April 12,
2003
My Westward
Waters journey begins here – on these pages. Actually
it began a few months ago when I decided to take a "chance" or an
"opportunity" as my principal called it. I now believe it to
be an "incredible adventure" I will be taking with 35 others.
Our first meeting was in mid March, where we were introduced for
the first time to one another. I felt very much like an
explorer in an uncharted land. Not only am I new to the
teaching profession but I knew no one at this meeting. Even
though I am usually extremely uncomfortable in settings such as
these my apprehension soon eased as I felt others might be feeling
the same way. As our expectations were explained throughout
the day, I felt both overwhelmed but completely excited about this
entire adventure. I'm sure Meriwether Lewis felt the same way
as he first discussed plans for the expedition with Thomas
Jefferson. Hal Stearns, our guide for the Lewis and Clark
study, was fantastic in his presentation. He really drew me
into the story. He is a marvelous speaker/actor. I am
now thoroughly sold on learning more about this incredible journey
and the people involved.
Yesterday,
we traveled to Sioux
City, Iowa to the new Lewis and ClarkInterpretiveCenter. Again, another first for me to
travel that far by myself. I left home at 6:30am and drove for about 2 � hours to
arrive in Sioux
City close to
9am. As I was driving I wanted to think
what my whole approach to this project would be and I felt I would
really connect with one of the members of the expedition and try to
envision it through their eyes, so I was in search of that
character.
The
interpretive center was a great experience to help connect and
place yourself within the expedition. The first thing when
going through the center was to choose a character for
yourself. At this point, I am reading Stephen Ambrose's book
, Undaunted Courage, which is very much Lewis' viewpoint for
the most part, so I choose to be Lewis while going through the
center.
Today we
are back at the ESU building receiving more specific information as
to what our jobs would be regarding lesson plan creating. I
am on a committee of K-2 grade instructors and my specific area
will be New Life Forms and environment. I am glad that I have
begun to connect to Lewis as he was the main gatherer of the Flora
and Fauna of the expedition.
We also
received our clie's today. Again, more uncharted areas for
me. I describe myself as being quite technology
illiterate. However, I am determined to overcome this
shortcoming as well. I guess the only way to learn to swim is
to jump in the water and I feel I have dived head first into the
deep end!
