GetOutAndLearn in the news…

The following article features GetOutAndLearn and Downtown High School’s project based approach to dealing with truancy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/us/san-francisco-schools-tackle-truancy-with-innovation.html?scp=1&sq=Battling%20Truancy&st=cse

Boat Launch 12/5/2011 Hyde St Pier, 1pm

Come on down December 5 to the Hyde St Pier and celebrate the launching of the dory built by this semester’s GetOutAndLearn students. These students spent the past seven weeks building this boat from a pile of lumber…will it float? Come and see for yourself.

Boat Launch 12/7/2010

Come witness this Fall semester’s GOAL students launch the boat they have building for the past eight weeks. The boat launch will take place at 1pm on the pocket beach at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park Hyde St Pier. The Fall 2010 build was a Nina Skiff meant to serve as a tender for the  schooner Seaward. Please come celebrate the students accomplishment and see the finished product. Here are a few pictures from the build:

Fall 2010 Semester-Journal reflections from the Emigrant Wilderness 9/20-9/30

It’s inspiring and feels somewhat like an accomplishment to stare up at the canyon walls thinking how much more we could push ourselves. Admiring details like the trees, rocks over rocks, dirt, and the natural elements makes me wonder, how can so many things grow on such a steep place. How did the canyons get so big? It makes me think how much bigger we could grow as humans, how far can we push each other to reach a certain expectation to feel accomplished. Maybe, by completing our goals we can be as tall as the canyons, and keep growing positively all around us. The same as how trees and other things grow upon the canyons.

-By Cristian Huezo

 

 

 

If I could call someone, I would call my mom because I love her so much. Out of my whole family I feel like she loves me and cares for me the most. I would tell her I’m having a nice time here and want to do this again. I get to see places that I’ve never seen before, I’ve been on top of a peak, watched the sun go down, and swam in beautiful lakes. I would tell her that I’m losing weight everyday and getting free food. I would tell her that my first day was very difficult because my backpack weighed about 60 pounds. I’d tell her that my Instructors were very nice and helpful and that I appreciate them because without them I’d be dead. I couldn’t have done this without them. I’d tell her I’m proud of myself for making it to the end. I lost a lot of weight, have more stamina and have a bad tan, but its all good. In the future I’d love to do something like this again.

-By Anthony Banclos

 

 

 

Two challenges I faced today were cooking foods that take time and hiking up some rocks and hills. I overcame these challenges by thinking the food I make I will have to eat and I do not want people to think I am a bad cook.  If you are going to do something, why not do it well? I overcame the hiking by thinking it was basketball practice or something.  I kept doing it as if the hiking up hills and rocks would give me stronger legs and better hops. Also, carrying the backpack would make me stronger and not stopping would increase my stamina. Something that pleasantly surprised me was how open people were at the evening circle. Also, before going to sleep four of us stayed by the fire for a while and talked. At that time I felt pretty chill and cool to know about other peoples love life. Before I heard that I thought an eleven month relationship was kind of long but when I heard about these two year and four year relationships I thought of it differently especially after hearing some of the difficult things that happened to them. Something positive I have done is that when someone was on the rock looking at something like they were lonely I checked up on them. I asked them if they were okay and what they were thinking of.

-By Rainer Pascual

 

 

 

I’m sitting on the side of a boulder. The part I’m sitting on is shaped like a seat. There are some weeds to my right. On the ground there are millions of grey and white pebbles of different shades. Trees separated by a few feet. Some big some small .Two trees to my left are grey and have no leaves. There is a tree in front of me that has leaves at the bottom but not the top. When I look up to the right there is a giant mountain with trees in the cracks. I can see black lines running down the mountain. “You feel me blood?”

-By Roger Lopez

 

 

 

We need to improve our communication and be less lazy. If someone is talking we need to respect him or her and not make fun of that person because that is being disrespectful. Another thing that we have to improve is our bad attitude because the backpacking is already difficult so our attitude makes a difference. Communication is really important for us because we have a lot of arguments and we need to work it out. Communication is the best way for our community to improve because that’s the way to reach your goals in life. We have to grow up be less lazy because we have to do our job seriously. We need to do the activities without laziness because laziness is not good for us and we, as youth, are supposed to be sharp and active.

