The Work of Centuries
A Collaboration with Woodstock Union High School & The Green Mountain Club
“The improvement of forest trees is the work of centuries. So much more the reason for beginning now.”
— George Perkins Marsh
Lorne and Julie met over the summer to discuss possible ways to collaborate. They decided the GMC and WUHS would make ideal partners: Lorne being new to his position as Volunteer and Education Coordinator, and Julie learning how to connect literacy students with the broader community. Specifically, Lorne’s goals were twofold: develop training materials for GMC volunteers while also forging a working relationship with a Vermont public school. He hoped to develop the capacity to broaden this work to include other schools in the future. Julie was looking for a way to connect literacy learning with the idea of Stewardship and her class theme of the year, The Work of Centuries, based on George Perkins Marsh’s quote: “The improvement of forest trees is the work of centuries. So much more the reason for beginning now.”
Over the course of the first semester, students learned about Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historic Park, the Green Mountain Club, and the Long Trail. Specifically, they read several articles on the proper way to blaze a trail. Yes, there is so much more to it than just painting! Lorne planned a memorable day with the students on the Appalachian Trail replacing a footbridge. Three students worked with him for five hours to dismantle a rotting bridge and replace it with a puncheon near the Rt. 12 AT crossing. He read about Project Based Learning and deeper learning and began to establish routines for successfully partnering with schools. Lorne also provided feedback to students on their draft blazing guide. Julie learned about intentionally designing learning experiences for the district’s new Portrait of a Graduate criteria: Skillful Communication; Academic Excellence; Stewardship; Self Direction; and Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. The first semester included researching blazing and writing rough drafts, painting practice blazes on chordwood, and developing plans to blaze a trail.
During the second semester students focused on the creation of a Google site and the Blazing 101 Trail Guide. Through extensive research of web and text resources and a training visit to the school’s outdoor trail, the students were able to narrow down the important topics for teaching volunteers how to blaze a trail. The Blazing 101 Trail Guide will be delivered to GMC’s volunteer trail adopters, members of the Volunteer Long Trail Patrol and new GMC Staff. Furthermore, this website format will develop and evolve as GMC works on creating digestible, interactive and accurate training resources for those who work on the Long Trail. The GMC and WUHS are looking forward to working together in future years to steward the Long Trail and provide students with learning experiences designed for the Portrait of a Graduate Criteria.
View our Google site here: Blazing 101
Project Description
Essential Questions:
- How have the ideas of George Perkins Marsh shaped our community, our state, and the world? Have his writings about reforestation impacted our own daily lives?
- What role does the Green Mountain Club play in promoting Marsh’s ideas?
- What can happen when young people take an active role in “the work of centuries?”
Students Created:
- Students worked with the Green Mountain Club to replace a puncheon bridge on the Appalachian Trail South of the Rt. 12 crossing.
- Students created a multi-media google site for the Green Mountain Club to disseminate training materials for their Trail Adopter’s Program. The Green Mountain Club can use this platform in further outreach to schools and volunteers.
- Upon nice weather and as COVID-19 procedures allow, students will blaze WUHSMS’s Outdoor Classroom trail following the training instructions they created.
Learning Outcomes
WCSU Portrait of a Graduate Skills and Dispositions:
- Academic Excellence: Students applied and used content knowledge in real world situations by researching blazing techniques and applying that knowledge in the creation of training materials.
- Stewardship: Students demonstrated responsibility for local and global communities through their field work in support of the Green Mountain Club’s mission statement: “… to make the Vermont mountains play a larger part in the life of the people by protecting and maintaining the Long Trail System and fostering, through education, the stewardship of Vermont’s hiking trails and mountains.”
- Skillful Communication: Students effectively communicated in both digital and face-to-face environments as they collaborated with Mr. Currier in the design process of the training materials.
Course Anchor Standards:
- Course Anchor Standard — Reading: Throughout the year the focus of instruction and assessment was on the development of literacy skills including phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Literacy skills were applied and practiced with authentic texts and for a “real world” purpose through our collaboration with the Green Mountain Club.
Skills:
- Students learned to work in collaborative teams with each other and with the Green Mountain Club to design high quality training materials for Green Mountain Club volunteers.
- Students learned the basics of hiking trail maintenance.
- Students learned to read and interpret Long Trail maps (interrupted due to COVID-19)
