A New Beginning

It has been over a year since I posted here. Much has come and gone. Love has grown, and faded. Leaves have transformed into fire balls, fallen, emerged from buds a vibrant green, and fallen again. I have traveled across the United States three (and soon to be four) times. I've climbed mountains--seen beauty I believed long gone from this planet, and embraced trees larger than any I'd imagined growing up in the Midwest.

I finished my program in N. Minnesota and went West for a summer that ran into the fall. Applied for and accepted an AmeriCorps job in Washington state that fell through, and now will be working in far southern California as a naturalist. I am in Wisconsin until Christmas, when I will begin my 40 hour drive back west. I will take about 5 days to get there, stopping at the Grand Canyon on the way. I will be living in a community of 9 other naturalists and 2 wranglers at a ranch and outdoor science school. I'll be teaching classes to 5th and 6th graders from L.A.

I look forward to being outside again, living in the mountains, and meeting new people. It has been too long since I worked full time and it will be good for me and my heart. I think I will continue to heal from the breakup as I begin to learn about the land further south than I have ever lived. I will continue to miss the birch trees, but I am not sure I can ever again live without a view of the mountains.

I plan to keep this updated this year, and hopefully I do better than last year. Another goal of mine is to write people actual letters this year. So, email me your address!

-AZ

John Stossel, Class, and just being BUSY!

I have been so busy up here. Last weekend I drove up to The Lost 40 (about four hours from here) to see old growth pine forests that were never logged. (Pictures throughout this post). Then this weekend was Halloween and I went to Duluth on Friday night and went to a costume party here in Finland on Saturday.

Friday I also started a new class through UMD. In it we watched John Stossel's program "Tampering with Nature" where he blatantly attacks environmental education and environmentalists with horrible arguments that hold no bearing. Our first assignment for the class is to write a letter response to Stossel. Mine is below:)

Dear Mr. Stossel,

I recently watched your program “Tampering with Nature” and cannot help but tell you that I was appalled and quite disappointed with what it contained. There were a plethora of ad hominem attacks on environmental education, horrid assumptions of native peoples and their historical lifestyles and a blatant disregard for journalistic integrity. I will not ignore the fact that I am sure you have already received numerous letters, emails, and phone calls in regard to the program. The internet is swimming with angry articles about the lack of reliable content in many of the segments you have done for 20/20 as well. You are also well aware, I am sure, that the not only controversial, but also inherently untrue things you often say have lead to a website being created in order to “save” you from being cut by ABC. Assuming that you know all of the above I’d like to jump forward to arguments you made in the show “Tampering with Nature” and respond to them using actual empirical data and facts.

In the program you used the pilgrims as an example of a group of people who tried to “live with nature” and failed. I ask you, why did you choose the pilgrims? They came to a land they did not understand and struggled, this is no surprise. Even with all of the “tampering” that humanity does these days, going to a new land with unknown dangers isn’t easy to do. Why not use, as an example, native peoples that lived with the land for many centuries? Was there starvation and did people die? Yes. However, that happens now as well. Or have you forgotten (or were you not aware of) the starving children that live in the United States? According to Johns Hopkins, about 1% of children are chronically malnourished in the United States.

I am also wondering about your childhood, Mr. Stossel. Please fill me in. Did you spend much time playing outside? Did you learn where the little nooks and crannies were in trees and come up with stories full of mystery to fill them? Did you ever hear the crickets calling as you fell asleep, tan and exhausted on summer evenings? Perhaps you had a swimming hole, lake, stream, or ocean that you liked to frequent. Tell me what you did as a child, and perhaps I’ll be able to understand why you have a personal vendetta against fostering a relationship with nature for children today. Did you know that children don’t go outside much anymore? Environmental Education is seeking to do many things, one of which is to get students to care about nature and go outside. This will result in positive experiences, probably much like you had as a child. If there was a swimming hole, ocean, lake, or stream you played in, it is likely polluted now. The water isn’t safe to take a sip of on days that get just a bit too balmy for comfort, and upstream perhaps there is a factory. What are those factories doing? Tampering with nature.

I could go on and on all day, Mr. Stossel, but I am sure you have some leading questions to formulate or statistics to meld to your bidding. Please consider my input filed, as disappointed and angered, in response to the show “Tampering with Nature”. I will not hesitate, in the future, to bring out the truth in segments you champion with your own agenda.

