Friday Link Fest…*

May 17, ’13 1:58 PM

Friday Link Fest...* | rethinked.org

READ

Embodied Cognition and Design: A New Approach and Vocabulary ~ via Big Think, published May 10, 2013.

The pioneering thinking of Chris Argyris ~ Roger Martin on why businesses and business schools can accomplish a great deal if they seek actionable knowledge, help smart people to overcome their natural learning challenges, and challenge the premises of problems, rather than the effectiveness of solutions. via Financial Times, published May 12, 2013.

Turning Wicked Problems Into Wicked Opportunities ~ We need to foster an entire generation that has a positive relationship with our world of volatile change if we want to intentionally seize the unlimited opportunities that are just waiting to emerge from the fertile environment of increasing complexity.  via FastCoExist, published May 15, 2013.

How Can They Charge That? (And Other Questions) ~ Prof finds that requiring students to ask everyday questions is an effective way to teach economics concepts ~ via New York Times, published May 11, 2013.

Creating Modern-Day Movements: Filmmakers And Social Entrepreneurs Share What It Takes To Spread An Idea ~ via Forbes, published May 13, 2013.

What The WSJ’s Portrait Artist Can Teach You About Innovation ~ Kevin Sprouls’ hedcut engages the imagination by limiting information. via FastCoDesign, published May 13, 2013.

How Gratitude Can Help You Through Hard Times ~ Reframing disaster. via Greater Good Science Center, published May 13, 2013.

Nine Key Characteristics of Knowmads In Society 3.0 ~ via Education Futures, published January 12, 2012

Bill Gates, designer? Yes. Public Interest Design honors 100 global thinkers who are designing social good ~ Good design has the power to improve lives. Yesterday, Public Interest Design — a group dedicated to design for social good — released the Global Public Interest Design 100, a list of 100 “designers” (including some people you really might not expect) who are designing for the good of all. 100 architects, designers, policymakers, visualizers, funders and educators who — even if they have no design training — are changing the world with great design thinking. via TED, published May 15, 2013.

LOOK

A Grown-Up Library, With A Built-In Slide For Kids ~ Panorama House by Moon Hoon: autonomous fun zone & a grown-up library with a built-In slide for kids. via FastCoDesign, published May 10, 2013.

The Handwritten Outlines Of Famous Literary Works By Their Authors ~ via Design Taxi, published May 15, 2013.

40 Inspiring Workspaces Of The Famously Creative ~ via Buzzfeed, published April 15, 2013.

10 Brilliant Examples Of Sketch Notes: Notetaking For The 21st Century ~ don’t just capture ideas, tell a story. via Teach Thought, published May 8, 2013.

WATCH

The Art of Data Visualization: How to Tell Complex Stories Through Smart Design ~ via Open Culture, published May 15, 2013.

A House Powered By Exercise Will Keep You In Shape While You Keep The Lights On ~ The JF-Kit House by the Spanish design firm Elii is an experiment in “domestic fitness,” rendering “the image of a possible future where citizens produce part of their domestic energy requirements with their own physical activities.” via FastCoExist, published May 13, 2013.

Roger Martin on leveraging design in business ~ At Design Indaba Conference 2007, Roger Martin discusses the difference between a design view of business and a business view of design. via Design Indaba, published May 14, 2013.

Student Schools Teacher: Make Learning Exciting! ~ via Big Think, published May 11, 2013

Five-Minute Film Festival: Ten Videos on Kindness, Empathy, and Connection ~ via Edutopia, published May 10, 2013.

Connected Learning: A Learning Approach Designed for Our Times  ~ The 4th R: Relevance ~ “It’s important for me, and for my future, to take charge of my learning” - Charles Raben, a 14-year-old aspiring photographer from a public school in New York City, Quest to Learn, that is using connected learning principles. via Huff Post Impact, published May 14, 2013.

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Library Redesign and Project Based Learning

May 16, ’13 1:38 PM

It is April 30th and the second day of the Riverdale Lower School 5th Grade library redesign project. At the end of day one, students reflected on the day of design thinking and commented they found the process incredibly liberating. “It is so wonderful not to feel judged!” one student remarked. Students relished in generating out-of-the-box wild ideas within the design thinking framework where accountability for one’s ideas is of high value.

