Journal #5

I've enjoyed this journal exercise more than most people probably would because of my background in writing courses.  I've always been more of a writing person than a math person.  Journalism is a way for me to express and describe my opinions different from having to tell them out loud in front of people, which I don't normally like doing.  These assignments have enabled me to share my feelings about topics in a more private setting.

There were only a few things I thought about because of the journal experience.  One was writing about my frustrations in journal #4, involvoing the geocaching.  I don't think I've had a moment of frustration throughout the actual in-class portion of our studies.  The other big one would be writing about what I learned about myself after our morning with the naturalist.

The profession I hope to pursue after graduation is likely in the sports field.  I hope to one day be an athletic director or general manager of a collegiate of professional sports franchise.  I've always had an almost unhealthy passion for sports and the teams I root for every year.  I hope to one day turn my passion into a career that I actually enjoy being a part of on a daily basis.

Being in Boy Scouts and growing up in a family with a great passion for the outdoors helped me prepare for this class in terms of general knowledge.  I think taking this course probably opened my mind a little and helped me expand on my thinking.  I learned more ways to reduce my impact on the environment and also read more about how important keeping our awareness of the outdoors a top priority.  This is especially true because future generations are in danger of never seeing the things we've experienced in the outdoors.

Journal #4

The geocaching trip seemed very relaxing and provided us with a stress-free environment.  I wasn't frustrated with anything during this experience and had fun learning an activity I could one day turn into a hobby.  If I had to pick one thing, it would've been the lack of hands on experience for people without smart phones and couldn't download the geocaching application.  Although, I still got the basics of the process and enjoyed navigating around the area.

Our team chemistry was great during our geocaching.  Everyone talked and cracked jokes with each other in between finds.  The people without smart phones were still able to help by figuring out the hints at each cach location.  I also enjoyed my group particularly because I hadn't worked with any of them for any significant amount of time before this activity. 

The thing I enjoyed most about this activity was being outdoors and further getting to know each one of my classmates.  Seeing these people four days a week for over two hours really requires that everyone understand each other, specifically in a class like ours where everyone works together to solve problems and teach skills.  Like I said before, the weather was also great and wasn't to humid for once.  It's not often a hot day in Virginia goes by without making you feel like it's 15 degrees hotter than the actual temperature.

The biggest personal leadership skill that I exhibited during this day's activity was helping to create intellectual stimulation among my group members.  During the entire class, I spoke among my group members about geocaching, but also things involving our lives outside of the class.  The chemistry was great and I felt comfortable talking with everyone in a positive manner.  This class really does give off a great vibe after learning a little about everyone and their goals behind this class.

Journal #3

Our class with the naturalist at the park was awesome, to say the least.  This is despite my troubles finding the place.  My favorite thing I learned during the day was that people often went fly fishing in the river.  I'm a big fly fishing fan, but I've only been able to do so out west.  It was great to discover a location where I can partake in a favored hobby of mine.  Hopefully I'll be back there in the near future with a fly rod. 

Mr. Pitrizzi seemed like a very hands kind of guy.  I enjoyed his teaching methods and sharing of knowledge very much.  The first learning strategy I admired was letting us feel and hear the animals and the sounds coming from them, like the beetle at the beginning of the trip.  Secondly, he let us learn through personal experience by letting us freely explore the river and the wildlife around the area.  This was great because it let the students learn and communicate more with each other, instead of sitting and listening to instruction.

I don't think I learned anything new about myself during the trip.  However, I think this class made me realize I may enjoy the outdoors even more than I originally thought.  Just being out there put my mind at ease and forget any worries I had for the time being.  A few more trips like this one might be enough to change my mind about future jobs and work.  Simply put, if I'm happier outdoors, than I'm going to focus my career on the outdoors.

If I could add one activity and make this event a full day it would be fishing with nets.  I've never fished at all with nets and it's a common method among hunters in other countries.  It would be really cool to learn this skill and catch fish.  It would force the fishermen into the water and increase hand-eye coordination as well as ones senses in the outdoors.  Maybe it's just me being weird, but it just seems awesome and rewarding to catch something using that method.

Journal #2

The EDGE experience was a lot of fun for me because it enabled to me learn more about my classmates.  Most of our class knows each other from other courses, so hearing more from them and encouraging each other throughout the day was awesome.  Our class was really supportive of everyone's ideas and remained positive during each exercise.  This was especially true for the wall climbing activity.

I haven't gone rock climbing in a long time, so reaching the top of the climbing wall in a reasonable amount of time impressed myself a little bit.  There's a ton of upper-body strength involved with the process and I didn't realize I had the ability for it.  I also discovered that I really enjoy everyone's presence in this class.  Everybody has a unique personality and hilarious traits that made Tuesday's activities rather funny.

I thought our facilitator did a nice job for the most part.  She really knew what she was doing and how to keep us engaged in the step by step advancing process.  Her thoughts and ideas were clear and easy to understand.  You could tell that she'd been teaching the program for a while, or was at least familiar with the general idea.  However, there was one time when I felt like she became frustrated with our performance during the island activity.  She definitely should have let us complete the activity on our own.  This would've only made us work harder as a group and eventually finish.  Plus, our ideas were all good ones and we seemed to be getting closer to figuring out the puzzle.  Overall, I did find her advice and encouragement helpful.  She even threw in some funny jokes every now and then, like "Beaver Sharks." 

Journal #1

When I signed up for this course I expected to be spending some time outdoors and learning about how to teach people outdoor knowledge.  So far, this is exactly what we've gone over during class.  Chapter 2 of our readings discussed the qualities outdoor educators must posses in order to properly teach outdoor education.  Only the semester project caught me off guard when reading the class syllabus.  However, the discussion on creating successful outdoor recreation lesson plans is something that I expected and look forward to learning.  I've never been completely sure of what career field I want to be in eventually, but I do know teaching people about being outdoors is very possible.  It's hard to pick just two specific things I want to learn from taking this course.  Refining my canoeing skills from over the past few years would definitely benefit me in the future.  I canoed over 60 miles in Minnesota a few years ago for a Boy Scout high-adventure outing.  However, my ultimate goal for this class is to discover an area of outdoor education that I might one day be interested in teaching for a living.  Learning more about outdoor education would benefit me greatly because of my passions and childhood background.  I've been an Eagle Scout since I was 16 and have spent hundreds of days camping, hiking and learning other outdoor skills.  It would be in my best interests to further my knowledge and teach these skills to younger generations and keep the outdoor environment popular among youth.