media serendipity

Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 24

One of the neatest things that happened to me, from a classroom teacher's point of view, while I was at Toolik Field Station, was an email I received from one of my ninth graders.
In his own eloquent teenspeak he typed that he had just witnessed his Dad watching Vermont Public TV when he overheard talk of Toolik Lake and Syndonia Bret-Harte!

Well, it just so happened that I had conducted a slide show and live audio conference call from Toolik with his class that day.

He burst in..."dude, my teacher's there right now!". So he had to write me right then and there to tell me he thought that it was all pretty cool, and that he was hoping he'd do average on the final the next day.

I had not heard of the episode, but thought it pretty serendipitous that the local PBS would air it that day!
The show is a Scientific American Frontiers episode called "Hot Times in Alaska" and can be viewed and purchased at www.pbs.org

Working with Dr.'s Michelle Mack and Syndonia Bret-Harte was an experience of a lifetime. My freshman told me to get their autographs. I laughed then, but wish I had, now.