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I head out Friday for Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas to work with my colleagues Mat Erpelding and Geof Harrison of Experiential Adventures and others to train the Texas Tech Red Raider Orientation (RRO) student leaders in basic facilitation techniques, discussion management practices, and guide each team in the creation of a full value contract. It should be fun!

I thought folks might like to see what a Student-centered, Problem-based, Experiential, Collaborative (SPEC) lesson might look like in Arabic. Thanks to our Lebanese colleague Claude Khalil for sharing this challenge.

I had an excellent time with the professional trainers affililated with the Rehabilitation and Research and Training Institute in Albany, NY yesterday. The participants were from through the state and applying the Student-centered, Problem-based, Experiential, and Collaborative (SPEC) approach to their training in order to develop Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) seems like a natural step for them. They were an eager and enthusiastic group willing to try new things. I look forward to hearing the results of their application of the activities, tools, and techniques that I shared with them.

Last entry I was lamenting my busy upcoming week. I survived in fine fashion and had some excellent meetings. The Adirondack Curriculum Project had its semi-annual meeting Tuesday and they continue to do terrific things for those that would like to make sure they are teaching to the state standards but would also like to use the Adirondack Park as the theme. They have nearly 100 constructivist-based challenges on their website that can easily be adapted to a variety of grade levels.

Tuesday, as chair of the local planning board, hosted the Village of Saranac Lake & Town of Harrietstown official unveiling of their joint preliminary draft of the Comprehensive Plan. Over sixty people attended and I felt very good about the feedback we collected. The Adirondack Daily Enterprise provided good coverage as did WNBZ. I felt particularly good that the PowerPoint that I prepared and Jeremy Evans presented was well received.

Wednesday I hosted a meeting of select Outdoor Guides for the group developing an Essex County Tourism Plan. The planning efforts for tourisim were explained and input was solicited from the guides. I expect future meetings will determine the role guides want to make in bringing the plan to life.

Friday Zoe Smith of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Adirondack Communities and Conservation Program and I met with the publisher and editor of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise to discuss the possibility of partnering in publishing an outdoor education piece on how to safely use the public land in the Adirondack Park in conjunction with their publication entitled EMBARK. The meeting was extremely successful and we hope to nail down a more formal agreement in the near future.

Finally Friday afternoon I made a presentation to a group of visiting Chinese natural resource land managers. Their three-day visit to the Adirondack Park was sponsored by the East-West Center. My presentation, at the Wild Center, was titled "The Adirondacks through My Eyes" and attempted to describe my thoughts on the Adirondack Park by following my life, from childhood to today. They seemed to really appreciate how I told the story through my personal life.

It was a busy but fulfilling week. On the personal front my wife, Phyllis, closed on the purchase of nine acres of forested land not too far from our house. It looks like we’ll have a good supply of firewood on hand. We also bought more shares in the community owned "Community Store". I have high hopes that it will soon become a reality.

This coming week isn’t quite as hectic. I travel to Albany on Tuesday to make a presentation on Higher Order Thinking Skills to a group of trainers with the Rehabilitation Research and Training Institute.

It’s Busy Week in the North Country

I visited a colleague at Keene Central School (NY) this morning to start off a busy week for me. It was fun watching Joanne Whitney’s fourth grade class work on a lesson that incorporates social studies (immigration), English (journal writing & public speaking), and technology (word processing). Keene Central School appears to be an excellent school. I was very impressed.

This afternoon I have a meeting to prepare for our local Saranac Lake’s Comprehensive Planning Committee public meeting tomorrow night. Tomorrow night’s meeting is important because if the is first unveiling of a preliminary draft of the plan. Late this afternoon the Adirondack Curriculum Project has their quarterly meeting. I serve as Vice President.

Tuesday I have a bone scan done in anticipation of doing something to my hip this year. I’m considering hip resurfacing or replacement. Tuesday night is the Comprehensive Planning Committee meeting.

Wednesday I meet with some Adirondack Guides to talk about Essex Counties Tourism Plan and then I have a meeting with a possible major partner for the Adirondack Forest Preserve Education Program to publish an information piece that we have been working on for over two years.

