Journal Entry #7 - May 18, 2011
Schmitz Park Elementary
West Seattle, WA
Weather: Slight cloud cover.
Soil conditions: dry.
I sometimes volunteer for the Seattle Audubon Society, and this journal entry will account for my experience teaching natural history to young children. Upon arriving at Schmitz Park Elementary and speaking with program manager Janelle Shafer, I learned that the Seattle Audubon offers the FUN (Finding Urban Nature) program to schools which currently have no environmental education incorporated into their curriculum. It was baffling to think that a school in Seattle, of all places, did not offer any environmental education to students and I made it my duty to foster their learning about the natural world around them. The organization is run mostly through volunteers, with a few salaried employees, and strives to bring children closer to the nature in urban environments – i.e. one’s own schoolyard.
I was instructed to lead three groups of 3rd graders in lessons pertaining to environmental education, and the first topic was “Bird’s Nests.” The kids learned many interesting facts about the different types of nests that birds can make and were instructed to find materials in their schoolyard habitat to make their own bird’s nest. This actually was much harder than it sounds as it was very important to find the right materials to construct the nest, and then putting it together was a challenge as well. Some of the children were easily discouraged and I explained to them that we were only acting as birds, and so this is why we weren’t able to make a nest as well as a bird can. It was clear the more patient a child was in engaging with the activity, the better the nest turned out. I wondered if this was because children are so used to sources of instant gratification in current times, or if this was truly a skill-based lesson. The children used various materials foraged in their schoolyard habitat including: needles from the Douglas fir trees, grass, flower petals from dandelions, and various flexible branches.
My first group of third-graders consisted of five children. Among them was a very energetic, rambunctious youth – Brian – and he kept singing the lyrics to some popular, rather provocative songs. It was quite entertaining. Even more so because I had his twin brother – Tyler – in my next group and he was the exact opposite. Like night and day, literally. Tyler did seem to have more success with his bird’s nest, as he was calm enough to complete the task at hand. Interesting to think about twins and how different their personalities can be, makes for curious analysis.
I also had an autistic boy in this group named Logan. He didn’t seem to grasp, or much less express interest, in the lesson. He just wanted to talk to me and ask me random questions, which I found amusing. His paraprofessional, a Hispanic woman, was present with him and she made sure he remained somewhat on task. I asked her about how the other children responded to having an autistic child – someone who is clearly much different than them – as a part of their class. She stated that initially it wasn’t accepted as much amongst the children, but as they got used to it – the faculty was able to observe the definite improvement in relations between all the students. In my observation, there was one girl in particular – Michelle – who remained close to Logan throughout most of the lesson and helped him out a lot when needed. In returning back to the class, I also saw her desk was positioned right next to his and as this was right before recess, she helped him prepare to go outside. It was actually quite touching how close they seemed. I thought this was an interesting way to integrate diversity into classrooms and promote kindness and understanding in young children.
My last group ended up with the best bird’s nests of the day. I don’t know if it was because they were in a smaller group and I was able to float between the kids easier, or if this group was genuinely more interested in the natural world – maybe a combination of both. Isabel did seem to know a lot of random facts about plant cycles, and I felt bad because she got her jacket dirty and seemed really scared to tell or show her mom. Lastly, it could be that I had conducted this lesson three times by this point, which could have contributed to the streamlined efficiency of it all.
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