The Mountain Classroom Team is happily busy pouring over maps, measuring distances, making phone calls for expedition reservations, and scheduling educational visits in preparation for this year's Winter and Spring terms.  As soon as we have most of the big pieces in place, we will post tentative itineraries.  Mountain Classroom welcomes two new instructors this year, Crescent Sherwonit and Adam Jones.  They are both on campus this Fall planning for Mountain Classroom as well as getting to know the Proctor Community.

Once again, the Winter Term will travel along the US/Mexico border learning first hand about the complexity of border issues. This route has been highly successful in the past, saturated with experiences that shed light on the many perspectives about the border.  During the opening week of travel to the Southwest, a new addition to the Winter route this year has the group spending a few days in New Orleans, Louisiana working on a service project with the local community.

The Spring Term will explore resource management, examining the various ways people in the United States interact with the earth. More specifically, we will focus on studying alternative sources of energy, agricultural practices and water usage in the western half of the country.  Recently, Proctor adopted a new environmental mission statement that challenges the community to teach and practice sustainability throughout our school community.  The Mountain Classroom theme and experiential-based programming for the Spring term exemplifies this mission through empowering current members of the community to be active stewards for an equitable and ecologically healthy Earth.

Already signed up for the Winter Term? In November we will meet with the group to start getting ready. We will look at potential routes, go over equipment lists and give you forms that need to get filled out. If you want to get started before then, all forms are available on the website-- just click on "Forms and Applications." We look forward to meeting with you!

Not signed up but interested in coming along? We still have a couple of openings for the Winter Term and are looking for curious adventurers in good academic and social standing who want to take advantage of the opportunity to be a part of a once in a lifetime journey...See Patty Pond if interested.

Mountain Classroom Instructors for 08-09

Crescent Sherwonit

Crescent most recently moved from Bainbridge Island where she completed her Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction and taught at IslandWood, a residential, environmental education program.  She is excited to be back in New Hampshire and join the program this year as the full-time Science teacher.  Crescent grew up in Connecticut and completed her Bachelor of Science at the University of New Hampshire.  For five summers, Crescent led wilderness trips for Camp Thunderbird for Girls, including backpacking trips in the Wind River Range of Wyoming and the North Cascades of Washington.  Crescent has taught natural history and outdoor skills for Naturalists at Large in California and Nature's Classroom in New England.  Crescent enjoys yoga, hiking, rock climbing, trail running, knitting and potlucks with friends.

Adam Jones

After working as the Director of the Connect Service Learning Program at the Greenwood School in Vermont for the last couple years, Adam is excited to join the Mountain Classroom Program this year as the full-time English teacher.  Adam's experience includes working as a Peace Corps Youth Development Volunteer in the South Pacific Republic of Vanuatu (2002-2004) as well as working with youth-at-risk in Alternative Youth Adventures' wilderness therapy programs in southern Utah.  More recently, Adam has enjoyed spending his afternoons coaching and kayaking with the Proctor Kayak Team as well as exploring the New Hampshire surf.  Among other skills, Adam brings a passion for service and self-reflection, a love of learning and exploring, and a commitment to community.