-By Lemuel Aquino

 

I mostly see skinny trees with small needles.  Some of them look green while others look brown. I see the sun, yellow and bright. Just like the sun brightens our day my friend Araceli brightens my day every day. I also witnessed the blue sky with no clouds. I noticed rocks of different shapes and sizes just like our group. We are different in every way but like a rock it’s hard to break us down. A recent experience was when we had to hike from Camp Lake to Piute Lake. It was our hardest hike yet because it was mostly uphill and we had big heavy backpacks. But despite all of this we made it and we were all happy inhaling the fresh air we cannot inhale in the city.

-By Daniel Guardado

 

 

My greatest challenge of the day was to be a fast hiker. My plans are to improve my pace for tomorrow. This will help my classmates more. Despite this difficulty I was positive today and I was surprised to see everybody with a positive attitude. They never gave up,they always tried to keep going. I also liked that with my classmates I can share something and they understand me. I realize that I’ve become stronger than what I thought I was. I’ve experienced many things,good and bad, so I think is a great experience for me…

-By Catherine Mendoza

Semester Reflections

Describe the most exciting moment you had this semester. (How did you feel? What where you doing?)

The most exciting moment I had was the 11 day backpacking expedition. I loved just being away from my family. It felt good to surround myself with new people from the class. I learned a lot from my classmates. they helped me appreciate what we have at home. -Danny Ruiz

The most exciting moment I had this semester would have to be when we were backpacking, and we woke up to snow. I thought that was awesome. I hadn’t been in the snow since I was a little kid and it brought back a lot of good memories.-Jaime Pescador

The most exciting moment that I had was the first day of the ropes course when we got to go up on the high elements ourselves to experience the uneasy feeling of being up high, but it was a great experience.-Fabian Flores

The most exciting moment was back in the backpacking trip, we were leaving the Big Lake where we got stuck for 2 days because of unexpected snowstorm. I believe it was day 8, it was close to the end and I was very excited. It was a steep, dangerous hike out of there-but that moment hiking when I got to the top was the most exciting moment. I felt accomplished, strong, and happy making it through that cold snow and I never seen snow in my life. Big bursts of energy rushed through my body as we all walked away from the great view of Big Lake with snow melting on the granite.

Launching Granny’s Pram-11/24

Over the course of six weeks GetOutAndLearn students have been meeting three times per week in their classroom on the Lagoon in San Francisco’s Aquatic Park. Employing traditional wooden boat building techniques students are building an Iain Oughtred designed “Granny Pram.” Alongside building the Pram students are learning to sail “Pelicans”, row a traditional whaleboat and even build oars with a professional shipwright. We even had the good fortune to sail the Alma with Captain Jason Rucker and crew.

Here students prepare to launch ‘Hot Lynx’ at the Hyde Street Pier’s Aquatic Park.

Through hard work and focus students converted this pile of lumber into a rather beautiful sailing vessel.

GetOutandLearn students create digital stories.

In collaboration with KQED, GOAL students share their stories about their connection to the program and the places that make up our ‘classroom.’ In support of Ken Burns’ The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, this plan brings National Parks, Community Partners, and PBS entities together in outreach activities to engage underrepresented members of their community in our open spaces. We rely on the importance of story, the love of place, and the use of technologies old and new to create these sustainable connections. Here are a few of the stories told by the students enrolled in GetOutandLearn. Click on any one of the icons located on the map to view the videos.                                                      
View Larger Map

