I hope you have had a wonderful and adventurous summer! I hiked Mount Philo, paddled and camped in the Green River Reservoir, and spent a week at the beach in Maine. These activities were adventures for sure, but I also participated on other adventures. I took a class on writing digital textbooks and produced two chapters of a Vermont History eTextbook that I will be sharing with you soon. I also attended meetings to design student personal learning plans (PLPs) and to design the next steps in the FWSU Action Plan. Our action plan is what guides our learning at GEMS and the other FWSU schools. Its principles shape our experiences as teachers and learners - and we are all teachers and learners!

One aspect of the Action Plan is leadership. Who are our leaders and what do leaders do?  Are leaders a small group of chosen people? or can anyone step up and be a leader? This was  a real discussion in our meeting this summer. Here are my takeaways:

Today we had a special guest visit the 8th grade. Senator Patrick Leahy was able to join us via live teleconference software similar to Skype or FaceTime. He answered student questions ranging from why he went into law and politics to the purpose of his recent Cuba visit to his role in the Batman movies. The Senator's responses really connected to our learning from the Constitution Unit, but his perspective gave us a more in-depth understanding of how the government works. 

As the first trimester of the school year came to a close this past week, the 7th and 8th graders from my Independent Study Choice Class held a "fair" to show off their work. Each student studied a topic of their choice, through an inquiry process that included formulating questions, using a variety of sources, and designing an original project. In preparation for the fair, each student also completed a written abstract of their work as well as a sign to promote their project. Our Independent Study Fair was attended with 3 or 4 other classes as well as a number of teachers and parents. Our class was fortunate to have Mrs. Mildrum working with us throughout the Trimester. Her support for the inquiry process and projects helped make this such a successful learning experience.  Mrs. Volatile-Wood was our photographer, documenting the students sharing their learning and projects. Check out the pictures below!

Let me begin this post by saying that I did attend Keene State College in Keene, NH and received an excellent education. This is my first connection to the Constitution - One of the goals our nation strives to achieve is "to promote the general welfare." State colleges and universities provide higher education to students who otherwise may not have such opportunities. There is no question that my education has everything to do with the person I am today and my ability to live a productive life. I believe public higher education actually transforms thousands of lives every year. That being said, college is often what you make of it, and  some people attend for the wrong reasons and are simply not ready for the responsibility. College is not the right path for everyone.  

Each year Keene, NH hosts a pumpkin festival. In fact, Keene holds the world record for the number of lit Jack O' Lanterns in one location. The festival has always been popular and draws as many as 50,000 people to the small college town each October. Usually there are only a few scattered issues for law enforcement to deal with, but for some reason events transpired at Pumpkin Festival 2014 that endanger the very survival of this event for future years. 

Somewhat away from the main festival and close to the Keene State College Campus riots broke out. It is clear that some college students were involved along with other young people who came to Keene from out-of-town. Perhaps some saw this event as a time to lose control, break laws, destroy property, and hurt others. Maybe some believed the police would be powerless to stop such a rampage with everything else going on. These riots were not protests or an expression of disagreement with government policies. The chaos seems to have begun with parties that escalated into mobs roaming the streets causing a great deal of destruction, personal injury, and terror.  Of course there are now all kinds of questions. Why did this happen? Who is to blame? Will they be brought to justice? How can Keene make sure this does not happen again? Will the Pumpkin festival continue in future years?

See the NECN video report on the 2014 Pumpkin Festival below.

The following day as some KSC Students assisted with the cleanup the police began the work of finding those responsible and bringing them to justice. There was a lot of evidence and much of it was actually collected from a surprising place - social media. Participants in the riots as well as witnesses took many pictures and attached them to Tweets and Facebook posts. These were collected and ultimately used to identify a large number of suspects. 

It did not take long to make the first of many arrests. 19 year old Jacob Clark was charged with a felony count of reckless conduct. It is a requirement under the writ of habeas corpus in the Constitution that the charges be explained to anyone who is arrested for a crime.  Clark paid $500 bail and was released pending his trial. There have been more than 40 other arrests to date. 

For a final connection to the U.S. Constitution, check out what happened when a public access reporter tried to inform viewers about what was happening near the festival.  Would festival organizers be able to shut down the press? Is that Constitutional?

See the action below

The events of the Keene Pumpkin Festival are unfortunate and I hope the festival is able to continue in future years. Current events and news items often have connections to the Constitution but not often as many as we see here. 

Representative to Congress
Peter Welch 78
Mark Donka 57

Governor of Vermont
Peter Shumlin 82
Scott Milne 76

Lt. Governor of Vermont
Phil Scott 122
Dean Corren 46

State Treasurer 
Beth Pierce 100
Don Schramm 62

Secretary of State
Jim Condos 75
Ben Eastwood 65

Auditor of Accounts
Doug Hoffer 182

Attorney General
Shane McCormack 86
Bill Sorrell 64

Our first Inquiry project of the year is called the Geographic Inquiry  and it asks students to brainstorm a question based on their personal interest that can also be studied geographically. So what can be studied geographically? Students' definitions of geography began to expand as they viewed maps that had been produced on various topics from music to sports to architectural styles and almost any other topic imaginable. With the understanding that almost anything can be studied geographically, students began the research process with their own topics and questions. 

