Harford Day School - My East Coast Family

This week I was able to work with students that were coming from a place that is very near and dear to my heart, the EAST COAST!  And to be more precise, about 45 minutes southeast of Newark, DE, in Bel Air, Maryland.  It was really exciting to hear that the Teton Science Schools work with students not only visiting from the western states, but even the east coast.

Not going to lie, but why the heck did my schools when I was growing up ever consider these outdoorsy, nature experiences?!? Sure, Delaware Nature Society was awesome to go to for a week, but to go across country...wow!

Although, outside of teaching, this week was one of the most challenging experiences I've had out here: as far as getting work done for other classes, trying to balance some personal things, trying to visit with friends who were in town, as well as trying to separate my personal privacy and teaching lives, was incredibly hard. I definitely struggled a lot with this close-community lifestyle. Being on this campus, there is no boundary between your private life and your school/teaching life, even when you try to separate them, both will be intermixed whether you want it to happen or not.

But anyways, this blog is not for me to go and discuss things that are bothering me.  This blog is solely to express highlights and the exciting challenges that have crossed my path while here in the west...so let's get back on track!

This past week, I was team teaching in the field with Heather, another fellow graduate student. I think this week was by far one of my favorite weeks teaching, despite it being crazy and stressful in other areas. Teaching this week was inspiring. I was really nervous to work with Heather, since she is incredibly energetic and silly - and I feel that I am no where near her level of excitement; but after the first day of just working on lesson plans together, I realized I can walk into our first program day with no worries. Then when teaching in the field with her, I felt as if we were very balanced as far as work load and worked off our strengths to help provide our students with positive experiences.

Snow Sculptures - Designing Your GYE Animal with Winter Adaptations

Not to mention the students we were working with this week were the best students we could have asked for.  I mean, I would not expect anything less coming from the Mid-Atlantic!  All of them were incredibly energetic, engaged, supportive of one another, and just positively awesome all around.

Exploring the Aspen Community - Frost Cracks & Other Markings

Our middle school students that we got to teach with this week were from about 45-minutes from Newark, Delaware!!!!!! From Bel Air, Maryland! This was beyond a treat for me. Being so stressed and exhausted, having a little bit of 'home' was something I needed and looked forward to while in the field. The students were incredibly engaged, supportive of their instructors and fellow peers, and just a positive and welcoming bunch of people to be in the field with! Plus, they were absolutely hilarious!

Kathryn Basking in the Beautiful View at Taggart Lake

I know I definitely bonded with them over their week here on the Kelly Campus and definitely could relate to their place back home, since many of the parks and places they talked about during conversations were really familiar for me. There were times where they would talk about a place that they enjoyed going to for hiking or climbing, and I would thinking in the back of my head, 'Yep, I know exactly where that is and I've definitely been there before!' I loved that connection and sense of familiarity from home; not to mention making those same feeling here with them in this place as well.

Heather & My Wonderful
'Beige Lightningy Womboing Fox-A-Saurus Rexes'

The students were so engaged and really into any of the activities and games we threw at them. Not to mention, the chaperones (one teacher from the Day School and a parent/board member of one of the visiting students and Day School) were so awesome! I love when chaperones and adults come to the school and fully support the instructor's vision of experience. I mean, we also enjoy feedback and suggestions as well, but these chaperones were just very trusting of us as instructors and valued any activity, game, discussion, and experience we had with their students. I really enjoyed chatting with them during and after program time - they gave great insight towards their students and the backgrounds each student had as well as insight regarding the independent school life of Harford Day. I may secretly want to move back to the East Coast and work at this school!!!! Ok, I definitely do! haha.

Hanging with the Elk on the Refuge

With Our Tour Guide, Justin, and His Awesome Cowboy Mustache

Willow Stewardship & Community Service

Our Students Rocking It at Cross-Country Skiing

Seeing many of these students thrive in the winter and the deep snow was really exciting. Since I come from the very same place that they are coming from, it was great and inspiring to see how well and how quick they adapted. They were like mini-role models for me.

Field Research Day - Testing Snow Density

I LOVE THESE STUDENTS FROM BEL AIR!

Addie Being Awesome

Playing Alaskan Baseball

Stranded in Jackson - Day Two
Visiting the National Elk Refuge & Grant Teton National Park Visitor Center 

The one stressful, but yet beautiful part of this teaching experience with Harford Day School was that the day they were supposed to leave, they got snowed in and their flight was cancelled. The Tetons received this really big snow storm that caused many of the Kelly Campus and Grand Teton National Park roads to be completely shut down and closed until the snow and wind subsided.

On a side note, I was driving back from town the morning the students were supposed to leave and the snow drifts were so bad, that Little Blue (my car) drove and got stuck TWICE in really deep snow banks. I had to get a passing car to help tow me out TWICE. Then when I got to the pull out at the base of Ditch Creek Road, I had to evacuate my car and leave it there, since she could NOT drive back to campus with the paper-white views and building snow banks and really strong winds.

So, yea....crazy winter storm. Also, the Kelly Campus was having two new schools come in and we had no room for the students of Harford Day School to still be housed here. So, two of the grads (myself and Charlie) were asked to go to still oversee Harford as we moved them from the Kelly Campus to the Jackson Campus (for additional housing). Being off a program time and now into a facility rental time, Charlie and I entertained the students with two extra day and nights of some movie time, sightseeing around the town of Jackson and Miller Butte, attending the National Museum of Wildlife Art, and having community time on the JC. As much as the students were really homesick, they were incredibly positive and supportive to each other when we had to tell them not only once, but twice that their flights were delayed.

Stranded in Jackson - Day Three
About to Go Home With an Artistic Wrap-Up

Placed Their Pieces of Art Together!

But we found ways to keep them occupied and entertained. The one thing that Charlie and I did was have them make a communal drawing. Where each student was given a piece of an already made poster, and they were to recreate it in their own way - and by the end, they could place all the pieces together and make the overall drawing with each of their individual parts. The students did a beautiful job and wanted to donate this to the school in order to fundraise to help pay for the additional expenses that they spent during their extra days in the Tetons! Such an awesome team!

Best Group of Students to Be Stranded in Jackson With!
Forever in My Heart, Harford Day School

From Left to Right Top Row: Addie, Kathryn, Claire, Jenny, Hudson, Forrest, Hayes, Marc
From Left to Right Bottom Row: Abigail, Betsy, Kiersten, Lexi, Hudson, Abby, Mason, Erik, Mason

Best School Group Ever!
Love them to bits!
TheChristyBel