Reflections

Over the course of my experiences in the field, three major themes that stood out to me: increased bilingual language communication, enhanced classroom management, and values gained from personal engagement in the environmental educator role. The language and communication theme was evident through all aspects of this project, from developing the curriculum to teaching and interacting with students at a bilingual elementary school. Some challenges I encountered included language barriers, students not responding to English spoken directions, and the need for more Spanish integrated throughout the lessons. As I developed as an educator, I adapted and included more Spanish into lessons despite the more challenging moments. I worked to make our field trips more accessible by grouping together students who were more proficient in Spanish with Spanish speaking ELP leaders. I saw how important it is to advocate for inclusivity when it comes to language since no student should have their experience out in nature compromised just because of the language they speak. The next theme of classroom management and student engagement came from working over the course of the six weeks to improve transitions, keep the student's attention for longer, evoke a sense of awe and curiosity in them, and work to get as many students to add into the class discussions as possible. Some difficulties I faced came in the form of students not responding to questions I asked, being confused on directions and disengaging entirely. As well as my own personal comfortability with the content which reflected on how smoothly the lesson ran. The 3rd theme of personal connection and adaptability reflects the lasting impact I will take with me as a developed environmental educator. My knowledge 20 weeks ago at the start of this project to now includes a transition to becoming more aware of plant and animal species content, teaching frameworks and methodologies, and the necessity to get children excited to learn about nature. While balancing different learning styles from my students, the limited in-person time I had to interact with the students, as well as contributing and supporting my other teammates, I became more flexible and fostered connections within myself, with my students, and with the environment. Going through the development of an environmental educator has grown my passion for being a steward of the land. This experience has taught me what things I am capable of for creating a better and cleaner Earth and how education plays a major role in that. 

Evaluation forms were sent to our teachers each week so that they could offer insight and suggestions for how the past lesson went so changes could be applied for the future. Some of the positives that my teacher noted after my first lesson taught to the 4th graders was that the content was relevant for the age group, my teaching style was engaging and enthusiastic with students, and I gave clear instructions for activities. These areas are directly correlated with content I was taught during the 10 week skill building course of winter term 2024. During this time I learned about evoking child passions as a facilitator in order to bridge the gap between student and mentor. With the restriction of only working with the class for six total weeks, it was necessary to find ways to connect with them almost instantly. In order to incorporate this into my teaching experiences, I would walk around the classroom after giving directions for a task and have one-on-one time with students to see if they had questions and overall how they were doing. I believe these moments emphasized to my students that I believe in a relaxed learning atmosphere where students can be themselves even with a new person in the room teaching them. The hardships I encountered were associated with my students who were primarily Spanish-speaking and would not listen to any English spoken directions. This is where the improvements suggested from my teacher came from; she thought I should add more Spanish into the lesson. Taking this, my next lessons I pushed myself to include more vocabulary and Spanish phrases as I spoke aloud. Having weekly feedback allowed me to strengthen my teaching abilities by learning from what I did well and making adjustments to what I could do better. 

After each visit to the bilingual elementary school we taught at, El Camino del Rio, as well as after the field trips at Mount Pisgah Arboretum, the Aves Compartidas team would meet and discuss with our project manager and the co-director of the Environmental Leaders Program. These review sessions would allow the team to digest the day and ask any question we have from situations that arose. These commentary sessions were always formed with the foundation of progressing forward; taking what we had trouble with or wanted to work on and rephrasing it into something we could grow into for next time. I had some trouble with behavior management on the trails during field trips. Students would run ahead and this would often distract themselves and others from the content. Despite calling out to students by name or even moving them closer to a chaperone, this problem was consistent across all three grade level field trips. Something suggested by my mentors was to employ light and friendly competition to get students to focus. This could be encouraging them to fill out as much of their field trip field guide as possible or even assigning the most well behaved students certain roles such as line leader or being in charge of directing the group on the route. On one occasion I included a nature related game to help the students running ahead get some energy out. This included light competition with a relevant topic to our field trip and ended up being some of the students favorite part of the day. Taking feedback and finding a way to insert it into the next teaching opportunity makes things go smoother and emphasizes the process this project was. As a mentor I understood quickly I would never get it perfect, but with each lesson I taught and each line of feedback I received, I could always put my best effort forward that benefited both my own teaching experience as well as the opportunities the students received.