Friday: of atlatls and tomahawks

In which we get a sense of local history

I’ve always wanted to check out a local historic site in Jeffers, MN. The Jeffers Petroglyphs state historic site is about a half hour from here and as we were heading off to check out prehistoric MN a friend of my uncle’s arrived with his buckskins and old weapons, both native and settler. What an interesting morning.

In Jeffers we met Chuck, and archeologist anthropologist and incredibly pleasant geek, who showed us the carvings and explained that they range from 1500-9000 years old and that they are carvings from many different eras and regions. Chuck would fit right in with our family. Very cool. We spent the morning there and headed back to Shetek, which we were soon to learn means Pelican in the local language.

Herb was there to show us a bunch of really cool things and to teach us how to throw a tomahawk. As we did some atlatl assisted throwing at Jeffers, it was interesting to throw the tomahawk.



Highlights of Friday:
Herb and his buckskins
Ancient carvings
Atlatls
The boat taking kids “tubing”
The boat breaking down – and getting repaired! So disappointment turns to BIG fun.
Turkey and stuffing
Naps
Al talking to me about Drupal and getting me intrigued to look at it.

Morning Keynotes

Two challenging voices this morning. We were asked to think about changing the teaching model, not just including technology as a part of the classroom. Make this all more than just an expensive pencil.

Imagine
Create
Play
Share
Reflect
Imagine

And excellent model for a classroom. Problem for us as English teachers - how to make the study of literature into a creative process. I can see how this would work in fiction and poetry writing, and I have a glimmer of an idea operating on the corona of my usual practice. Now how to make it come clearer into focus.

As I said earlier about Mitch Resnick, he makes me want to transform the look of my classroom. Perhaps my girls can help me innovate here. My room needs work.

The first speaker, Angela McFarlane, reminded us that:
Education comes from the root Educare - to draw out
But we don't educate our children -- we train them (:()
We should educate children to ask good questions
She makes a point about what parents want for their children -
*they want them to be happy
*they want them to be successful
but all success is not monetary.
This gets me back to my discoveries about all the teachers in the Potter Family. There has always been an opportunity cost to formal education, especially in its purest form.

I'm going to listen to Resnick in the keynote follow-up, so I'm going to listen now.