A Walk In The Woods

(The Tech & Writing Retreat Experience with the NWP)


The earth brought forth vegetation, plants, yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, and God saw that it was good: GENESIS 1:12

I was nine years old, on our family farm in Paracale, Camarines Norte, Philippines. I was running in the forest and I was so scared. The snakes or any forest creature might just meet me on the way. I was breathing heavily and quickly ran as fast as my feet could carry me down the trail to the top of the hill overlooking the sea where my family was having fun in my grandparent’s house. It was more than twenty minutes before I reached my destination, and my family was so surprised that I made it through the woods all by myself.

This memory was playing in my mind as I was walking in the woods, again by myself, in the vast Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska City, Nebraska during the National Writing Project Tech and Writing Retreat. The retreat last August 4-7 was a whole different experience for me.

I was unlucky from day one that I stepped onto the Nebraska soil. At Eppley Airfiled in Omaha, I looked around for my luggage and waited for it to show up at the baggage counter after every flight arrived. At 5:15 PM after the third flight came and my luggage didn’t show up, I guessed it was time for me to call the driver in the convention center. It was then that I learned that I missed the driver who was there earlier at 3:15 to pick me up. So, the staff in the airport asked me to just wait for my luggage to be delivered to my hotel room. Worse, even the airport officials didn’t know when it was coming because it was still in Chicago.

The driver of the Arbor Day Farm van was very friendly. He kept me awake during my one hour travel to the convention center. Along the way I experienced the sight and smell of what Sting called in his music “Fields of Gold”. He made a turn and I was in total awe when I saw one of the best golf courses in my whole life. It was a natural beauty; the green sights soothe my visual sense, and the fresh smell of the leaves excited my curiosity to see the orchard and the whole farm. We were finally at the entrance to the Arbor Day Farm and Lied Conference Center.

I was already late when I came into the meeting room. There were like 25 Teacher Consultants from the different National Writing Project sites each representing their local site. I was the representative from the DC Area Writing Project. Just when I sat down the facilitator, Michelle Rogge-Gannon of Dakota Writing Project, approached me and said that I would be the first to introduce myself. Ah, my punishment for being late! But after I did my self-introduction, they let me go to have my dinner. Yeah! Free of course! It was a buffet, and it was delicious!

It was really inspiring to see these teacher leaders in the American educational system coming together to talk about technology and writing in this National Writing Project retreat. It was good to hear from these teacher leaders what had worked inside their classrooms. The discussion about it that followed was interactive. It is also challenging to have your writing laid out to them to be reviewed and commented upon, knowing that some of these teachers were published writers in different educational books and journals in the country. Some of them are the people whose names I see managing the NWP Technology Liaison’s listserv. Some of them are the people who maintain the NWP Website and to whom we call for help when our local NWP site’s blog or websites are having problems. It’s a wonderful feeling to interact with them and hear them present about the latest in writing and technology. I learned to reflect and write on my teaching practices and how it impacted my students. I was enlightened on the copyright issues and creative commons license, expanding our ideas of audience and the digital media impact on writing.

One of the best things I got from the retreat is that it also made me proud of my roots. I wasn’t the only Filipino there. The moment I walked in the meeting room, I saw Dr. Danilo Baylen who is representing NWP at the Gulf Coast Florida Project. I later approached him and showed him the Pinoy Teachers Network site, which is a Filipino teachers’ global community weblog running on its third week now. He was so glad about it and he didn’t hesitate to accept my invitation for him to be our Educator Adviser.

I had a chance to walk into the woods before I went back to Washington DC. The sound of the crickets were seemingly getting louder and the colorful butterflies and dragonflies flew by me, as if welcoming me as I went deeper into the woods. I passed by the hazelnut field. I remember one Teacher Consultant, Sandra Shattack from Alabama, talking about it in one of the ‘check-ins’ that these seeds are like the TCs. They come individually but are bound together by a common goal/ teamwork. Then suddenly, a deer crossed my path. She was slowly moving while looking at me, probably wondering what I was going to do to her. I was ready to go on with my adventure when a baby deer followed. Like the older one, the fawn was very cautious of my presence while she was crossing. I was stunned! I was giggling and excitedly thinking of how my seven year-old daughter would react to this story. I went further down the woods and came across a long wooden bridge, with a stream under it. They call it Demonstration Timber Bridge, which proves to us that it is achievable to build a large wooden structure like this with trees, ie, without having interruption of the neighboring trees or soil. I passed by the orchard too and hand-picked some apples for my baby and hubby. The farmers said that the produces of the orchard and the farm are mostly for export.

The walk in the woods of Arbor Day Farm evoked that feeling and that memory of my childhood when I was running in the forest all alone.

Everything exceeded my expectations, the food, the place, the company, the experience. I learned a lot and I believed I equally shared with the other Teacher Consultants. I feel so lucky that this grant was granted to me by the National Writing Project and the DC Area Writing Project.

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SOME OF OUR PICTURES IN NEBRASKA (click here)

PANORAMIC SHOT OF LIED LODGE IN NEBRASKA (click here)

MORE PICS FROM THE NWP Tech & Writing Retreat (click here)