Making Learning Natural

Snow-less, Whats the Goal? and Other Ramblings of a Tired Man

2012-01-27T15:21:00.002-05:00

It's Friday and everyone on the PMOEC staff has gone home except for me. They were beat, I am beat and they deserved an extra hour off to jump start their weekend- or maybe give them an excuse to take an afternoon nap. Whatever the case, this week, as so many before it have been, was exhausting in the good way. We had our first group of the winter that came from the States, Connecticut to be exact, and that really changed our approach on the week. Gone were the needs to emphasize sentence structure, proper grammar and enunciation. Here were a group of 22 boys who were focused on the bond shared with the class, the challenges associated with pushing yourself physically and simply having a good time. We did all we could to reach these goals and, despite little help from Mother Nature, I think we succeeded. It is heartwarming for me to hear Pok-O Instructors talking about if we need to reach the top of a mountain on a hike, as summiting does not necessarily mean the goal is met. Didn't somebody once say that its not about the goal, but the journey?
Looking forward to next week, we get back into work projects for a while but are eagerly looking forward to our first lecture of the Cabin Fever Lecture Series. CARL HEILMAN II!!! He defines Adirondack photography and, as someone who is drawn to vast landscape in portraits as well as photo, I can't wait to hear him talk about his craft. Join us- it will be Thursday at 7, it's free and it'll be near the wood stove. Can it get any better? Until next week...

Advertise, Advertise, Advertise!

2012-01-18T07:14:00.003-05:00

Many wheels are constantly in motion at PMOEC and, although last week the bulk of our attention was on the French Canadian clients at PMOEC, we simultaneously got a lot of advertising out in the surrounding communities for some upcoming events. And while this forum is usually reserved for updates on the inner-happenings of our little corner of the Adirondacks, I would be remiss if I didn't give a little attention to all of the events on the horizon. First off, the Third Annual Cabin Fever Lecture Series is only a couple of weeks away from kicking off. The stellar list of presenters this year is a testament to many of the people who turned me down last year, but promised to present this year, living up to their promises. I am unsure if it will ever get better than having a world renowned photographer, children's author and farmer/writer, amongst others. Seriously, I may have set the bar a bit too high for 2013. In late February we will be hosting another Break Camp. It is amazing that, in a few short years, how much of a cornerstone of our programming these 2 weeks (Winter Break Camp and Spring Break Camp) of the year have become. It is a different experience for us as instructors, since we get to see the same kids year in and year out, we get to see them grow, form long term relationships and experience our classes in a different way. If thats not enough, we also have the a snow tubing evening on the Thursday night of Winter Break Camp. Wow. Its a full February and early March. I hope you are looking forward to it as much as we are.

St. Marc

2012-01-12T07:13:00.002-05:00

Every school is an important client in the continued success of Pok-O-MacCready Outdoor Education Center. No client is less important than another. But some clients have become endeared to us as they have been long standing. And a few of those long standing groups have had fortunate staffing that has allowed the same teacher to come each year. One of those schools is at PMOEC right now and Rosemary Reader, who has come with St. Marc School on every of its bi-annual trips over the past 10+ years, still comes every time. Rosemary still has the drive to make her trip better every year and we are happy to oblige. She feels quite at home with our staff each year and is a welcome face for all of our employees, old and new. What better school and teacher to have kick off our overnight-educational groups for 2012?
The snow seems to have finally arrived today, although my early season optimism that turned into slight pessimism still lingers. It will take a few trips down the tubing hill and glacading down a Pok-O-Patch mountain before I'll turn my frown upside down. Stay tuned.
Next week the winter Pok-O-Press comes out, we start publicity for our Annual Winter Break Camp and we will let you know more about the Cabin fever Lecture Series Until then...

Ski Week

2012-01-05T07:39:00.002-05:00

A great week of skiing and hiking is behind us. The annual Pok-O Ski Week, a collaborative effort between Pok-O-MacCready Camps and Pok-O-MacCready Outdoor Education Center, was a lot of fun. Little snow has fallen in the North Country so far this winter, save the early season foot that fell before Thanksgiving that had promptly melted before the beginning of the next work week, but no bother. The kids adapted, as Pok-O summer camp kids do, so rather than snow-tubing we did some alternate night activities; a night hike one evening and a smor-extravaganza another. Of course, there were some trips to the Crux, but most memorable were the trips to the High Peaks for hiking and skiing. Two days of winter mountaineering trips went out, one to Tabletop and one to Wright, and they were both a huge success. The days at Whiteface were fantastic with staff and kids enjoying the development of their skiing skills and friendships that are often limited to the summer months. This week, our focus turns to winter training and snow dances as we anticipate the arrival of our first winter group next Tuesday. A little tease about next weeks blog- more info about our Cabin Fever Lecture Series and the Pok-O-Press that will be coming out in a couple of weeks. Pray for snow!

Home for the Holidays

2011-12-15T07:16:00.002-05:00

The snow came and went yesterday, but there is no doubt that winter is here. We have completed our 2 week period, always a kind of weird time of the year, between the Thanksgiving break and holiday hiatus we give our staff. This year, some the drudgery of this 2 week period was eliviated by two simple words- Secret Santa. I will admit that, with an 18 month old in the house, my excitement for the holiday season is as high as it has been since I was a child myself, but it seemed that everyone on the staff had fun with this year's holiday plan per PMOEC. We all drew a name and had to give three gifts to our selected person; one that cost less than $5, one that was a re-gift and one that we made. We revelaed who we were giving gifts to at our first annual PMOEC-Formal-Holiday-Party that Laura and I hosted. And today? Only a few PMOEC employees are around still arounf. Others have left the North Country to reconnect with family all over the East Coast. It is a welcome break in our schedule- a time that we all reflect on how PMOEC has changed our paradigm, how excited we are about tour profession and how much we are looking forward to coming back to PMOEC for an incredibly unique winter teaching experience in 2012. This will be my last post of 2011 (sorry Molly), so I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season and I hope we all have a great start to the new year. Until then...

Reflecting

2011-12-08T07:30:00.004-05:00

Cutting wood. Housing renovations. Pasture maintenance. It is the time of year when we dedicate our full selves to work projects. I am always very introspective about this time of year as, by trade, we are educators; and yet, we must do these things to survive the winter and into the future. Thankfully, any fear that I have about our staff getting into a rut is quelled every morning when they happily invest themselves in the jobs of the day. We have also had a chance to spend some time reflecting on the first 4 months of all of this staffs time at Pok-O. Things move forward and, collectively, I am optimistic about the winter and getting back into teaching. In the meantime, for those of you who are pining for the traditional days of PMOEC as a premier outdoor education center in the Adirondacks, check out this video posted by a group who came to se us a few seasons ago. Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/8WumPgSRIxg

We are great adopters!

2011-12-01T07:10:00.002-05:00

The end of the fall season took a long time to truly finally happen, but no matter how you cut it, the week of Thanksgiving definitively means the fall outdoor ed season has ended and the winter outdoor ed season has begun. We bid a fond farewell to Patrick Duvall as our winter staff shrinks by one member every year, meaning one of our fall staff instructors has to go . This is one of the parts of my job I dislike the most, but it has to be done. Patrick was an incredibly valuable part of our fall staff; his vigor for oration, his love of learning and his passion for board games will be missed. We hope to have him back in the spring, but recognize that someone else would be well served to add him to their staff and, thusly, wish him the very best. At the very end of the fall season we also hosted an incredibly successful community event- Pie and the Sky. Folks came to our site, made their own pizzas, went out to build a scale model of the solar system while their pizzas were cooked for them and came back into the warm confines of the Pok-O-Queen to enjoy their culinary creations.
Also, as the mild temperatures have given us more time to focus on outdoor work projects as the fall has crept into December, and this year we reached our goal of 3 cleanings of our Adopt-A-Highway section of road south of Willsboro. It was an incredibly satisfying feeling to get this done, making a contribution to our community. Thats all for now. Pray for snow!

SPEAQ!

2011-11-17T07:40:00.003-05:00

Are you concerned about my spelling? I do have a background as an English teacher, and I also have spell check, so what in the world could this title mean? SPEAQ is the acronym for the group of English teachers in the Quebec province and, this past weekend, SPEAQ had its annual meeting. Pok-O-MacCready Camps' Sarah Disney, onetime PMEOC employee, and I went to Montreal last Thursday and spent the net two days helping teachers, parents and generally curios people understand how valuable a trip to Pok-O would be for anyone who recognizes how important an immersion experience for emerging English learners can be.

First off, getting to stay in a hotel with an outdoor pool heated to a comfortable level so that swimming in 40 degree air temperatures, is an incredible perk for this North Country man. And the opportunity to talk to a lot of people who showed genuine interest in PMOEC is encouraging. We had lots of good food, lots of good conversations and a lot of hope about the extension of our programming north of the border.

In less exciting news, the Underground Railroad community event was not as well attended as we would have hoped, but that did not discourage our staff. Instead, they gave a wonderful performance for the small audience. Next up, and our last community event of the season, will be Pie and The Sky- an astronomy and pizza slam mash up this Friday night. Come out and give us one last bit of support before the official end of the fall season.

