmental Education Research and Practice written by M.J. Barrett I really connected with the Discourse portion of the article. In the first paragraph it talks about seeing your students as a “sense of wonder”, I wondered what exactly this meant, could I relate this to my students. As thinking about this statement through an environmental view I thought about how my students will be viewing the world. My students have a mind of their own, they will think of things ways I do not even begin to think about. My students have a “sense of wonder”. The set of beliefs, understanding, and specific language in texts are ways in which my students will have that “sense of wonder”. Every person no matter what age or what grade level will interpret something different out of the same statement, same picture, same belief, anything. As I think about myself I realize that I have a “sense of wonder”, I interpret pictures, text, beliefs all differently than someone else does. The statement or term “sense of wonder” is a great example of this because I interpret it as having your own mind to do and express what you want yourself. This could be something completely different to someone else thinks “sense of wonder” means. In the environment I create a “sense of wonder”, all the questions I have as well as all the thoughts I think when I am intact with the environment. My visual shows my “sense of wonder” in the world. I am looking into the ocean on a beach with soil around to show how my environment is always changing depending on where I am in the world. My “sense of wonder” is always changing just like it will be changing constantly with all my students.
When I think about my childhood place I think of my grandparent’s farm. My Grandpa or what I call him Pa raised pigs for many years when I was little. He had just got rid of them when I was around sixteen. I remember standing in the middle of a pig pen waving to last set of pigs leaving the yard. The pigs he had were not pink pigs they were black and brown wild pigs. Being little maybe about four or five I remember going to help my dad, pa, and uncle put up the pig pens. The day my Pa got the pigs was the happiest day of my life. I remember going up to the wire and my grandma or what I call her Nanz telling me not to touch the wire because it will shock me, I was looking at the pigs naming them. Years and years after that always going to the farm to help Pa feed the pigs but I would never go into the pen as I was clearly too little to understand. As a child this was my favourite place to be. I always wrote stories about going into to see the pigs in my classroom assignments. There are many stories I have about the pigs escaping, one of which is what made me realize these pigs are where I have grown up. It was the middle of July my family was camping. My great- grandpa Opa was feeding the pigs while we were gone, let’s just say he forgot to close the gate. As we were driving down the grid road I asked my Pa why he moved the pigs into my Uncle’s yard he said he didn’t. That is when we realized the pigs got out. My Pa had about five hundred pigs, he had many different pens for them depending on how old they were and if they were just babies. The pen that had gotten out there was eighty four pigs missing. How I remember that number is beyond me. The way my adrenaline was running was crazy, Pa handed me a ladder and told me to hold this, if the pigs run to me try to block them with the ladder just so that they turn around. This is exactly what I had done. After about three hours of getting seventy pigs back in we were still missing some. We had no idea where they went. Days later Pa was hauling food to the back and the pigs that were missing just followed him right into the pen. I have many stories with these pigs that have really been a great bonding experience with my grandparents. This was one of my favourite childhood places to go and I could not be happier to have had this experience.
At first when I was thinking back to how my life related to whiteness in the environment I could not think of a way that I have done something that could relate to this topic. Then last year I took my first year in Yorkton, Saskatchewan through the college there. The educational classes that I had taken there were through the First Nation university. I only took one educational class there and it was formed around First Nation content. So, even though in the education classes here we talk about first nation content, how to teach it along with what to teach this was more in depth with that concept rather than the actual work. It was first nation first other stuff second whereas we go the main concept first then first nation unless teaching specifically first nation contents. With this course we got to go outdoors a lot and do touring and understanding the first nation culture to a deeper understanding. As my teacher was first nation he showed us many pictures of reserves and with that in itself I felt extremely lucky to be who I am. We also went out and helped make a tepee where all of us students go to experience what those were like and how they were to make them. The whole experience made me realize how different life is between cultures and how whiteness is viewed throughout the environment. I never would have imagined the environment being considered as having whiteness apart of it.
The picture that I drew was my hands holding the world along with some snow and flowers at the bottom of the picture. I have learned through readings and through conversations in class that embodiment can take place within the wilderness. I believe in the wilderness your body is really involved meaning if you are going on a nature walk or if you are snowmobiling you are taking part in doing something within the environment. Wilderness is something different to everybody but the key is how do you view embodiment in the world of wilderness? My hands are holding the world because everyone sees the wilderness everywhere as well as in different perspectives, the entire world is apart of that wilderness experience that I take part in.
I relate my visual description to the canoe trip that takes place in Liz Newbery’s article. To some a canoe trip is in the wilderness and to others it is not. This is that part of the wilderness that people view differently, what exactly is the wilderness? That question sticks in my head, what is the true definition… there is not one that is the challenging part. I hope to try explore the world and try to find my true definition of wilderness, and I hope to challenge my students to do the same.
I have written a letter to my other half about what I enjoy he does in the environment. I love how that specific person makes me go outside and enjoy the outdoors. When I wrote this letter I was confused because I did not know if I was doing it correctly. Not one letter is the same and not one poem is the same and neither a poem or a letter are the same I found this very unique because when asking to do an assignment sometimes there are similar ideas but everyone’s was different. When reading and listening to my classmates poem or letter I started to think about the David Orr article. In the article by David Orr on page 12 it states “all education is environmental. By what is included or excluded, students are taught that they are apart from our natural world.” This quote has much meaning in relation with all the letters and poems. The environment is education, the education is completely involved with the environment. The environment is a sense of belonging and a way that you can relax and gather all your thoughts together. The article has related a lot about environmental education and how it affects all students.
