Friday, August 30, 2013

Gleaning Facebook: The Trouble Tree

A great story. Nerdy, I suppose, but I find rituals, like this fellow's, helpful in my life. I have specific rituals I have to follow before opening curtain during theatrical shows, before storytelling events, before singing performances, and before entering my classroom. I wish I'd read this in 1971 or 1983 and I'd have had a similar ritual for my daily homecomings. 

I did have a ritual saying for the girls whenever they left the house: "Remember who you are." Sometimes it was "Remember who, and whose, you are." It's sort of like the Jewish mezuzah, I suppose. A reminder to live up to what you believe.

Here are a few of my mantras for myself:
  • "You say this is what you most enjoy: have fun." (Before acting -- then a minute or so of imagining what my character is experiencing as the scene begins. Also before storytelling.)
  • "The words, the words, the words." (before singing -- borrowed from Rachel Jones)
  • "Look for stars" (entering the classroom)

  • and for several years now, "Keep the main thing, the main thing." (entering the classroom)

Do you have a private ritual? Share it in the comments.

The following was taken from a Facebook post by Russ Sites:

I hired a plumber to help me restore an old farmhouse, and after he had just finished a rough first day on the job: a flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric drill quit and his ancient one ton truck refused to start.

While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. On arriving, he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands.
When opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation.. His face was wreathed in smiles and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.
Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.
'Oh, that's my trouble tree,' he replied 'I know I can't help having troubles on the job, but one thing's for sure, those troubles don't belong in the house with my wife and the children.. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home and ask God to take care of them. Then in the morning I pick them up again.' 'Funny thing is,' he smiled,' when I come out in the morning to pick 'em up, there aren't nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.
THIS ONE IS WORTH SENDING ON.
Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance. We all need a Tree!

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Gleaning Facebook: Richard at Arrowhead

Richard Ware, one of the most respected botanists in Georgia, and my friend since our teens, visited me at Arrowhead today for a few hours of botanizing. WE (by "we' I mean Richard) IDed over a hundred species of the Flora of Arrowhead.


Hal Massie: 
He is probably THE most respected amateur botanist in Georgia.



Lobelia cardinalis
Cardinal Flower










Polygala curtissii
Curtis' Milkwort

Helianthus maximiliani

Helianthus maximiliani



Bidens polylepis
Tickseed

Rhexia mariana
Pale Meadow Beauty


Ratibida pinnata
Gray-headed Prairie Coneflower



Helianthus maximiliani

Not a great pic. My method -- since my store-bought auto focus works no better than my defective natural focusing system -- is to take several shots and hope one is in focus.
Polygala curtissii
Curtis' Milkwort


Helianthus maximiliani

We finally saw something with which Richard was unfamiliar. It is a Helianthus (Sunflower) species, but not one found frequently around here. He and Teresa suspect it may be a western species included in some wildflower seed mixes sold nationwide. I imagine he'll give us a definitive name soon. The field near the big lake was resplendent with this gorgeous flower. One specimen was more than ten feet tall.
Richard Ware: I keyed the sunflower when I got home. It is Helianthus maximilianii (Maximilian Sunflower) and it is indeed native to the midwest, but has been introduced in the east. According to the Ga. DNR it wouldn't be considered a plant of conservation concern because it is regarded as an escape.


Sunday, August 18, 2013

Here is a place to live.


The best urban greenspaces in North America...

The greenspace in each of these urban areas is directly important to the lifestyles of its citizens, of course.

But those greenspaces are a positive good for even that citizen who....
.... never walks, runs, or bikes the trails,
.... never picnics under those trees,
.... never lifts binoculars to locate an avian Pavarotti in the branches,
.... never captures the dappled, golden, sunset reflections of trees and deer in the pond,



.... never kneels in the leaf litter to slip a diamond onto an adored finger,

.... never swings a running toddler up from the grass onto his shoulders,
.... never points out a black-eyed Susan, beaver, darter, snapping turtle, or great blue heron to the wide eyes of a ten-year-old.

Those greenspaces call out to tourists, shoppers, jobseekers, business-builders --- each no less lover, parent, child, hobbyist, cyclist, runner, bird-watcher, photographer ---  "Come! Here is a place to live."

And the cold hard impersonal cash of those folk will greatly exceed whatever temporary (and often largely transferred) gains for a local economy that might come from another strip mall.




Friday, August 16, 2013

Dreams Do Come True

I have always believed in getting kids outside. 

At my very first teaching assignment, Bancrioft Elementary in Bancroft WV in 1969 I organized an outdoor club.

 We climbed the hills, hunted arrowheads, and set messages adrift in stoppered bottles on the Kanawha River. (OK, I wouldn't do that now, but it did make a memorable writing experience for my fifth graders!)

Back in Georgia at McHenry School we spread out under the pine trees behind the gym to write poems...

we examined the woods above the upper building with botanist Richard Ware, we planted 30 red maples, we installed (with the Optimists and Coach Kennedy) a "recycled playground" constructed of used tires.

