Midterm Reflection

Freshman Seminar – Andrews

2018

Midterm Reflection

Please answer the following questions… spend about 10 minutes on each + another 15 minutes revising before turning them in. When you are done, please email your responses to me at pandrews@ndnu.edu.

In the prompts below, “your practice” refers to the practice you have been developing with your team: yoga, meditation or plogging.

1) Describe the history and benefits of your practice.

2) Describe how you personally have been using your practice to deepen your connection with the natural world.

3) Describe the roles you and each of your team-mates have evolved as members of your team. What if any leadership or skill gaps still exist in your team and what can you do to fill them? Please describe your level of personal commitment to fixing any weaknesses in your team.

4) Do your team’s activities reflect the Hallmarks in any way? If not, could they? What would that look like?

5) What was most impactful to you about our visits to Shoreway Environmental Center, Bedwell Park and Ox Mountain Landfill on Call to Action Day?

6) Why is it important to compost organic materials, such as apple cores, rather than throwing them in the trash? What happens to them if they are thrown in the trash? What happens to them if they are fed to our worms?

Midterm Project

Freshman Seminar – Fall 2018

Midterm Project

Presentation & Reflection

Tuesday, October 16

Midterm Team Presentation

Please prepare a 20-minute team presentation in which you introduce and share the practice which your team has been developing. Assume your audience is our campus community (i.e. college students and/or people who work on our campus), and that your audience has no prior knowledge of the practice you are about to introduce and share. 

Make sure that each person on your team participates in your Team Presentation in a substantial way. If someone is absent and doesn’t make appropriate arrangements (e.g. recording his or her portion of the presentation and making sure someone on the team is prepared to show the recording) the overall grade for the Team Presentation will be lowered. Each member of the team will receive the same grade for their Team Presentation.

Your Team Presentation must include, at a minimum, the components listed below. 

Introduction (2-3 minutes) – What is your practice? What do you want people to know about it? What is its history? Very briefly, in just one sentence, in what way does your practice incorporate an emphasis on the natural world?

Benefits (3-4 minutes) – What are the documented benefits of the practice? Summarize the research that demonstrates benefits of this practice to both humans and the natural world.

Method (2-4 minutes) – Describe the practice as your team has been doing it. Do a demonstration if that would be helpful. You can have one person talk and another demonstrate if that is helpful.

Guided Practice (9-13 minutes) – Lead your audience through a mini session of your practice. 

Thursday, October 18

Midterm Reflection

Midterm questions will be posted to the class website by the beginning of class on Thursday, October 18. Working individually, please write thoughtful responses to those questions. Spend no less than 75 minutes responding to the questions. Submit your responses by email to pandrews@ndnu.eduby 6pm Thursday.

Schedule Midterm to Final

Schedule Midterm to Final

WEEK EIGHT

Midterms Week

October 16 & 18

October 16

Midterm Team Presentations – in situ – All 3 groups / 20 minutes each. See separate post on class website.

October 18

Midterm Project Reflection

WEEK NINE: Research Week + Week of the Social Justice Speaker Series

October 23 & 25

October 23

Midterm status review 1:1. Research begins… assign RP & complete initial worksheet. Discernment: Meaningful work. Come back to Berry’s “The Place of the Human.” Discuss Abrams on experiential moments in natural world / MAGIC; review of semester so far (include discussion of journals, laptops, co-curriculars & upcoming out of class activities).

DUE: Nothing – enjoy your midterm break! (unless you’re behind on your reading, in which case, take this opportunity to catch up)

October 25 – POD Day – meet in Library

Annotated Bibliography session with Librarian + intro to rubrics

DUE: Spend 1 hour using the library databases to find information about your research topic

AND… October 25 – 5:30-8:00pm in the Chapel

All students attend the Social Justice Speaker Series event. Our speaker this year will be Cecilia Gonzalez-Andrieu, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Theology and Theological Aesthetics. Her talk will touch on topics such as how and why a person comes to be involved in human rights work, and what a person is willing to risk in order to do this work.