“The why question is essential,” one student said referring to IDEO’s ‘how might we question’ that is an early step of design thinking. Design thinking is a process that has its roots in the design and engineering world. IDEO, a for profit design firm, is most famous for using the method to develop human centered design solutions to problems, or challenges, such as the Keep the Change program for Bank of America or solutions for Acumen Clean Water Fund. The process’s great strength is that it systematically spurs the generation of creative ideas which are then rapidly developed into prototypes, or temporary models, that can be refined, discarded, and reimagined into a final product or solution. The rapid prototyping has built in feedback from colleagues, users and experts before going through all the energy and time of creating a final, perfect product. The brainstorming part of the process is called ideation. The different phases are:

Source: https://dschool.stanford.edu/groups/k12/wiki/17cff/

“ UNDERSTAND Understanding is the first phase of the design thinking process. During this phase, students immerse themselves in learning. They talk to experts and conduct research. The goal is to develop background knowledge through these experiences. They use their developing understandings as a springboard as they begin to address design challenges.

OBSERVE Students become keen people watchers in the observation phase of the design thinking process. They watch how people behave and interact and they observe physical spaces and places. They talk to people about what they are doing, ask questions and reflect on what they see. The understanding and observation phases of design thinking help students develop a sense of empathy.

DEFINE In this phase of design thinking, students the focus is on becoming aware of peoples’ needs and developing insights. The phrase “How might we….” is often used to define a point of view, which is a statement of the: user + need + insight This statement ends with a suggestion about how to make changes that will have an impact on peoples’ experiences.

IDEATE Ideating is a critical component of design thinking. Students are challenged to brainstorm a myriad of ideas and to suspend judgment. No idea is to far-fetched and no one’s ideas are rejected. Ideating is all about creativity and fun. In the ideation phase, quantity is encouraged. Students may be asked to generate a hundred ideas in a single session. They become silly, savvy, risk takers, wishful thinkers and dreamers of the impossible…and the possible.

PROTOTYPE Prototyping is a rough and rapid portion of the design process. A prototype can be a sketch, model, or a cardboard box. It is a way to convey an idea quickly. Students learn that it is better to fail early and often as they create prototypes.

TEST Testing is part of an iterative process that provides students with feedback. The purpose of testing is to learn what works and what doesn’t, and then iterate. This means going back to your prototype and modifying it based on feedback. Testing ensures that students learn what works and what doesn’t work for their users.”

Jenna Marks, rethinkED team member, interviewed Duane Bray from IDEO (interview forthcoming). In her discussion he highlighted the flexibility of the design thinking process. Bray said, “There is overlap and sometimes these phases are not sequential.” He does highlights the first phase of research as being essential. The first phase is the understanding or discovery phase as outlined in the diagram above.

In February, IDEO and Riverdale, with the support of Teachers College and KIPP partnered up to host an all day IDEO workshop with over 300 faculty participants from around the world. During this workshop faculty focused are redesigning different parts of schools, such as spaces and curriculum.

Now, the 5th grade students have risen to a design thinking challenge during the a one week project based learning week the Riverdale lower school is piloting to allow teachers to create experiential based learning lessons unfettered by the normal schedule. Students kicked off the week by running through a mini design challenge of redesigning their morning breakfast to become familiar with the design process. By the beginning of day two, the students had already created different areas of change to consider in the library, such as furniture, lighting, space/ appearances, technology/ tools. Then the students were broken up by their interests into different groups to discuss specifically “how might we’s” for each of the given topics. The debates were lively and the students were aided by design thinking experts to help guide their thinking.

Leading up to the week students had done their own spatial discovery to prep themselves for the week. The students went out in search of environments that are analogous to libraries such as parks, playgrounds, coffee shops, libraries, museums, hospitals and the Apple store. They took notes and pictures of the space, environment, lighting, noise, traffic level, people. In those different spaces, the students were prompted to ask: How do people use the space? Who uses this space? What is the noise level? What is the lighting like? The students were also encouraged to look back to their memory and think about how they have used their spaces.

As part of the first day, the students interviewed different library users, i.e. their peers in other grades, to understand the ways people use library spaces. A theme running through the week was think of more and more ways to design and think differently. The student relished in their failure, seeing it as a badge of risk taking and resilience. The rethinkED team was thrilled to be a part of the planning and organization of the week and to join on the library visit trip. We are all excited to see what the 5th graders have designed!

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Rethinking…* the High School Drop Out Rate by Paying Attention to Students’ Own Expectations for Their Learning

May 15, ’13 7:38 PM

Is there always pressure to perform or do I have opportunities to explore and make mistakes and learn from them without being branded as a failure? Do I have opportunities to tinker and make guesses?

