{"id":503,"date":"2021-11-22T20:20:22","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T01:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/greenwaylab\/?p=503"},"modified":"2025-06-26T17:50:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T21:50:20","slug":"river-exploration-for-educators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/greenwaylab\/river-exploration-for-educators\/","title":{"rendered":"River Exploration for Educators"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mill River education kick-off event<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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The importance of \u201cslowing down\u201d and \u201cpaying attention\u201d were key takeaways for participants in the Mill River nature journaling workshop on a balmy afternoon in early October. Seven educators and five River Guides gathered along the Mill River trail for the 2021 kick-off event of  River Inquiry via Exploration of our Region<\/a>. Teachers spanned grade levels from early elementary through higher education and settings from community gardens to environmental clubs. Carol Berner and Jan Szymaszek co-facilitated the activity, welcoming new and returning teachers to the Mill River educator network — an initiative launched in 2019 and interrupted by the pandemic. Several participants knew each other and were excited and grateful to be reconnecting on a sunny afternoon by the river. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Event mapping from Pebble Beach<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Jan led the group along the Mill River trail to \u201cPebble Beach,\u201d a name given by 3rd graders who frequented this flotsam-strewn meander during their annual river study. Carol introduced the group to a journaling activity called Event Mapping, in which an explorer records their wandering path with a mix of words, images and symbols. \u201cThe purpose is to create a trail of encounters as you, the explorer, move through a particular place, at a particular moment, asking, \u2018What\u2019s going on here?\u2019\u201d<\/em> (from Hannah Hinchman, A Trail Through Leaves). Carol invited participants to disperse and explore along the river for the next thirty minutes, before reconvening to debrief their experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slowing down, paying attention and questioning<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Event map shared by Natalee Dias<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI sat on a sun-drenched rock I\u2019d never seen before,\u201d shared one teacher who had walked her dogs along this trail for years. Karen wondered, \u201chow could there be tadpoles this time of year?\u201d Katie perched on a boulder, feet dangling in the water, writing and sketching. Natalee found poop bags everywhere she looked and concluded: \u201cWe need to educate others about taking care of our environment for all to enjoy. I love nature and dogs, but we are not alone\u2026 one dog poop left on the river is one too many.\u201d Flotsam of all kinds caught people\u2019s attention, raising questions about how the river shapes the land and how people shape the river. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Takeaways and bringing the experience to students<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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De-briefing their experiences, participants highlighted the quality of time: \u201cTaking time to settle in, slow down and notice\u201d and \u201chow valuable it is to observe undistracted for a good length of time.\u201d Teachers were eager to bring this experience to their students. Sally Imbibo facilitated event mapping with the JFK Middle School Environmental Club and reflected, \u201cevery student was totally engaged.\u201d The October kick-off event inspired participants and facilitators alike to feel \u201cappreciation and gratitude for the opportunity to be in a beautiful place,\u201d and to request \u201cmore of the same!\u201d in anticipation of future workshops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead: next steps for River Inquiry <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look for a survey requesting YOUR input on future River Inquiry educational opportunities. Here are some of the ideas generated by participants in the October workshop: <\/p>\n\n\n

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Watercoloring with water from the river.
<\/em>Photography of the river’s edge.
<\/em>Poetry writing about the river.
<\/em>Hands -on science experiment with the river.
<\/em>Could you do this with an ELL lens?
More open-ended experiences like this.
<\/em>Learning about history and natural history of the river
<\/em>More of the same!!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Virtual launch of children\u2019s book about Mill River flood (coming in January, 2022)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author, artist and educator Nancy Meagher will host a live reading of her book Millicent and the Day it Rained Buttons<\/strong><\/em>, a lively re-telling of the 1874 Mill River flood featuring real-life factory girls, historic artifacts and a spotted brook trout named Millicent. Explore with other educators how this book might inspire and inform classroom curriculum across disciplines of social studies, art, engineering, poetry, mapping and civics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post written by Carol Berner
Photography by Brita Dempsey<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With thanks to John Sinton, Gaby Immerman & the River Guides:
Karen Bryant, Brita Dempsey, Wendy and Freeman Stein, Jan Szymaszek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nMill River education kick-off event The importance of \u201cslowing down\u201d and \u201cpaying attention\u201d were key takeaways for participants in the Mill River nature journaling workshop on a balmy afternoon in early October. Seven educators and five River Guides gathered along…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “River Exploration for Educators”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":261,"featured_media":504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/no-intro.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-education","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/greenwaylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/greenwaylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/greenwaylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/greenwaylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/261"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/greenwaylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/greenwaylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":673,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/greenwaylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions\/673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/greenwaylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/greenwaylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/greenwaylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/greenwaylab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}