WEEK TEN

October 30 & November 1

October 30

Midterm status review 1:1. Research begins… assign RP & complete initial worksheet. Discernment: Meaningful work. Come back to Berry’s “The Place of the Human.” Discuss Abrams on experiential moments in natural world / MAGIC; check-in on journals, laptops, co-curriculars.

DUE: Nothing – enjoy your midterm break! (unless you’re behind, in which case, take this opportunity to catch up… as a reminder, STILL DUE: handout from Abrams Ecology of Magic

November 1

Oral Communication methods. Oral Comm rubric. 

DUE: Annotated Bibliography

WEEK ELEVEN

November 6 & 8

November 6

READING QUIZ. Scholarship relating to human relationship to the natural world: Berry, Abrams & Harding. Introducing your research in context of Berry, Abrams or Harding

DUE: 2-page Research Summary in bullet form Handout #1 from Harding, Animate Earth; Berry handout #2 (Anthropocene)

November 8

Research Presentations – half of class: Collin (P), X (P), Miguel (P), Jason (P), Kaeston Juan (P), Jasmin (P), Lysette (P), Aly (P), Sam (P)

DUE: Visual Research Display + Presentation

WEEK TWELVE

Week of the Research Conference

November 13 & 15

November 13

Research Presentations – other half of clas: Mia, Carmen (P), Raul, Isaac (P), Kaeston, Juan, Sam, Jake, Kameron, Frankie, Sarai, Angelina, Fabian, Nick

DUE: Visual Research Display + Presentation

November 15

Discernment readings; purposeful vocation

DUE: Read handouts: Quarter Life Crisis & Sacred Voice

And… November 15, 3:30-5:30, Freshman Research Conference.

WEEK THIRTEEN

Thanksgiving Week

November 20 – POD Day – meet in Chapel

As students prepare to return home for the Thanksgiving holiday, it’s a great time to begin to think on a more personal level about values and priorities, and how these are reflected in their personal, academic and professional aspirations. This POD meeting will revolve around these topics.

November 22 – No class, Thanksgiving Holiday

WEEK FOURTEEN

November 27 & 29

Shall we de-stress before finals and watch Wall-E?

WEEK FIFTEEN

LAST WEEK OF CLASSES

December 4 & 6

December 4

Course assessments and reflections; Rubric of Me

DUE: Mission, Values & Engagement Reflection

December 6

Final Exam

DUE: Rubric of Me

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ congratulations, you’re done! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Worksheet for Developing Team Time Activity

Where on campus will you lead others? 

What safety considerations are there? 

How will you introduce your activity? 

Who will introduce your activity? 

How will you modify your activity, if necessary, to accommodate people of different ability levels? 

What benefits are there to practicing your activity? 

Who will research these? 

Who will lead the group in the activity? 

How will you arrange yourselves so as to provide guidance for your participants? 

Have you created a role for each person on your team?

UPDATE TO HOMEWORK FOR 9/25/18 - MEDITATION WITH A TREE

Dear Students - you have probably seen the email from Marsh Allen Smith about the possible mountain lion presence on campus and his recommendations for safety. Good job to all of you for noting that dead deer and bringing it to my attention!
In light of this, I have modified your homework assignment for "Solo" Meditation with a Tree. Please do not do this assignment completely alone. Do this assignment in pairs, staying reasonably close together and with each person facing in a different direction (i.e. not facing each other).  This will enable you to preserve a sense of privacy while also keeping awareness of your surroundings.
Although this is a meditation exercise, the intent from the start was for you to do it with your eyes open as you look at your tree - that will also enable you to remain aware of your surroundings as you do the assignment.
Have a great weekend and enjoy the outdoor spaces on our campus in safety.
Patti Andrews

Schedule through Call to Action Day

Freshman Seminar * Andrews * Schedule for Fall 2018

We are part of Pod 1 Tuesday / Thursday 9:25–10:40

Faculty: Vince Fitzgerald, Madeleine Fitzgerald, Mike Elkins & Patricia Andrews

WEEK ONE: First Week of Classes

August 28 & 30

August 28

Intro and team-builder. Syllabus review. Hallmarks. Core course questions. The 6 Rs. Focus areas.

