Teaching Experiences & Reflections

Aves Compartidas is a bilingual environmental education program that aims to break barriers across languages, redefine what it means to be a scientist, and strengthen family involvement in education. Our program promotes connections between the Willamette River watershed in Oregon and the Río Laja watershed in Guanajuato, Mexico, through a curriculum based on their shared migratory birds. We served 207 elementary students across nine third, fourth, and fifth grade classrooms through 15 inclusive indoor and outdoor lessons, three comprehensive field trips, and a celebratory Wildflower Festival hosted by Mount Pisgah Arboretum. We collaborated with Ecology in Classrooms and Outdoors, Mount Pisgah Arboretum, and River Road/El Camino del Río Elementary School. Using the Learning in Places Collaborative frameworks, our curriculum explores the socio-ecological relationships between the environment, students, their families, and their local community, promoting environmental stewardship. 

In Aves Compartidas, I worked as an environmental educator alongside 9 other University of Oregon students in class and on field trips. I was the lead teacher in a 3rd grade classroom in which I taught five lessons over five weeks. Then I led three field trips, one for each grade, 3rd-5th, at Mount Pisgah Arboretum. Leading up to these lessons, I contributed an educational perspective as the only education major in the team. I incorporated pedagogies of meeting students where they are and being part of rather than apart from nature, as the Learning in Places framework suggests, and organized a project management plan to help the team stay organized. Finally, I presented our research and accomplishments to our community partners, school administrators, and other Environmental Leadership Teams alongside four other Aves members. 

During my eight weeks learning and teaching at El Camino del Río Elementary School, I have made strides as an educator that I never could have imagined. I entered these lessons nervous of where I would fail and focused on every detail being just perfect. By the end, I entered each week with joy and excitement to see what would go well and prepared to think on my toes while meeting each student where they are.

These changes were not sudden, they took time but did not go unnoticed. I found myself growing more and more with each week and with that came more excitement to get back into the classroom. My confidence soared and I knew that whatever happened, I was making an impact on some level. As the second Aves member to teach each week, I was able to observe the first lesson, adapt, teach, and then pass on my knowledge to the next teacher. As someone who has struggled with flexibility, these quick changes were refreshing and reminded me the importance of being elastic. Additionally, they were helpful to myself and my team in order to put our best foot forward with each lesson. This was where the role of feedback became vital allowing us to adjust with each bump in the road. For example, with lesson one we facilitated an activity in which the students were to label a map of North America with the relevant places to Aves. We quickly learned after the first facilitation that our slides were just not cutting it. So we switched to using a document camera to show it on the white board which worked significantly better! Later we went back in, readjusted the lesson plan and slides, and felt much more confident in the lesson’s use for years to come! This flexibility saved us on the day of our first lesson, allowing for changes to be made on the fly and later on to help future Aves teams. 

On top of this, I became confident in my ability to build relationships with my students and give them what they needed by listening and caring which built engagement, awe, and inspiration with each new lesson. Every week that I came back I found more students raising their hands and excited to learn. It even got to be so many hands that my team suggested we only take a couple for each question to save time! This curiosity proved our success. During our field trip, which completed the Aves program for these students, these curiosities were also shown through explanation of the connection to in-class lessons, intrigue anytime a bird flew by, and true readiness to become an environmental steward. One student even went as far to say that “this was the best field trip ever” and I couldn’t have agreed more. While my students left with awe, so did I because of my success in impacting them and their connection to nature, leaving me inspired and ready to teach again!

Evaluation from peers, mentors, and students was key to the success of Aves Compartidas. Each week, we ensured time was spent receiving and implementing feedback in order to become the best educators we could be. For me, these evaluations helped shape more engaging, comprehensive, and inclusive lessons.

During each lesson, I was lucky enough to be observed and evaluated by at least one peer and a mentor teacher, GE, or professor. In general, my evaluations consisted of many pluses (areas in which I excelled) and some deltas (areas that could be improved) that I was able to use to form how I would facilitate my next lesson. Below, you can see some of the evaluations I received that helped me improve my work as an environmental educator. Often, many of my pluses consisted of a solid teacher voice, good classroom management techniques, and a strong suit in ensuring all students understand the material. An example of this was my use of an attention grabber that I made up special for our Aves 3rd graders, who focused on the Colibrí Rufo, or rufous hummingbird. When the classroom got a little loud or hectic, and it was time to come back to focus, I would say "Colibrí, Colibrí" and the students would respond with "Bzzz" like a hummingbird's wings to quiet down. This inclusion of classroom management was fun, incorporated our focus species, and worked great in order to ensure the best use of our time in the classroom. These successes allowed me to continue doing them and suggest them to my other teammates. 

One of the best parts of Aves was learning from my peers, I loved contributing to this by offering my educational successes! However, I was also able to contribute by learning from my shortcomings. As shown in the evaluations below, there were times when I could have used more Spanish, transitioned more smoothly, or given more time for students to find the answer to the questions I was asking.  While these were the most common deltas I received, they became pluses by the end of our 6 weeks with the students because of the advice I was given by my peers and mentors. Implementing more Spanish was a consistent stressor of mine while teaching; luckily, my host teacher, Erin Skoubo, constantly reassured and helped me. She suggested focusing less on speaking Spanish in fluid sentences but rather giving the key words and making the slide shows all in Spanish. This method was much more successful and allowed the students to still receive bilingual education while not overwhelming anyone. I also ensured that my time with students for one-on-one help was always in Spanish to push my boundaries even more! This was just one way I implemented feedback to better my students' understanding of all we learned in Aves Compartidas together! 

Aves Compartidas...

• Reached over 120 students for a total of 42 hours in direct contact with the students

• Created and executed 18 lessons, including 5 in-classroom lessons per grade and 3 comprehensive field trips 

• Facilitated a wonderful day of activities at the Mount Pisgah Wild Flower Festival

• Helped students find a sense of environmental stewardship and a love for birds (shown in the images below)!

• Aves Compartidas, 3rd Grade, Lesson 3 Los Polinizadores!

• Aves Compartidas, 3rd Grade, Lesson 2 Atonomía de los Aves!