Friday...what is it about?

Fridays are a time when we gather as an advising for field experiences and concentrated learning experiences. Somewhere along the line, there has been the notion of Friday as just a "hang out" day, or just a "field trip" day. I have heard groans and complaints when we, as an advising, do anything but.

Part of being at Trillium is building our own community and also serving the general community. We will continue to use Fridays in a variety of ways--for field trips, for In-Trillium Community service (like our awesome room beautification project), and also to reach out to work in our community. Some Fridays will be used for independent Learning Projects, some for field experiences, and some for service. All of these uses help us meet our framework and learning goals that are key to being part of Trillium. I would like for students to move away from groaning because I have these expectations, and move towards the exploration of their own passions and projects, the opportunity to help plan their own learning expereinces, or the excitement of serving our school and community. All of these things can be fun.

One of our experienced advisors has set up Fridays as time to learn about the constitution and to work on projects. As a result, many of his advisees are father along in being prepared for the project fair. My goal is not to force projects on students, but to help each person find something they are passionate about and pursue that in some way that demonstrates learning. I am very open to what our experiences are, but want to emphasis that "just hanging out" is not the purpose of our Fridays. Yes, we do some of it--but ideally it happens while learning, serving, and exploring our community. With our new afternoon schedule for Q3, this focus and pursuit of interests should be easier.

This Friday was rough, because some students were upset at me because I had them help plan their Fridays rather than just let them hang out. For me, helping student gain the skills to plan outings is very important. They learn how to schedule, plan times and routes, talk to community members, research using the internet, and revise and improvise. They learn access to information, and appreciation for the time and effort it takes to pull of a Friday outing. Ideally, through the process, they also gain ownership. While many students mumbled and grumbled, during closure several had positive things to say about what they learned.

Overall, most students worked hard on planning their field expereince. They did a good job, even when things got frustrating. Now, as more and more event are planned, they will be able to enjoy the result of their hard work.

Below is the updated schedule and field trips pending dates. The expectation for advising is that each student plans a field trip from beginning to end. Today showed that we were off to a slow, but great start.

January 5th Scavenger hunt (part 2). Interaction with the community, locating information. Mirabai
January 12th Room Improvement Day: art projects at school
January 19th Field Trip Planning (all)
January 25th OMSI (Ryan organizing)

Feb 9th Mug painting at Ready, Paint, Fire! (CJ and Deontay)
Feb 16th Tears of Joy Theater with Buddies (Dylan)

Feb 23rd Zoo (pending) (Isaac)

March 2nd Japanese Gardens (Cortney)
March 9th Tears of Joy Theater
March 16th
March 23rd

April 13th
April 20th
April 27th

May 4th
May 11th
May 18th
June 1st
June 8th

Still being added to the calendar:

Urban Tour (Chris Myers) (Date pending)
Intertubbing in the Snow (Auryn) (date pending)
Shanghai Tunnels (organizer needed)
Audubon Overnight (organizer needed) (scholarships pending)
SERVICE LEARNING...still being organized! (Tobie)

Families are still encouraged to call/email me with ideas and to volunteer planning. Students who missed today can plan their activity during ILP time.