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During the last few years I have had several experiences with my students that have transformed the way I teach. Thomas Berry has described these times as "moments of grace." Such moments in our lives are when we see and understand things very clearly, so clearly, in fact, that the events change us. As an example, on a spring morning a busload of high school students disembarked in the parking area that led to a trail through the Everglades.
As I gathered the students and our chaperones together for the hike, I noticed two of my students remaining near the bus. Down the trail we started. Glancing over my shoulder, I noticed the two students still standing at the bus. When I returned to retrieve them, I learned that they were afraid of what might lurk around them if they left the pavement. I learned that day that children who grow up in our urban areas, living in apartment complexes with "keep off the grass" warnings and asphalt playgrounds often fear the natural world because of their disconnection to the Earth.
Another "moment of grace" came when I taught in a residential school for severely emotionally disturbed children. The same children that climbed on desks and refused to cooperate in the classroom became model students in the organic garden and on forest trails where they asked questions and listened intently for the answers. Another significant "moment" came while teaching all the typical pollutions and their examples.
I noticed blank stares in my students' eyes. I stopped to ask why they were not as excited or as passionate as I was about these important issues. One student was brave enough to speak for the class. "Oh, what is the use?" She indicated that it was all so overwhelming. I knew at once that they needed to see the beauty in nature and understand their relationship in the Earth. That became my challenge. Once my students grasped these ideas, surely they would enthusiastically act on the problems that confront humans in our Earth. Birds in the Schoolyard evolved from the thoughts and feelings that my students shared with me.
Birds in the Schoolyard was designed to enhance students' academic success through interdisciplinary knowledge, inquiry-based projects, service linked projects, and the use of technology. And equally important, this project was designed to provide students with avenues to use their creativity and imagination to reconnect themselves with the Earth.
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