The First Blog Post!

Well, here it is, grad school.  After the first day of the summer institute for the environmental education program, I must admit I wasn't sure what I had gotten myself into! Now here, at the conclusion of the second day, after two days in the woods studying trees, plants, learning techniques, measurement techniques, (the list goes on and on) I'm feeling like we're all here in the right place.  The small group of seven of us, while jumping through the hoops of moving/traveling to NH, learning the campus, dealing with packed lunches and leaving kids at home, has passed the first two (intense) days with flying colors (if I can say so myself!). 
I'm finding it incredibly interesting how in this class, and probably in the classes that lie before me in this program, I will not only be learning new subjects, but also will be learning how to look at things that I have already learned from the perspective of a teacher, student, population, etc. For example, on the first day we took a walk through College Woods and set out two plots of forest for our group to measure and assess.  Since my undergraduate education here at UNH has already led me through exercises relatively close to this activity, I prepared myself to take somewhat of a backseat throughout the afternoon.  However, I was happily mistaken!  As we took measurements and made observations, my outlook on the whole activity changed right before my eyes.  It was really interesting to listen to my new colleagues and to think and look at the forest around me the way that they do.  I'm really excited for the weeks to come, as I'm sure I will be able to learn an incredible amount from these new classmates and through this program itself.
One thing I didn't really expect to learn from this particular class was different ways to teach/explain a certain idea or method to the learner.  Since I have no previous experience with teaching others (aside from being an assistant dance teacher for years and various classroom activities as an undergrad) the idea of looking at things that I've already learned, and even new subjects that I have yet to learn, in this way (from the perspective of the new student) is a completely new experience to me and something that I really look forward to learning more about.