Planting a Sead

2011-11-10T07:09:00.003-05:00

The week of GFA and Polybel passed. Our last two groups of the fall season have come and gone and the experience for our staff, the visiting chaperones and, most importantly, the students was wonderful. As we do often are, we are thankful to the weather which made hiking, Underground Railroad, astronomy and every other class as enjoyable as they could be for both groups. So now, we have turned our our attention to the development of our staff and the development of our campus. First, we spent the first day after the end of the fall season at the WIld Center in Tupper Lake. The staff of the Wild Center gave us a behind the scenes tour of the center, letting us meet all of the animals, those that are on display and those being nursed back to health. In addition, we were able to spend a lot of time in the museum seeing all of the displays and adding to our already deep knowledge about the Adirondack Park. And now, with this incredibly mild weather (once again, thank you!) we have begun the never ending quest to continue to upgrade our campus. A little fence mending here, a little reinsulation there- with 300 acres and over 5 buildings, you can always find something to do! Lastly, I am on my way to Montreal for the annual SPEAQ conference. It is a gathering of all teachers of english in the province of Quebec. We love going to this conference and have gotten a lot of clients from it. Tomorrow night is our Underground Railroad community event and next week is the Pie in the Sky, astronomy and pizza slam, community event. Go to the website for more details.

GFA Week

2011-11-03T08:46:00.002-04:00

Another GFA weekend is behind us. For those of you who have not worked at PMOEC, which I assume is only a few readers, GFA is Green Farms Academy; a wonderful day school from Connecticut. Every fall, we know the fall season is winding down when GFA makes their annual pilgrimage from the suburbs of NYC to the serenity of the ADKs. Every year, these 9th graders get off the bus, mouths gaping, with brand new gear and fear in their knocking knees. And every year they leave, a little dirtier than they have ever comfortably been, with boots broken in, and a look of satisfaction on their smiling faces. It is a great experience for both the students and our staff. Working with High School students is a different experience than our bread and butter- middle school. Our classes have adaptability for older students and the challenges are appropriate for these clients, but it is also an enriching experience for our staff to truly fill in their gaps as educators. A lot of hiking is one emphasis of this trip and the rambles up Rattlesnake, Bare, Noonmark, Cascade, Rooster Comb and Hurricane were as good as they ever had been. But this isn't the end of the season. We are going out with bang. Next week we have Polybel, another high school, but this one from north of the border. In addition, we also have our Underground Railroad Community event and I will be making a commercial presentation at the SPEAQ conference in Montreal. Stay tuned.

Bittersweet Season

2011-10-27T07:25:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I had a day off to make up for the extra weekend days I have worked this month. We are at a point in the season where not everyone is working the same days, so yesterday everyone else worked. I used the day to work on a carpentry project that I have been putting off for months and, in essence, spent the day working between two projects PMOEC staff were dedicated to. Every break I took, I walked to the end of the barn where I was working and it was nice to see how hard the staff was working. They have gelled and are working incredibly efficiently; bike repair was going on to my left, to the right Tim lead a crew doing some insulation repairs to the footer of one of our dorms and, in the distance, I could hear the near constant hum of a chainsaw, indicating the ongoing process of chopping and splitting wood. Unfortunately, it is always this time of year that indicates that, while the staff is working incredibly well, the fall season is also winding down. We are preparing for our last two groups of the season, one of whom is our first group to be with us over Halloween in many years, and the other our first French Canadian group of the year. While looking forward to seeing the staff function at a high level through both of these visits, it is a bittersweet feeling; snow will definitely fly soon and another successful season will be behind us.

Come out on the 11th of November to our next Community Event; we will be hosting the Underground Railroad Experience at the 1812 Homestead. It is an amazing experience, being able to get a glimpse of the emotion of being a slave on the run in the North Country in 1850. We hope to see you there.

NYSOEA Weekend 2011

2011-10-23T10:20:00.002-04:00

Leaving a family that is full of love for a weekend in a motel room does not create excitement. And yet, as the New York State Outdoor Education Association's Annual Conference in Callicoon, NY is drawing to an end, it clearly was a wonderful experience, despite the lack of family to spend time with.

I am a man who happily gave up my cell phone, but this weekend it would have come in handy. Buying a phone card and finding a pay phone- since the phone in my motel room has not worked since Irene- proved to be the most difficult part of the weekend. Everything else; workshops, commercial presentations, the exchanging of ideas, the development of an Environmental Literacy Plan and all of the extras proved to be inspiring. I am going home with many tweeks and additions to or current curriculum and can't wait to get back to work with so many fresh perspectives to bring back to PMOEC.

The lack of phone also permits me only to give you second hand emailed reports on the success of this weekend's Haunted Homestead back in Willsboro but Tim's report included the chill inspiring thought that "it really seemed to fit what I had
pictured in my [Tim's] head." What a great initial report. More to come on Haunted Homestead in next week's update. Until then.

Coming and Going

2011-10-20T08:32:00.003-04:00

Weird title, I know. I just wanted to emphasize what has come to PMOEC this fall and what is going on today. This fall has been one of the best seasons I have had in my experience at Pok-O and the staff has been responsible for so much of that! I have been screaming this from the mountain tops and, more pertinent to the internet readers, the soon to be published 'Pok-O-Press, but I'll say it again- THE STAFF HAS BEEN GREAT! Groups have benifited from their knowledge and we have benifited from having such a comfortable community. And now, as we hit the home stretch of the fall season, they are preparing one of the most unique Haunted Homestead programs that I have seen. Its late notice, I know, but those of you in the Willsboro area should come out between 7-9 Friday for the scary stuff, 4-6 on Saturday for family activities and then again Saturday from 7-9 for the scary stuff.

This weekend, I will not be participating in the Haunted Homestead as this year's annual meeting of the New York State Outdoor Education Association begins today and runs through Sunday. I will be leaving in a few hours to attnd this years meeting and hope to give you an update (or two) from the meeting.

On that note, lets commit to this relationship- I will do my best to get more posts up and you will do your best to read them. Fortunately we are both doing our part today, but stick with me and keep an eye on the Pok-O community through this visual eye. See you soon.

Spring has Sprung!

2011-05-26T08:16:00.003-04:00

It has been a while since I have posted. I'll admit that I have had some minutes of spare time that I could have spent blogging, but, truth be told, we have been happily busy since the beginning of April and I have been enjoying the ride. Staff training was a meeting of old and new; different perspectives on our amazing programming. Jon Kovacs, our latest intern, joined an incredibly experienced group of instructors. Also joining the team that was here over the winter was Tim O., our spring ringer. Also, the winter's intern, Joanna, has joined our staff as an instructor. The chemistry is as good as I have seen it in a while. This perfect storm came together at the perfect time as the spring season only affords our staff enough work project time to clean dorms- other than that we are teaching and teaching and teaching! The work that this staff has done is off the charts and my gratitude is immeasurable. Every teacher that has been here in the recent past has seen what wonderful job they have done and, if you are a teacher who is thinking of planning a trip here, you will deifnitely be impressed with what we have become. Hopefully, I will be able to send another blog (or two) before the end of the season.

Morning Meeting and Sap

2011-03-17T08:22:00.003-04:00

Did you know that we have a meeting every Thursday morning at The Sportsman's Dinette in Willsboro, NY? If you don't believe me, check out the live video feed of the interior of the restaurant. We are the group of 5 in the corner- Sharp, Sarah, Scott, Stites and Erin- making important decisions effecting the future of the summer camp as well as outdoor ed. It was at one of these meetings that we decided that PMOEC would try to get involved in this year's maple syrup production at The 1812 Homestead. With Jack Swan's blessing, we have gone full tilt into it. I will admit I knew nothing about the practice when we began 2 weeks ago, and the taps that I recently found in some oak trees that look like sugar maples shows me that the learning curve for PMOEC staff members is also steep. Despite that, we ARE learning (that is the mission of our center anyway, right?). We have tapped 60+ trees, we have collected around 50 gallons of sap and today we boil. After all is said and done, we are hoping to produce enough syrup to have at our 'Last Drop Pancake Breakfast' in late April smothered in nothing but our homemade syrup. And one final apology to go out to Mother Nature- I am sorry that in my last blog post I suggested that winter was over. Thank you for the 2.5 feet of snow to remind me of your strength and power. I will never tempt your wrath again.

Winter Recap

2011-03-05T07:46:00.003-05:00

Wow, the last few months flew by. It seems like only yesterday I was sitting here, getting ready to welcome 2011 and praying for more snow. Now, I am looking out my window at the 2+ feet of fluffy white still on the ground, hoping that the rain in the forecast over the next couple of days will bring the snow levels down to help with our sugaring season. Yes, winter is all but behind us here. We have had the most groups in recent history come and enjoy all the PMOEC has to offer in the darker months and every one of them, and I am not exaggerating, left happy. The staff, and I know I sound like a skipping record, was phenomenal all winter (as was mother nature, thankfully). And now, on to spring; mountain biking, canoeing and the wearing of shorts- oh my! We are hard at work planning community events of interest for all of our local supporters; ideas like a donation yard sale at Pok-O, our ever popular 1812 Open House, the retun of Yoga and hiking and another Art in Nature event. But more on these to come over the next few weeks. Look for our upcoming dpring edition of 'The Pok-O-Press' and follow us on our new facebook account. Perhaps you 'liked' us on the old one, but we have had to update. Check it out. By for now- and enjoy thid image from winter as spring descends.

Last Post of 2010

2010-12-25T19:43:00.002-05:00

I'm at my mother-in-laws and all of the holiday food is settling in. I am feeling quite ready for the winter season to begin. Next week we return with the annual Ski Week- a crossover program hosted by both PMOEC and Pok-O-MacCready Camps. Its a combination of downhill skiing at Whiteface and winter mountaineering in the High Peaks. After that we will have some winter training for all of the returning staff, as well as our new winter intern, who have never been at PMOEC for the winter. They are in for a treat, as long as mother nature agrees and gives us more snow than last year. Sending your hopes for deep, deep snow is appreciated. The winter schedule is fuller than last year and we are all looking forward to getting back. Stay tuned for reports from the trenches- that is the winter survival trenches (aka shelters), not those of the war. Until we get back to Willsboro...