…*

When high-school senior Gianna discovered that one student drops out of high school every 12 second, she decided to investigate and find ways to help the educational system rethink…* and change this distressing statistic. She came across the ‘big four’ reasons usually given for the high school drop out rate: academic failure, life events, behavioral issues and disinterest. But underneath these big four, she realized that schools, generally, try to fit all students into the same mold: either you fit in or you drop out. And that’s a problem, for obvious reasons: we are all wildly different in our personalities, interests, and learning styles. In this short video produced by Leaving to Learn, Gianna, calls for educators to pay increased attention to ten essential expectations that students have for their own learning, and which are usually ignored or undervalued in schools. I particularly loved the format in which she presents these ten learning imperatives–as questions. Students don’t want to be talked down to, they want to engage in dialogue.

  1. RELATIONSHIPS ~ Do my teachers know about me and my interests and talents? Do they help me to form relationships with adults and peers who might serve as models, mentors and coaches?
  2. RELEVANCE ~ Is it just a series of hoops to jump or is the work relevant to my interests? Do my teachers help me to understand how my learning contributes to my community and to the world?
  3. TIME ~ Am I expected to learn at a constant pace decided by the teacher or can I learn at my own pace? Is there time for my learning to be deep as well as broad?
  4. TIMING ~ Do all students have to learn things in the same sequence or can I learn things in the order that fits my learning style or interest?
  5. PLAY ~ Is there always pressure to perform or do I have opportunities to explore and make mistakes and learn from them without being branded as a failure? Do I have opportunities to tinker and make guesses?
  6. PRACTICE ~ Do we learn something and then immediately move on to the next skill or can we engage in deep and sustained practice of those skills we need to learn?
  7. CHOICE ~ Am I just following the same path as every student or do I have real choices about what, when and how I will learn and demonstrate my abilities?
  8. AUTHENTICITY ~ Is my work just a series of dittoes or is the learning and work I do regarded as significant outside of school by experts, family and employers? Does the community recognize the value of my work?
  9. CHALLENGE ~ Is it just about completing assignments or do I feel appropriately challenged? Am I addressing high and meaningful standards of excellence?
  10. APPLICATION ~ Is my learning all theoretical or do I have opportunities to apply what I’m learning in real world settings?

“I’d like to propose that schools evaluate themselves not just by students’ test scores but also by students’ judgments about how well the schools deliver on these imperatives.”

10 Expectations ~ via Leaving to Learn, published May 9, 2013.

 

Also check out this four minute animation to learn more about Leaving to Learn and Gianna’s research into the high school drop out rate:

Leaving To Learn ~ via Leaving to Learn, published March 9, 2013

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Sir Ken Robinson on the 3 Principles By Which Human Life Flourishes & What That Means For Education…*

May 13, ’13 1:18 PM

“There are three principles on which human life flourishes and they are contradicted by the culture of education under which most teachers have to labor and most students have to endure.”

In this insightful and brilliantly delivered talk, which first aired on the TED TV special on education, produced with PBS, Sir Ken Robinson highlights three principles by which human life flourishes and the implications that these principles have for learning and teaching practices. Robinson notes some of the various ways in which America’s education culture contradicts these critical principles and then goes on to offer some suggestions on how to better align our educational system and culture to these inherent principles of human flourishing.

The three principles that Robinson identifies are:

1. Human beings are naturally different and diverse ~ “Kids prosper best with a broad curriculum that celebrates their various talents, not just a small range of them.”

2. Curiosity is the engine of achievement ~ “If you can light the spark of curiosity in a child, they will learn without any further assistance, very often. Children are natural learners.”

3. Human life is inherently creative ~  ”It’s why we all have different résumés. We create our lives, and we can recreate them as we go through them. It’s the common currency of being a human being. It’s why human culture is so interesting and diverse and dynamic.”

Drawing from the practices of high-performing educational systems across the world, Robinson highlights three trends of real-life applications of these principles to actual teaching and learning practices which lead to greater engagement and more effective learning:

1.  They individualize teaching and learning. They recognize that it’s students who are learning and the system has to engage them, their curiosity, their individuality, and their creativity. That’s how you get them to learn.

2. They attribute a very high status to the teaching profession. They recognize that you can’t improve education if you don’t pick great people to teach and if you don’t keep giving them constant support and professional development. Investing in professional development is not a cost. It’s an investment.

3. They devolve responsibility to the school level for getting the job done. You see, there’s a big difference here between going into a mode of command and control in education. [Learning] happens in classrooms and schools, and the people who do it are the teachers and the students, and if you remove their discretion, it stops working. You have to put it back to the people.