Angrily,

AZ

I haven't decided yet if I'll actually send the letter or not. What do you all think?

I have been trying to track down poetry slams in Duluth, as many of you know. I have yet to have any luck, but I found a contact who I can call if I find a few poems and want to organize a slam of my own. If only I had more time! Here is a new slam poem I wrote (the 2nd since I moved only) about teaching. What do you all think? It would obviously be better if you could hear it...but I haven't had time to record it yet.


Misunderstood
By: Angie Ziobro

Yeah, I'm a teacher
but not the normal kind
I teach classes, you see
where children go outside.
And I hear day after day
year after year
from teachers whose classrooms have walls...
"Little Timmy isn't the best behaved"
"Suzy cries and lies and probably can't be saved."

These are the children of our future
and hope has already started to wain
but aren't the geniuses
those most often misunderstood?
Isn't Einstein an example
of a child they said couldn't
but could?

Does it really do any good to base anything at all
on a child enslaved by education's walls?
I think the real gems of students
are those who can't pull their eyes off the windows--
the ones who sit, jittery in their seats--
who dispose of their ADHD medication, secretively.

I see more soul in the eyes of the child who
taps incessantly on her desk,
the one with a beat so deep inside her,
it CAN'T be suppressed.

This is a poem for the children who despise
single file lines,
the lost boys and girls who just want to be outside.
It's a plea to the teachers who judge them while they're in--
Take them out and watch the children be
as they should have always been.

Teach them to love the land
by pointing to trees, not books
attune that girl's tapping heart
with a babbling brook.

No need out here to worry
of the boy's eyes looking out.
Out is where we are.
...Where children laugh and learn
without walls that are bars.

This is a poem for the misunderstood minds,
screaming to be wild.
It's for the exploring heart
that's in every child.
It's for the drop outs that saw
more life outside than in,
For the counselors, outdoor educators,
the adults that refuse to judge
the wandering children.

It's for waking up to the sunrise
and hiking at night.
The rough bark of ancient trees
and a bird's very first flight.

It's for the child in all of us
that still glances to the window--
For the Einsteins, the Timmys
and the Suzys we all know.

Because like Einstein they're examples
of students they said couldn't, that could.

I think the geniuses are the ones
most often misunderstood.

___________________________________

As always I'll try to post again soon.

-Angie

Busy Life in the North

I know, I know. I am becoming one of those bloggers who never actually blogs about anything. I can’t help it though. If you lived on 2000 acres in the north woods would you be inside or on a computer much?

Per the usual, I am still having a good time up here. Things are a bit stressful, but not too bad. I am teaching around six three hour classes per week (and training in on some too, which counts as some of that number). I am also taking one 4 hour long class/week through the University of MN, Duluth.

The class I am taking right now (which has two more meetings) is called Theories and Models in Environmental Education. It might be the most boring class I’ve ever taken. We meet each Friday afternoon for four hours of the professor rambling on and on about things that don’t seem to apply to the class at all. The readings aren’t much better. I haven’t read anything for the class, as of yet, that was written more than two years after I was born. All of the “breakthroughs” that the articles and books talk about are merely common sense now. The class will be over in less than a month, however, so I’m hoping that the class that takes its place is more stimulating.

My parents came up to N. Minnesota last weekend, which was really fun. On Saturday I went to Sigurd Olson’s cabin on Listening Point http://www.listeningpointfoundation.org/ in the afternoon then met up with them in the evening. I did a behind the scenes tour at the Bear Center and even got to feed their biggest bear, Ted, a Brazil nut! http://www.bear.org/website/

Peak color for leaves and autumn up here was almost three weeks ago now. A couple wind storms took down most of the leaves. I can now see Lake Superior from the porch on my dorm (and most places on the premises here). It’s really quite magical to be so close to something so large and powerful. It almost makes me feel that tug that the ocean has always had on me. I’m not sure if Superior could sustain me forever in that way, but for now it works just fine.