Forgot the Pics in the last post

2010-10-25T18:51:00.002-04:00

Museum Trip and Haunted Homestead

2010-10-25T12:14:00.004-04:00

As I sit in a private school in New Jersey, selling the product that is Pok-O-MacCready Outdoor Education Center to the members of The New Jersey Association of Independent Schools (although trips to PMOEC really sell themselves) I am afforded a few minuted of down time and the luxury of high speed Internet. What better time to give an update on what has been going on the past few weeks and post my first photos to the blog in months! The staff continues to amaze Brian and me with their flexibility and hard work and over the past 2 weeks have been justifiably rewarded with more a more consistent work schedule and (gasp) evenings off. One exception to those to amenities fell on Friday and Saturday of last week when we hosted our annual Haunted Homestead at The 1812 Homestead Farm and Museum. This year we embraced the historical nature of our surroundings on that site and offered a haunted hayride based on a true story of love-gone-bad that occurred in the Adirondacks about 100 years ago. Brian served as the narrator and the rest of the staff ran around in the woods depicting the untimely death of both lovers. Below is a picture of Diane with Blythe's dog Genny taking a break from building our haunted haymaze. Also, the week before we prepared for the annual Halloween extravaganza, we took the staff to The Adirondack Museum. It was a chance or all of us to brush up on our ADK knowledge and to reinvigorate our own zest for learning. That's it for now. Stay tuned!

Mid-Fall Season Report

2010-10-13T08:46:00.002-04:00

Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday I was writing about the heat of late August- early September and commenting on the believed strengths of the new staff. And now, as the second frost of the week is clearing off of the grass and roofs, I am able to look back on the busiest part of the fall season and smile. This fall had some severe ups and downs, but the ups were all in relation to the students and their experiences here, and that is the most important part of the job that I and the rest of the PMOEC instructing staff have done. As we prepare for the coming winter- prepping buildings, getting winter equipment running and digging out our winter gear- this new staff has become seasoned and ready for anything that this ever changing trade can throw at them. And of course, we are busy expanding and changing our programming to meet the desires of current and future clients. We are expanding our farming program with our recently acquired pigs and soon to be acquired chickens. We are enriching our staff and ability to teach with staff days at The Adirondack Museum and collective reflection on what we do. But, most importantly, we are bonding as a community- which will brighten every aspect of the work we do. We can't wait for you to come share it with us.

The New PMOEC Staff is HOT!

2010-09-01T17:25:00.003-04:00

Training started a week ago and we couldn't feel better about the start of another new year! Brian is back as the Assistant Director and Blythe, last spring's Intern, is back as an Instructor. Other than that, everyone is new. I won't lie, that was a prospect that I was a bit nervous about last week before we started. But those nerves have been relieved. Each new employee brings a unique skill set to Pok-O and each day we are gelling more and more as a staff and a community. And while the temperatures have been topping out in the mid-90's all week, our sweaty brows haven't dampened our spirits- although the frequent trips into the pond at the end of each training session have dampened our swimsuits. I will happily be giving you more updates as this season takes shape because for both the newly hired and the returning staff, our Pok-O batteries are charged. Stay tuned.

2010-08-06T16:41:00.002-04:00

Summer camp is winding down here, which means that we are starting to get excited for our upcoming season. I am happy to say that we have assembled an all-star staff made up of myself and Brian and a group that brings a lot of other talents to the table. We have people with farming and hiking backgrounds. We have people who know rock climbing and horses. We have an eagle scout, a thespian and a firefighter. Truly an eclectic group, the PMOEC staff for the fall will be able to reach out to every student that comes here. Laura and I continue to push Natalie to be the youngest ever recipient of a Pok-O patch. Here is a picture of the family at the top of Rattlesnake. Thanks for reading. See you soon!

Free Range Kids

2010-06-23T16:45:00.002-04:00

Celebrating the end of the PMOEC season, my wife, my newborn and I have come to our family reunion on the sunny shores of Myrtle Beach, SC. While nursing my first day's sunburn under my uncle's 'EZ-Up' tent on the beach, I have been devouring 'Free Range Kids' by Lenore Skenazy. Yes, it is a laugh out loud dissection of our collective hypochondria and fear mongering as a society, but it is also a vehicle for operations like ours. Just like Louve's 'Last Child In the Woods' it challenges us as parents to take the bumpers off of our world and let kids be kids- to discover the world on their own terms and to take ownership of it as well. Of course, the challenge facing a center like ours is to do this while maintaining the safety of every client we have. despite this quandary that it raises for me professionally, it got me thinking and, for any other new parents out their who feel as clueless as I do facing the next 18 years of a child's life, I recommend both books. Excellent guides.

The End is Near!

2010-06-17T15:14:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow will be the last day of another successful spring season at PMOEC. And, as Molly will be moving on (going back graduate school) the management of the blog will fall to me. So, excitedly, I am posting here today- bot dusting off the username/password combo, as it hasn't been used recently and re-introducing myself to you. So stay tuned to the blog as I will keep you updated on the colorful goings on here throughout the year. And lastly, I want to give a huge thank you to all of the amazing instructing staff and other employees who made this an amazing spring here at PMOEC. Brian, Molly, Liz, Mark, Julie, Tim, Blythe, Chris, Shelby, Julia, Donna, Diana, Johnny Mac, Ben, Abby- I couldn't have done it without you.

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl

2010-05-19T18:55:00.002-04:00

We are pleased to announce the newest addition to the Pok-O family!

Stites and Laura's baby, Natalie Forrest McDaniel, was born last night at 8:19pm. She weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces, and was 21 inches long. (I think...I may possibly be wrong on those numbers.) Natalie, Laura, and Stites all seem to be doing well.

Stites has sent along a few pictures, which I'll post here. Natalie is a real beauty!

Amazing Week for Wildlife

2010-05-16T11:56:00.003-04:00

I'm the first to admit that I'm a plant geek. Spring is one of my favorite times of year because there is so much going on in the plant world, and there are new flowers popping up everywhere I look.

In the past few days, however, the animal kingdom has completely stolen my attention, as I have had three days of somewhat remarkable animal sightings. Below are pictures from walks that I've taken over the past three days. (Thanks to my parents for getting me a camera with an awesome zoom on it for Christmas!)

The first picture is of a bat. The kids from our last school group were actually the ones to spot this. It was hanging on a small tree near the pond.

Since I was down at the pond, I took a few minutes to enjoy the view. I spotted what looked like a bird sitting out on a rock across the pond, so I used my camera zoom to let me get a better look. Imagine my surprise when I discovered it wasn't just a Cormorant, but also a giant snapping turtle! (Liz, our resident turtle expert, tells me that snapping turtles don't bask in the sun the way other turtle species do, so we don't know what this turtle was doing there. Snappers do come out of the water to lay eggs--more on that in a moment--but a rock in the middle of the pond is an unlikely nesting spot.)

Next I headed over to the other side of the point, to see if there was anything interesting going on in that bay. As I walked, a bird suddenly flew up out of the grass. I took a peek where the bird had been, and there was this nest! Based on the quick glance I got at the bird and the appearance of the eggs, I think that these are sparrow eggs.

Sadly, the next day when I went back to check on the nest, this was all I found...from what I read online, sparrows do not usually build their nests on the ground, and I guess this shows us why. Some animal had torn the nest up from where it was hidden in the grass and eaten all of the eggs.

I mentioned before that snapping turtles come up out of the water to lay their eggs. Here's a picture of one that I found beside the pond. (To help you get a sense of scale, I would estimate that it was almost three feet long, nose to tail.) If you're around water at this time of year, watch out for the snappers!

Red-wing Blackbirds have been active in the marshy areas around the edge of the pond. This photo gives you a glimpse of the distinctive red and yellow markings on the wing, which are most visible when the bird is in flight.

I also got to see a woodpecker on one of my walks. He wasn't easy to get a good look at (and even harder to get a good picture of), but I think that this is a male Hairy Woodpecker.

This last animal was kind enough to sit and pose for the camera! It seems like everywhere I go lately, there are dozens of chipmunks scurrying around, chirping at annoyance at me for daring to walk through their territory.

Obviously, there is a lot going on in the natural world right now, so I encourage you to go out and take a walk to see what you can find. Even if you don't see any animals, there are plenty of flowers out there that are very good at holding still so that you can get a good look at them!

"New" Flowers

2010-05-13T17:22:00.003-04:00

I've seen some "new" flowers this spring. The first are not new in that I've never seen them before, but rather in that I've never seen them here before. This spring, the trail up Rattlesnake Mountain is full of bluets (picture below.) This is the first spring that I have seen them there. I think that their presence is probably due to the increased sunlight reaching the forest floor after the logging last year.

The other "new" flowers are Fringed Polygala, which I saw along the nature trail. I had never seen these before, and thought that they were really beautiful. They remind me a little bit of birds in flight.

Crazy Weather!

2010-05-02T17:24:00.003-04:00

It has been a wild week weather-wise here at Pok-O! On Wednesday morning, we woke up to find this:Yes, you are seeing that correctly. There is SNOW. And not just snow showers, either---a full three inches had accumulated overnight, and it was still falling, which makes it one of the bigger snow events of this "winter." Needless to say, we were all pretty cold all day.

A mere day later, and we had this:
Yup, that's right: no snow left, and temperatures warm enough that we were without hats and jackets. And it's only been warming up since then--today has been hot and muggy, and really feels like summer. Gotta love that Adirondack weather!

The kids in the picture are the 3rd and 4th graders from the Mead School. The kids were great while they were here--they were good sports about the weather, and they worked really hard to earn their Pok-O Patches by climbing 4 mountains over the 4 days they were here: Bare, Rattlesnake, Sugarloaf, and Poke-O-Moonshine. (The photo is from the top of Rattlesnake.)

