ADK Classroom!

Hello everyone! First timer here in regards to attending Raquette Lake and Blogging!! Here we go...

This course was first brought to my attention after I discovered I needed a substitute class for one that was required in my Masters program of Outdoor and Environmental Education. Of course once I heard of this opportunity to spend a week up at the camp that everyone at SUNY Cortland talks about and raves about, I was game!

Recently, due to an amazing colleague from my previous institution where I obtained my B.S degree, I have been very passionate and focused to make a difference for our planet. The more I learn the more sick I get to my stomach that fuels my drive to try and make this finite world a better place. I can't tackle it all, but I want to be able to look my self in the mirror and say that I did the best I could when it comes to doing what was right. I believe Leopold said it best that “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

I never saw myself as being a educator before attending SUNY Cortland in the fall of '09, but as I go through life now I believe we all need to share ideas and help each other out as much as possible. I believe that in order for me to carry out my desire to make a difference in the world, I must be some sort of educator and i've been leaning towards connecting children to the outdoors. With a B.S degree in Exercise Physiology the rise of obesity and the burden of our health care crisis carries into why I feel getting our children outdoors is more important now then ever, not to mention the damage we are doing to our planet. Especially after reading this past year, Louv's Last Child in the Woods, it fires me up more on how we need to pay more attention to our children and what is best for them and in the process our finite planet.

My professional goals are to obtain my Masters degree from SUNY Cortland and make a living doing something meaningful such as what I have already stated before about showing our youth the sublime qualities of our natural environment. This also leads me to believe that I will make my career in teaching in some way shape or form.

My goals for this week will be to enhance my understanding in natural green technology as well as ways that we as humans should be demanding such changes. I also look forward to hearing what other professionals in my field have to say about what we as individuals and as a group can do to instate a change in attitude and way of life for all humans to make this planet more sustainable to further our possible existence and well being on this planet.