Launching Eleanor

On Thursday, April 2 at 1300 hours winds were blowing steady at 15-20 knots. The occasional 18-22 knot gust was certainly cause for concern. We modified our launch plan to accommodate the conditions and all was ago. The boat got off the beach well with Husham at the tiller and instructor Manuel also sitting on the aft seat. She sailed for about 100 meters in light breeze, not heeling on a beam reach. Eventually Eleanor passed the Muriel S and encountered stronger wind. From the beach, we saw the sail fill, the boat heel, boat speed visibly increase, and the boat fall off to a broad reach. We watched the boat correct course to avoid some of the moored sailboats, and then, after perhaps ten seconds, start to tack. The tack was not sharp enough and the boat stalled almost exactly upwind, then spun back to even further downwind than its previous course and accelerated. The safety boat, which had backed off somewhat to allow room for the tack, also accelerated and followed the Eleanor. We saw Manuel take the tiller; the boat was headed directly towards the inlet to the Aquatic Park, and by now was far enough offshore to get the full brunt of the wind. After several more seconds, they attempted a jibe, and swiftly capsized. The safety boat navigated by John Conway of the NPS swiftly retrieved the three students from the water. Manuel stayed in the water and, with help from a passing swimmer, tied the Eleanor’s painter to a line from the safety boat. The safety boat towed the Eleanor inshore of Balclutha and Eppleton Hall and then pulled Manuel into the boat. The damage to the boat was minor – the mast partner had cracked under pressure and opened a gap under the bow seat, which had flooded the float tank. Husham, Michael and Alix were no worse for wear and were quickly re-warmed to avoid hypothermia. The glorious launch of Eleanor was quite an adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are very thankful and appreciative of our partnership with the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park Association. Thank you to MJ, Josia, Seth, Maddy, Nick, Manuel, Adrian, John Conway, Jason, Alice, Al, Karnell and everyone at the Hyde St. Pier that is supportive of this program and the wonderful opportunities it provides.

 

GetOutandLearn Spring 2009 Semester

Our semester is well under way. We are leading ropes courses, building a Goat Island Skiff and reading Jack London’s The Sea Wolf. We are also in the process of creating, in collaboration with WALC (Wilderness Arts Literacy Collaborative), a native plant garden on campus at Downtown HS. The Ryan Jones memorial garden is on Kansas St between 18th and 19th streets on Potrero Hill.  Save The Date Thursday, April 2 2009. Come celebrate our boat launch at the pocket beach on the Hyde St. Pier at 1pm.               

        Day 5, the sides were attached to the bulkheads, stem and transom. Its looking like a boat!!

 

Every Thursday you can find us leading and facilitating the Ft. Miley Adventure Challenge Course. Good times!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before and after pictures of the Ryan Jones Memorial Garden. Big shout of thanks to Dylan Hayes, Tom Annese, Amber Hasselbring and neighbor Margot from the California Native Plant Society whose donation of plants helped make the garden possible! We are excited to spend more time in our living classroom!!

 

Reflections on building ‘Ryan Jones’

Students were asked to reflect on their experience of building and launching the ‘Ryan Jones’ and learning to sail small crafts. Others compared and contrasted their experience in GetOutAndLearn with their previous high school experience. Here are a few responses:

                                                       Goat Island Skiff – Sinque Roper                                                        

There are similarities and differences between the Get Out And Learn and my previous high school experiences. The experience of building the Goat Island Skiff sailboat has been enjoyable. One similarity is that I was taught physics while sailing out on the water, Bernoulli’s principle and how it affects the way we sail.  Another similarity is that the learning curriculum is the same as being in school learning about mathematics and history on the whole boat building project.  A difference is that I was out of class and working as a team in almost everything I did. My previous high school we would not learn about the points of wind.   Keeping myself on track and communicating with my team was probably one of the hardest things that I did during the whole time.  A big difference in this class from my previous high school experience I have noticed is that we all pushed ourselves to finish the piece we were working on for the boat.  This experience has been an enjoyable experience and I look forward to doing something like this again. We christened our boat after Ryan Jones a respectable man whom I never met but heard a lot about.  He was a site stewardship leader who was killed in a motorcycle accident. You can find out more on our class website.  