I have been thinking a lot about what I am going to do next year, after all of this is over up here, but I have no idea. I am okay with that though, I think. Over the last few years I have learned that the intense amount of planning ahead that I have always done in my life is not only unnecessary, but it also stresses me out. I like to keep things up in the air. My eyes are still looking westward, however, as they have been for several years now. Perhaps I’ll go that way come June...Who knows.

I am going to attempt to upload a ton of pictures into this post...we’ll see if it works.

Choices, Choosing, Debating, Life

I know I know, it has been far too long since I updated last. I cannot believe how busy I am up here! A full course load of grad classes along with 24 hours of teaching a week! This is just crazy...and I am using far too many exclamation points.

I find myself wondering today if where I am is really the right place for me in the long run. Not, physically where I am, but what I am doing. Educating children is a commendable profession, of course, but is it what my heart is screaming for? I don’t think so. I want to protect this planet, to fight for it with every breath I have, and I don’t think that non-chalantly hinting at children (while working with all my might to avoid the dreaded word ‘advocacy) that the world might be being killed is going to cut it for me, or for the planet. If you saw your mother being murdered in front of you would you go and tell people why murder is wrong without naming the murderer, or would you take them on teeth barred? Why is it that humanity has had all of the animal instincts drained from them and that we are so afraid to win them back? I read articles when I am done teaching about historical things each day and I wonder why I’m not teaching the children about tomorrow instead of yesterday. Yesterday was beautiful, the voyageurs and the Ojibwe loved the land up here as I do...but the land isn’t the same anymore. It was clear cut in the early 1900s and it is being mined to this day...I feel like I am sitting way too passively considering a profession that won’t help the planet fast enough.

I want to write, it’s true, but I don’t want to write about environmental education as I have been claiming to want to do. I am just saying that to justify where I am right now, to justify the fact that I didn’t jump quite far enough when I left the city and my office and a 9-5 predictability. Then again, I did jump, and maybe this is just a shoving off point for bigger and better things next year.

Once I know the lesson plans up here front and back I am allowed to start throwing some of me in with the teachings. I can talk about current events impacting the planet, the truths of what is happening, and try to foster a spark in children somewhat like what I have shimmering within me. A spark that knows to question the norms of this society and one that sees clear cuts not as ‘forest management’ but as homicidal insanity on ecosystems.

We are each pushed to make our own evening programs of about an hour to educate children about something this year. I want to make mine on what it would look like here if the land had never been clear cut. There is an area in Minnesota called ‘The Lost 40’ that due to a surveying error was never logged that I am going to visit. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/snas/sna01063/index.html I am going to talk about the giant white pines that used to grace the ridge here and the woodland caribou that evacuated once their pine friends were gone. I’ll talk about the beaver weighing nearly 100 pounds that populated the rivers before they were killed, nearly to extinction, for their furs to grace felt hats of the elite in Europe. With pictures, poetry, and possibly music I hope to make the children see what this planet used to look like, the drastic changes that are taking place today. Perhaps a segment within the slide show to talk about clear cutting that is happening right now?

This will be a productive year, for sure. I am unsure and really shaky about making a career of it though. The planet cannot wait for these children to grow into adults for people to start fighting for it.

Voyageurs, rock walls, mountains, canoes, and so much more...

I apologize for being incredibly slow on updating you all here...I have been SO busy since I last posted that sitting on a computer hasn't even really been an option. I am now midway through my first week of teaching here and absolutely loving it. I taught a class called Earth Works twice yesterday which is an art type class where children create their own impermanent art outside (I believe I mentioned the class in one of my previous posts). Today I taught a rock climbing class (where I was evaluated) and a Voyageur class which is a class where I pretend to be a French Voyageur for three hours while taking students (in this case college-aged) out in a voyager canoe to an encampment where they learn to make flint and steel fires, make tent stakes, and many other things.

Each day I am getting closer with the people and the land here in Minnesota. I absolutely love the community. Last weekend I went to a benefit folk concert at a greenhouse here in town (which isn't even really a town) and heard local bands (and two of my fellow naturalists) play. 

Last Friday we had our matriculation where we were made an official part of the program here and got our famous 'blue coats' which are patagonia rain coats with our names and Wolf Ridge's name embroidered into them.

