Today, the school year kicks off in our local communities here in the Coulee Region of Wisconsin. Most, not all, are entering this year on a virtual platform as opposed to in-person, classroom learning. While the majority of students were exposed to an online learning environment last spring, it was brief if you consider how…
My poem this week is inspired by all the children returning to school. It is a time of year that I am fond of because of the sense of newness and anticipation for the year ahead. While this year will be a year like no other, I think the sense of anticipation can still be…
This post is more personal than I usually get with my blog. But, since dieting is something most of the world’s population does at some point, it is a relevant post, nonetheless. Over the last few years, both my husband and I have noticed some middle aged spread. We enjoy food and eat well, but…
What are you doing, personally, to make living during the COVID pandemic better for others? Anything? Or, are you just complaining? Be honest here. Are you actively trying to make life livable during this crisis? One of the debatable tenants of Environmental Education has become a guide for my life. It is that there MUST…
We find ourselves living in odd times. But, some rights of passage continue as though these cycles have a life of their own. First-time college students are gearing up to move into their university communities and start a new life. Yes, much of it will be different but some of it will be very much…
Oh, boy! This year is set to be very different than any previous year for school. I have two students headed back to college classes and one who I thought was going to be entering as a college freshman but decided in early June that he was going to pursue a different path despite getting…
Words need more substance than just inclusion in verbiage. There needs to be meaning AND intent behind them. While in grad school for my Environmental Education degree, we were asked in one of the theory courses whether education (about the environment) is enough (for community members). Is knowing about environmental problems and issues like the…
This spring I was to engage over 1,500 local youth in presentations regarding our environment. Handouts were ordered. Seeds were collected. Easels were purchased. April, May, and June were to be busy months. Since all those events were canceled due to the pandemic, I found my work as an environmental educator on pause. But, it…
Lately, I’ve been wondering about the effects the pandemic has had on our environment. I’ve wondered seriously enough to search for professional journal articles specifically on this subject. What I found was mostly narrative, which disappointed me, as I had hoped to sustain my impressions with some facts. We’ve all seen the stories about nature…
We’ve done some landscaping at our cabin up north this year. It was time as we’ve had the property for twenty years and built the cabin five years into that. The north woods of Wisconsin is just that – woods, mainly pine and birch. The landscape is dotted with small freshwater lakes, some of which…