 

{ highlights }

 

The drop out crisis is just the tip of an iceberg, what it doesn’t count are all the kids who are in school but being disengaged from it–who don’t enjoy it, who don’t get any real benefit from it.

Education, under No Child Left Behind, is based on not diversity but conformity. What schools are encouraged to do is find out what kids can do across a very narrow spectrum of achievement. One of the effects of No Child Left Behind, has been to narrow the focus on to the so-called STEM disciplines. They’re very important; I’m not here to argue against Science and Math. On the contrary, they’re necessary but they’re not sufficient. A real education has to give equal weight to the Arts, the Humanities, to Physical Education.

By the way, the Arts aren’t just important because they improve Math scores, they’re important because they speak to parts of children’s being which are otherwise untouched.

There is no system in the world or any school in the country that is better than its teachers. Teachers are the lifeblood of the success of schools. But teaching is a creative profession. Teaching, properly conceived, is not a delivery system. You know, you’re not there just to pass on received information. Great teachers do that, but what great teachers also do is mentor, stimulate, provoke, engage. You see, in the end, education is about learning. If there’s no learning going on, there’s no education going on. And people can spend an awful lot of time discussing education without ever discussing learning. The whole point of education is to get people to learn.

You can say, “There’s Deborah, she’s in room 34, she’s teaching.” But if nobody’s learning anything, she may be engaged in the task of teaching but not actually fulfilling it.

The role of a teacher is to facilitate learning. That’s it. And part of the problem is, I think, that the dominant culture of education has come to focus on not teaching and learning, but testing. Now, testing is important. Standardized tests have a place. But they should not be the dominant culture of education. They should be diagnostic. They should help.

So in place of curiosity, what we have is a culture of compliance. Our children and teachers are encouraged to follow routine algorithms rather than to excite that power of imagination and curiosity.

We all create our own lives through this restless process of imagining alternatives and possibilities, and what one of the roles of education is to awaken and develop these powers of creativity. Instead, what we have is a culture of standardization.

The point is that education is not a mechanical system. It’s a human system. It’s about people, people who either do want to learn or don’t want to learn. Every student who drops out of school has a reason for it which is rooted in their own biography. They may find it boring. They may find it irrelevant. They may find that it’s at odds with the life they’re living outside of school. There are trends, but the stories are always unique.

Right beneath the surface are these seeds of possibility waiting for the right conditions to come about, and with organic systems, if the conditions are right, life is inevitable. It happens all the time. You take an area, a school, a district, you change the conditions, give people a different sense of possibility, a different set of expectations, a broader range of opportunities, you cherish and value the relationships between teachers and learners, you offer people the discretion to be creative and to innovate in what they do, and schools that were once bereft spring to life.

The real role of leadership in education – and I think it’s true at the national level, the state level, at the school level – is not and should not be command and control. The real role of leadership is climate control, creating a climate of possibility. And if you do that, people will rise to it and achieve things that you completely did not anticipate and couldn’t have expected.

 

Enjoy & rethink…* 

Ken Robinson: How to escape education’s death valley via TED.com, published May 2013.

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Friday Link Fest…*

May 10, ’13 11:30 AM

Friday Link Fest...* | rethinked.org

 

READ

The Importance of Quick & Dirty ~ Jason Fried, co-founder and president of 37signals, on why ’The ability to run with scissors is a blessing, not a curse.’ via Inc.com, published April 30, 2013.

5 Ways To Innovate By Cross-Pollinating Ideas ~ via FastCo.Design, published May 10, 2013.

Many Parents Push Academics Over Play Which May Harm Kids’ Health  ~ On the critical importance of play…* in life and learning. via Inhabitots, published January 1, 2012.

Want Kids to Become Scientists? Don’t Arrest Them For Experimenting ~ #ScienceIsNotACrime . via GOOD, published May 3, 2013.

Profiling Serial Creators ~  Scott Barry Kaufman on why it’s essential that we continually question and attempt to improve the methods by which we identify, mentor, and cultivate those who are ready and capable of becoming our next generation of innovators. Tragically, we are failing these students, often unknowingly letting them fall between the cracks in an education system that rewards characteristics that dampen creativity, such as conformity, standardization, and efficiency. via The Creativity Post, published May 8, 2013.

Well Designed Schools Improve Learning by 25 Percent Says New Study ~ via Dezeen, published January 2, 2013.

