{"id":2458358,"date":"2020-05-12T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=325633"},"modified":"2020-05-12T23:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T05:00:00","slug":"aspen-middle-school-class-goes-virtual-for-outdoor-education-exed-postponed-to-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-middle-school-class-goes-virtual-for-outdoor-education-exed-postponed-to-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen Middle School class goes virtual for outdoor education; ExEd postponed to spring"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/outdooreducation-atd-051320-1-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/outdooreducation-atd-051320-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/outdooreducation-atd-051320-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/outdooreducation-atd-051320-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/outdooreducation-atd-051320-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/05\/outdooreducation-atd-051320-1-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>Aspen Middle School sixth-grade teacher Kristen Zodrow went virtual with her Outdoor Education students after their hut trip was recently canceled.<\/strong><br \/><em>Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Pajamas, onesies and lightsabers aren\u2019t usually the norm for Aspen Middle School\u2019s Outdoor Education programming, but the idea of normal has changed a lot in recent weeks. Kristen Zodrow, who teaches sixth grade at AMS and helps lead one of the annual hut trips, went virtual with her group last week after their real trip was canceled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThey were ready, except because of weather and now COVID, this experience, like so many others, got ripped out from under them,\u201d Zodrow said. \u201cThey did 95% of their outdoor ed experience, they just didn\u2019t get the icing on the cake right now, which would be going to that hut and being together in the wilderness for three days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The middle school\u2019s Outdoor Education program, which started with the eighth graders, celebrated its 50th anniversary during the 2017-18 school year. The current sixth-grade program, which sends the students to the Shrine Mountain huts off Vail Pass each winter, has been going on for about three decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">While three of the fives classes were able to complete their hut trips \u2014 they rotate each week \u2014 both Zodrow\u2019s and Mark Munger\u2019s classes weren\u2019t as lucky. Their trips were originally postponed because of weather \u2014 Munger\u2019s group had been slated to leave the morning of an intense snow squall that briefly shut down Vail Pass \u2014 and were ultimately canceled amid the COVID-19 pandemic that closed down the schools.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe were pretty bummed when we couldn\u2019t go because of the weather. Of course, we had no inkling of what was to come,\u201d Munger said. \u201cI know the kids were pretty bummed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Also canceled this spring was the seventh grade\u2019s Outdoor Education trip, which includes rafting on the Colorado River. The fifth- and eighth-grade programs both occur in the fall, alongside the high school\u2019s Experiential Education programming.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Still, Zodrow tried to make the most of it with her sixth-grade class, hosting a virtual hut trip via Google Hangouts. The students dressed up mostly in costume and toured each other\u2019s bedrooms and did a little bit of show and tell, a way to bring them together in a fun way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">While the hut trips have plenty of outdoor learning inherently built in, the main part is the camaraderie the students build together, something the novel coronavirus has taken away from nearly everyone over the past few months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThis has been technological overdosing for them, and a lot of them don\u2019t want to be at a computer or on a phone,\u201d Zodrow said. \u201cI put a lot of pictures up from previous years and we are walking through certain experiences, but we\u2019re doing it virtually. They will be in their own homes, but we will just act like we\u2019re all together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Munger said next year\u2019s Outdoor Education programs remain in limbo. They have already reserved the huts for next spring, but the fall trips could be moved. This could be tricky for the eighth graders, as they typically backpack to Marble, something that would be nearly impossible during the spring with snowmelt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Aspen High School principal Tharyn Mulberry confirmed Monday that the ExEd programs in the fall have already been pushed back to spring 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThere were too many unknowns,\u201d Mulberry said, noting that many of the AHS trips leave the state and it\u2019s unknown whether that will be allowed by the fall. \u201cEither way, it\u2019s just easier to kick it out to the next part. And they are expecting a resurgence (in coronavirus cases) around that time, so we decided to move it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:acolbert@aspentimes.com\">acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/local\/aspen-middle-school-class-goes-virtual-for-outdoor-education-exed-postponed-to-spring\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aspen Middle School sixth-grade teacher Kristen Zodrow went virtual with her Outdoor Education students after their hut trip was recently canceled.Courtesy photo Pajamas, onesies and lightsabers aren\u2019t usually the norm for Aspen Middle School\u2019s Outdoor Education programming, but the idea of normal has changed a lot in recent weeks. Kristen Zodrow, who teaches sixth grade [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2458358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-17 17:06:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2458358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2458358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2458358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2458358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}