By Education Team Staff | Project Leaders
Thank you very much for your support this year, which has allowed us to learn and grow along with our EarthKeepers. In anticipation of the new school year, we reviewed student surveys, test results and feedback, in addition to parent and counselor feedback from this past spring semester. We were thrilled to see how many students progressed, performing well on their quizzes and challenges. We have also been delighted to see so many of our students continue to discover nature over the summer by attending our outdoor camps.
In the spring, our team unfortunately lost one of our key nature instructors. Despite the initial staffing challenge, it was an opportunity for us to band together as a team to ensure the quality of our After School program for our students. We managed to rotate staff as well as support counselors, which allowed our students to work with new lead after school nature educators, including Morgan. Morgan worked with 6 year-old Alyssa at Southwest Elementary and shared her experience with us: “At the beginning of the spring session, Alyssa was shy and reserved. It was wonderful to see her open up during our nature activities as the school year went on. This summer, she joined the Forest Edge camp, and she has blossomed into a talkative camper who thoroughly enjoys turning over logs looking for bugs with her friends.” Morgan added that she was pleased to see how her “students’ curiosity for the outdoors expanded greatly through animal-facts games such as Park Ranger or the Great Backyard Bird Count, where students were provided with bird seed and instructions on how to participate in this citizen science project with their families. Morgan was particularly impressed with another student of hers, 11 year-old Leila: “In the Southwest Elementary After School program, there was a great age diversity among students. This allowed for Leila to take leadership by explaining nature activities to the younger students. She has matured significantly over the course of the Swamp Crawlers and Ancient Ways weeks at camp this summer as well.”
Our unexpected re-staffing experience in the spring has encouraged us to explore new means of providing a more stable structure to our program in the future. Throughout the summer, we have been training enthusiastic nature educators who will be joining our After School staff this fall for our EarthKeepers program. In order to strengthen our work, we will be focusing our efforts on Forest View elementary and a new on-site program at Piedmont Wildlife Center, providing more in-depth mentorship experiences to our students with your generous support. Thank you!
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