John Dewey’s Vision of Learning as Freedom ~ “The inclination to learn from life itself and to make the conditions of life such that all will learn in the process of living is the finest product of schooling.” via the New York Times, published September 5, 2012

5 Innovation Lessons You Can Learn On The Dance Floor ~ “Through movement we can inspire creativity, deep listening, & cross-generational learning” via Fast Company, published May 3, 2013.

LOOK

Things Come (Very, Very) Apart ~ Toronto-based commercial photographer Todd McLellan disassembled 50 design classics for his book: Things Come Apart: A Teardown Manual for Modern Living. McLellan’s photographs seek to challenge our disposable culture by making transparent all the things that we regularly throw away. ”I hope people think a little bit more about the things they use. Not that people should have feelings for objects, but instead think about ‘reuse and recycle,’ not just ‘use and discard.’ “ via NPR, published May 1, 2013.

10 Playgrounds That Would Put Your Childhood Hangout to Shame ~ From a colorful crocheted alligator, to a surreal, warping jungle gym, to a playground made out of recycled iron drums, here are 10 truly innovative and unusual playgrounds. via Atlantic Cities, published May 7, 2013.

Explaining Complicated Philosophies With Gorgeously Simple Postcards ~ Philographics by Genís Carreras:  Making it easier for us to talk philosophy by removing words & replacing them with pictures ~ via WIRED Design, published May 6, 2013.

Tour Google Moon and Google Mars with Bill Nye the Science Guy ~ via Lost At E Minor, published May 9, 2013.

 

WATCH

The History of Typography Told in Five Animated Minutes ~ via Open Culture, published May 6, 2013.

The Best of Humanity Caught on Russian Dash Cams ~ via Colossal, published May 3, 2013.

Can A New Symbol Make You Better At Math? ~ Math popularizer Rob Eastaway’s ‘Zequals’ sign is a reaction against the learned helplessness that most of us have accepted in our relationship with numbers. via FastCo.Design, published May 6, 2013.

Graffiti Artist Uses Rotten Fruit and Vegetables As Paint ~ Tropical Hungry by Narcelio Grud. Grud scavenged for produce in the streets and created sustainable, organic murals with it. ~ via PSFK, published May 8, 2013.

High schoolers design robotic locker for disabled classmate ~ via GOOD, published May 9, 2013.

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{ grit } Angela Duckworth on the Need to Rethink…* Our Assumptions About What It Takes To Do Well in School & Life

May 9, ’13 4:26 PM

“What we need in education is a much better understanding of students and learning from a motivational perspective from a psychological perspective. In education the one thing we know how to measure best is IQ. But what if doing well in school and in life depends on much more than your ability to learn quickly and easily?”

…*

Enjoy this brilliantly insightful and pithy TED talk by  Angela Duckworth, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, whose research centers on non-IQ competencies, including self-control and grit, that predict success both academically and professionally. In her talk, Duckworth focuses on the critical importance of grit to both successful learning and living, encouraging us to rethink our assumptions about which characteristics positively influence our potential. Highlighting Carol Dweck‘s research on growth mindset as the most effective idea for building grit in students that she’s encountered thus far, Duckworth does not shy away from stating how much work remains to be done in uncovering and designing tools and processes by which to build grit in ourselves and our students. “In other words, we need to be gritty about getting our kids grittier.”

…*

{ highlights }

“[...] In all these different contexts, one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success and it wasn’t social intelligence, it wasn’t good looks, physical health, and it wasn’t IQ. It was grit.”

“Grit is passion and perseverance for very long term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in and day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

“So far, the best idea I’ve heard about building grit in kids is something called “growth mindset”. This is an idea developed at Stanford University by Carol Dweck and it is the belief that the ability to learn is not fixed, that it can change with your effort. Dr. Dweck has shown that when kids read and learn about the brain and how it changes and grows in response to challenges, they’re much more likely to persevere when they fail because they don’t believe that failure is a permanent condition.”

“So growth mindset is a great idea for building grit, but we need more. And that’s where I’m going to end my remarks, because that’s where we are, that’s the work that stands before us. We need to take our best ideas, our strongest intuitions and we need to test them. We need to measure whether we’ve been successful and we have to be willing to fail, to be wrong, to start over again with lessons learned. In other words, we need to be gritty about getting our kids grittier.”