I spend so much time laughing up here that I've forgotten what it is to spend each day doing something I don't love...and I am so happy I am forgetting that. To think that one year ago, and even two years ago, to this day I would have been sitting in an office doing something I hated, to go home to do something I might semi enjoy, when now I spend every day surrounded by a great group of people doing thing after thing that I love...it just sends my  mind spinning.

I will try to post more regularly when I am not spending each night feverishly reading over lesson plans and each day teaching all day...please comment (I hope people can comment now) and keep me posted on your lives too. I miss you all...but I will be honest in saying I don't know if I'll ever leave this place.

Ahh, Contentment.

Well it has been awhile since I last posted and I apologize, but it has been incredibly busy here. Good busy however. I am doing things (taking classes mostly) from 8am until 10pm, but I am happier than I have ever been. I can’t stop smiling. Why? Well I guess it’s a combination of things. The hills and mountains surrounding me are part of it, as are the trees that make me smile whenever I look out my window. I am outside more every day than I have been in years and of course there are the amazing people I am living and working with. We are in week one, so we are all still in ‘nice stranger’ mode, I suppose, but at the same time I can see several people forming into some of the best friends I have possibly ever had already. About eight of us spent last night sleeping on the porch looking up at the stars, bundled against the near freezing temperatures and having the greatest of times. Everytime I woke up throughout the night I opened my eyes and saw more stars than I have seen in years living in the city.

The breadth of knowledge I am going to gain here is amazing (and exciting!) I will be learning and teaching classes on astronomy, phenology, the history of Lake Superior, tree identification, animal tracking, stream and lake studies, wetland studies, and my favorite: earthworks! Never heard of it? Well Earthworks is basically making art out of natural things in natural places that is meant not to last forever. It is the only art based class that is taught here and I fell in love with it when I took it. Here is the art that I created in the woods during the class, I call it “Against the Grain”.

I took a class on Renewable Energy that I will teach and I am a bit skeptical. In it there is a ton of information, which I am familiar with, but I am not sure I am okay with the overall message which seems to be that personal lifestyle changes can save the planet. I brought this up to several people in class and they asked how I would tell 6th graders that industry and military institutions cause the most pollution and problems. I am unsure how I’ll do this, and any input is appreciated here guys, but I am thinking I’ll do something like say: “Most pollution, however, doesn’t come from individual people or households but from the military and commercial industries. Next time you go to the mall or a store look around at all the lights that are on, and all the pavement that is stopping trees from growing.” That is where I get stuck, however, because what do I tell them to DO about it?

I had a really exciting conversation with one of my fellow naturalists last night when we were at a bonfire and we are going to work together to learn to tan leather this year. I am going to teach him how to make baskets that we will use the black ash for. There is apparently a community of people that live off the grid with no electricity not five miles from where we are living. We want to go up there and meet them and see if they will teach us about tanning or other rewilding skills. My friend hadn’t heard about Urban Scout before, and I talked about his book (which I of course don’t have up here with me) and he was really excited to begin learning things. We are also talking about making our own moccasins! He doesn’t seem to be as radical leaning as I am on environmental issues, but perhaps if I give him Endgame to read that could change…

Taking a Stand

Well saying that i have been busy would be quite the understatement. I am just going to quickly summarize all of the wonderful activities I did all day so that I can jump quickly into the story/conversation that most invigorated and interested(interests) me.

We started the morning off with the lesson of the Superior View Hike, going through it as if we were students in the class that we are going to be teaching in less than two weeks. It was incredibly enjoyable, and, of course, we got to look out over Superior. It is an awesome view, 600 feet above the surface of the lake, allowing us to see out over 30 miles. On that hike I asked the ‘teacher’ about the current state of fish in the lake and he took a very non-committal stance on the effects of sport and commercial fishing on the lake. Non-committal to the point where I would bring it up later in the evening (which lead to the conversation I will talk about in most of this post).

The second lesson that we had explained/taught to us that we will be teaching is entitled Ojibwe Heritage. In that lesson we learned how to start a fire with flint and steal, something I failed pretty miserably at but plan to practice more. We also learned how to make twine out of basswood (which, if you know me, you won’t be surprised to find I was much better at). We also learned how to pound ash in order to get strips of thin wood for basket making and other things. We sat in replicas of their two types of dwellings and even heard the legend of how fire was brought to the Ojibwe people. I truly enjoyed this lesson and asked a LOT of questions about the heritage and what they do with the strips of ash. They don’t do a thing and I was told I could use them to make baskets whenever I want. I am thrilled about this!

