North Woods River Runner: June 2020

Before you once again develop that nervous twitch and run screaming crazy-like to nowhere in particular at the mere mention of E-learning, let me simply say that the main objective of this particular blog entry is to document aspects of the past three months for posterity's sake. Once our school district saw that we would be implementing remote E-learning for the long haul, it was decided that we would expand from providing opportunities for students to completing standards for the year. While the teaching career has always meant going above and beyond the "working hours" (I’m not sure that most of us even know what that is or means), time, energy, and life in general became amped to a much higher degree.

Most days were spent collecting scores from Google Forms and i-Ready lessons while constantly communicating with parents and students through emails, GoGuardian, and Zoom Meetings. It was suggested that we should hold office hours so we could “turn the constant off.” Bwahaha (insert hysterical laugh)! I usually would take a break at some point during the day to take time for myself, and then sit back down after dinner to work late into the evening preparing lessons for the following day. This routine went on for weeks and months as many of you well know. Burning stored energy, finding hope to carry on, and continuing to create connections became my quest.

To stay sane I typically started most days running at the first rays of light. The half marathon I had signed up for in May was postponed, but the “training show” went on. Sometimes I ran solo, but most times I ran with friends under the guise of what I like to call “lateral distancing”. This meant that I was on one side of the trail, while friends were on the other. We were rewarded when we completed a “virtual half marathon”; running when and where we wanted and then sending in our finish time to a website. Running helped me to burn energy.

On occasional free nights or weekends, together with my wife and daughter, we would often load up in our vehicle to take a drive further into the country. We’d pretend to escape while enjoying a beautiful sunset, occasional wildlife, or the rebirth of springtime; sometimes with a shake or ice cream cone in hand. Country drives helped us have hope.

I never made it into the outdoors strictly to “get away” during this period of time. I did, however, enter into natural surroundings to make videos for my math and science lessons. When it came to hauling in equipment or editing the videos, it was a lot of extra work, but it also allowed me to feel as though I was talking directly to my students and teaching a lesson; albeit often alongside a moving form of water in a river or creek as opposed to being between the four walls of my classroom. It’s how I’d like to teach in the perfect world anyways. My outdoor lessons helped me to have a small connection to normalcy as a teacher and the natural world for my soul.

And so it was through physically burning energy, finding hope, or looking for connections that I tried to clear my head of the cluttered thoughts of what I underwent throughout the educational world of E-learning; by running, taking country drives, and creating lessons in the outdoors. I don’t want to lose track and forget how I survived teaching during the spring of 2020. Because of this I’ll simply document the lessons I had posted on YouTube here in this blog entry. Perhaps I’ll use them as videos I can refer to when I’m teaching from within the school building next year, or maybe others will have their child watch them to learn about water, gravity, integers, or the surprise of classroom gerbils giving birth to three litters of babies. True summer adventures now await! Yes!

See you along The Way…

______________________

VIDEOS & PICTURES BELOW:

VIDEOS (Click on the # to watch)

Science ("Professor Rhines Out In The Elements"):

#1-Pectentages of H2O (@ Dry Run Creek)

#2-Graphs & Salt (One graph error I correct in #3-@ WMS's "Odonata Pond")

#3-Graph Review (@ DalSanto's Creek)

#4-All The H2O On Earth (@ Dry Run Creek in Hononegah F.P.)

#5-All Of The Fresh H2O On Earth (@ Kinnikinnick Creek)

#6-From the Book "A Drop Of Water" - Water Tension (@ DalSanto's Creek)

#7-From the Book "A Drop Of Water" - Adhesion & Capillary Attraction (@ Turtle Creek)

#8-From the Book "A Drop Of Water" - States Of Matter In A Coming Storm" (@ Rock/Pecatonica River)

#9-From the Book "A Drop Of Water" - Evaporation & Condensation (@ Sugar River)

#10-From the Book "A Drop Of Water" - Snow, Frost, And Eagles (@ Rock/Turtle River)

#11-From the Book "A Drop Of Water" - Reflection, Refraction, & Water Cycle (@ Sugar River Channel)

#12-Gravity-Inertia-Orbit (In My Willowbrook Middle School Classroom)

#13-Newton's Three Laws Of Motion (My Final Farewell) (@ Sugar River)

Math ("Mr. Rhines' Math In The Woods"):

#1-Integers (@ Dry Run Creek)
#2-Adding Same Sign Integers (@ DalSanto's Creek)
#3-Adding Different Sign Integers (@ Dry Run Creek in Hononegah F.P.)
#4-Reviewing Thre Addition Of Integers (@ Kinnikinnick Creek)
#5-Subtracting Integers (@ DalSanto's Creek)
#6-Review Subtracting Integers (In the woods up behind WMS's "Bird's Grove Prairie")
#7-Operations For Integers-Review & Application (My Final Farewell) (@ Sugar River)

Extras-

#1-Animal Husbandary (Classroom Pets @ My House)

#2-Two & A Half Week Old Gerbils (Classroom Pets @ My House)

Earth Day WMS 2020 (Presented By The Willowbrook Middle School Science Team)

PICTURES

RUNNING:

Scott & I On The Last Snow Fall Of The Year (4-17-20)

Justin, Scott, Louie, And I On Our 14 Mile Long Run
Practicing What I Coined "Lateral Distancing" While Training

After Running The Half Marathon
"BigFoot-The Social Distancing Champion's Running Challenge"
(The Last Sub-Freezing Day For The Spring-May 9th, 2020)

Finally Some Warm Weather To Run in-Following A 10 Miler in June

COUNTRY DRIVES:

LESSONS IN THE OUTDOORS:

Gerbil Litter#1 on Saturday, April 18th (6 pups : )
Apparently The Christmas Gifts From Two Students Were A Male & Female

At Turtle Creek

Heading Into The Rock-Pecatonica River Confluence Before A Thunderstorm

Well Earned Hot Chocolate After A Lesson

Nature Tells A Story - You Often Find Cool Things While Out & About

Litter#2 (5 Pups) Born Wednesday, May 20, 2020
I Actually Had A Parent Email Me To Explain How I Can Prevent Such Things!
Bwahahaha! : )
There Really Is A Story & Explanation To The Whole Thing
Classroom Pets @ Home During The Pandemic...Who Knew?