Fieldcraft 1/29 Weather update

Greetings all. 

The weather for today does not suggest that there will be much of a thaw. Roads may be clear in some places and hazardous in others, so while I expect that roads on and around the campus may be fine, I'd rather not pressure anyone to come in just to pick up a journal (coming in for a class may be a different matter). So we'll adjust to the weather conditions and say that the journals can be picked up on Monday. Go ahead and do as much of the homework assignment as you can before Wednesday (certainly it shouldn't be difficult to finish prepping the journal, and you can find a photo of a pigeon and begin working on it), and you can finish up the rest of the homework sometime next week. The journals will be available by noon today for anyone who wants to his/hers for the weekend. 

Cheers, Dr T

Weather conditions UPDATE 


Greetings again, all. Since the University has canceled Friday classes, the Honors College building may will be closed. We will now go fully into Plan B for the Journals. You can pick them up first thing Monday morning from the blue milk crate outside my office door.

Cheers and have a fun and safe weekend!

Dr T

Fieldcraft 1/28

Homework:

• Finish prepping field journal (pocket, scale, daily log reminders)
• Find one good photo of pigeon and draw it well
• Draw two pages of geese

Journal availability update: Well, the office was closed this afternoon because of the storm, and I don't know what tomorrow morning will bring, weather-wise, but I have the journals here at home with me and hope to have them back at school by 10 AM tomorrow. Fingers crossed. If the weather goes bad again and it is too dangerous for people to get out to campus to pick them up, we'll go to plan B, which consists of me bringing them in on Monday. If that happens, we will roll this week's assignment over to next week. 

Landscapes 1/26

Homework:

• Two landscapes, two moments of stillness recorded as they are happening. One landscape and moment of true stillness, to recorded immediately following.
• One perfect square
• Thoughts on Stilgoe's essay and our subsequent discussion

Next week: meet at the English Philosophy courtyard. Bring your drawing kits. We will be drawing trees.

Fieldcraft 1/25

Sorry about the late post, y'all--I thought I had done it!

Homework due: create three "maps" of three different days. Be sure to include your daily log.

Turn your journal in to the milk  crate outside my office door before noon. If it is a few minutes late because you have to walk all the way across campus between classes to get it there, it won't be a problem, but try not to make it too late.

Meet in the classroom in the English building. We will begin class by prepping your journal, then we will move outside to draw, pending the weather. Bring your art kit and your bins.

Landscapes 1/22

Homework: read the first essay in the course packet, 'Beginnings," by Stilgoe. Here are some reading prompts:

1) Why the bicycle?

2) What are we looking for whe we, as Stilgoe says, "get outside"?

3) Have you noticed any of things he mentions rpior to this essay?

4) Why don't we notice things? How can we train ourselves to do so?

5) Is there value in exploration?
Meet on top of the hill at Urbanovski Park next Tuesday, at 2 PM.

Turn your journals in before noon on Monday.

There seems to be some confusion about whether you had a journal assignment due this week, for which I take full responsibility. Some of you have already turned yours in--if you have not turned on in, don't worry about it. I will NOT grade those turned in this week and they are available for pick up at anytime.

First journal assignment will be due next Monday, at which time I will grade your comments on the reading prompts.

Fieldcraft 1/13

Homework:

• note in journal: time, place, location, weather and birds
• What kind of gull did we see?
• Sketch and note differences in the dove eyes
• Read "The Mappist"; make notes on the short story in your journal and prepare for discussion.
• Reading prompts: What is the short story about? What does Lopez want us to think about?

Next week: meet at Urbanovski park; bring art kit, binoculars, and field guide.

Turn your journals in before noon on Monday.

Fieldcraft 1/13

Hey y'all, check out what's in store for Fieldcraft this semester: Lesser Prairie Chicken

HONS 3304 H01 (Landscapes) and NHH 1302 (Introductory Fieldcraft)

Greetings, all! Welcome to a new semester. Here are links to the syllabi:

Landscapes

Introductory Fieldcraft

Go ahead and read them before class to get a jump on what to expect. See you in class!


NHH 1302 (Fieldcraft) will meet Wednesday, January 13, at 2 PM, in ENGL 361. Wear comfortable shoes for walking and dress for the weather.


HONS 3304 (Landscapes) will meet January 19, at 2 PM in ENGL 301. Wear comfortable shoes for walking and dress for the weather.

BBB 12/8

Greetings everyone. Remember:

Due on or before 12/14 at 1:30
Bird skins drawing
notebook
binoculars (be sure to include your name somewhere on these so that I'll know who turned it in)

Here is a link to Val Littlewood's bee series: http://pencilandleaf.blogspot.com/

Here is a link to the science art site: http://www.science-art.com/

Some beautiful stuff going on out there.

Email me to set up an appointment if you'd like some help between now and then.

MEC 11/30

Greetings everyone. I trust you all had a safe and happy Thanksgiving break.

Remember that this week's prompt was inspired by Janisse Ray's visit, and a coupe of prompts she provided at the workshop (based in turn, I believe, on some prompts from writer Natalie Goldberg), and is a choice between the following:

1) "I remember..."