Thursday I have my regularly scheduled meeting of the Comprehensive Planning Committee meeting and then hopefully a meeting with a local school superintendent.

Friday I present to a group of visiting Chinese public land managers and talk to them about recreation in the Adirondacks.

In between all this I prepare for going down to Albany next week for a training with the Rehabilitation Research and Training Institute.

Lots of good stuff going on.

There is a nice editorial on Richard Louv’s presentations in our area last weekend in our local paper the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. (link)

One point I would add or reinforce is that while organized sports are great, and I for one grew tremendously because of my involvement in them, they are not a substitute for spending time in nature. Kids need unstructured time in the natural environment where they can go on their own, with friends, and sometimes with parents.

Get your kids out now!

I recently had the pleasure of working again in Beirut, Lebanon. It was my second trip to Beirut and my colleague Cyndi LaPierre’s third. Leading EDGE has been providing six-day trainings (3 days in the fall and 3 days in late winter/early spring) that we do in conjunction with Antioch University New England of Keene, NH. We conduct the training for International College (IC) in Beirut. International College is a private school founded originally in Turkey in 1891 by a Canadian educator. In 1936 it moved to Beirut, Lebanon and became a preparatory school for American University of Beirut. During the Lebanese civil war (1975-90) the school was noted for serving all religious sects. It is interesting to note that the school is accredited not only by the European Council of International Schools but also by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. IC has about 3,400 students and about 20% of the teachers are expatriates (i.e., citizens who have left his or her own country to live in another, usually for a prolonged period) from the U.S. and Canada. We have been working with the middle and high school teachers. It is interesting to note that private schools are very common in Lebanon and I believe make up over 60% of the schools.
 
I love international travel but I must admit that I have gotten to the point where traveling in an airplane for hours on end and taking close to 24 hours by the time I leave my house in Saranac Lake until I get settled in new lodging in some other part of the world, has lost some of its luster. So I left home once again in trepidation of sitting in crowded airplanes and once again I was rewarded so much more than I could have ever expected.  Cyndi and I left from Albany, NY Friday March 20th in the afternoon connecting in Newark where we had a nice dinner in the airport before heading to Paris. We arrived in Paris early in the morning and worked our way through security (again and again) and with a little help from airline officials barely made our flight to Beirut. We arrived in Beirut and got through customs without delay and were met by our IC host Raouf Ghusayni the Director of the Educational Resources Center at International College.  We were taken to our apartment where we were had a chance to settle in and take a short rest before we went out to dinner with Raouf and American International Baccalaureate - Primary Years Programme (PYP) consultant Judy Wooster. We had a wonderful meal of lamb, hummus, tabouli and other Lebanese dishes. I also took part in the traditional Lebanese drink of Arak, an anise flavored alcohol.

After a good night’s sleep (pretty good anyway considering the jet lag) we ate breakfast in our apartment (they had stocked it with cereal, juice and milk) and relaxed for the day trying to overcome our jet lag. Beirut is a typical cosmopolitan city with lots of stores, traffic and billboards hawking everything from Panasonic TVs to Accu-View contact lenses. The traffic patterns are different as there is little in the way of traffic control. People honk their horns continuously but in a polite way to let you know they are there. There is a real (and generally very tolerant and polite) give and take at intersections as a result of the lack of traffic control. My take on it was that drivers clearly had to use good judgment as there were few rules… a true experiential education. The highlight of the day was a long walk along the Mediterranean Sea. The walkway was filled with families out for an afternoon stroll.

The link to my photos (assuming I can get the links to work – I’m still working on getting the hang of this Blog) will provide some interesting shots along Bliss St. Good or bad the impact of western icons such as McDonalds, Krispy Kreme, and Pizza Hut can’t be missed.
Click Here for Photos