2010-04-20T21:34:00.002-04:00

Last week we held our second annual Spring Break Camp, and it went really well! We enlarged the size of the camp slightly, to about 48 kids on any given day. We did way too much stuff to document completely, but here are a few pictures to give you sense of what we did.

First, here's a picture of the youngest group on top of Rattlesnake Mountain, which was our day hike. We send all the groups out on day hikes, varying the mountain based on the age and ability of the group. Rattlesnake was a great hike for the youngest kids, and we had a lot of fun.

Next is a picture of the kids playing old-time games at the Homestead.

We started the week doing teambuilding activities. Here are two campers working together to cross one of the obstacles on the Low Ropes Course.

Here are some of the kids playing frisbee during free time.

We took the kids up to the Crux to go rock climbing. They did a great job climbing, even on the climbs that are designed for slightly taller people.

Of course, a week of camp would not be complete without a trip to visit the farm animals. Below is a picture of some of the kids with Jack the goat.
We had a great time at camp, and we hope that the kids did too. We hope that we'll see some of them again at future break camps!

Old Friends, New Faces

2010-04-20T21:01:00.004-04:00

It has been a long time since we posted to the blog, but we have been keeping busy. In March, we all took some vacation time and had all sorts of adventures. I went to Brazil to see Viv Poit and Aja Bryant, the former Assistant Director and Chef, respectively, here at Pok-O. The visit to Brazil was awesome, and it was really great to see Viv and Aja again. Both of them are teaching English--I guess all that time working with French Canadians inspired them! Below is a picture of the three of us at Iguassu Falls, which is one of the largest waterfalls in the world. (When Eleanor Roosevelt went there, she said that Iguassu made Niagara Falls look like a leaky faucet.)

At the end of March, we started our Spring Season with staff training. Our staff this spring is mostly full of familiar faces: those of us who were here all year (Stites, Brian, Molly, Liz, Mark, and Julie) plus Tim Oprzadek, who worked at Pok-O last Fall and Spring. We have one new person on staff: our intern Blythe Czaja. This internship will finish up Blythe's degree in SUNY Cobleskill. Below is a picture of Blythe on top of Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain during staff training.

Winter Break Camp

2010-03-03T11:58:00.005-05:00

We have been pretty bad about updating the blog this winter--but that is a good thing! We have had a busy schedule this winter, and it hasn't left us much time to keep up with things like the blog. Anyway, I'm going to try to cover some of the things that have been going on in the past few weeks. First up: Winter Break Camp.

After the huge success of Spring Break Camp last April, we decided to offer a Winter Break Camp during the February school vacation. So from February 15th to 20th, we hosted approximately 30 kids (the number varied by day) at our day camp!

We had a blast at camp, and we think the kids did too. (If amount of noise can be used as an indicator of whether kids are having a good time, then these kids were having the time of their lives!) Despite the lack of snow that had plagued us all winter, we were able to get in many of our winter activities, including cross-country skiing and ice fishing. (Alas, there was not enough snow for snow tubing.) We also went for day hikes, did nature walks, learned about surviving in the winter, spent a day at the 1812 Homestead, played on the frozen pond, and had our very own Olympics. I've posted some pictures below--I know there are a lot, but we had too much fun to narrow it down any further!

On Homestead Day, we made homemade soap. The kids also carved soap into original designs:

One of the highlights of going to a lesson in the one-room schoolhouse at the Homestead is when someone gets in trouble. I have never seen someone so happy to be punished!

Candle-Making at the Homestead:

Shingle-Making:

Our Olympics included many non-traditional sports, including the World-Debut of "Frizzing", which is kind of a cross between Curling and Shuffleboard. The kids were very good at it; if Frizzing is added to the next Olympics, I imagine that our kids will be the top contenders for medals.

Another Olympic event was relay races, which included pushing each other around on sleds.

The Bronze Medalists:

The Silver Medalists:

The Gold Medalists:

We'll be holding Spring Break Camp again this year during the April vacation, so if you're interested, e-mail director@pmoec.org for more information. We have a limited number of spots, and they tend to fill up quickly, so if you want to come, act quickly!

2010-02-08T09:07:00.003-05:00

Yesterday two local girl scout troops (one from Willsboro and one from Peru) came to Pok-O for a Winter Survival program. After a discussion about all the ways that one could die in the outdoors (the girls were very creative), we focused on ways that we could avoid some of those hazards. Since this was a Winter Survival program, we focused mainly on ways to stay warm. We played a spirited game of Doubles (a.k.a. The Chocolate Game) to practice putting on appropriate layers (admittedly not the main point of the game, but we had a lot of fun) then headed out into the cold. The girls managed to scrape together enough snow to build a quinzhee, and they gathered enough firewood to build a giant bonfire (although we limited ourselves to a small fire just big enough for roasting marshmallows.)

We get several boy scout and girl scout troops throughout the year, coming in both for day programs and for overnight visits. Many of our classes can help the scouts meet badge requirements, and visits to Pok-O are a great way for troops to bond. If you're part of a troop and would like to arrange a visit to Pok-O, give us a call!

2010-01-28T08:05:00.003-05:00

Winter at Pok-O brings many things: snow, skiing, snow tubing, evenings spent curled up beside a wood stove, and...French Canadians!

Approximately one third of our client base comes to us from Montreal (our closest "big city") and other parts of Quebec. Although we had a few Canadian Schools in the fall, this is the time of year when they start coming with some regularity. These students are native French speakers who are learning English, and they come to Pok-O to practice.

This past week, we hosted 5th graders from the Sir Wilfrid Laurier school. These kids have been in an intensive English program since the beginning of the school year, and their hard work has certainly paid off---their English was very good. (I'm ashamed to admit that their English, after 5 months, was slightly better than my Spanish was after 5 years of studying.)

The English program at Sir Wilfrid Laurier was run for years by the legendary (at least among the Quebec English Language Learning community) Wynanne Watts. Wynanne retired last year (she serves on our Board of Directors now), so this winter we got to meet the new teacher, Marie Annick Poulit. Based on the level of English that the kids were speaking, we know that Marie is doing an excellent job!

Our program with Sir Wilfrid Laurier was three days packed with lots of activities. We did the full range of winter activities, including cross-country skiing, winter hiking, snow tubing, winter survival, and ice fishing. Below are a few pictures from ice fishing and winter survival:

In this picture, kids are using the ice auger to drill a hole for ice fishing. Because you need to both turn the auger and exert downward pressure in order to effectively use the auger, you either need to be tall, or work with a partner.

Here are some kids ice fishing. Unfortunately, we didn't catch anything on either of our early morning fishing expeditions. Fortunately, Chris had prepared something else for breakfast, so we got to eat anyway!

One of the highlights of Winter Survival is building snow shelters. Usually we build Quinzees, which are shelters that are built using loose, powdery snow. Given the weather lately, however, the snow was perfect for cutting blocks, so we built igloos instead. In the photo below, you can see the process of cutting snow blocks.

Here we are building the igloo...

Here is the finished igloo! Building a domed roof was beyond our engineering skills, so instead we built straight walls, then made a lattice with branches and topped it with more snow blocks. All in all, we were all pretty proud of our igloo!

Winter Ecology

2010-01-07T16:02:00.004-05:00

Winter has arrived at Pok-O full-force, and with it comes our winter curriculum! Although we still offer many of the same classes regardless of the season, during the winter we lose some of our fall/spring classes (canoeing, for example) and gain some new ones, including Winter Ecology.

Winter Ecology is a class that looks at the challenges animals face in the winter, and the strategies that they have developed to address these challenges. We discuss migration, hibernation, and other adaptations, all the while doing some hands-on activities to help the kids really understand what the animals go through.

In the photo below, we are checking the results of an experiment about finding warm places to hibernate. Students are each given a small container filled with hot, liquid jello, and need to find a place that will keep it warm over the next 10 to 15 minutes. If they find a place that will keep their "animal" warm, the jello remains liquid. If their burrow is too cold, however, the jello congeals.

In the next picture, you'll see students playing the "Tracking Game." In this game, the students pair up, with one playing the role of the predator, and the other the prey. The "prey" walks across an area of clean snow, leaving tracks that they hope will confuse their predator. Then the "predator" gets a chance to try to follow the tracks, and see if they can end up in the same place as their prey. (In the picture, the predators are trying to figure out which way their prey went.)

After students track each other, we head into the woods to look for, identify, and follow real animal tracks. In a recent class, we followed a set of deer tracks for quite a distance, and were able to find branches that the deer had nibbled on and places where the deer had gone to the bathroom. (The students were especially excited to find the deer poop, as pictured below.)

Winter at Pok-O is a great time to head outdoors and learn more about what's going on in the cold. We'll try to post more about our other winter classes soon!

The Crux is Open!

2009-12-07T13:08:00.004-05:00

This weekend was the grand opening of the Crux: Champlain Valley Climbing Center! We had a great turnout...appoximately 200 people came by to climb or check out the building, including a number of people who came on both Saturday and Sunday!

If you haven't been by to see the new facility, stop in at some point this week for the rest of our opening week celebrations. You can find a full schedule of the events we have planned here.

Below are a few pictures from the opening weekend:

Da CRUX!

2009-12-03T19:01:00.002-05:00

The time is creeping closer and closer....
....for the opening of.....
THE CRUX!

The grand opening is scheduled for this Saturday, December 5th from 10am-8pm. There will be food, drinks, music, and most of all CLIMBING!

There is over 1000 sq. feet of climbing, 17 routes, a bouldering cave...we've got it all. We are the Crux, Champlain Valley's climbing center! Come check us out!!!!

