Here is the slide show that Mark Wagstaff and I shared at the WEA Conference:
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While waiting for my next installment of "Lessons Learned Leading Wilderness Adventures" I thought you might enjoy this article from a 1969 copy of Life Magazine. For those of you too young to remember Life, it was the iconic magazine of its time and to be on the cover represented the pinnacle of success. Paul Petzoldt was to be on the cover with a multi-page spread promoting the National Outdoor Leadership School and the TV show "The Alcoa Hour" which was presenting a movie called "Thirty Days to Survival" based on the school. Paul told me the story of how he missed being on the cover because the week of the article murderer Charles Manson was captured and he bumped Paul off the cover. None the less the article and the TV show had a tremendous impact on NOLS and in the summer of 1970 NOLS enrollment doubled causing a few growing pains although you couldn't have proved it by me. Although I had heard Paul speak in the spring of 1969 in Laramie, WY and I was already convinced that I wanted to attend NOLS, I watched the show and that summer I trucked out to Lander to experience one of the turning points of my life. Paul become my mentor and friend. I am a very fortunate person to have had his help and guidance during my early years. I felt it wouldn't be complete if I didn't include both the cover as well as the back cover. The front cover speaks for itself but the back cover represents the time period. The Marlboro man was seen in magazines, billboards, and TV ads for Marlboro cigarettes. For those that don't know, two of the man who posed as the Marlboro man died of lung cancer. One renounced his participation and discouraged smoking from his deathbed and the other man's family sued Philip Morris (the maker of Marlboro's) for wrongful death. Light 'em up folks! To see the other two articles in this series click on the links below: Article 2 - Field & Stream - 1972 Article 3 - Colliers - 1949 I had fun yesterday presenting a workshop with colleague Mark Wagstaff titled, "WEA Trips - A Historical Perspective". It shared our involvement with the Wilderness Education Association via photos and video and touched on the more than 100 trips that we have led and the people we have met as a result of volunteering to work with WEA. We shared our stories of people like Paul Petzoldt, Tap Tapley, Josh Miner, Bjorn Kjellstrom, Doc Forgey, Verlon Krueger among others, and the places we visited including wilderness adventures in Wyoming, Alaska, Siberia, Canada, and of course good old New York. It was a fun workshop, as they always are when working with Mark, but what was most rewarding was the number of college students who came up afterward and said how much they appreciated the historical perspective on wilderness travel and WEA in particular. It makes getting old almost fun. :-) Last night we had the Kitty Drury (my mom) Scholarship Fund Auction and Raffle. It is always a fun event and last night was no exception. Due to the generosity of WEA Instructor Sheryl Teeters students could by two raffle tickets for the price of one. Everything from backpacks, tents, skis, and many other items were raffled off. The highlight if the evening is the auction of Paul Petzoldt memorabilia. For those of you who don't know, Paul was a world famous mountaineer and educator who helped start the first U.S. Outward Bound school, the National Outdoor Leadership School, and the Wilderness Education Association. He was my mentor and friend and we served many years together on the WEA Board of Trustees. As you can imagine I have much Petzoldt memorabilia so I didn't bid on the stove he took up K2 with him in 1938 ($400), one of his sleeping bags ($100), his golf clubs ($300!), or copies of his 1954 biography written by his first wife Patricia ($300). I couldn't resist however (don't read this Phyliss) bidding $95 for a 1968 copy of "Field and Stream" magazine with an article about woman attending NOLS. The author, Raye Ringholz served with me on the WEA Board of Trustees. It is a classic sexist piece showing how well women could do in the outdoors but wondering how they could do it without their make up or hair dryers. I had to add it to my collection of magazines with articles about Paul. The money goes towards scholarships for people to get WEA training in my mother's name so it was for a good cause. I think they probably raised well over $5000 which is pretty good for 200 college professors and their students. A fun time was had by all.
During the last session of the conference I presented a workshop on "Lessons Learned in 35 Years of Wilderness Travel". It was a great fun interactive "SPEC" session. I had over forty people and they prioritized what they thought should be my top lessons learned. I got home last night before today's snowstorm! I wrapped up my pre-conference session yesterday. I had a great group including folks form College of the Atlantic, Missouri State University, Ithaca College, and Front Range Community College. After the session I headed to Laramie to visit my college buddy from my Cortland days Tom Buchanan. Tom is President of the University of Wyoming. I spent the evening and morning with Tom and his wife Jacque catching up getting a quick tour of the campus. I headed back south mid-morning and had lunch with Marge Smith in Mead, CO. Marge is an old friend from the Syracuse area but has lived in Colorado since the late seventies. I'm now back at the WEA conference for tonight's keynote and awards. Tomorrow and Wednesday I have sessions then I head back to Denver to fly home on Thursday. I have yet to visit my nephew Matt and his family. I need more time!
I have a small but enthusiastic group of teachers and students in my two-day session here at the Wilderness Education Association conference. Day 1 was fun for me. It is the first time I have tried to teach about the SPEC (student-centered, problem-based, experiential, collaborative) approach in a two-day format. Usually we teach it two three-day blocks or a brief introduction in a one and a half hour session. I tinkered a bit "on the fly" with it and the participants were very patient with me. I had fun and the EOD (End of the Day) feedback was very good. I posted a number of reference readings on the resource page (Here) regarding the theory and background of a lot of what we talked about today.
Tomorrow they will practice facilitating one or more of the tools in the tool bucket and design their own challenge. So far my trip to Colorado has been great. A day visiting my brother-in-law and his family, a day skiing at Keystone, and today's workshop session. Tomorrow I wrap up the SPEC workshop and then head up to Laramie for the night to visit my good friend Tom Buchanan. Tuesday and Wednesday I have workshop sessions during the heart of the conference. The Wilderness Education Association is still registering people for a Pre-Conference workshop titled “Creating the SPEC (Student-centered, Problem-based, Experiential, and Collaborative) Classroom” February 19 & 20th in Estes Park, CO. This two-day workshop will provide novices and veterans alike a hands-on opportunity to created SPEC Challenges and experience as many of the SPEC tools and activities as can be fit into two days. If you have read Chapter 1, Teaching and Learning in The Backcountry Classroom and wondered what all the activities, tools, techniques in “The SPEC Teacher’s Tool Bucket” look like in practice then here is a chance to experience many of them. For more information visit the WEA website. |
Jack Drury's Leading E.D.G.E. Blog
Sharing Observations on Education, Wilderness, and About the AuthorThis blog was created and is maintained by Jack Drury with contributions from Bruce Bonney. Jack and Bruce have been working together since 1984 providing professional development in four areas: Categories
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October 2016
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