Eastern Oregon

FYI...I am aware I have been falling down on my blogging duties. Things have gotten really busy at work AND I have been using all of my free time on a "crafty" project that will be a Christmas gift - so I can't blog about that until after Christmas or it will ruin the surprise for someone!

I have spent the last few days (9/12-9/15) in Eastern Oregon visiting student teachers. I thought I would share the journey. We (Dr. Greg Thompson went with me so I didn't mess up anything :-)) visited Hermiston, Heppner, Joseph, Cove, and Imbler (in that order).  I didn't think to take pictures until we were leaving Heppner so GT took my picture with the Mustang mascot. Notice the terrain behind me... that is Eastern Oregon.

They grow mint in eastern Oregon. You can really smell it when it is raining (which it did while we were out there! That deserved the exclamation point because it always rains on my side of Oregon and it hardly ever rains on the east side. I must have brought it with me.)  Below you can see the mint which is dumped back into the fields after it has been processed and the oil removed. You can buy it to compost in your yard and it will smell minty-fresh every time it rains.

This is Joseph High School. We had a great visit.

 We started the day by meeting the cooperating teacher for breakfast at Old Town Cafe...super cute and the food was great!

Then we hopped on a yellow, straight-drive bus and wound our way around a mountain to a mountain trail head tucked back in the woods to watch a lesson on riparian areas. This was the view out of the front of the bus.

This is the scenery we viewed once we got there. One of only a few deciduous conifers you will find in the US

This was the view looking down stream.

And our student teacher doing a great job "learning" some kiddos. 

It was gorgeous out on our field trip, but the view is just as good from the school parking lot. Yup, there is a little bit of snow up there.

Then we went to Cove HS which is one of the smallest schools I think I have been in. This is literally the view from the front door. I stood in one place and snapped three pictures. You can see the sign over the door (to show that I am coming in the front) and you can also see out the back of the school down the only 2 hallways! 

Finally, we were off to Imbler High School (Tara King: this is where JD Cant teaches. He says "Hi".)

And, we got to see Chelcee doing great things in the classroom at Imbler.

My favorite part of the trip was getting to go to the eastern Oregon teachers' district meeting at Mamacita's in La Grande. What a fun bunch! But, a close second would have to be the small independent hotels (I can highly recommend "The Indian Lodge" in Joseph, Oregon) and independent restaurants (like The Cock and Bull in La Grande. Yup, that was really the name).

I will definitely be back to eastern Oregon.