Nature Journaling is easy; Write about Nature

        A few days ago I came back with some weary, fellow Master naturalists from Charlottesville, having gotten there for a 9 a.m. training concerning wetlands at the local library. And our trainers didn't show! We called them and decided upon our "own" training the following weekend, and did some foot traveling on Market Street and this brick floored area called The Mall, as well as visiting some farmland owned by Virginia Tech near exit 205.
     Which leads me to my point: experiences outside are much more vivid and better remembered if you write about it soon after it happens, in your own nature journal.
     I've kept a number of little notebooks over the years, and now also blog about nature (at http://naturethinker.blogspot.com) now too. With the incredibly warm temperatures we've had (just love the spring temperatures, my favorite temps of all!) there is much to want to record and remember. 
     Just the other day we visited church friends and under a bare, grayish trees was a burst of color on their front lawn. I eyed these crocuses, these purple little light bulb shaped flowers, with the light orange stamens and pistil, and also their pencil thin bright green stems and skinny leaves, and smiled. I didn't have a camera or sketch pad handy -- I tend to write about nature more than I illustrate it -- but the memory of this harbinger of spring is still fresh in my mind. Perhaps I should sketch them later on, on a sketch pad I have in my office.
     Keeping a nature journal doesn't have to be an expensive venture. If you can't afford an art pad you can fold typing paper in half, punch a hole through it, and tie it together with a colorful slip of yarn or ribbon you have laying around the house or apartment. Then you can record your thoughts about what you have experienced outside, on a particular day. You can use pen or pencil, or even a thin marker if you have your art all planned out and definitely won't make a mistake! Journaling, describing what you see and how you felt and all the colors and shapes that abound, can only enhance the outdoor experience.
     If only people "would" stop to smell the roses, sketch them, think about them, how they are a perfect part of the day, we would have less violence and worry in society today. Everyone now, go outside and sketch!

Governor Andrew Cuomo-- help teachers without taking away tenure

   It’s enough to stress out the average public school teacher. I say average, because teachers in America teach in different circumstances. You have teachers at so-called Charter Schools with their own education theme and requirements, which may be quite different from public schools; you have teachers at magnet schools, under the purview of the local school system yet also allowed to be creative and innovative where needed; and there are the home schooled children, who, depending on the state, can be anyone from a parent to a highly certified education professional. Then there are the beleaguered public school teachers, the ones who teach most of the children in the U.S., the ones with the least say about their teaching environment and materials, being threatened yet again by another government official.

   In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to, essentially, take away teacher tenure and make it harder and harder to stay a public school teacher (see

http://ny.chalkbeat.org/2015/01/21/cuomo-will-push-for-to-raise-charter-cap-lengthen-tenure-process-revamp-evals-in-sweeping-overhaul/#.VO4IbD9D_OQ ). My friend Bud, who teaches in New York State, points out that though a Democrat, Governor Cuomo is incredibly unpopular with the teachers’ union. He believes that by making it more and more difficult to be a teacher that young people who would make good teachers are going to flock to the professional. 

   In point of fact, he will be helping to chase them away, and get present teachers to quit. You “don’t” help students by taking away all their teachers’ rights. A better way to help teachers help students is to ask “what teachers need,” instead of

the “this is what you are stuck with, so deal with it” philosophy of education.

    Making test scores 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation will cause teachers to teach “to the test” more, making school less interesting and motivating for students. Especially in the elementary grades, we want to encourage students to want to come to school, and help develop their interests in science, reading and math. Will that happen if teachers have no time to be creative? And can a teacher magically improve her “test score” if her heterogeneous group of students is just a group poor at test taking or below average overall?

    What about some accountability on the part of students and parents? Bud tells me he used to give his students work to take home, so the parents could work with them and help them improve. He stopped doing that because the parents never looked at the folder. Parents should, at least on weekends, have some responsibility for providing some enrichment for their kids, perhaps even working with their child on an assignment and reading a story together. Teachers can’t do it all; they need the support of parents and (sometimes lazy) students.

    But Governor Cuomo, like so many who don’t teach or even consider what teachers need besides constant orders, isn’t considering the needs of teachers. And “teaching to the test” is not motivating. For many students, it’s a plain bore.

    Teachers need better professional development and evaluation by people who “actually teach,” such as experienced Master teachers. They need parental support. They need more disciplined students. They do NOT need to have tenure taken away from them and to constantly teach to the test.

    It is no wonder parents take their kids to Charter schools. There teachers are allowed to be innovative, while at the same time, parents are expected to be more involved. If we ran public schools more like that, maybe all students would do better overall.