Working on the Snow Tubing Hill

2009-11-09T16:07:00.002-05:00

We had our first snow fall last week. Although it wasn't much, it has turned our thoughts to winter fun: cross-country skiing, building snow shelters...and snow tubing!

Our snow tubing hill isn't a place that we spend a lot of time in during warmer months, but we've been up there in the last few weeks getting this hill in shape for the winter.

Maintaining and improving the hill is an ongoing, multi-year project. Last year we rebuilt the berm to change the path that the tubes took down the hill, allowing for a longer ride. We also started putting in a new drainage system at the bottom of the hill, which tended to be a little swampy.

This year we've been continuing work on the drainage system. The drainage ditches have been dug, and now we're working to spread a few inches of gravel on the bottom before we cover them with dirt again. This is slow, back-breaking work: we can't get a tractor down there to work (actually, we'd be able to get it down the hill, but it would never get back up again), so we're using person-power instead. We got a load of gravel dropped off at the top of the hill, and have been taking it down to the ditches one wheelbarrow-full at a time.

As you might imagine, this is a big job, and we only have a limited amount of time before the snow flies. We'll get as much done as we can, but I imagine that this will be a job that continues into next year!

Rock Talk and Walk

2009-11-07T12:59:00.003-05:00

Despite the chilly temperatures outside, myself, Ed Romanowicz from SUNY Plattsburgh, and three others trekked up Rattlesnake mountain to learn all about the geology of the area. We started with a brief intro here at Pok-O, where we got to look at maps of the area. We talked a lot about how there used to be a sea here in the Champlain Valley, the glaciers that once enveloped the area, and the rifts that are forming the mountains around us.

After that, we bundled up and headed out to the mountain. Along the way, Ed stopped and showed us some interesting features. More commonly, we stopped him, with the phrase "Whoa! What is that rock? Why is it pink/black/green/spotted? What did that to the rock? How did this rock get here?" and more. We reached the summit, and despite what looked like dreary gray skies created a gorgeous winter view. Mt. Mansfield of Vermont was snowy and beautiful, the slides on Giant Mountain were bright and white, and the sunlight streaming through the clouds lit up Lake Champlain.

We stayed on the summit for a little bit, but the wind chased us down. We hiked down the trail (asking just as many--if not more--questions as on the way up) and made it back to the van.

My favorite fact of the day: The Adirondacks are comprised mostly of anorthrosite, a granite composite. This is one of the few places in the world that this rock is found. The only other place that it is found on the crust so predominantly is in Labrador, Canada. But (and here comes the coolest part) anorthrosite is also the material that makes up the rocks on the moon! Out of this world, eh?

All in all...it was a "rock"ing good time! (I couldn't resist!)Here's a picture of Ed and our guests on the top of the mountain.

See you next time!
Liz the Naturalist

First Snow!

2009-11-06T15:22:00.002-05:00

Snow has been falling in some of the higher elevations for a few weeks now, but down in the valley where we are...not yet. Until Now!

The Pok-O Staff woke up to snow covering the ground, our cars and all the trees! It was just a dusting, and it melted away by lunch time, but its a sign of fun times to come!

Snowshoes, cross country skis, and snow tubes here we come!

What are YOU excited about for winter?

SEAD

2009-10-28T09:36:00.005-04:00

A few times each season, we have a SEAD day here at Pok-O. SEAD stands for "Staff Enrichment and Development." These days are days for us to expand our own knowledge about topics we teach about here at Pok-O, both to provide professional development for staff members and to further improve our program.

On Monday we had a SEAD day in Montreal. Our primary destination was the Biosphere, Montreal's Environment Museum. Most of the current exhibits focus on the St. Laurence River Watershed, which includes Long Pond! Most of what we teach about watersheds in our Pond Ecology class focuses on the water that is going into Long Pond...so it was really interesting to learn more about where our water is going when it leaves Long Pond.

We also were fascinated by the structure of the Biosphere. The museum is housed in a giant geodesic sphere. The sphere was originally built as the U.S. Pavillion at the 1967 World's Fair. After the Fair, it remained a popular tourist destination, until a fire destroyed that outer covering in 1976, leaving only the frame of the sphere behind. Eventually a new building was built inside the sphere to house the Environment Museum, though the outer covering was never replaced.

The sphere was designed by R. Buckminster Fuller, a visionary architect, engineer and inventor. Fuller was devoted to sustainable design, and spent his life designing buildings, cars, and other technology that would help reduce the number of resources used by people in their everyday lives. Fuller was well ahead of his time on the issue of environmental sustainability...he was thinking about these issues as early as the 1920s!

After we left the museum, we took some time to walk around the old city in Montreal. Perhaps the highlight of this point in the day was when we passed a restaurant that had decorated for Halloween with gibbets! Brian was very excited to see them. (Read the post about Haunted Homestead to find out why...)

Haunted Homestead

2009-10-28T09:16:00.005-04:00

Last weekend was "Haunted Homestead", the Halloween program that the Outdoor Education runs jointly with the 1812 Homestead Farm and Museum. Despite the rainy weather, we had a great turn out, and we hope that all of our visitors had fun!

One of the main components of the program is the hay maze that we set up in the main barn at the Homestead. It's quite an endeavor to build---approximately 400 bales of hay, arranged into a maze that traverses 2 stories of the barn, all structurally reinforced with re-bar and braced with cross beams across the top...and then decorated with scary scenes at every turn! In the end we had a maze that, according to reviews, was pretty terrifying.

We also had a "haunted hayride" through the woods of the homestead. Along the trail riders encountered (or were attacked by) a homicidal clown, and doctor who killed his patients, a chainsaw serial killer, a living scarecrow, Sasquatch, and a few other scary folks as well. We were especially pleased to have the Drama Club from the Willsboro Central School working with us on the hayride this year---they set up a cannibal scene that, based on the screams that always came when the wagon went past their station, was one of the highlights of the hayride.

In addition to the volunteers from the Drama Club, we were also happy to have the freshman class from Willsboro Central School join us to run the concession stand. Proceeds from concession sales went to the class as part of their fundraising efforts for class trips.

All in all, it was a great event. Thanks to everyone who came, and all of our volunteers!

(If you were wondering what that picture at the top of the post was...it was a gibbet that we constructed to hang along the hayride trail. Gibbets were iron cages that were used to display the bodies of executed criminals. The gibbets were commonly hung along highways and waterways as a deterrent to other would-be criminals. Brian had the idea to make a gibbet for Haunted Homestead last year, but we weren't able to pull it together in time, so he had hung onto the idea for this year. He was very proud of the end result.)

Various Programs

2009-10-20T14:50:00.005-04:00

There have been a lot of things going on here at Pok-O recently...it's hard to keep up with it all on the blog! Here are photos from two different programs that we had last week...

On Friday, most of the staff traveled down to Corinth, NY to run a team-building program for some of their middle schoolers. It was a beautiful day there--and somewhat warmer than it had been in Willsboro--so the staff certainly enjoyed being out on the football field at the middle school. We took a variety of team-building activities with us, some of which are shown in the next three photos.

Then on Saturday we hosted a Wildlife Tracking Hike for the local community. The hike was led by John Davis and Chris Maron of the Champlain Area Trail Society. We didn't see many animal tracks, but we saw some signs of wildlife, including the woodpecker holes pictured below. We also simply enjoyed the beautiful day and a the view from the top of the mountain.

This week we're setting up for "Haunted Homestead", the Halloween program that the Outdoor Ed Center and 1812 Homestead run jointly. The haymaze is well underway, and plans are in the making for one of our best haunted hayrides ever! We hope we'll see some of you there...

Goodbye Adam!

2009-10-16T18:06:00.003-04:00

As Stites mentioned in his post yesterday, today was Adam's last day working at Pok-O this fall.

Here's a classic photo of Adam that Liz took today: Adam just after throwing a frisbee. Among Adam's many contributions to Pok-O, he instituted the tradition of the staff playing frisbee while the kids load onto the buses before leaving.

We will certainly miss him, and hope he'll be back again to visit!

MId-Season Report

2009-10-15T12:07:00.002-04:00

We have turned the corner on our fall season. During the month of September, we averaged around 80 kids at PMOEC each day, but that number has been cut in half for the months of October and November. This is giving us a little more time to focus on our After-School Programs with different local schools, our curriculum and program development and, of course, our Community Events- Haunted Homestead, Underground Railroad and plenty of others. Also, we are about to say goodbye to our seasonal instructor, Adam Reed, who will be leaving at the end of this week. I had heard wonderful things about Adam from last year's staff and from all of the Pok-O-MacCready Camp employees, but unless I had seen his expertise with our students, I would not have believed it. Adam has the patience of a monk and the energy of a bumblebee. Combine those with his intensely optimistic disposition, and you've still only scratched the surface of one of the more genuine individuals I have had the chance to meet. Adam will be missed as the days grow shorter and the temperature drops, but he will be welcomed back with open arms if he chooses to return in the spring. That's all for now from the Director's desk.

Astronomy and Pizza!

2009-10-05T11:25:00.003-04:00

On Saturday night we hosted an "Astronomy and Pizza" event for families in the local community. Despite the rainy weather, we had a great turnout, and the event went really well.

We started the evening by having everyone make their own pizzas. We had lots of toppings to pick from, and I don't think that we had any two pizzas topped the same way!

While the pizzas were cooking, we headed outside to talk about our solar system. We were making a scale model of the solar system, starting with an 8-inch diameter plastic pumpkin as the sun. We talked about how big the planets would be in relation to that size sun (the Earth would be about the size of a peppercorn), then spaced out lanterns to show how far each of the planets would be for the sun. This was quite a hike, since each step represented 3,600,000 miles. (We were really tired by the end of it.) The vast distances in space can be somewhat hard to comprehend, but this activity helps you see it a little bit better. To help give you some perspective: using this scale model, if we were going to place the next closest star to us (Proxima Centauri) in the model, we've have to travel all the way to somewhere south of Philadelphia.