Monday, Tuesday and part of Wednesday were spent visiting classrooms at Ras Beirut and Ain Aar. It was fascinating to observe classes taught in Arabic, French and English. We observed math, chemistry, social studies, theory of knowledge and of course English classes taught in English. We observed social studies classes taught in Arabic and observed science classes taught in French. It was amazing to observe the ease with which students transferred from one language to another with apparent ease. Although we couldn’t understand the language spoken in many of the classes, observing a student-centered, problem-based, experiential and collaborative (SPEC) classroom is not language dependent. It was easy and fun to see what a “Full-Value Contract” looks like in English, French, and Arabic (Click here for Photo ). Despite language barriers we had no problem identifying activities, tools, and techniques such as a carousel, quality conversation, debriefs, chunking, huddle groups, brainstorming, jig-saws, product-quality checklists, end-of-the-day logs, thumb tool and targeted skills and dispositions. (If you don’t know what these are then you’re a candidate for our training.:-)

Wednesday afternoon provided an opportunity to meet with teachers and administrators who took part in our first training and explore issues important to them. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were spent in Part B of our six-day training. The highlight of the training was a scenario role play where the teachers play the role of archeologists and made a presentation to a panel of fellow teachers and administrators after investigating the early development of a student-centered, problem-based, experiential, collaborative (SPEC) classroom model. Their task was to gather evidence challenging the traditional notions of education and schooling which held sway in the world during most of the 20th century and address the questions:

1. Why did educators of the time think that this educational model might meet the needs of their students more successfully than other approaches?
2. What "essential ingredients" seemed to be required for this classroom approach to work?
3. How did educators know if their students were producing quality work or developing their skills?
4. What happened when this approach worked? What happened when it did not work?

The teachers did an excellent job in both their process and product. Click Here for Photos

Sunday we got to play tourist and our wonderful colleague Nayla took us up to the Jietta Grotto which is an incredibly large cavern northeast of Beirut. After a tour of the Grotto we had another unbelievable Lebanese meal in downtown Beirut with Nayla and two additional colleagues Ghada and Karam. The friendship and generosity of these people is nothing short of amazing. A walk around the city center wrapped our afternoon. That evening we had dinner at the “Blue Note” (of course specializing in live jazz) with our host Raouf and his lovely wife Nina. The next morning, March 30th, we were up at 1:00 AM and off to the airport for a 4:00 AM flight to Rome and eventually back to Albany.

My second visit to Beirut was another fantastic experience. Wonderful people, great food in a splendid environment makes the work we do extremely rewarding.

 

 

I had the chance to hear Richard Louv speak twice this past weekend. Once at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake and once at the Whiteface Lodge in Lake Placid. I heard him speak once before at the 2008 Wilderness Education Association Annual Conference where he was the recipient of the Paul Petzoldt Award. Since Paul Petzoldt was my mentor and good friend that event was particularly important to me and I got to share the fact with Mr. Louv that I’m sure Paul would have been thrilled to see him receive the award. Mr. Louv is an excellent speaker and his message a powerful one. A number of things struck me as I listened to him speak.

1. Tom Brown, world renown tracker and author, makes the observation that the white man constantly tries to put things between himself and the natural environment and that makes nature a more alien world. Think about it. At the most elemental level we avoid sitting on the ground and prefer to sit on a chair, a pad, even our clothing. We do almost anything to keep from directly touching the earth. I would say that even outdoor education centers, despite their great value, places us largely one step away from true nature. As I look out on the lake I live on and watch all the pontoon boats head up the lake I realize that one of the reasons these boats are so popular is because people can enjoy nature without getting dirty or uncomfortable but the result is that they are once again insulated from the true natural world. We need to find ways to breakdown the barriers to the natural world and have direct contact with nature.
2. The natural environment is a great place to learn so much more than just about nature. The natural environment is a great place to learn life skills (recently codified as Skills for the 21st Century). Decision making, problem solving, creative thinking, critical thinking and leadership are just some of the life skills that the natural environment help teach. When I was Director of the Wilderness Recreation Leadership Program at North Country Community College graduates would return and almost without exception, those who were not working in the field of outdoor recreation would say something like, "I’m not working in the outdoors but you know I use the skills I learned in the program on a daily basis. I’m constantly having to make decisions, solve problems, take a leadership role. The skills I learned in the outdoors at NCCC did a great job of preparing me for life." The outdoors is a great place to learn that our actions have consequences and if we allow learners to have those authentic experiences then we will have real learning taking place.
3. I believe that the "Last Child In the Woods" movement is excellent but it needs a learning theory to build it around and I would argue that the theory should be constructivism. We need to train people in the understanding of that theory and the practices that go with it. That would improve learning both in the outdoors and indoors.

