I Found Myself in Each Direction

I spent 6 days in the woods with 8 at risk students and 2 science teachers. We spent 2 nights at Backbone State Park, 3 nights at Yellow River State Forest and one night at Maquoqueta State Park. The experience was intense. During the 6 days students were given sketchbooks, a bag of drawing materials along with drawing prompts from me and journal prompts sent by a Language Arts teacher. 

Every day students were challenged physically as we hiked trails, climbed boulders, slogged through the mud and set up camp over and over. In Yellow River we backpacked overnight during a 15 mile trek carrying 50 pounds on our backs. We were blistered and sore, but our dinner of instant mashed potatoes and ramen noodles followed by hot cocoa around a campfire was one of the sweetest meals during our 6 evenings together. 

Students and teachers alike shared stories around the campfire each night. Simple prompts became intense quickly. We listened, we cried. Students spoke of loneliness, rejection, and abuse. Teachers shared the same. Later in the week we all gave thanks, to each other, to our teachers, to our friends, to the earth. We listened, we cried. In the morning we awoke to the same clean air. At night we played musical chairs to avoid the smoke. We awoke to the same call of red winged blackbirds, warblers and finches. We taught each other to whistle through acorn tops and speak to barred owls. We pointed out constellations and planets, talked about hopes, dreams and the benefit of finding a job with a retirement plan. After the teachers went to bed in our tents, I, the light sleeper, lay awake and listen to students talking of politics, war and religion late into the night. Away from screens, away from their families, under the stars, time slows down and we become more than what we seem. 

As teachers, we had lessons planned and standards mapped. Students were asking for breaks on the hikes or in between water testing to write in their journal and sketch. Intrinsic motivation hardly describes it. They were safe. They had space in their head, and allowed themselves to find their space in the world. They could look back, they could look forward, they could step back from themselves and see the possibilities of what could be. They left their phones behind and they said they didn't even miss it. They were looking ahead into their future and planning how they could survive off the grid. We picked up trash and smelled like fire. Paraphrasing a student's words from our last campfire talk, "We are all brothers and sisters, the trees, the spider on the log, the teacher, the student. We are all connected. We all have to take care of each other."

The photos I chose to include in this photo essay were all taken from my phone. They were 16 of 100+ I took on the trip, and emphasize the silent exploration of students as they found life in unexpected places and stopped to wonder. They brought it back to camp to share their findings with others. They dissected it to find the inner most structure. Though the science curriculum was emphasized through water and soil testing kits, plant and animal identification and observation of geological formations, I felt the "art" component of this trip flowed throughout. In times of my life where I felt most connected to people and to the world it was a transcendent experience. I'm not a religious person, but during different times of my life, sitting in nature, I've meditate on my place in the world and I've felt lighter. Part of something bigger. I have felt the need to write, to draw, to record a moment in time that was fleeting, important and intense. To see students choose to spend quite moments alone with their journal, writing and sketching, or climbing the side of a hill, contemplating the smallness of their bodies and the vastness of the universe is what learning and growing is all about. 

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We are all connected. During this experience learning transcended the confinements of the classroom or the specialization of subjects. Students learned because they were interested. They learned about themselves and the world around them. There was meaning in their sketchbook entries. They discovered universal truths and their conversation as well as their silence held meaning.