Stemersion Day 1
Daily Activities
Today was the first day of our stemersion, To the Woods. We began with an introduction to what our stemersion will be about. Part of this was analyzing a quote from Henry David Thoreau, first individually and then as a group. The quote was, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." I personally thought that the quote was about using nature to get away from the outside world and discover what is really important.
In order to get to know each other, we went outside and played a game where we all had to stand in a circle on poly spots with one person in the middle. The person in the middle stated their name and a fact about themselves. Anyone who could relate to the fact that was said had to move spots, and the person with no spot had to go into the middle. When we came back inside, we read an excerpt by Anne Lamott about writing and how to focus our minds in preparation for our trips to various locations.
After lunch and recess, we read about how we can use Henry David Thoreau as a model for our nature writing. Then, to practice focusing our minds and observing nature, we went outside to the pond (pictured above) and sat for ten minutes. In those ten minutes, everyone was completely silent and wrote down eight observations that they made about what we could feel, see, and hear. I really enjoyed this activity because I rarely get the opportunity to silently sit and just pay attention my surroundings. It was slightly distracting to hear students and teachers from other stemersions, but I eventually learned to tune everything else out. To finish the day, we did yoga for about an hour.
Overall, I had a great first day and I'm really excited for everything that we're doing over the next couple weeks.
Comments