After our trek across the solar system, we headed inside for dinner. The pizza was great! I think that most of the people at the event could get a second job as a pizza chef if they wanted to.

Since it was raining, we weren't able to go outside to look at stars, so we set up our constellation projector on the ceiling of the dining room and did a little indoor star gazing. Liz told the stories that various cultures have made up for the constellations over the ages, helping us understand how people in the past made sense of what they saw in the sky before they had the technology to help them learn about it scientifically.

There are still quite a few community events to go on the schedule this fall, so we hope to see you there. Some of the ones that I, in particular, am looking forward to are the Wildlife Tracking Hike on October 17th and our Underground Railroad simulation on November 6th. And our Haunted Homestead program (October 23 and 24) at the 1812 Homestead is always a lot of fun! You can find more information on these events, plus all the other great ones we have planned, here.

We hope to see you at an event soon!

Dreary Fall

2009-10-04T15:59:00.003-04:00

It has seemed like there have been more rainy days than nice ones in the past few weeks, making this a pretty dreary fall. It's hard to truly appreciate the colors in the trees when they're lit by gray light rather than sunshine.

But even in gloomy weather, it's worth the trip out to see what's going on in the woods. If nothing else, the rain has at least resulted in an amazing array of fungus, as seen in the following photos.

(Thanks to my father for letting me use the photos that he took while he and my mom were up visiting me last week!)

NYSOEA Conference Reflections

2009-09-28T16:21:00.002-04:00

First off, let me say how wonderful it is to be wanted. I am really excited to be a contributor to the PMOEC Blog and, oh, do I have some things to blog about. But today, I will limit my comments to this past weekend's New York State Outdoor Education Association annual meeting. This year we descended upon the Holiday Inn in Fishkill, New York. I was joined by Brian, our Assistant Director and Julia (aka Thriller), our Marketing Director. We were excited to meet the representative from the Northern region, Gary "Griz" Caudle, who replaced our very own Jack Swan on the board of NYSOEA. We also were pumped to check out the low ropes course at The Sharpe Reservation, borrowing some ideas to create new stations and repair old ones at our own low ropes course. Overall, we all were able to learn some new things at the conference that will help us make our classes better and better classes are always our goal. Next time I feel the need to post on the blog, I promise to include pictures, but for now, you will have to imagine the beauty of conference rooms inside a hotel.

Old Classes Made New Again

2009-09-21T20:38:00.005-04:00

Our curriculum is constantly evolving as new people come to work at the Outdoor Education Center and bring new ideas with them. For many classes, this evolution is a gradual process--a new activity might be added one season, then someone thinks up a new way to explain something the next. Everyone once in a while, however, a class might undergo a significant overhaul.

Last winter we began the process of revising our curriculum. For most of our classes, this meant rewriting the existing description to match the way that we've been teaching the class recently. There were a few classes, though, that we don't teach very often here (since the classes that we teach depends on what classes our clients request), and many of these rarely-taught classes seemed like they needed some serious work.

One of the classes that got serious attention was our Revolutionary War simulation, formerly known as "Time Quest." (These days we're calling it "Rev War Sim," though the name is still under debate.) This class asks students to think about how the war might have affected some of the people involved, and for the students to come to their own conclusions about which side they might support in the war.

To begin the class, the students review what they already know about the Revolution. They then are asked what they would like to know. These questions are then recorded for the groups to take with them to the main portion of the activity: meeting and talking with various people involved in the war. These people represent a range of view points of view. In the photo below you can see some of the people that they meet. From left to right: A British soldier, a patriot woman, a Loyalist woman who is a camp follower for the British army, another British soldier (who has suffered an eye injury), and a revolutionary soldier. (During the activity, we don't all sit together...we were just enjoying the campfire while we waited for the students to arrive.) The students also have a chance to meet a member of the Mohawk tribe.

These characters all have diverse back-stories and beliefs about the revolution. One of our goals is to show the students the full range of experiences that people in the colonies had during the war.

We hope that seeing this range of perspectives will help the kids to make their own decisions about the war. At the end of the evening, we ask the kids to stand on a "value line," from die-hard patriots to completely loyal subjects of the king, with every shade of grey in between. The kids then get the chance to explain to their classmates why they chose to stand where they did. We have taught the "new" Time Quest a few times since it was unveiled last spring, and every time we have been very impressed with the careful thought the kids have given to forming their opinions.

Time Quest is not the only class that has been rejuvenated; Orienteering was also completely reworked last spring. Climate Change and Nature Crafts are on the docket to be worked on this fall...stay tuned for further updates on those two!

Are You Allergic to Goldenrod? (This is a Trick Question)

2009-09-14T10:19:00.006-04:00

Fall may bring crisp, cool weather and beautiful colors in the trees, but it also brings fall allergies! Many of us (me included) suffer from runny noses, sneezing, and watery eyes as the seasons change, and we look around for something to blame. For many people, their eyes are drawn to goldenrod.

When I was growing up, one of the cardinal rules in my house was that we shouldn't pick goldenrod and bring it inside, because it would set off my father's allergies. As I grew up and started developing seasonal allergies, I also assumed that goldenrod was to blame...imagine my surprise when I learned that this beautiful flower is falsely accused!

It's easy to understand why so many people blame goldenrod for their suffering. Whenever they sneeze, they can look around and, most likely, see the showy golden flowers somewhere nearby. But in actuality, the very showiness of the goldenrod's flowers should be our clue that it is not to blame for our allergies.

In general, plants with showy flowers are showy for a reason: to attract their insect pollinators. Since these plants rely on insects to carry their pollen from plant to plant, the pollen is generally too heavy to be carried by the wind. Therefore, the pollen from these flowering plants is rarely to blame for your sneezing!

The true culprit is generally growing somewhere close to the goldenrod, but is much less likely to be noticed: ragweed. As you can see from the photo below, ragweed is a fairly nondescript plant. Unless you know what you're looking for, it's easy to miss.

This year seems to be a particularly good year for ragweed--it's growing in every corner, and I've seen some truly mammoth plants. So if you are a fellow allergy sufferer, get ready for an intense allergy season!

First Aid Training

2009-09-09T08:54:00.002-04:00

Yesterday the Pok-O Staff finished up our first aid certifications. We all are certified by the American Red Cross in "Responding to Emergencies" and "CPR/AED for the Professional Rescuer." It's good to have this training, but spending hours on end in the class tends to make us all a little loopy. Luckily, we were able to direct this loopiness to good use in our practical exam, when we bandaged Adam up for almost anything we could. In the photo below, he is treated for: A possible skull fracture, a neck injury (kind of...this isn't actually how we would treat a neck injury), a broken forearm, and a cut on his other arm. Only the fact that it was time for dinner prevented us from splinting a leg or putting him on the backboard!

First Aid Training was the last part of our staff training. Today the kids arrive! Two hours and counting left!

We're Back!

2009-08-28T17:15:00.005-04:00

Pok-O-MacCready Outdoor Education Center is back from our summer break!

Every summer, things here at Pok-O change considerably as the Outdoor Ed Center takes a step back and the Pok-O-MacCready Camps take over active use of the site. Instead of school groups coming here on field trips, several hundred summer campers arrive to enjoy a few weeks of hiking, swimming, boating, games, and all the other activities that come with going to camp.

As the end of August rolls around, however, the campers head home, and the staff of the Outdoor Ed Center gear up for another year of visits from schools, scout troops, after-school programs, and all the others who visit between September and June.

Our season has been off to a busy start, with a full schedule of staff training! We have a mix of returning and new staff members, so we take the first week and a half to review all the classes we teach here and get ready for the arrival of clients. So far we have completed all of our team building courses, gone over our ecology classes, gone mountain biking, canoeing, and have hiked two of the four Pok-O-Patch mountains. (And that was just in the first four days!)

There are a number of familiar faces on our staff this fall: Stites McDaniel, our director, never actually left over the summer. (He just spent a lot of time in the office.) Brian DeGroat, who was an instructor last year, is stepping into the role of Assistant Director, and is doing a great job. I (Molly Smyrl) am back again as Program Coordinator, while Liz Pierson is taking over as Naturalist. Adam Reed, who was an instructor last fall, is back for another go as well. Mike Gast, our chef, rounds out the list of returning staff.

We also have four new faces as well--three on our teaching staff, and one in the office. (The photo is the new instructors goofing around on top of Rattlesnake Mountain.)

Mark Scott (on the right) is our Climbing Director. He worked at summer camp last summer, and now is here for the fall. He grew up about ten minutes from Pok-O, and has a long family history here---we have reason to believe that he's the first person to be a second-generation Outdoor Ed instructor; his parents worked here in the '70s.

Julie Warren (on the left) is a new instructor this fall. She's one of two Julia's on staff this summer (we have a new marketing director who is named Julia), so Julie is desperately hoping that she'll get a nickname (she's never had one before.) If you have any suggestions, let us know.

Madison Andrus (in the center) is our fall-season intern. This internship will give her the last credits that she needs to graduate from Missouri State University. She's a life-long girl scout, and since arriving at Poko has acquired the nickname "Mad-dog." (Julie is upset that Madi got a nickname before her.)

As mentioned before, Julia Backus is on board as our new Marketing Director. Julia has worked at summer camp for 4 summers, but now gets to experience the thrill of a full winter at Pok-O. In keeping with our pattern of nicknaming everyone except Julie Warren, Julia has recently been nicknamed "Thriller." She's also fond of card games.

