Poets have always known that in wild places too, we may expand into larger identities.

I entered the life of the brown forest, And the great life of the ancient peaks, the patience of stone I felt the changes in the veins In the throat of the mountain,     and, I was the stream,
Draining the mountain wood; and I the stag drinking:     and I was the stars,
Boiling with light, wandering alone, each one the lord of his own     summit;     and I was the darkness
Outside the stars, I included them, They were part of me.     I was mankind also, a moving lichen
On the cheek of the round stone ... they have not made words for it...

“Not Man Apart” Robinson Jeffers

The Story of Food

Are We Story-Beings?

Dr. Patrick Lewis and the importance of story telling in classrooms.
The basic principle of our mind is by story. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Teachers need to understand their own personal story, which is embeded in their values and beliefs. Do I have a story? What parts of my life would make up my story?
All students have their own story, how can teachers discover the story of their students without intruding on their lives?
What are the benefits of sharing stories?
How does the perspective of the teacher change in the eyes of their students when they share their personal stories with the class? Can we insert a chapter of our lives into the story of student's?
Story is a powerful thing, why? What is the opposite of a story?
What's the purpose of thinking about this semester as a story?
Do we put ourselves in the middle of stories? How could we use storytelling as an educator? Do I use it now? Can you control what people understand from a story? Is it important that we control what they get out of a story? Why aren't we using story more often? What is the truth? Who is the maker of the truth? What is it that we hold onto as being the truth? Is the truth just an interpretation? If there is no truth, then what is the point of learning?

Human Footprint Continued

I went on to watching a DVD produced by National Geographic called Human Footprint. If I was astonished before about getting an idea of how much I impact the world, never did I have any idea of North Americans contributions together! Here are some important statistics that I found:
 Most bananas travel 11 million miles. The average American eats about 2.3 tonnes of chicken in a life time. In North American, if we combine all of the food we eat a day that would be approximately 1,649,630, 427 lbs. We eat 9,917 tonnes of potatoes, 4376 loaves of bread, 6 pigs, 255 eggs a year, 25 pounds of candy a year, 2,000 cans are opened a second, over 43, 371 cans are opened over an average life time. The scary part about this is that it is only ONE aspect of our footprint on the planet. How about all of the water we use: 700,000 gallons of water in a life time, there are enough sewer lines in North America to wrap around the world 4 times. We drink 13, 248 beers in a life time. We normally throw away 68 pounds of clothing, jeans alone travel 24, 000 miles before being worn. We wash approximately 35 billion loads of laundry, a YEAR!
This is most definitly astonishing to hear. How does it make us feel when we hear facts like these? Ashamed, imbarrassed? Unhopeful? My major question after watching this DVD was, how would this amount of different in other countries? Are contries in Central America using as much resources as we are in North America? Are the Scandenavian countries using as much? How would other countries feel if they heard we consumed way more then they do? What if our consumption was only limited to our continent? What if we were not aloud to do trades with other countries and had to produce our own supplies? Can we picture '"life" possible if we only had ourselves for support?

Journal Entry #9 My Footprint

Our class went to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum last week. There was so much to discover, however I had a focus on the human footprint section. A computer was there able to calculate our human footprint. Some certain questions were asked such as what kind of home do you live in, how often a week do you eat meat, do you have a car and how often do you drive, as well as travel in planes. I found out that the average footprint in 1999 was approximately 6.9 hectares (1 hectare=football field). I was thinking my footprint should be small because I drive an economical car, I live with two other people in a house, I don't eat much meat, and I hardly travel (went to Mexico last year but does that count?). My footprint was rated a 5! I cannot believe that I impact the world that much. And 5 is my miniumum footprint because the computer never asked me how much water I use, where I buy my clothes and how often, do I wear make up, use hairspray, do I recycle. There are so many other things that contribute to our overall footprint.

Journal Entry 8: Buying Locally

            Food sovereignty was an important theme during our class camping trip. We had a group discussion about what food sovereignty was and talked about what issues food sovereignty breaks down into. How does it affect us?
I  thought about where I buy my groceries and the types of food I buy. I always go to a grocery store like Safeway or Extrafoods. I heard about farmer’s market downtown and I’ve always wondered if the market would be similar to the markets I saw in Guatemala, C.A. There would be women sitting in lines on either side of a long street with weight scales sitting beside them. The men would not be there because they were either still farming or on the road bringing crates of fruit and vegetables into the city. The women would continue sitting from 6:30am-8:00pm. There would be mountains of vegetables and garbage all throughout the street. Would the famer’s market be like this downtown Regina? I want to see this for myself one weekend soon.

            If I start buying locally, how will this affect my lifestyle, health, and the organizations I am buying from? We found out that the Green Ranch sells their vegetables to local restaurants in Regina. Now that I have helped garden at the Green Ranch, and my peers had the opportunity to meet the two that manage the farm, does this make me want to help support them? Yes it does, I know where the food is coming from, I have an idea of the long hours both farmers put in each week, and they are normal people like you and I trying to make a living. Who is behind big grocery chains like Safeway, or Extrafoods? Who is benefiting when I buy from those stores? Does this help or hinder farms like the Green Ranch?
            If I go to the Farmer’s Market, I will help support local farms like the Green Ranch. Buying locally does benefits my family and I because the food we are eating is not coming from a 1,000,000 miles away, filled with pesticides and herbicides. If I buy locally I help support the local farms so they can make enough profit to continue farming and growing organic food.
            I wonder what our society would be like if it was government mandatory to only shop locally. How would our society around Regina (including nearby rural areas), change? If shopping locally is a good thing, what is local? Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, or North America?

Greener Keener's Action Group Learning Project

I wanted to start contacting resources in Regina and around Canada, so I emailed Collin from take me outside, Jared Clarke from Wascana Authority, and David Suzuki Foundation in BC. Here is the message I sent to David Suzuki:

Hello There! I am a fourth year education student at the University of Regina, SK. I am in an environmental education course (first environmental class I've ever taken) and I am a part of an action group learning project. Our name is the Greener Keener's and our mission is to get ourselves and others outside. I wanted to write to the David Suzuki foundation in regards to finding resources and ideas of how to get our young people outside! What can my group do to make a change in Saskatchewan or on a larger scale, the World!?? We are very motivated students/future teachers, and we need to learn how we can make changes in our lives and be positive leaders. We need to make a strong relationship with nature in order to raise awareness for caring for it. Please help us if you have any information or ideas. Thank you so much, hope to hear from you soon. Please help us make a difference!