I was involved in a 2-day teacher workshop entitled "Leopold Education Project" which demonstrates to educators how to teach the values of Aldo Leopold and land-ethic. It was very interesting material; I enjoyed the ideas of using A Sand County Almanac as a curriculum base. There were also lots of opportunities to incorporate my knowledge of birds into the lessons, which I was very excited about, of course! One idea I liked was having the kids research different birds' courtship rituals, then acting them out for their classmates. This lesson was based in one of Leopold's essays "The Sky Dance," describing the amazing ritual of the American Woodcock. Another lesson was bringing kids to see a bird banding demonstration! Leopold was a bird bander, which I didn't know. So, it was an eye-opening and mind-expanding experience. The workshop facilitator left something to be desired, however. I felt some of the time lagged with her talking too much off-topic. But, that itself was an opportunity to think about how I would do things differently.
And now I've got a 3-day weekend which I plan to spend biking, hiking and climbing around. Also, getting some illustrations for my Owlet stories started. There's also an artist-in-residence lesson happening this afternoon which I'm going to attend. This is an interesting project in that it's attempting to meld science and arts, and I'm really glad I'm here.