An Explorer's Mindset ~ Guest Post by Susan Koch

“We teach kids about the world and how it works, empowering them to succeed and to make it a better place.”  

Public Domain Pictures.net

That's the mission of the National Geographic Society's Educator Certification Program, which provides a learning framework and resources to help K-12 teachers inspire “the next generation of explorers, conservationists, and global citizens.”

Last month, in GROG's back-to-school post, Christy Mihaly interviewed me about my expedition to the Arctic as a participant in National Geographic's Grosvenor Teacher Fellow Program. Applicants for the Grosvenor program need to be National Geographic Certified Educators, and we promised to come back this month and explain more about the certification program. So here goes.

Enjoying outdoor education

The National Geographic teacher certification program uses a learning framework with three elements: Attitudes, Skills and Knowledge. The program trains teachers new techniques to get students excited while learning about geography and nature. I loved the idea as soon as I heard about it, because I'm passionate about getting students outdoors for learning. I am most excited when my students can explore, inquire, and make discoveries about their world.

First grade ECO explorers

Almost ten years ago, I helped developed an outdoor education program in my community of Montpelier, Vermont. This ECO (Educating Children Outdoors) program has become a school-wide opportunity for learners to develop a sense of place by interacting with the natural environment. 

In applying to be a Grosvenor Fellow, I submitted a video about my work with the ECO program. The application required a statement about my passion, and I decided I would need to go outside to tell the story. I bundled up with a down jacket and a hat, cleared some snow from the back deck, propped up my laptop and turned to the camera. 

To watch my video about ECO, click this link

In ECO, classes spend time weekly at outdoor learning sites, to explore, inquire and make connections. Learning outside in nature helps us to create a community that values earth stewardship and sustainability. The National Geographic certification program is so appealing because it helps teachers foster this kind of learning. 

Here are the elements of the National Geographic educator framework.

ATTITUDES: The program seeks to create students who are 

Heading out for ECO

Curious: excited about new challenges and adventures.

Responsible: respectful of differences and concerned with the welfare of others.

Empowered: willing and able to work to make a difference.

ECO students observing and recording

SKILLS: The program helps students develop their abilities to

Observe: see and make sense of their observations.

Communicate: tell stories! (through spoken or written words, video, songs, and more)

Collaborate: work together to achieve their goals. 




KNOWLEDGE: The program focuses on three subject areas:

What's this find, in a Vermont forest?

The Human Journey: where we are, where we're going.

Our Changing Planet: the earth and the interconnected life forms it sustains.

Wildlife and Wild Places: far-off and in our own backyard.

Educators in the certification program complete classroom activities based on this framework. They also present a capstone project in video form, using the framework to tell the story of their students' learning. 

ECO is all year round!

National Geographic believes that telling stories is an effective way to convey our knowledge -- and listening to stories is a great way to learn. The program helps educators discover their own stories. Often learners don't believe they have stories to tell; educators can help them discover their own stories. 

A recent favorite picture book develops this idea beautifully: Everywhere, Wonder, by Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr. 

With poetic language and beautiful illustrations, the book makes the point that each person's story is made of all the things they notice and imagine. It urges readers to "open your eyes and open your window and let your story out into the world." What better summary of how our stories are shaped by our world.

If you have questions about the National Geographic program, feel free to ask me in the comment section below!

Gathering Moments, Hours, Days

Gathering Moments, Hours, Days by Jan Godown Annino

I Meant To Do My Work Today

by Richard Le Gallienne

...“but a brown bird sang in the apple tree,

and a butterfly flitted across the field,

and all the leaves were calling me

and the wind went sighing over the land

and…”

-       copyright Richard Le Gallienne

Exploring and experiencing are what the talent-saturated & prolific author

Jane Yolen calls Gathering Days. In these summer days & nights,

she recently reminded social media followers to take time to fill the

wells of experience. Look for unusual plants & animals. Pay attention to

the everyday trees, flowers and creatures, too.

Listen to live music. Note odd names on streets and signs. 

Dance a folk dance.

Try a wild ride.

Or wild walk.

                                                     Acorn Street, Boston - May 2015 

                                                                Gathering Wobble!

