The Practice of Community: Growing Home

Here are general descriptions of the assignment types that you might not be familiar with.  See the "Calendar" link for the most up-to-date information about what assignments are due each week. 

Journaling & Ethnographic Assignments (Year-Long)

Obtain a journal. There are only two criteria for your journal: (1) It should NOT have lines. (2) You should love it. In other words, it should feel great in your hands; the look of each page should “call” you to fill it; the overall size should feel comfortable outside and in public. This is where you will record most of your nature observations through writing and drawing. It is also where you will TRANSCRIBE your ethnographic observations – or “jottings” – from your small notebook (see next) into “fieldnotes”. You may place other notes and comments here as well. Throughout the quarter (and the year), you will draw upon the material in your journal for various assignments.

Obtain a very small notebook. This is where you will record most of your ethnographic observations – or “jottings” – when you carrying out “participant/observation” in group settings. You will TRANSCRIBE these “jottings” into “fieldnotes” in your journal.

Maintain Ethnographic Fieldnotes and Regular Nature Journal Entries
(More information will be given each quarter)

Winter – Pre-Internship Community Practicum Experiences
Spring – Community Internships (approximately 30 hours per week)
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Personal Garden Assignment (Year-Long)

Fall
Emphasis: VALUE - Observation, Types of Gardens, Gardens as Metaphor
On-going Observations Documented in Journal
Final Creative Individual Presentation: “Community as Garden, Garden as Teacher”
(Format possibilities could include – poetry, music, Power Point, painting, photography,
performance pieces, sculpture, mapping, drawing, essay, etc. Your imagination is the limit!)
Due: Wednesday, 7 December (Week 10)

Winter
Emphasis: VISION - Dreaming, Designing, Planning, Getting Started
(Guided work in beginning (or further developing) a garden of your choice; this could be a vegetable
garden, a medicinal plant garden, a native plant garden, a butterfly garden, a wildlife garden, an ethnobotanical garden, a dye garden, a flower garden, a culinary herb garden, etc. It could be large or small, permanent or portable (containers, for example.), collaborative in your own space or collaborative in an existing garden in another space (as long as you feel you have creative freedom).

Spring
Emphasis: ACTION
(Guided work in implementing your garden vision as described above.)

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Synthesis Papers (vary from quarter to quarter)