Yesterday evening, just before dorm check-in, one of my good friends had the misfortune of knocking a pipe out of place.  At once, the water started to erupt, so he ran to the dorm for help.  At the dorm we heard yells of “FELIX, FELIX, HELP! HELP! There’s water everywhere!”  So Felix, our literature teacher, leapt up and ran to where my friend guided him.  When it became clear that Felix needed more help, the rest of the boys’ dorm came flooding out and following my friend to the pipe.  At first, we caught the water with buckets and quickly formed a chain to pass the buckets and dump them back into the cistern.  This was not as effective as it needed to be though, so Brandon stuffed his hand down the pipe to stop its flow.  At that moment, Felix shouted that we needed to shut off the water pump.  We shut off the pump, and our problem was solved, but what I was fascinated by how quickly we assessed the situation and began to work together in a productive manner.  Continue reading →

Yesterday afternoon, Peter and Teschna took their Marine Ecology class SCUBA diving.  We dropped forty feet down to Tunnel Rock, and swam around exploring under rocks, caves, and tunnels.  The idea of SCUBA diving during a class inspired me.  For one, already in our class we have learned a life skill that will extend itself far beyond Marine Ecology class.  In addition, diving gives our classroom work meaning: I find nearby fish species that I visit frequently to be much more relevant to me than those found under the arctic ice cap.  As we kicked our way around Tunnel Rock, Continue reading →

Yesterday, during Community Outreach, each student went to their group with their Deep Creek Middle School buddy in order to work on a project that some of the middle school students had selected. I was part of Teen Community building, and as our first task, we subdivided to create a public service announcement that we could publish via social media. Emma Barbera and her buddy, Zyria, and me and my buddy, Michael broke off to make a video promoting awareness about domestic violence. Our project opened the participants up for exchange. It was easy to exchange ideas with our buddies while working on a video. Together we would plan the facts to use, record our buddies speaking, and check over the work.

I was really impressed by my buddy’s focus on strengthening his community. Continue reading →

Over the weekend, Island School students made their first visits to the host families that they will be interviewing for their Oral History Projects for Histories Class.  Some folks lounged around with members of the family and got to know them, other groups baked Johnnycake, and other students walked around the settlement with their hosts.  The groups of students were dispersed around Deep Creek, Waterford, Green Castle, Tarpum Bay, and Rock Sound. The project’s goal is that each group will make a video of each family’s oral history after a semester of time spent interviewing and learning about them. The families will receive the videos as gifts.  Continue reading →

Yesterday was our first research block.  To begin it, all research groups met to listen to a guest speaker who gave a presentation on his extensive work with sea turtles.  Stephen Connett described the different species, their ecology, history with human interaction, and his personal work with turtle conservation.

After this inspiring presentation, the groups broke apart for their individual class time. We continued to study background information, then I, along with my Lionfish group, dissected lionfish. In dissecting lionfish, we were able to learn the ‘do’s and don’t’s’ for handling these venomous fish.  We also got familiar with identifying their gender, stomach contents, fat content, and checking their brain cavity for otoliths, a marker of age.  We felt like real researchers learning the most recent scientific methods used on lionfish.  In addition, we sent samples of our fish to a lab for DNA testing, and otolith examination.  Continue reading →

Yesterday, Wednesday Island School students joined Chris Maxey for a free dive even on their sleep-in.  Before the sunrise and in the rain, the divers rode their bikes to Hammerhead Hole, where they stopped to do yoga.  As the sun rose, Maxey led us in the tree pose, where one stands on one foot and sways in the wind.  The relaxing yoga helped us all with our breathing so that we could be more successful at holding our breath.  After a surprising amount of ‘yoga push-ups’, we stepped into the water.  Hammerhead Hole is special because it is about forty feet deep, but only 15 feet off of shore.  In free-diving, one joins with a buddy, and one buddy at a time will hold his breath while he calmly and steadily kicks his way to the bottom.  A few students made their way to the deepest point of the hole.  However, heads turned when Maxey free dove to the bottom, took his fins off, grabbed a rock, and ran along the bottom before coming up for air.  After a good sample of free diving, we biked back to campus to start the day.

After breakfast, we began our third day of classes.  Continue reading →

Today is almost another first day of classes.  Yesterday, after half of the students completing their first timed Run/Swim, we began Math and Human Ecology classes.  However, today will be the start of a whole new set of classes including Histories, Literature, and our first research classes!  The students are very excited to divide into the groups that they selected to work on and to begin their learning.  Continue reading →