Eight Days In...

Well, I'm on to week two of this experience, and at this point I can hardly keep my eyes open I'm so tired.  We had quite a bit of work due this morning for class, and my roommates and I were up awfully late to complete it- in fact, I don't think one of them even went to bed.  One of our tasks was to write a paper based on the four planes of child development, as Montessori saw them, and talk about how each stage contributed to the development of the adolescent.  Our other work due today was a list of words taken from  Montessori philosophy, which we were supposed to write our own definition for and then provide at least two quotes from Dr. Montessori on each specific term.  This is called our lexicon work- we have a new list for this week, and one for next week, too.  


We only had a morning set of lectures today, which were on the topic of "occupations."  This term refers to   a type of work done by the adolescent students that seems like it would be work around the farm, but it really incorporates the science curriculum along with many other subject areas.  My occupation for the day was "chickens." (Generally occupation studies last around 4 weeks.)  My group began by going out to the chicken coop for some good ol' observation.  We looked at how they communicated with each other, how they moved about the pen, and how they reacted to things in their environment.  We got the chance to try to pick up a chicken, and I am proud to say that I managed to do it on my first attempt :)  After we were done in the chicken pen, we headed back to the classroom, where we all put forth ideas for research.  I was curious about what it would take to make the keeping of chickens a self-supporting endeavor.  Others were interested in area needed for chickens, the different vocalizations of chickens, and more intensive anatomy studies.  We had a bit of time to compile some information and then we had to present our findings to the large group.  Some of the other occupations included pond studies, beekeeping (yes, they did don the traditional white beekeeping costumes, complete with smoke thingy), archaeology, organic gardening, and micro-economy.  The idea of occupations is to not only to cover all the science topics, but to have as many interdisciplinary connections as possible.  Some examples of occupation work left here by past students include a shiitake mushroom garden and a full-size log cabin.  What I came away with was not only an excitement about what occupations we could do with my own crew of middle schoolers, but also a strong desire to get some chickens for our school...


I also unpacked my bags here at the farm, where I am staying for the next four days.  I have three new roommates for the week, and we are all happy with our bunk arrangements (I got a bottom bunk- yeah!)  My chores for my week on the farm include morning meal prep, dinner crew, and mucking out stalls- I've got my boots all set :)  Our homework doesn't decrease just because we are at the farm, and in between daily lectures and class, morning chores, afternoon chores, and evening chores, I have studying to do, which I should be getting to...