Angela Lee Duckworth: The key to success? Grit ~ via TED.com, published May 9, 2013

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“TED Talks Education” Tonight ( May 7, 2013 ) at 10/9 c on PBS

May 7, ’13 2:35 PM

TED Talk Education {Screen Shot}

 

Be sure to tune in to PBS at 10/9 c tonight for TED’s first-ever original television broadcast special:

TED Talks Education, hosted by John Legend, premieres May 7, 2013 at 10/9 c on PBS. Public television and TED, the non-profit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, share a deep commitment to addressing the high school dropout crisis. The TED Talks Education one-hour program brings together a diverse group of teachers and education advocates delivering short, high-impact talks on the theme of teaching and learning. These original TED Talks are given by thought leaders including Geoffrey Canada, Bill Gates, Rita F. Pierson and Sir Ken Robinson. TED Talks Education is part of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s American Graduate Initiative. 

Other notable speakers featured in the one-hour special include: Pearl Arredondo, Founder, San Fernando Institute for Applied Media; Malcolm London, Chicago poet; Ramsey Musallam, Chemistry teacher and blended learning specialist; and one of our favorites…*, grit expert Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania.

Here is the preview for tonight’s programming:

Watch TED Talks Education Preview on PBS. See more from TED Talks Education.

And for those of you too excited to wait until tonight, here is Rita Pierson’s talk: “Build Relationships With Your Students”

Watch Rita Pierson: Build Relationships With Your Students on PBS. See more from TED Talks Education.

 

Enjoy & rethink…*

[H/T] TED Teams Up With PBS on Ideas for Education ~ via New York Times, published May 5, 2013

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Shalom [Hello!] from Israel: Reflections from my Spring Break – Part IV

Apr 29, ’13 9:19 AM

This is the final entry in my series of Israeli traditions and cultural aspects that I hope to integrate into my own life in New York. Click here for Part I. Click here for Part II. Click here for Part III. Thanks for reading along!

#4 The Shuk… a community-based market with healthy food

The Shuk is an open-air food market and where Israelis buy their weekly groceries. It’s lively, colorful, and a lot less expensive than the supermarket. It’s also an important space for community, where you have “your butcher”, “your cheese man”, and develop relationships with vendors and stands. I love the open air, hustle-and-bustle feeling of this market, and I don’t quite get the same feeling standing in the 30 minute checkout line at my local Trader Joes. The standard Israeli grocery purchases are also a lot less processed- lots of vegetables, fruits, pita, chicken, eggs- basics that lead to a more healthy lifestyle.

I’d love to find a local farmer’s market to buy my produce from more regularly and also make an attempt to eat more “real” foods, something I’ve already been slowly transitioning towards. As a native New-Yorker I’ve always been sort of entranced and jealous of the relationships I’ve seen people have with their local butcher or bakery (mostly on TV or in my small college town) because I feel like that rarely happens here, but who knows- maybe I can find that with somebody too.

I invite you to incorporate any of these sorts of experiences into your own daily lives as well. Travel is a great way to get inspiration on how to do your own life a little bit better.

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Shalom [Hello!] from Israel: Reflections from my Spring Break – Part III

Apr 25, ’13 12:55 AM

This is the second in my series of Israeli traditions and cultural aspects that I hope to integrate into my own life in New York. Click here for Part I. Click here for Part II. Stay tuned for Part IV!

#3 Hiking!

While Israel may be a small country, it is not densely populated and contains immeasurable natural beauty in the Negev desert, blue seas, and ancient mystical towns and cities. Due to the mostly warm weather and ample open space, Israelis are outdoors a lot, and hiking is a pretty common pastime, with families taking kids of all ages on desert hikes, scaling mountains, swimming in springs, and enjoying nature. We literally saw parents with toddlers on their backs and 6-year-olds dutifully climbing alongside on some of our hikes.

In my week here, Laura and I hiked a trail up to Haifa, which is a city located both on a big hill and in a harbor, and we hiked Ein Gedi, a national park near the Dead Sea. Both hikes were exhilarating, beautiful, and a great way to feel more in tune with nature.

Living in a the concrete jungle, I walk a lot but I rarely experience vast open spaces and nature in this way. To take this tradition back to the states, I’d like to go on more nature-y adventures in and around NYC (e.g., North Fork of Long Island, upstate). I’d also like to make a great effort to walk to places rather than take the subway, especially as the weather gets nicer. The upper west side has Riverside Park, Morningside Park, and Central Park and I haven’t thoroughly explored any of these yet.

[Top and bottom right: Hiking in Ein Gedi. Bottom Left: The view of Haifa from the top]

[Left: Hiking in Ein Gedi. Right: Hiking in Haifa]

[Top: A small oasis in Ein Gedi. Bottom: a view of Jordan across the Dead Sea.]

 

 

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