Those are some of my thoughts this Monday morning after a great weekend. I spent most of Saturday hearing about nature without being in it and on Sunday I got out into nature taking a four mile bushwhack in an area I’d never visited before.

Winter 2008-2009

In 2008, Leading EDGE continued our work with educators on two continents. It’s been a good year for us and we are very grateful for the opportunities that continue to come our way. Although a constant shifting of leadership and personnel may not be the best for sustained, progressive change at the local level, LE benefits from the travels of former EBD/SPEC alumni who take root in new places and share their enthusiasm for our approach to teaching and learning.

Work with Schools

Lebanon – Our work in Lebanon with International College (IC) continues unabated in spite of occasional political turmoil. As you may have seen on the news, Hezbollah flexed its military muscle by seizing control of downtown Beirut for a time last spring. At first we thought this would jeopardize our planned trip in September. However, proving once again that much of life is about "perspective", Raouf Ghusayni our host at IC responded to our emails expressing concern with the observation that all the "unpleasantness" was just a political "hiccup" and that things would be settled down for our visit. We found his prediction to be true as Cyndi LaPierre and Bruce spent over two weeks there starting a new class of teachers with Part A of a Level I institute and providing last year’s alumni with a Level II experience. We continue to be extremely impressed with the quality of the teachers at IC and the skill and knowledge of Raouf as a leader of change. This school has its "issues" like any other. However, their commitment and success in implementing the essence of our model under sometimes challenging circumstances is remarkable. Right now Jack and Cyndi are scheduled to return to Beirut in March of 2009. Raouf and his leadership team have expressed a desire to continue working with us at least through 2011 and we certainly hope that proves to be the case.

California - In our last update, we reported that the work we had done with the outstanding staff at Ronald Reagan Elementary School was under assault by the local district leadership. That assault proved successful this year with all vestiges of a Constructivist, multi-age, SPEC approach officially removed from RRE. The silver lining of that very dark cloud is that Craig Richter the former principal at RRE has found a new and much more congenial educational home in Santa Barbara (more seed planting!). As reported previously, many staff and parents at RRE banded together last year to petition the State of California to make RRE into a charter school. I regret to say that the charter school effort exhausted all appeals and came to an end in November. Very recently some of the charter school faithful emailed to say that they were pursuing an offer of land and financial support to literally build a constructivist/SPEC school from the ground up. We will have to see where that offer takes them. They certainly conducted a heroic effort and we continue to offer them our thoughts of support.

New York – Our work in New York continues with a faithful group of clients who are committed to our approach even during these difficult economic times.

At Champlain Valley Educational Services (CVES) in Plattsburg, we completed a Level I training with thirteen members of their staff and now are customizing a Level II experience so they can develop useful "Informative Assessment" strategies for their special needs students. As we’ve worked with these folks for over three years, it has become clear that the primary mission of their school is to help each student be as Independent as possible when they leave to work and join life in the community. Helping this staff to articulate what Independent "looks like/sounds like" and then design curriculum and authentic assessment toward that end has been an intellectually challenging and professionally broadening experience for us. We hope that as the year progresses we’ll be able to bear witness to their successes.

In Northeastern Clinton Central School we are working with Tom Brandall and his ELA staff at the Middle School to map and align their curriculum so that their students both pass the exams AND demonstrate "improved confidence and skill in verbal and written communication in everyday use." We hope that as this collaboration moves forward, their staff comes to appreciate the advantages adopting a SPEC approach does to achieve both of these ends.

Our collaboration with Pete Somich, Director of Technology in Norwich City Schools continues. Over the past three years, Norwich has undergone a major re-construction project part of which involves the installation of over 75 SMART Boards in MS and HS classrooms. Pete knows that updating technology yields few results without similarly modifying long held mental models about teaching and learning. LE has worked with 8-10 teachers each year showing them how to integrate their new technology in the service of creating a SPEC classroom environment. We are hoping that the positive feedback we’ve received will lead to a request for full Level I training in the coming year.

