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Rochelle W.'s picture

Final Self Evaluation: Moving Up

ZoeHlmn's picture

Eco-Rap Teach-in

Eco Walk (parody of Macklemore’s Thrift Shop ft Ryan Lewis)

By Zoe Holman and Claire Johnson with special thanks to Roux

We’re gonna grab some leaves

Throw them up in the a-air

I-I-I’m searching looking for a meaning

We are eco walkers

 

Walk into the forest like what up I see some big trees

Little rabbits scampering around and I see some cool bees

Water on the leaves, man it’s so shiny

All the nature ‘round us seems so damn tiny

Walkin’ in, shoes all laced, headin’ to the wilderness

Dressed IN warm clothes, ‘cept my naked head, that’s a mess

Damn it’s so beautiful, deer standing next to me

Caught a quick glimpse of it, saw it go right by a tree

…

But shit, it’s just the way of life!

Walking in, wanderin’, cannot stop the wonderin’

Saw an old campsite someone else been bummin’ in

So why don’t we just stay the night?

I hope there are no bears in sight

We’re getting lost, falling down, can’t find my way back home

We don’t even got a map, we don’t even got a map

No for real—we’re hella lost—can we get a map out here?

So these are the lessons, we learned here:

From developing our own personal ideas

To sitting alone outside, and writing alone outside

Learned to write English good, learned to speak English good

Hello, hello, my Anne man, my teacher

Solnit, ain’t got nothin’ on our lost game, hell no

Barbara's picture

An Ecological Transition (Self-Evaluation)

Randomly assigned from my three picks of ESem, this ecological journey is like a gift to me in the first semester at Bryn Mawr. I am satisfied that I have enjoyed a college English course – a department I probably would not attempt otherwise. (My option definitely opens up at this point though.)

Reviewing the reading list, I am very impressed by what I have read in this course. Most of the readings were completely new to me, with regard to both genre (I did not have much experience reading academic works that are represented in this course, such as writings of Waring and Merchant) and content. I occasionally had to spend more than four hours (the recommended time on syllabus) for assigned readings of a week. My ability to quickly grab the gist of an article fluctuated and I haven’t found out a clear pattern yet. I think this relates to how similar or different my own language and the writers’ language are; how much background information I had; how close I was to the intended audience. In reading Thomas Berry’s essays, for example, I had a hard time relating to the religious content. After several try and not getting much, I chose to skip the content that I essentially lack a background. Is this the correct strategy in academics? This is one question arisen in my reading process. I enjoyed more and had more to say about narrative than analysis articles. On the other hand, I have started to appreciate analysis articles more over the semester, especially their structure, which I consider to be useful in my future academic papers.

Sarah Cunningham's picture

teach-in game

The non-human roles (green cards):

a squirrel from Elizabeth's site-sit

a baboon from the troop observed by Barbara Smuts

Max, Peter Singer's dog in "The Lives of Animals"

a Pachysandra plant in Morris Woods

a piece of Wissahickon Schist, now part of a Bryn Mawr College building

The human roles (orange cards):

Winona LaDuke

Henry David Thoreau

Peter Singer

David Bohm

Terry Tempest Williams

The blue cards looked something like this:

Each group included a red, a green, and a blue cardholder. The non-human character got to speak first.

I did not get a full record of who was in each group, but here are some of the memorable moments:

A baboon fell into the river and was in difficulties. The author in the group (Peter Singer) preferred to wax poetic than to rescue the baboon. The class member playing herself pointed out that the baboon could not appreciate poetry.

Squirrel: Elizabeth is an intruder in my house: Attack!

class member: do you not like humans?

David Bohm: intruding my house Elizabth is

Max the dog: I have worth but YOU do not get to decide what that worth is.

Thoreau: Learn to live on your own, dog. Undomesticate yourself. Then you will learn your true worth.

mbackus's picture

Where I am Now

Through out the course of our ESEM, I experienced many strong responses to the class, both positive and negative. Yet now, as I reflect on the cumulative experience of Ecological Imaginings, it seems like a dream. I still can’t quite comprehend the massive changes that have occurred in my life in the span of fourteen weeks. I came to Bryn Mawr, which was my top choice for colleges, somewhat hesitantly. I lost myself to my fears in many ways over the summer, chasing whatever could preoccupy me, but my fears followed me throughout the semester. Only now do they start to fade. I knew I wanted the academic challenges a Bryn Mawr experience would provide, but as soon as I arrived the social dynamic and the expectations within that dynamic proved to be overwhelming to the point of casting a shadow over my academic work. I felt utterly lost here, and the indecision I felt in regards to choosing a major was amplified by the constant search and struggle to find my niche here at Bryn Mawr. It’s my personality to need to know where I stand. Here, I wasn’t sure.

Smacholdt's picture

A Random but cool Intersection

So I just finished reading an article about the slow food movement for my Italian culture class and I came across this: 

Se, come dice il poeta contadino Wendell Berry, “mangiare è un atto agricolo”, produrre il cibo deve essere considerato un “atto gastronomico”.

This is when Berry was talking about eating as an "agricultural act." It seems that many cultures have really embraced his views on ecological justice. 

Owl's picture

Under the Sea Habitats are Abundant and Diverse

Memo #3 Image

Borrowed from: http://whatshappeningswfl.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/an-evening-under-the-sea-april-27/

couldntthinkofanoriginalname's picture

Memo III--Rehabilitative Programs: How They Are at the Mercy of the Prison System

This paper explores how no true reform can come from within the prison system, or any insitution, unless we...

ABOLISH it!

mbackus's picture

Song of Ourselves

Here it is! Thank you all for participating in the reconstituted poem exercise we did together. Phrases from the peom were taken from Walt Whitmans Song of Myself in his larger collection entitled Leaves of Grass. I encourage all of you to keep reading more Walt Whitman! I know two minutes definitely wasn't enough time to get to know the poems I handed out, but they are definitely worth spending some time with. Thank you to everyone for your amazing presentations as well! It was a wonderful semester and I look forward to having classes with all of you over the next for years. 

Every Atom belonging to me as good as belongs to you… and every atom of my blood formed from this oil, this air

 

Houses and rooms are full of perfumes the shelves are full of perfumes I breath the fragrance myself and know it and like it

 

I know that the hand of god is the promise of my own and the spirit of Fod is brother of my own

 

The smallest sprout shows there is really no death all goes onward and outward, nothing collapses

 

If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing

 

This is the meal equally set, this is the meal for natural hunger, it is for the wicked just the same as the righteous, I will make appointments with all, I will not have a single person slighted or left away

 

I laugh at what you call dissolution and I know the amplitude of time

 

Shengjia-Ashley's picture

[PPT] & [Script} Ecological Journey from Campus to the World

The link to the sky burial video from youtube: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6hSK8CluxQ

Comment if you want to learn more about sky burials!!!!!!!

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