2) "If I were to tell the truth about myself..."

This week, we will be discussing The Secret Life of Bees. Here are some reading prompts for you to consider:

1) What are some of the metaphors and symbolism that Sue Monk Kidd uses in this book? Give speicfic examples from the text.

2) What is the significance of bee "society" and how does it paralell the story line?

3) There are several references to the moon iin the story. Earmark them and explain why they are significant.

4) And, as always, how does nature play a character in this story?

One last writing prompt will be given on Thursday as a result of our discusssion. It will be due in tutorial the following week.

The final paper is like the midterm: choose your best writing prompt response and develop it into a more fully formed essay. It will be due on or before December 14, at 1:30 PM.

There is no final exam.

MEC 11/24

Read The Secret Life of Bees for discussion on 12/3. There will be one more prompt assigned on that date.

Prompt from 11/19, due the week beginning 11/30:

1) "I remember..."

or 2) "If I were to tell the truth about myself..."

BBB 11/24

Meet today at my office: 201B McClellan Hall, Honors College

We'll be going on a bird walk, so bring your binoculars.

We will meet in the classrooom on 12/1 to begin our skins drawings.

MEC 11/13

Hi all. Here is this week's writing prompt: Do we inherit our parent's culture, or do we absorb it form the environment in which we grow up?

For next week's discussion, finish reading Ecology of a Cracker Childhood.

BBB 11/11

Hints on the mystery raptor:

1) it was an immature bird
2) it was a relatively small raptor (smaller than a buteo, but bigger than most falcons)
3) the streaking covered most of the upper breast
4) the wings and backs were uniformly dark and plain (no streaks, spots, or mottling)
5) it had yellow eyes and feet, which marks it as immature (more than one immature species has this, though)
6) there was an "eyebrow," but it was not very distinct
7) the bands (bars) on the tail were relatively thick

Shoot me an email if you want me to check your identification.

BBB 11/11

A great day yesterday. What a bonus finding the mystery raptor! Here are some photos of our little outing on campus:

So here is a recap of the assignment:

Take the sketch you you made of the mystery raptor and make an identification of it. There are field guides to birds available in the library, and an online site called "What Bird?" that are helpful.

Once you have identified the bird, find two good photos of it in different views and do two good drawings in your sketchbook, from the photos. The purpose of this is to do a traditional "study" of the bird--that is, you are using the sketches and drawings to learn something about the bird and the bird topography.

Refer to the diagram of bird topography that I gave you to try to isolate the feather groupings as you draw.

Make notes in your sketchbook as you draw--these can be about things you notice and want to remember, as in the nature of the streaking on the breast, or they may be notes about the natural history of the bird--what it eats, its range, etc.

Next week we will meet at Earl Crow park, at the lake by the old Goedeke library. Go south on QUaker until you are almost to the loop. The lake will be on the left. Bring something comfortable on which you can sit.

Janisse Ray to Read at TTU

Janisse Ray, author of the award winning Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, will be reading from her work here at Texas Tech on Friday, November 13th, at 8 PM in ENGL 001. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood is the surprising and moving memoir of a childhood growing up in a junkyard in southern Georgia. Ray's elegant tale about family, rural clannishness, and the junkyard itself, is woven together by the story of a young girl's growing awareness of the longleaf pine ecology that surrounds her. A book signing and short reception will follow the reading.

BBB 11/09

Hi all--

Here's a quick reminder of what is due for your botanical drawings tomorrow. for the botnaical drawing itself: Scientific name, common name, plant uses.

For the paragraph that accompanies the drawing; how and why you composed it in the manner you did, any references that it makes to traditional botanicals (in other words, show me that you understand the purpose of botanicals, and why they look they way they do).

Tomorrow we will meet in the classroom, but we will be going outside to draw, so dress comfortably.

MEC 11/3

Hi all--sorry I was slow to get this post up. I've been scrambling trying to get ready for this trip to the conference.

Anyway, remember that there are no tutorials this week and that you are meeting for the full class period on Thursday to watch a film. Here are some questions to consider as you watch:

Both Cross Creek and Ecology of a Cracker Childhood are set in the south, and in many ways, the "ecology" of the stories are similar.  Last week we talked about leaving your childhood home to get a better view of it. However, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlins has gone to what is to her a very foreign environment.

1) How did coming from a different place shape her understanding of the new place?

2) What are some of the things she learned about it? (Think of the things she found that were "different.")

3) What things would she use to describe the "vernacular" of the place? (e.g., the courtliness of the people; the attitude toward strangers)

4) In what ways does the place itself become a character in the story? In other words, would this be a different story in a different settings? If so, then how does this place affect the telling of this story?

I didn't write down the prompts we came up with last week, and now I've forgotten one fo them. Here is the one I remember:

1) Look back on your childhood place and tell us about it. What is its "vernacular"?

2) What is your first awareness of nature as "other"? That is, when did you first recognize that it was something that existed outside the more immediate world of your house or family?

Y'all be good while I'm gone. Don't take any wooden nickels!