Examples of student research questions:
Why was Stonehenge created?
Why are Dolphins so smart? How do we know?
How did pop music originate?
Why does Vermont produce so much maple syrup?
How do Greek and Roman Mythology relate to each other?
How did the Aztec empire fall?

As we study Geography I have encouraged students to play Geoguesser, an online game in which players are presented with images of world locations and must place a pin on a map to guess where the picture was taken. The closer the guess, the more points awarded.  What are guesses based on? Locations have both physical and human characteristics. Perhaps the location is desert, forest, or grassland. These physical characteristics might help us guess. What often tells us more are human characteristics. What side of the road are cars driving on? What language is on the signs? In the end the closer the guess, the more points earned. 

I am sponsoring a friendly GeoGuesser competition among students. To participate add comments to this blog post with your score and then send the screenshot to [email protected]. I will maintain a leader-board  and update it weekly. We will see how high the scores go!

The year is off to a great start! Thank you to those who responded to my last blog post about a summer adventure. If you read on, you will see that all of you guessed correctly. I encountered Hazen’s Notch, one of the oldest roads in Vermont, and even a bowling ball pyramid! And there was more...

As I wrote previously, I had the opportunity to work with a great group of teachers in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom back in July.  By far the most interesting route to and from Lyndonville was Vermont Route 58. In Vermont east-west routes are a bit scarce and Google Maps revealed that this route across Northern Vermont was both the most direct and least miles of the three  choices.  So I set out on my adventure, anticipating less than a two hour ride and a shortcut when compared with the more highly traveled Route 15. 

I would not normally expect a state highway to turn into a narrow winding dirt and gravel road, but that is exactly what happened shortly after the route began in the town of Montgomery. Before I knew it, I had left civilization. There were no power lines, no cell service, no houses, just a road headed up! Notice I didn't say no cars or trucks, thats because route 58, otherwise known as Hazen’s Notch Road is a highly traveled state highway. Frequently I met cars and even good sized trucks coming in the opposite direction.  In the State of Vermont, if there is no posted speed limit, 50 mph serves as the “state speed limit” I don't remember seeing any speed limit signs. There were a few stretches of road where I felt safe going 40 mph, but most of the time, I kept the speed well below that mark. I actually had a few close calls including meeting a box truck traveling at a high rate of speed sliding on gravel as the driver tried to maintain control on a steep downhill. The scenery was rural and beautiful, but I spent most of my time looking out for crazy drivers. I reached the top of the notch and began the descent into the town of Lowell.  It was not long before pavement and civilization returned, but now I was in a different region of Vermont, I was on the other side of the Green Mountains. 

As the road continued the landscape changed to rolling hills, farms, and even some roadside curiosities such as a pyramid made of bowling balls on a front lawn. The rural road delivered on its promise and before long I was on Interstate 91 cruising toward the Lyndon exit. In subsequent days I tried the other routes and decided route 58 was by  far my favorite. Curiosity got the best of me, and I did quite a bit of research on the Hazen’s Notch Road and it’s history. One of the oldest roads in Vermont, construction was ordered by George Washington himself during the American Revolution. If you can imagine the road was actually planned as a route to invade Canada! Construction ended abruptly at Hazens Notch, when many realized the road would likely be used by British and Canadian invaders instead. Most of the original military road has been bypassed and paved over at this point, but a few original sections remain. Today archaeologists sometimes find lost sections of road on farms or in the wilderness. Often it can be identified by corduroy or logs pressed into the earth for stability and traction. I don't believe I drove over any corduroy, but I did drive on an original section of the Bayley-Hazen Military Road with an understanding of its amazing history.

I really did enjoy learning about and experiencing the history of the road. Later that week, as I traveled the route, I imagined how much work went into creating it and how history might be different if it had been completed as originally planned. I learned a little more as well and will be completing a geographic inquiry along with you later this month. Yes, Vermont route 58 was a shortcut, it saved a few miles and a few minutes, but it added a whole lot of adventure!

Welcome back! It is hard to believe that our adventure will begin in just a few short days. What adventure? - you may be asking. Learning should be an adventure, following established paths and blazing new trails. We will do both this year as we study the geography, history, and government of our nation. I hope you find my classroom to be a place where you can explore topics of interest and build connections to our world, past and present. I want you to question, explore, create, share, and reflect.  More about all of this later.

In my next post, I will tell you about my summer geographic adventure. Right here in northern Vermont, a rugged dirt and gravel road through a mountain pass. Was it a shortcut or something else entirely? Can you guess the location? Post a comment!

In the meantime, enjoy the last few days of summer!  I am excited to begin our learning adventure on August 27th.