We had a great call today! We talked about different things we can do for Georgic Projects even though we cannot plant yet due to the cold temperatures: Making the Garden Plan, gathering seeds, experimenting with sprouting, lighting techniques, working with live stock: chickens, goats, sheep, and cows. We also have other animals to help with live stock and pest control: dogs for herding and protection, cats for mice, and birds for bugs. Prepping the areas that we want to plant, some things may need to be removed and cleared of debris, and or getting permission from our family to move forward with our plans. It may also include cost planning and what we may want to build, such as planting boxes, covered beds, watering systems, potato garbage can growing methods, and many more methods that need planning. Other thoughts I had were that if we are planning to have live stock, we would need an area ready, fencing for the appropriate animal, feed boxes, and figuring the cost per month to feed the animal and if there are any laws regarding your area for housing certain live stock animals. Taking the time to gather information is part of planning for our Georgic experience, and having your semester end with a presentation of their plans would be wonderful. Encouraging them to do a photographic journal of their plans or using magazine cut-outs to create their plan would also be a benefit to their experience.
We also expressed ideas on how to help our book discussions along. Suggestions given were: using a talking stick to pass around so that everyone has the opportunity to choose to share or not share, giving responsibility to the students for their education by having them bring their own discussion question, asking our own questions with depth other than questions looking for a right or wrong answer, and giving the students a turn to take the lead in guiding the discussion. I also enjoyed hearing about one class that turned their colloquium over to the students as they, the mentors stepped out for the book discussion, then returning to have a debrief on the experience. The outcome seemed significant as the students realized they were in charge of what they learned from the book and that the classroom experience was truly theirs, they were the ones that decided what their experience would be.
Additional comments and ideas are welcome, along with any other resources you would like to share with us.
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