August 30

Collaboration groups.

WEEK TWO: Labor Day Week

September 4 & 6

September 4

Group shares re emphasis groups

September 6

Discernment #1 – big questions. Discuss Berry, “The Place of the Human”

DUE: Carefully read Berry, “The Place of the Human”

WEEK THREE

September 11 & 13

September 11

POD MEETING IN THE NDNU THEATER DOWN THE HILL

Sister Roseanne Murphy will talk about her book, Martyr of the Amazon& about Sister Dorothy Stang

DUE: Complete reading Martyr of the Amazon& responding to Summer Reading Questions

September 13

Rot!Composting & Worm Bin Workshop in class.

DUE: Bring one thing you think our worms will want to eat. 

ALSO DUE: Journal check. Each member of your team should have contributed at least two entries to your team journal by now.

WEEK FOUR

September 18 & 20

September 18

Visit by Community Partner, San Mateo County Office Of Sustainability. Jackie Nunez.

September 20

Tentative: campus walking tour.

WEEK FIVE

September 25 & 27

September 25

Team Time. Time in class to do planning, research, resource identification, obstacle identification and skills development relating to your team activity. Reducing waste during our Call to Action Day trip.

DUE: 1) Draft a letter to the cafeteria manager outlining our class request to reduce waste associated with our take-out lunches on Call to Action Day. 2) You must have done at least one practice session by this date… bring your Team Journal to class – your journal must include at least 3 entries by each member of the team, and one of these entries must be a reflection on one of your practice sessions. 3) Complete the “Solo” Meditation in Nature activity and reflection.

September 27

Review and signing of letter to Caf. Team Time to complete worksheet in class.

WEEK SIX

October 2 & 4

October 2

Gerald Schwartz for pre-flection for CTA Day. 

October 4

Pre-flection for CTA Day. Discussion of 2 articles on service. Defining “community partner,” “service learning” & “community engagement” as compared to traditional forms of community service or charity work… how do these arise from the Hallmarks? Developing skills for working with communities. 

DUE: Read Mitchell, “Traditional vs. Critical Service Learning: Engaging the Literature to Differentiate Two Models” https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mjcsl/3239521.0014.205?rgn=main;view=fulltext and Remen, “Serving is Different from Helping and Fixing” http://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?tid=940 & complete comparison worksheet.

WEEK SEVEN

Call to Action Week

October 9 & 11

October 9

Call to Action Day – tour of Shoreway Enrivonmental Center & creative brainstorm work-session… with lunch at Ox Mountain Landfill. Our agenda is as follows:

1)      8:30 am Pick up class at NDNU

2)      9: am – 10 am – tour the Shoreway Environmental Center in San Carlos

3)    10 am – 10:15 transport to Bedwell / Bayfront Park – closed landfill Menlo Park

3)      11 am – 11:30  am – transport to Vista Point on Skyline (Corner of Highway 35 and 92) for lunch

4)      11:30 – 12 pm – Lunch at Vista Point (please have students pack a no waste lunch using reusable containers, etc.)

5)      12:15 – 1:30 pm – Tour Ox Moutain Landfill in HMB

6)      1:30 pm – 2 pm – transport back to Notre Dame de Namur

October 11

Post-flection on CTA Day. Reflection-Action-Reflection model. Preview of midterm project.

DUE: Written reflection about CTA Day

Questions for Group Presentations on Tuesday, September 4

1) What is your group name?
2) Describe your initial thoughts on activities you'll do.
3) How will your group incorporate some of the 6Rs (+1)?
4) How will your activities help you connect with the natural world?
5) How will you share this with others (classmates, campus, world)?
6) What will you need and what are your resources?
7) What support do you need from me (Ms. Andrews)?