A Gathering Day, or the Gathering Times & Gathering Moments are

                                                   Our yellow cottage front yard blossoms that 

                                                                       will = eggplants!

some of the many ways we connect with the thrum of activities that

can hold kernels of energy that lead to eyedears & stories.

 For example, how much better for me to write a garden story,

when I have wet dirt under my fingernails (my garden gloves become soaked

& mucky so I usually pull them off.) And when I attempt to grow a new plant 

to my garden patch, such as this year's eggplant & cotton.

How better it is for me to write these poems

about the seashore that I’m at work on after I’ve been engrossed in

following this olive snail’s trail, down on the Gulf of Mexico at St. George Island.

How easier it is to write about fear if I’ve climbed telephone-

pole-high in tree tops, to wobble along Myakka River State

Park’s shaky tree canopy walkway. I do NOT like heights so much.

Or, even a leetle bit.

And I did this!!

Gather Ye Gathers in Summer! 

Gathering Days ought to be sprinkled in our life all year, but for many 

with family & work rhythms tied to the school year, summer is a

fine time to gather aromas, to touch farm animals, to ride horses,

to observe sea creatures, to walk far into fields, run up hills,

even traipse into mountains.

Here are a few Gathering Day moments of mine, through the years,

woven into my stories & poems.

* Meeting a mama bear and her two cubs when they walked up -

and I walked RAN!  along a steep Mt. LeConte, TN trail.

* Meeting a Florida panther in South Florida (an actor for movies &

commercials, but nonetheless a moving, bounding panther.)

I JUMPED back!

* Riding horses on Paynes Prairie, Florida, to see bison up close. (They

were re-introduced, having once roamed there.) But the touch-and-go

moment of the ride was dealing with alligators strewn about this wet

prairie, which made the horses nervous. My husband & I are alive to 

tale the tell. Or to tell the tale. I rather like tale the tell.

(Todd... this Florida bison is for you!)

If the heat index for recent days wasn’t 103 upwards here in North Florida,

I would go out for my Daily Gathering during the day, instead of at nite.

On a regular foot journey, we small- city nayborhood dwellers can

easily walk from this little yellow cottage to a vet’s office, post office,  sub and burger chain & an independent country buffet & indy cookie/cake shop, plus a chain grocery, & bank. And yet - 

we can also climb hilly streets intensely wooded in swaths with tall growth pines, live oaks, dogwoods, cypress & other tree beauties.

The area is pocketed with an elevated road thru swamp, undeveloped grassy and woodsy gathering places where the animals in hiding (sometimes not in hiding) include fox, bunnies, coyotes, armadillos, opossums, bats & other small mammals such as the daily tree scrambles of the squirrels. Herons, Canada geese, owls and many song birds such as jays, cardinals, wrens & warblers visit. As do blackbirds, cowbirds, & treat of treats, hummingbirds. 

Surprising for a swamp, no gator spotted yet!

 Oh - quail. Can't forget the juvenile quail.

                                            (Cutie flew away last week when I went to fix a leetle 

                                                 box lined with soft stuff... Our cat is strictly inside,

                                                 we have no doggie, so why it landed on our door

                                                 mat is a mystery.)

To get back to that Gathering Wobble, our daughter works in Boston 

& the Gathering Day events she’s written to us about include bunny-watching, 

turkey watching, maple syrup making & kayak drifting on the Charles River.

Some gathering moments our family enjoyed together with her in

May in Boston were chipmunk watching, lilac sniffing, bleeding tooth-plant

finding, cobblestone walking on Acorn Street in Beacon Hill,

(avoiding falling) & robin-watching.

Where do you like to spend gathering days? 

What have you gathered in summers past? 

Is it too soon to report in on your “gathers” this season? 

I wish you many great gathering moments that will fill you with eyedears, words,

poems, pages, stories, scripts, illustrations & books.

Free Event!

If you would like to join me & several Group Bloggers in an online summer children's writing school, which is a great boost in gathering pages accomplished and in writing THE END, 

please read my essay about it & think about becoming a summer student in the comfort of your own home. It's created by two energetic SCBWI members. Last summer National Book Award-winning children's author Kathryn Erskine set the nourishing & exciting pace as the first day's faculty member.