 

Boat Building-Avi Leviev

My name is Avi Leviev. I am 17 years old and I go to Downtown High School in Get Out and Learn. I will tell you about my experience. Before building and sailing a wooden boat school wasn’t so great. Now I feel like a different person because before I could not even be on time or work hard. I wouldn’t be responsible because I didn’t like school at all. But when I enrolled to Get Out and Learn, and we had to build a boat I felt more responsible and I felt like I was doing something for a reason. GOAL is educational and has taught me a lot of things about myself that I didn’t even know. Like how to use tools that will be handy in my life and how much effort it takes to work in a team and how to be responsible. It helped me realize that I can do what I want to do in my life.

Personal Success- Kyle Miller

My biggest success in GetOutandLearn is learning to sail a Pelican boat by myself.  I never sailed a sailboat before in my life.  I could sail a Pelican, even backwards now.  I learned how to sail in this program.  It was hard at first but soon I was comfortable sailing a pelican and not afraid of the boat tipping.  I had to step out of my comfort zone and face the fear of the boat tipping.  I learned not to have fear when in a boat with my classmates.  I felt really good when we were building our Goat Island skiff sailboat and seeing it get done.  I came everyday to build the boat and I worked hard on it.  I even did a very good job shaping the foil on the rudder to make it. 

Goat Island Skiff- Sebastian Morton 

My name is Sebastian Morton and I am a junior a Downtown High school. I am 16 years old and am in Get Out And Learn. Our class recently constructed a Goat Island Skiff down at the Sea Scout base by the Hyde street pier. It took us a couple of months to complete but once we got the boat in the water, everything turned out to be a great success. We christened our boat ‘Ryan Jones.’ He was the site stewardship leader and worked pretty close with our class. He recently passed away so we thought it nice to name the boat in memory of him. So we had a pretty big holiday celebration right before the boat launch and there were a couple of hundred people on the Eureka having a feast. The food was great. There was turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, Cesar salad, ham, and nice cold soft drinks. There wasn’t much wind when we got out on the water, so that made it hard to sail, but we paddled ourselves around a little bit then came back in. Something that was pretty funny was when Jon completely fell in the water backwards when we were coming back to the pocket beach. Then Niri and Pablo decided to go swimming in their shorts after as well. I really didn’t understand how they could swim in that freezing cold water, but they did. My boss even came to watch our boat launch as well to show his support for our class. That meant a lot to me. So that was our great success of creating the Goat Island Skiff. Hope you go down to the Hyde Street Pier to check it out. 

 

Priceless Junk- Hanh Nham 

Two words to describe my time at the boat shop, fun and challenging. The first day building the boat I felt like everything was being thrown at me, there was a list of tasks that had to be done by a date that was planned. I knew from the first day it was going to be challenging. We had to measure the length of the boat and cut it to the correct size. The first task on the list to set up the bottom floor for the boat. While using the tools to set up the bottom floor we had to use the hammer and nails. I volunteered. I thought it was going to be easy. Everyone would say it is common sense to just hit the nail with the hammer, right? It was not just that. You have to set the nail in the correct spot and cannot let it go on its side while hammering it.  I also learned that you have to control your strength on the hammer. So basically it looks easy but without the knowledge it can harm the boat.  We had to learn so many things to learn in a short period of time. That was how my time at the boat shop was.  I knew I was expected to learn how to use the tools, which were given to us to build the boat. Actually, there were less power tools used in the making of the Ryan Jones. It would seem a lot of power tools were used because the boat was bigger than past boats. Twenty days later the GetOutandLearn students had a new family member Ryan Jones. It was a successful build. You might say it is impossible to build something so beautiful in such a short time.  But it was possible for the GetOutandLearn students. Everyone devoted his or her time to this project and it came out positive. The Ryan Jones, which I call the ‘priceless junk,’ cannot be sold because it’s history. From the beginning I wasn’t proud to start something that I had never done before. But now I am proud of myself because the priceless junk is a part of history.