All in all, it looks like we have a great staff, and we're looking forward to the season ahead. Eight days until the first students arrive!

Where have we all gone?

2009-06-27T11:19:00.002-04:00

Well, as Molly said, the Pok-O outdoor ed staff have all disappeared it seems. But nevertheless, camp will not be quiet! Starting on Monday, all the campers will arrive and camp will be bustling again for the next 7 weeks.

Most of the outdoor ed staff you know and love through the blog will not be there however. With one exception!

Brian DeGroat has decided to extend his stay yet again by becoming a summer camp counselor. Brian will be living in the intermediate section, which houses boys ages 10-12 (or thereabouts, I can't remember the exact ages). He will be teaching drama, frisbee, and drama set construction. He is then returning to Pok-O in the fall as Assistant Director. Hooray!

Molly Smyrl has returned to the City of Brotherly Love to continue her work at the Crow's Nest Nature Preserve. She will be helping run the summer day camp there. I'm not sure exactly what she does, but I know she gets really dirty and has lots of fun doing it! Molly will also be returning in the fall as the Community Programs Manager. That means lots of cool things will be happening at Pok-O that everyone should come out and participate in! Hooray!

Liz Pierson has decided to travel the world this summer. She will be traveling to Sint-Truiden, Belgium for 5 weeks to work on an organic farm. This is all happening thanks to the WWOOF Program. That stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Check them out, it's a really cool organization. Liz will also be returning in the fall as naturalist. Hooray!

Viv.Poit, after spending 10 years in the US has decided to move back to her home country of Brazil. We are all totally jealous and planning trips to go visit her. She leaves July 15, leaving our summer to go back to wintertime! We'll miss you Viv! But have fun! Hooray!

Ginny Tice has gone back to school to finish up her triple major. We had a lot of fun working with Ginny and hope she had a great time as well. I've heard rumors that either Hawaii or the moon (okay, maybe just Hawaii) is next on her agenda. Good luck! Hooray!

Tim Oprazdek (I probably spelled that wrong, I apologize) is back being the director of the Pioneer section of Island Lake Camp in PA. He is in charge of camp craft things as well as the high and low ropes courses, and team building areas. We aren't sure where Tim's next adventures will take him, but we hope if that path leads to the North Country he'll come back and visit! Hooray!

Mike Gast has resumed his position as chef of Pok-O Summer camps. Cooking up some good food, and announcing the rule of the day, hooray!

And then there is Stites...Stites will be working in the office everyday, booking groups and making sure we all have jobs in the fall. Lots of computer work, and lots of phone calls. At least he gets to go outside and mow the lawn for Shai once a week. Good luck Stites! Hooray!

So that's it for us! Leave a comment and tell us what YOU are doing for the summer. Maybe we can share stories when we all reconvene again!

Liz

Scenes from Our Final Weeks

2009-06-21T11:14:00.002-04:00

We had a busy final two weeks here at Pok-O. We've had a packed schedule of school groups, as well as all the tasks that come with shutting down the Outdoor Education Center for the summer and getting the summer camp up and running. Most of the Outdoor Ed staff is scattering for the summer, so we won't be posting on this blog much, if at all, until we're back in August. We hope that you'll be back to read it then!

Before we go, however, we wanted to share a few pictures from the last two weeks...

These kids are at the top of Rattlesnake Mountain, one of 4 mountains that they hiked in 3 days to earn their Pok-O Patch.

These girls are showing off the edible plants that they learned about in an early-morning nature walk.

A campfire at Intermediate Point...

Snapping Turtles have been coming out of the pond to lay their eggs. This one came all the way up the hill to outside Robinson Dining Hall!

This one is of the staff at our end-of-the-season dinner. We're all wearing the t-shirts that Viv made for us as a final gift. We had a blast this spring, and we hope that everyone else who came to Pok-O did as well.

See you in the Fall!

Bouquet River Canoe Trip

2009-06-08T19:24:00.004-04:00

On Saturday, June 6th, we had another successful community event! People came from Plattsburgh and Jay, both in New York, to canoe on the Bouquet River.

The weather cooperated by providing lots of sunshine. There was also a little wind, which managed to make the trip downstream more difficult than the trip upstream…just enough wind to keep things interesting, though, nothing dangerous.

After canoeing down to Lake Champlain, we beached our canoes and ate our lunches. The children, and adults, played in the sand and took closer looks at the birds nearby.

As we headed back up the river to Willsboro, we couldn’t help but notice the active wildlife. There was a turtle taking its offspring for a swim and also a duck followed by 9 ducklings! It was an exciting experience!

I am moving away from the Adirondacks in a few weeks, but days like that will keep my mind here for a long time.

1812 Homestead Open House

2009-06-02T19:44:00.002-04:00

This past weekend we opened up the 1812 Homestead for a community Open House. We had about 40 people stop by to make shingles and candles, tour the Inn, taste hearth-baked cornbread, play old-fashioned games, and attend a lesson in the one-roomed schoolhouse. We had a great time, and hope that everyone else did as well! Here's a photo of Master Carpenter Brian showing a visitor how to split a shingle out of a log:

We still have a few events left in our spring season, most notably our Summer Picnic on Sunday, June 14th! We'll have swimming, boating, hiking, games, dinner, and a campfire...if you're interested in attending, e-mail me at programs@pmoec, or just show up that day!

Hands on Nature

2009-05-18T11:33:00.003-04:00

This weekend we had a "Hands on Nature" event for local kids. We had a great turnout---14 kids plus a few parents! We all had a lot of fun learning more about Long Pond, and all managed to get a little wet! Here are some photos:

In this photo, Liz is showing the kids a 3-D map of Long Pond and the surrounding mountains. This helped the kids visualize where Long Pond's watershed (the area of land that drains into the pond) is.

We spent a lot of time hunting for macroinvertebrates (backbone-less critters that are big enough to see with the bare eye.) In this photo, the kids are using nets to scoop mud and dead leaves up from the bottom of the pond in search of the critters.

Once you have the mud up from the bottom, you have to search through it to find the animals.

Despite our intentions to only catch invertebrates, the kids did manage to catch a few frogs as well! (Evidently the frogs jumped right into their nets.) In this photo, Liz is holding one of the frogs that the kids caught.

And if you can't find the animals from the docks, clearly you need to go into the pond to find them! By the end of the activity, most of the kids were completely soaked--which is how you know they had a good time!

Leadership Hike with Keene Central School

2009-05-12T16:21:00.003-04:00

Today Tim and I headed into the high peaks region to hike up Rooster Comb Mountain with the 4th and 5th graders from Keene Central School. Rooster Comb is a local mountain for these kids--the trailhead can be reached on foot from the school, and you can see the school from the top of the mountain. This meant that many of the kids had climbed the mountain before, but that didn't matter...one of the goals of the hike was to talk about leadership, and what better way was there to demonstrate leadership than to show the group a trail that was already familiar to you!

Before we began the hike, we played a game called "Jiggy-jiggy Joy", which involves a series of actions being passed through the group, with each person doing the action that the person before them did the round before. It's a fast-paced game, in which the players need to be thinking about themselves, the person in front of them, and the person behind them. The kids were quick to notice that not only was the game fun, but it was also a good symbol for the kind of leadership that we were looking for on the hike---taking care of yourself, while also following the lead of the person in front of you and helping the person behind you.

Then we were off for our hike. Each of the kids took a turn leading the group. Before we began the hike, we talked about what sorts of things we wanted the leader to be doing. The students said that the person in front had to set a good pace, and should stop to wait anything people in the back fell behind. As each kid took their turn in the front of the group, they all displayed this behavior beautifully!

The leader was also responsible for making sure that we stayed on the trail. This was somewhat more of an issue, as seen from the kids' response in the photo below when I asked, "Which way does the trail go next?"

Just kidding! (That photo was completely staged.) Actually, the kids were really good at both following the trail through the forest and at keeping track of where we were on the map. This second part was yet another way that some of the kids showed leadership, because knowing where we were in relation to where we were going helped keep up the spirits on group members who got a little tired.

We ate our lunches at the top of the mountain while enjoying the view. Every single kid made it all the way to the top, despite blisters, tired feet, and the fact that this meant that they got lunch almost half an hour later than usual! Here's the group at the top of the mountain, with some of the high peaks in the background:

Finally it was time to head down the mountain again, which presents different leadership challenges than going up---while going up, the leader must make sure that everyone is going slowly enough that everyone can keep up; while going down, they must make sure that everyone is going slowly enough that no one gets hurt from running down the mountain! Here's a photo from during our descent:

When we got back to the school, we talked about what we had learned about leadership during the day. The students were able to give a lot of great examples of times when their classmates had exhibited good leadership skills ("When someone fell down and cut their knee, he pulled out a first aid kit and gave her a bandaid.") We also asked the kids how they would describe a good leader. Some of their responses included:

"Someone who takes care of the group"
"Someone who makes sure the group is all together"
"Someone who listens"

What I found most interesting was that nowhere in their description of a good leader did the kids mention anything like "someone who is in charge" or "someone who tells other people what to do." While they recognized that sometimes a group does need someone to step forward to help organize things and help the group make decisions, they were very aware of the responsibilities of the leader to the group. With kids like these making up the next generation of leaders, I think the world will be in good hands!

Thanks, KCS 4th and 5th Graders, for being so amazing on the hike today! Tim and I had a great time!

The Wild Center

2009-05-11T19:10:00.003-04:00

Today the Poko staff got to go the Wild Center in Tupper Lake. The museum was closed to the public today, but they let is in for a behind the scenes tour! We got to see the animals in their "backstage" holding areas, which let us get a much-closer look than ususal. Here is a Saw Whet Owl. It's hard to tell from this photo, but this bird (a full-grown adult) is only about the size of a human hand!

