New Roads - Old Roads

A few days before Spring break in April of 2013, I learned my contract-position at The Harley School had fallen beneath the budgetary ax and would expire in June. From the day I left the Classroom to become an Educator/Contract worker, I realized I had assumed a tenuous position. Thus, the news was not a total surprise and for the past ten months I have become the 'tree-stands-alone; hi ho the forest-o" as I attempt to discover new directions. I am currently involved in a number of activities all of which suggest future possibilities and draw upon different aspects of the skills and experiences that have shaped me as an educator:

• K-12 environmental teacher/mentor for 25+ years
• technology-early adapter-consistent user
•  educational 'yearner' in the tradition of Seymour Papert - forever looking for another way to define learning, to mentor and support learning for others, to continue learning myself
•  roots as a home schooling parent (largely ignorant of what I was attempting to do) taught me early that a good teacher must be as committed a learner as the best of his/her students
• acceptance that the world today belongs to those younger than me, but if one is respectful of new ways there is still two-way learning to be shared
• forty-five plus adult years grounded in meditation and self-reflective practices that have at long last helped to temper some of my impatience with people who seem willing to float with the times rather than dive beneath the surface for deeper understanding
• a lifetime curiosity about the natural world and  an appreciation that adults can have a key role in providing children with opportunities to explore it
• desire to work with others with whom I have some level of shared interests and goals

On my own
Current positions/activities that captured my time this past year include my fall work as a College Supervisor of Science Student Teachers for SUNY Geneseo as well as the continuing development of the program, Kids Afield, I initiated in September of 2013 with two Harley school teachers (and have written about extensively in this Blog). Our intent was to connect children to nature via digital photography. With the success of the first year's work, we presented the program at the New York State Science Teacher's Convention and the North American Association of Environmental Educators Conference in the Fall of 2013.  connectchildrentonature.wikispaces.com

A half-dozen years ago, I had teacher's mini-epiphany when the cover story of the Stanford Alumnae magazine featured Stanford's d.school. Reading about this program (that was beginning to include K-12 education) was enough for me to regret for the first time in my life that I'd left Stanford after only two year. Had the d.school (dschool.stanford.edu/blog/category/k12/) been around in the late 60's, possibly I would have not been so ready to jump elsewhere for my education. However, the d.school materials did enrich my last years in the classroom where I successfully employed design thinking practices in much of my grade six curricula. As a result, I feel competent to help other teachers bring the elements of design thinking into their programs. Just how to do this, aside from workshop presentations, is a puzzle I am still trying to put together.

Now
For years, a follower of edtech/innovation conferences and discussions via podcasts, I have finally decided to become an online presenter. I presented at 'real world' conferences almost since my first years as a classroom teacher, but never considered being an online presenter.  In part, I want to do this now because I can, that is, I have the time. But, additionally, I want to develop a closer connection to the larger community of innovative educators. Perhaps then for now, my over-riding goal is simply to continue to find new ways of working with others on behalf of others and the environment. And in this way, continue the sense of generativity that made my life as a classroom teacher so satisfying. 

Cultivating Young Naturalists

Grade 1 student pointing out the site where she'd hung a bird feeder for the non-migrating birds.

 I had just finished a migration activity with a group of twenty-two K-1 students who had been studying birds. Taking on the role of a particular Northeastern bird, they had simulated locating food in an upstate New York field/wooded area during the summer.  Whether Great Horned Owl, Hummingbird or Chickadee; all had located ample food. We shifted the simulated wood-field six months forward:  the flowers vanished, small animals (an important food sources for carnivorous birds) were hard to locate, seeds were under a foot of snow while worms and insects had relocated to warmer sites in some form of temporary stasis or life cycle change. Still, the Chickadees thrived at the many human provided feeders and the Owls hunted successfully while the odd Red-winged blackbird located just enough food to survive.

Afterwards, we discussed the activity and children quickly saw that the best strategy for ground feeding Robins and Hummingbirds was to find a warmer climate, that is to migrate. As teachers, we were pleased to see how readily the experience had produced a new understanding of migration in our young naturalists. While children prepared to leave for another school activity, one grade one student pulled me aside.

 "Do birds ever share the food they collect?",  he asked.

 "Great question", I responded (the old teacher stand-by when startled into new awareness of a learning situation).  Then with a moment's thought I explained that birds share food with their young, but generally not with other birds. However, I went on to explain that generally they only take what they need which leaves food for others. He seemed satisfied, but still debating the differences between people and birds.

Afterwards, I reflected on the depth of the boy's question. Certainly, as a young student he has been encouraged to share and care for others. In nursery and elementary classrooms everywhere, it has become such a standard practice for teachers  to encourage good community practices that it is not surprising that my young student was aware of the need to share resources. However, his application of this fundamental 'fairness' issue to the world beyond the human experience, I found profound. He was seeking a connection between his life and the life of another organism - one whose mechanisms for survival are far different than our own. This is the very seeking all environmental mentors/teachers hope to nurture in every student with whom they interact. For from the childhood desire to understand the needs of others arises the possibility that as adults they will remember this yearning as they debate the environmental needs of the future.

If opportunities for all students to make personal connections to the natural world were as much the focus of their learning as 'reading, writing and arithmetic', I have no doubt we would water the seeds of environmentalism in all students. With over thirty years in the field of environmental education, I do not see these opportunities jumping out of any of the ongoing current curriculum discussions that seem locked in assessing learning that can be measured numerically. I find my inspiration as a teacher in those young learners who are being given this chance with the hope that in time their voices may carry enough weight to shift the discussion for all learners everywhere.

For resources on connecting children to nature:
Natural Start a NAAEE Initiative