When listening to other letters/ poems I have really connected my letter to Mikayla ‘s letter. My first thought in connecting my letter to another letter and she was the only other person who wrote a letter. But, as I thought about her piece of writing I understood that we had somewhat of the same mind set. Mikayla and I both wrote our letters to someone special in our lives and we thanked them for having the impact on us in teaching us what the environment really is. A sentence in Mikayla’s letter said “Now, I thank you.” this really struck me. I was thanking my other half for what he did towards the environment and what he had shown me. Thinking about how their are these special people in our lives to thank for showing us what the environment has to offer us and how to appreciate the outdoors. There were similarities in the main point of our writings but differences in how we got to the main point. The two of us have differences with the way the people in our lives showed us the experience of the environment and also who those people were to us. Mikayla’s writing and my writing have got me to take a better look of appreciation when my family members want to do something outdoors and show me the environment to them.
I have also connected to Laquisha‘s poem, her poem had a completely different theme than mine did. My letter was more of a thank you while hers has more of a sad piece about the environment. This made me think about how my parents smoke and how I see what she is saying in her stanza about cigarettes. Laquisha has a very deep and emotional poem, as a reader I can tell that it means something to her. This is a similarity to my letter because my letter means something to me. Both the poem and the letter are very emotional and important. The emotional part of our writings relate to the theme of our topics which is very meaning to us. Laquisha and I had different ideas of where we were going with our writing but our themes were quiet similar.
Both the letter and the poem have creative aspects as well as it was very well written. Both have a deep meaning which my letter has as well. My group decided to take our favorite sentence and put them together to help find the similarities and differences within our letters and poems. All of our writing pieces were different in a unique way and all had some sort of meaning to our life. Nobody wrote just because it had to get done, even though some maybe got written like that it did not show. All of our poems and letters were written about what we thought an ecoliteracy person would be like in our life or just what we had thought.
Eco literacy in my poem related to how the environment is a place that once was just there and I never thought anything about it but now I realized that it is waiting for me to explore it. The way of the environment is important to my life in many ways is also important to how I view the environment. Writing this letter really help me realize eco literacy in my own life and how to value the outdoors like it is being taught to me.
To my other half,
The world is an adventurous place. But, I still wonder how you deal with the change that is so rapid, how it can be so bare in the morning and then so beautifully and warm throughout the day. How do you understand the way the outdoors changes with your mood; as I assume it does for you what it does to me? You treat the outdoors like it is you’re everything. You never complain when it is too cold or when it is raining. You inspire me to be a better me when it comes to the environment. I love that about you. I love how you give me inspiration to go out and get fresh air during those brisk days, even on those days where it is scorching hot outside. You never belittle me you always try your hardest to get me to understand the whys. You talk about the outdoors with such an open mind; you are always full of adventure. You show me a sense of direction, a sense of belonging. The way you take me on adventures through the mountains, around lakes, valleys, seas; you make sure I see the environment through your eyes. For that I cannot thank you enough but I will try. Those days where I am sad and lonely you grab me by the arm and make me get some fresh air, you help me find my thoughts through a nice evening walk. You are always doing the yard work, picking the leaves, cutting the grass, pushing the snow. You may hate putting up Christmas decorations but you do so for me. You go outside in the freezing cold to put up the decorations I love to look at and you do not even complain. A year ago you made me go skating with you out in the nice winter weather just so that we could have quality time outdoors. I love you making sure I do anything and everything to see you outdoors, having adventures out in the environment where we see it as home, a sense of belonging. Thank you for being my rock and taking me through these adventures with you.
Love, Shayna
I never knew what the environment really meant to me until I was in grade seven or eight. I always the thought that the environment was just the outdoors and that is it. As I went through high school my opinion about environment has changed a lot. Reading the story “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer made me relate to the environmental story that biggest influenced my life.
When I was in grade seven or eight I went on a trip with my family to watch my brother play hockey in Kelowna, British Columbia. Before we left my grandparents wanted to show us what the mountains were like and how interesting British Columbia was compared to Saskatchewan. On a cold winter day in the middle of January my family and I hit the road, we took my grandparents old blue van and when I say old I mean old; I am pretty sure they had van since my Mom was born forty years ago. But, we sucked it up because the whole family could fit in it. Any of us could lay the backseat down and have a nap back there if we really wanted, it was bigger than my bed. My entire family enjoyed the trips we took in this van, it was a terrific time for some family bonding especially on far away trips like this one. This specific trip was where I found out that the environment is more than just the outdoors, it was a sense of belonging, it was a place where you can go to get away from the world. It is a place where we could have our alone time with the nature. The smell of the environment was something that had really gotten to me. I was getting fresh air and even if I had a lot on my plate I can go out for a walk and feel like everything in my mind was calm, like I was sitting on a beach. As the family and I drove through the mountains to get to Kelowna we stopped a few places to get in some site seeing. The way the road turned and twisted reminded me of my feelings, my feelings were twisty. When we stopped at some site seeing places one being on the side of the road looking down the side of the mountain I thought about how clear my mind was. The only thing I could think of was the terror of falling and maybe that was why my mind was so clear. The trip itself was successful, my brother’s team did good in the tournament and the trip there was full of me actually finding out what the environment is.
When the story talks about the teacher and her class going up the mountain, it just makes me remember the time that we drove the van up the mountain, those windy roads got me a little car sick. Being able to look down the side of the mountain just got me thinking about the environment and what it really is. The story had me relating to even though I thought I knew what the environment was, I can always be wrong and that is okay because when becoming a teacher I learn from the students as they will learn from me.
My picture I have drawn explains my site when my family and I first started our drive to through the mountains. It explains how the backpack shows a sense of adventure which was exactly what my trip in the mountains was a complete adventure. My picture also relates to what the story is relating to as well.
Shayna kemp 