Week 2

 Week 2- Intrapersonal Learning: How Art-Integration Can Help to Keep Learning Real

Attune: Sunday Evening. March 26, 2023. Huron River, Fuller Road, Ann Arbor. 7 miles from Skyline High School. My son and I have kayaked from Skyline to Gallop Park which is a very serene route. It is Spring Break this week so there are a lot of people at the park today. People are jogging, running, walking their dogs, playing catch, fishing, and droning. I found a spot overlooking the river where I could just sit and observe.

Document:

5:15pm. 50 degrees. I am sitting at the dock looking at the canoe livery watching a solitary swan fishing for food in the Huron River. I love the reflection of the canoes.

5:20pm. The swan is getting closer as I became aware of the music the other birds were making once my sense started kicking in.


5:25pm. This red wing blackbird seemed very interest in communicating with the other birds that surrounded me. I have grown up with their music so I really appreciate them and their a sign of spring for me.


5:30pm. I took the opportunity to record this movement and sound. It was amazing to see how the swan glided through the water. it was about 5 feet away from me at the end and I did get a little nervous.

5:40 pm. There was a lot of movement in the trees and more birds came to the dock- sparrows, red finches, red-wing blackbirds, geese, ducks and grackles. I am not sure they even saw me.

5:45pm. As more people came to the dock, I decided to move along. Many trees had been uprooted recently due the the ice storm we had 3 weeks ago and well as high winds due to climate change. Gallop Park just had a clean up day the day before leaving the park well cared for. There was just some trash that was in the water.

6pm. I noticed this along the trail. A great resource for students to connect with their community- https://www.a2gov.org/departments/Parks-Recreation/NAP/volunteering/Pages/CurrentVolunteerOpportunities.aspx

Controlled Burn is a fascinating way to preserve native plants and habits. It can be devastating to look at its destruction but know that nature will persist is very encouraging. There is a video presentation that helps explainit at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUe_OD-ohrg

Record:

    This weekend was the start of Spring Break for our schools. It felt like the right time to explore nature and recenter myself. I felt guilty not taking my husband and son on this adventure. However, once I was able to get to Gallop Park and sit with myself, I felt it was probably a good idea for me to have some alone time.

    When I first got to the park, it was pretty crowded but mostly people were walking the trails so sitting on the dock felt like a good place to observe. The swan's movement was so graceful but I have to admit that I was a little scared as it got closer to me but figured it was looking for food. I also noticed that the fishermen that were near the canoes were really loud as to scare the swam away forcing it to come near me. It was as if there was not enough fish to go around. And in the end I do not believe they caught anything but I am pretty sure the swan was successful.

    After I had sat on the dock for a while and enjoyed the songs of the different birds, I decided to walk several of the trails. The park had an event the day before to clean up, preserve and restore. The park itself was clean and I could only find trash in the water. However, due to climate change and the changing landscape many trees were uprooted and many looked like they exploded due to the wind and ice storms that had increased over the last month.

    As I was leaving the park, I noticed the controlled burn post. I know this is a great way to preserve the area for native plant species as well as restore habitat for animals but it can be devastating to see firsthand. It reminded me that soon I would have to pull the invasive garlic mustard that pops up in my own yard. 

    Overall, I think it was a refreshing and informing visit. I think that there are opportunities to connect with the community for my students that could really be beneficial for their health and their life long connection to the earth. And remind myself that I need it as well.

Reflect:

    This past week was a little tense and I really needed to connect with nature to be like river to help me let go and restore. i really feel most connected to nature with water and the animals that occupy this space. I made a collage to illustrate how I feel at the moment about nature. As a photographer, I tend to frame the visuals and sometimes there is so much to look at and observe that I have to crop in camera the different areas I am looking at or find a connection with. It does not feel chaotic to me, yet I think the collage might be perceived this way.  I think my emotions just build up. So take the frames as capturing spaces, kind of like peeling an onion. I started with the larger frames and moved to the details almost like a meditation.

    Since I have been meditating a lot and specifically using nature as my healing and happy place to do this, the collage seemed fitting as a calming visual. I feel fortunate and lucky that nature is something I can connect to on a personal and professional level. There is one thing missing from the collage that I spent a long time looking for yesterday and that would be feathers as a symbol of the animal and the music they greet me with. I hope to add to this piece as I find these artifacts.

Human and More-Than-Human Connections

   

    As I noted in my pictures, they were many people at the park but they were moving along the trails. I was the only person who was sitting and observing. I wonder what kind of engagement they were having. I heard conversations about dogs and their temperaments towards people or other dogs only to see them charge after the geese and ducks along the river. I really had an internal struggle with this as there are signs throughout the park that read that dogs needed to be on a leash at all time (Michigan State Law). I understood the excitement the dog felt but was concerned for the survival of the water fowl. Luckily no animal was hurt, just frighten birds and a wet dog.

    Birds and their presence has always been a sign for me that Spring is coming even when we have after cast days and see the flowers emerge. Each Spring we have the honor to be a host to deer and her doe and raccoon and her kits at our home. These predictable markers of time and seasons are very uplifting and spiritual in a way I would not have predicted.

 

Journal from Week 2:

"Good education is not what fills your head with facts but what stimulates curiosity. You then learn for the rest of your life." -Neil deGrasse Tyson