The next photo is of one of the three river otters that live at the Wild Center. The otters split their time between their water tank, which is open to public display, and their behind-the-scenes play area. It's nearly impossible to get a good picture of them in the water because they move so fast, and it's not much easier when they're in their play area! One of them did pause just long enough for me to snap this picture, though.

My favorite animal-encounter of the day was Stickly the Porcupine. The curator let her out of her cage to climb around a bit (porcupines are excellent climbers), so we got to see her up close. At one point, my face was probably only 6 inches from hers! It's an urban myth that porcupines can throw their quills, so we were safe as long as we stayed a few inches away. Given how cute porcupines are, however, we had to keep reminding ourselves that we couldn't pet her.

Finally, here's a photo that shows you exactly how "behind-the-scenes" our tour was---the refrigerator where they store the food for the animals...which was mostly dead rats and mice!

Theater in Willsboro!

2009-05-11T18:33:00.002-04:00

On Sunday a number of Poko staff members went to see the Willsboro Drama Club's performance of MAME. Many of the performers were students at the Willsboro Central School. Two of the students, Max and Mat, are students who have been to Poko with the Willsboro Afterschool Program and for Spring Break Camp. We loved seeing the boys (and their parents!) in the musical...They did a fantastic job, and we had a lot of fun seeing them in a new light.

It was also fun to run into a few other the other local kids that we know from Afterschool, who were in the audience.

We're looking forward to the autumn WDC production, "Damn Yankees!" We hope that there will be some more actors that we know!

We Learn Something New Every Day

2009-05-05T12:11:00.003-04:00

Spring flowers have been popping out left and right. Many of the flowers are familiar to us, but every day we find a few flowers that we don't know. Liz and I have been pouring over our field guides lately, trying to figure out what we've been seeing. Below is a picture of a flower that I found in the woods near the teams course over the weekend.

I wasn't sure what the flower was, and I couldn't find it in my field guides. So I called in a expert--Dan Barringer, the preserve manager at Crow's Nest Nature Preserve. Crow's Nest is located just outside Philadelphia, and I have worked there off and on for years. Dan has an amazing memory for plants, so I knew I could count on him. Sure enough, he was able to tell me that it was called bellwort (Uvularia perfoliata). In fact, Dan was able to send me a link to where he had written about bellwort on his blog. You can check it out at: http://natlands.typepad.com/nlt_preserve_blog/2007/05/crows_nest_flow.html

Spring Unfurling

2009-05-03T19:37:00.004-04:00

Signs of spring have been showing up all over the place recently. All through the woods, the fiddleheads of ferns have been unfurling.

The new leaves that are opening give the forest a reddish tint. Interestingly, the pigments that make new leaves look red are the same that make them beautiful in the fall. The red pigment is in the leaf all through the summer--the color is just overwhelmed by the green pigment that develops later. In the fall, as the tree prepares to drop its leaves before winter, the green pigment breaks down first, allowing the red to show again.

In the woods, purple trillium (Trillium erectum) has been blooming. Trillium is one of the early spring wildflowers that bloom before the trees fully leaf out. By blooming early, the plants can get the sunlight that they need before the forest canopy leaves them in the deep shade.

"Spring Outside"

2009-05-03T19:14:00.005-04:00

On Saturday, Poko had the opportunity to participate in the "Spring Outside" event at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake. The event was organized by the Children and Nature Network, a network of organizations dedicated to reconnecting children (and adults!) to the natural world. The keynote speaker at the event was Richard Louv, the author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. More than 25 organizations were represented at the event. We were honored to be among those organizations, and we got the chance to talk to a lot of wonderful people.

The staff who went to the event also enjoyed doing some of the activities that were part of the event. In this photo, Liz is using a bow drill to start a fire at "101 Uses for Plants." We also loved seeing the otters get fed, playing field games, and meeting a porcupine.

Canoing

2009-04-30T19:47:00.003-04:00

This week we officially opened our waterfront for the spring. This involves taking all of the boating equipment (canoes, kayaks, rowboats, paddles, and PFDs) out of winter storage and setting them all up on the boating docks. We'd been waiting for the water to get as warm as possible, but with the first canoeing classes of the spring on the schedule, we knew that it was time.

Right now we have two schools at the center. St. Marcel and St. Maria are schools from Quebec that organize a joint trip every spring. Both schools are for Québecquois (French-speaking) students, although the students who come to Poko have been studying English, and their trip is primarily for English immersion.

Canoeing is a great class for students learning English, as it involves practicing "direction" words such as "forward" and "backwards." Of course, sometimes it seems like the kids might not fully understand, as seen in the following picture! (Just kidding...these girls paddled like this for fun.)

Here are a few other pictures from canoeing...One of the best parts of the class was getting to do some close-up examination of on the beaver lodges on Long Pond.

All these pictures are from one of the canoe classes this morning. By the afternoon, the wind had picked up enough to make for a very challenging class, and the instructors were too busy keeping all the canoes together to take any pictures!

Crafts for Kids

2009-04-26T13:59:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was the first event in our Spring Community Events series, Crafts for Kids. Kids from thoughout the local area came to Poko to make nature-themed crafts in honor of Earth Day.

Here, some of the kids go for a walk to gather materials to make nature collages:

In this photo, the kids are using the materials they gathered to make their collages:

Finally, here are Tess and Maggie showing off the twig picture frames that they made:

Thanks to everyone that came out for the event. We had a blast, and we hope that you did too! If you interested in coming to a future event at Poko, check our our event listing to see what's happening in upcoming weeks. We hope to see you soon!

Spring Peepers!

2009-04-15T19:41:00.002-04:00

When we were hiking past the marsh at the 1812 Homestead today, we were surrounded by the sound of spring peepers. Spring peepers are tiny frogs, generally no larger than an inch in size. They breed in the spring in freshwater ponds and marshes, and the overwhelming "peeps" that we hear are the males trying to attract mates. Many people consider spring peepers to be one of the most quintessential signs of spring...so we were excited to hear them!

Spring Break Camp - Playing in the Woods

2009-04-15T18:04:00.005-04:00

We took the kids from our Spring Break Camp to the tree house at the 1812 Homestead today. We had a lot of fun exploring the tree house and playing in the woods around it. Here are a few pictures:

Spring Staff Training

2009-04-11T15:55:00.005-04:00

The new staff has arrived for the spring, and we've just finished our first week of staff training. We have a few new faces, as well as some returning friends.

Tim Oprzadek, who worked at Poko last fall, has returned for the spring season after spending the winter working at Bolton Valley ski resort is Vermont. Tim worked on the snow-making crew at Bolton, and

he's been threatening to hook the air compressor up to a garden hose to make snow at Poko. Given that we've finally started seeing signs of spring, the rest of us would rather he not put his snow-making skills to use. But threats of snow aside, we're all happy to see Tim back again.

Ginny Tice has joined the staff this spring as our intern. Ginny is taking a term off from her studies at University of California San Diego, where she's studying Ecology, Earth Science, and Computer Science. Ginny has done an admirable job of dealing with the weirdness of the rest of the staff, and has reassured us that the first week wasn't enough to make her want to run away screaming. (She's braver than most.) We've all been enjoying the fact that Ginny has many of the same interests as others on staff--she's into botanical stuff and computers, so most of us have found something to geek out with her about. She has even passed an important initiation rite--a mere 5 days after ice-out on Long Pond, Ginny joined some of the braver (or crazier, depending on your point of view) members of staff for the first swim of the year in Long Pond! It was a very short swim, but everyone survived. Here are some before, during, and after photos:

We also have a new chef this season. Mike Gast has worked as the chef at summer camp for years, so we know he can handle cooking for crowds, and he's already completely won over the outdoor ed staff by making us all sorts of treats. (A few nights ago we came back from a night-hike on Bare Mountain to find warm chocolate chip cookies!)

Our new director, Stites McDaniel, has not officially started work yet, but he has been joining us for dinner most nights and then participating in our evening training sessions. We have enjoyed having him with us when he can be there, and can't wait until he officially starts!

Staff Training is always a busy time, and this spring has been no exception. We've hiked three of the four Poko-Patch Mountains, reviewed our most common classes, done a lot of group bonding, and managed to have quite a bit of fun. Next week we'll get training-in-action when we host our first-ever Spring Break Camp, where Ginny and Stites will get a chance to see what Poko is like with 30+ kids around.

Hello Spring!

2009-04-03T13:21:00.003-04:00

It's been warm here for the past few weeks, and signs of spring have started showing up everywhere. There is only snow in the shadiest of corners, and as you can see in the picture, most of the ice is gone from the pond. That change came quickly--less than two weeks ago, people were still out on the pond ice fishing!

Not many plants have started showing signs of spring yet, although a few daffodils have poked up in the flower beds next to the building, where it is warmest. With a few more weeks of warmth, though, tree buds should start swelling and opening soon.

Goodbye Winter!

2009-03-26T21:17:00.000-04:00

Spring is finally on its way here in the Adirondacks, and we are more than ready for the warm weather!

Although there wasn't as much snow this year as there was last year (which was close to record-breaking), we're still ready to be done with shoveling snow and putting on multiple layers just to walk between buildings...swimming in Long Pond, here we come!

Before things really warm up, though, here are a few winter pictures for you to enjoy...

Welcome!

2009-03-26T20:54:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Poko blog!

Every year, hundreds of students, teachers, and other visitors come to Poko for school trips or community events. Some are here for a few hours, some stay for a few days...but we hope that all of them will leave Poko with happy memories! This blog will be a place for past visitors to see what's been happening at Poko since they left (or maybe to see pictures from their visit!), and for future visitors to get a sense of what a trip to Poko will be like.

Enjoy!