When I joined the gifted program I helped design units that took us outside often - writing at "Kaleidoscope Rock" in Pepperell's Booze Creek, 


or on the playground or in the woods of other schools. We explored Myrtle Hill, Marshall Forest, the dry lake at FJC, and made trips to the Anniston Museum, Atlanta Zoo, Fernbank, the Knoxville World's fair, Savannah, Wormsloe, Ossabaw, Washington DC. We had our annual Sea Day at FJC where we dissected sharks.

When I came back to education after an eleven year hiatus I came to Armuchee Elementary. It was a perfect fit, from my viewpoint. It was filled with folk who agreed with my desire for hands-on learning. Ruth Pinson, Anita Stewart, Marilyn McLean, Cathy McGraw and others were even involved in an organized effort to study and refine and articulate the environmental approach. We raised butterflies; planted milkweed, passion flower, fennel, and American chesnuts; released sturgeon back into our rivers; stomped through our creek looking for macro invertebrates; built rain barrels; recycled our trash; built trails;

inventoried road kill (!); proposed a law (state amphibian); measured, read, wrote, thought, and experimented…   
… all .in the context of the very real and wonderful world around us.

In the process I became an environmental education "evangelist". I am convinced that learning in the great outdoors sticks.

And so my dream for retirement was to be able to spend some time working with children and adults as a naturalist/teacher in a nature center. The first choice, of course would be one of our local treasures -- the Rome ECO Center, a still-dream-only Marshall Forest nature center, or maybe even the spot I've been taking my students to since 1999, Arrowhead Environmental Education Center.

Dreams come true.

At my retirement party in May, some folks I greatly admire, approached me about working part-time at Arrowhead. It was still just a proposal, but if I gave the go-ahead they would pursue getting it approved. It's been two months, and though everyone who needed to approve the grant and contract had done so, the paperwork took a while. The grant is from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and administered through the schools.  

Today, I went by the Floyd County Schools office and signed my contract. It's official. It doesn't pay a lot. It is only two days a week -- but that's about what I want right now. So far I have spent four days (yes I worked four days without a contract) cleaning alligator poo from the gravel of their tank, replacing the mossy bottoms of tanks for turtle, lizard, and toad. Sweeping, washing, cleaning. Feeding crickets to tree frogs and salamanders. And planning with two wonderful co-workers, Vivian Davis and Marilyn McLean, for a year of introducing children to the wonders of the natural world around us.

If you have children in the schools of this area, encourage their teachers to schedule trips to Arrowhead while slots are available. It's a wonderful resource and a great place to learn.

I have my dream retirement job.

Postscript:

Vivian, our newly minted Director, has worked as the fulltime assistant to former Arrowhead coordinator, Kim Kilgore, for two years. The year before that, Kim and I "shared" Vivian as our student teacher in a specially approved University of West Georgia student-teaching experience. Vivian worked in my classroom most of the week, but also observed and taught with Kim. Vivian has a huge heart for the animals and younguns and for environmental education. It is a little strange, but a great privilege, to be "directed" by my former student teacher.


Marilyn has taught at Arrowhead for about eight years. She taught fourth grade with me at Armuchee Elementary during my first seven years there. She is one of the best teachers I have ever worked with. She and Ruth Pinson guided their students through the successful three-year effort to make the Green Tree Frog our state amphibian. I have watched children mesmerized by her easy, quiet, wonder-sharing at Arrowhead. It is a joy to get to work with Marilyn again.


Arrowhead was the dream of no one more that its original and only coordinator, Kim Kilgore. Kim has overseen the growth of Arrowhead from just a dream in the minds of herself and a few DNR legends like the late Ted Touchstone, to the wonderful facility we have today. Kim's influence in local and state environmental eduction circles has been great. I met Kim my very first week at AES in 1999. She will be missed as she goes on to other dreams.

Vivian has some big hiking boots to fill, but she is well-equipped to do it. And our little team is determined to carry on, and even enlarge, Arrowhead's mission.

Monday, August 05, 2013

Gleaning Facebook: Think I'll drive up to Armuchee and...

It's 8:30 am on August 5, 2013, the first day of school. I have just gotten up, showered, dressed. I've donned a pair of socks, the first I've worn since July 25 - it's been sandals or bare feet every day since then. Think I'll drive up to Armuchee and pass right by Scenic Road and good ol' AES for while, maybe enjoy a cuppa joe along the way, enjoy the lush green Armuchee ridges and rushing Armuchee Creek -- such a wonderful change from the also beautiful but desolate dry hills of southern California -- before I drop in to see how the trail is coming and say "Hi" to a few of my employed friends.

I miss the joys of the first day. Those happy fresh faces. Introducing Penny and Nick to wide eyes. Examining apples with curious minds. That first walk on the trail.
BUT, I believe I can get used to the freedom of scheduling my own time.