Once again we attended the Constructivist Design Conference organized over the past 16 summers by Don Mesibov and his Institute for Learning Centered Education. Bruce worked with a team of teachers from Norwood-Norfolk CS, Norwood NY helping them pursue their interest in project-based learning while Jack worked with a team from a private school in California. This conference has always provided us with a great opportunity to network with like-minded educators and this year was no exception. As a result, LE will be conducting "Introduction to the SPEC" half-day staff development workshops for the Capitol Region BOCES (Albany, NY), Jefferson-Lewis BOCES (Watertown, NY), Bishop Maginn HS (Albany, NY), Chateaugay CS (Adirondack region) in the spring.

Karen Rowe continues to do great things as the Curriculum Coordinator for the City of Oneonta school system. Karen has been encouraging Milford CS (home of Jim Ballantine) to partner with Oneonta in a Level I institute soon. Although budget concerns have put this initiative on hold, we are confident that Karen will carry the day eventually.

Diane Bonenfant has given us her tireless support for several years as Director of the North Country Teacher Resource Center in Plattsburg, NY. She has very generously organized an "open" Level I Institute at NCTRC each of the past two summers. We are hoping to stage one last hurrah with Diane (as she is retiring this year) by running "open" Level I and Level II institutes this summer at NCTRC.

Facilitation, Strategic Planning, Focus Groups

In the past year Jack has been part of strategic planning, comprehensive planning, and facilitating a range of pubic meetings for clients such as the Village of Saranac Lake, Town of Harrietstown, Adirondack Medical Center, Hartwick College, The Lake George Park Commission, the Adirondack Response to Climate Change Conference, Parent To Parent of New York, and Paul Smith’s College. This effort continues to expand our repertoire and be extremely rewarding.

Other Work

Peggy Golden and her husband and former Level I alumnus Ken Golden have continued to keep us on the radar of Hartwick College. This past year LE facilitated a series of staff meetings addressing changes in the curriculum at the college and we hope to get more opportunities to work with them this year.

We will continue to pursue an audience with Apple Computer, Inc. in the coming year. Those who have been following the national conversation about the absence of 21st Century Skill development in the typical American classroom (School-to-Work/SCANS Report redux?) may have heard the fanfare regarding Apple’s 21st Century Classroom and their version of a "Challenge-based Curriculum." Bob Bone a former School-to-Work coordinator and at one time director of a charter school in Syracuse, has been a long time friend and proponent of EBD/SPEC. He is now a sales representative for Apple Education. Bob recognizes that LE has years of priceless experience with the very "challenge-based curriculum" approach that Apple is marketing as a major educational innovation. In 2009, we hope to get us all in the same room and show Apple what we can do.

Whitesboro district, and Westmoreland CS, all near
Utica. We’ve also had a very fruitful collaboration with Champlain Valley Educational Services (CVES) in Plattsburg. With changes of administration and budget problems our relationship with the
Utica area schools is now on hold, but we continue doing curriculum alignment, strategic planning, and teacher staff development with CVES through our contact there,
Kim Mayer.
 
We have developed a great relationship with Diane Bonenfont, Director of the North Country Teacher Resource Center in Plattsburg. When we met Diane at the Constructivist Conference in 2006 it became clear we had an educational “match”. Last summer she subsidized an “open” EBD/SPEC Level I institute that was successful and has agreed to try again this summer (see above). Diane has also helped us to connect with Northeastern Clinton Central School and with various other
Teacher Center staff around the state.
 
Another hopeful development has been the invitation to work with teachers in North Syracuse CS this summer and for me to do an introductory workshop for teachers in the Capital Region BOCES of
Albany next fall in hopes of doing further training with both in the very near future. These contacts have come about because loyal folks who we’ve worked with earlier in their career have now moved to a different part of the state and taken their enthusiasm for our approach with them.
Bob Bone (who now works for Apple) is our connection to North Syracuse and
Terry Swett has introduced us to schools in the
Albany area.
 
Speaking of folks who have moved into new territory,
Karen Rowe is now part of the Oneonta City School District’s administrative team and is doing her typically effective job of re-introducing EBD/SPEC to the youngest generation of teachers there. We are very hopefully that we’ll get a chance to do an institute of some sort with them in the coming year.
 