This then brings us to the evening activity which was a meeting about teaching here in general. This is where I brought up the topic of taking stances on environmental issues. I really wanted to know the policy on this as I am incredibly passionate about the environment (obviously) and I am NOT comfortable taking a non-committal stance on logging, for instance. I was told that over the years environmental education as a whole has gone from taking solid stances on issues that effect the environment to being quite soft and not really taking a stand. Joe, the head of my program up here, said that that is a tragedy and that is imperative for us to take stances on issues that are important to this planet’s very survival. He said that many people do not believe in climate change, but we teach a class on it because it is BACKED UP BY SCIENTIFIC FACT. When I asked if when children inquire about the logging history of this area (something that is brought up in the Superior View Hike) if I can illustrate the drastic changes to tree cover that occurred as an effect of that, he told me that I should definitely go ahead and do that. I am going to try not to preach to students, but they need to know these things. I will just make sure I hold a ton of knowledge before I take that committed stance on an issue so that if there are objections I can share facts in argument/discussion and ask the children to debate and discuss the issues that will directly effect them in their lifetimes.

I miss you all and am having a blast! Take care:)

Evening Reflections

Reflections at the end of my first full day here...

Whew! What a day! This morning was great, swimming and such. When I got back to our dorm pretty much everyone was awake and we decided to go on a hike at noon. We all met up, water and swim suits in hand (or in backpacks mostly) and headed out, with no particular destination in mind. We ended up checking out the other dorm that is for students only, and the high ropes course. We then headed on to the Superior View Hike. The hike itself took about an hour but wow were there some fantastic views! Check out the pictures:)

We relaxed on the top of the bluff/cliff for awhile and all got a bit too much sun. We then started to head back down. Most of the people in our group decided to head back to the dorm but Kati and I wanted to go swimming so we veered off from them and headed the extra 20minutes or so to Wolf Lake where we can swim (and where I was this morning). On the way there we ran into 3 deer, one of them a nearly full grown fawn that still had spots. The deer saw us and jumped/ran away. Then when we stood still and talked to them the fawn decided to come investigate. Obviously curious we kept talking to him and he got within five feet of us! So much fun! We then went swimming.

When we returned from swimming we headed out to the so called ‘co-op’ here in ‘town’ that is more of a general store than anything and is also really overpriced. All of the other naturalists arrived throughout the day and the 15 of us cooked a pot-luck style meal. It was delicious (complete with wine which we found out we can have here, yay for not having a totally alcohol free year!)

Most of us then played Apples to Apples to get to know each other better.


Well, that’s enough for tonight. Tomorrow training starts so I will likely not post twice a day like I did today. Training goes until 10pm then I’ll probably just be crashing.

I miss everyone back in Wisconsin but I am really falling in love with it here.

Take care:)

First Morning Here

Any doubt I was harboring about whether or not this was the right place for me to be is gone now. The people here are great and--here’s what cemented it (if the stars last night didn’t) I woke up this morning before anyone else--made coffee and went to stand on the porch that is right next to my bedroom. That’s when I heard the loons calling. Wolf Lake is blocked from sight by the treeline--but I’d gone swimming in it yesterday. I went inside, put my coffee in a Thermos and my swim suit on and made the 15min hike down to the lake (where I sit now). I saw one of the loons before I made my way down the steep hill to the lake shore. I knew then that although I just got here, I am home. 

Yesterday when seven or so of us were swimming down here we saw an eagle. From the porch next to my window if you strain your eyes just slightly you can make out Superior. The program here will likely be challenging--but I’m excited. A challenge with loons and lakes? My kind of thing.

Oh wow--the loon appears to be practicing taking off! Interesting!

This is the perfect northern lake. No boats and no houses:)

One of the girls up here is originally from Northern Minnesota--by the boundary waters. We were talking to her about how to ‘get away’ we always escape north. We asked her where she ‘gets away’ to. She said she never feels the need to get away. Now THAT is the power of the north. 

I have a bunch of great pictures but they are taking forever to upload so I'll just do one for now:)