Peggy Golden until very recently was teaching the next generation of teachers as part of her role on the faculty of SUNY Oneonta. She, and her husband Ken (a Level I alumnus) introduced Leading EDGE to the staff development people at Hartwick College and we are in ongoing discussions to do some form of facilitation and/or staff development with them this fall.
 
Jim Ballantine recently sent me an email indicating that the administrative environment at Milford CS was beginning to shift and may well be ready to explore EBD/SPEC again. We hope to hear more.
 
Barb Capozolla reported in a week ago with a resounding “Awesome LBRP” as the title of her email (you know you’ve been around awhile if you know what “LBRP” means!). Her kids did an outstanding job on a challenge she gave them and as a result they have been asked to present at a faculty meeting. She too is hopeful that her school administration will take note of the “power of collaboration” as an approach to teaching and learning. We are eager to hear the follow-up to this story as well.
 
Finally a bit closer to home, I have been conducting workshops with Pete Somich, Director of Technology during the past two years here in Norwich City Schools. We are tasked with helping teachers rethink their approach as they try to integrate a massive influx of brand new technology (SMART Boards) into almost all the classrooms of the district. This has been a great eye-opening experience for us to see the potential of uniting our classroom model with the “magic” of new technology that has captured the imagination of students.
 
Connections with
Antioch New England UniversityRecently Jack and I met with Peter Eppig and Laura Thomas. All of us learned a great deal from our experience with the
UK and as a result we are committed to maintaining a very open, transparent, and collaborative relationship going forward. We were delighted to find that Peter is in very good health and that both he and Laura are as busy and energetic as ever.

 As mentioned above, Critical Skills (formerly EBD) is now part of The Antioch Center for School Renewal. It was through their outreach program that Leading EDGE was given the opportunity to work as a subcontractor to deliver training in
Lebanon. Should the venture in
Lebanon continue as successfully as it has begun, there is really no telling where in the world we might be invited to work next. Needless to say, we are very grateful to Peter and Laura for this opportunity and we look forward to continuing a very productive and friendly relationship with them.
 
Jack’s Excellent Adventures
In addition to all the work we’ve done together, Jack continues to be very active in the
Saranac Lake community grappling with development issues related to the village and the surrounding wilderness environs.

For years Jack has served on a voluntary basis and now some of those networks and relationships have led to business opportunities. I tease Jack that it won’t be too long before I see his name somewhere as a candidate for mayor!

Anyway, following are some of the projects he has been working on:

Adirondack Forest Preserve Education Program – Jack has been coordinating the development of an educational newsletter for visitors to the
Adirondack Park. This project is underwritten with a grant from the “Tourism Cares” foundation in hopes of providing visitors to the Park with a consistent message regarding Knowing about the
Adirondack Park, Protecting the Park, and protecting oneself. Jack has been writing much of the content and also lining up additional authors. If additional funding is approved this stage of the project should be wrapped up by the end of July.
 
Wilderness Education Association – Jack continues to stay involved with the Wilderness Education Association. At the February annual conference in
San Diego he facilitated a two-day Instructor Training Clinic and presented a workshop on the topic on “The Role of Ritual in Wilderness Leadership Training”.  Jack also continues to write on his favorite topic, the outdoors. He contributed chapters to two different college texts in the past year, Adventure Education edited by Project Adventure and Hiking and Backpacking edited by the Wilderness Education Assocition.
 
Lake George
Park Commission – The Lake George Park Commission has contracted with Leading EDGE to facilitate a number of meetings regarding the use of stream buffers to protect lake water quality. Jack and I facilitated the first meeting May 28 and had approximately sixty stakeholders attend.
 
Adirondack Park Agency – Jack made a presentation to a visiting delegation of over 30 Chinese land managers on the topic of Wilderness Education and Ecotourism as part of the China Protected Areas Leadership Alliance Project. It was a fun challenge to figure how to engage the delegation when everything had to be translated.
 
Now that we’ve shared some of our story, how about checking in with any news of your latest adventures! We’d love to hear from all of you and, incidentally, confirm that we have current and accurate contact information on you.
 
Please let us know how you are doing.