Stories from the Field

Rachel's Story: Scottie's Bluff

From Janice Hagerbaumer,
5th grade teacher from Garden Gate Elementary in Santa Clara:
 
I have two favorite stories.  The first is about a boy who wasn't real interested in the outdoors.  I don't remember who he had for a field teacher, but they were really into raptors.  At the end of our week this boy was totally into raptors.  During the summer I got a call from his dad - who was mad as a hornet.  It took them two days to drive to Oregon to see their relatives (usually only took one) because his son kept yelling "Pull over, pull over - there's another one."  He took pictures of raptors all the way to Oregon.  He now works on documentaries of wild life - mostly raptors!  
 
The second was a young man in trouble - sent to my class because he hadn't made it any where else.  At 6th grade he was reading at first grade level.  He came back from Muir Woods very excited about banana slugs.  He asked if I could tell him more about them.  I said I was busy with the rest of the class at the moment, but I had a book about banana slugs.  I gave it to him.  About an hour later he came to me and said, "I didn't know you could find out stuff you wanted to know by reading!"  He did better in middle school and very well in high school.  He came and visited me to show me his grades.  "And to think," he said, "all because of a banana slug!" 
 

From Kim Gesicki-Robinson,  
6th grade teacher from Merryhill Elementary in Sacramento 
 
Three years ago, I had a group of kids (6th, 7th and 8th graders) there for a whole week. It was my first 5-day program, and there was a lot of drama going on (who was wearing what, who was hanging out with whom, etc). By about the third day, I was getting frustrated, and decided to sit my students down for a talk. We met at the campfire circle at sunset. There was no one else around. We started talking about the importance of this experience, the value it could bring to our lives, and why it mattered that the students were present while they were here. When I finally started to catch the students' attention, a coyote came up from backside of hill near dining hall, and stood behind there looking at us. All of the students froze, and they all seemed to get it in that moment. It was as if the coyote was telling us, "This is what it's all about." And just as soon as they seemed to get it, the coyote turned and walked away, as quietly as it had come. I have to say, that was one of the most profound moments of those students' lives. Everything about those kids changed, and not just during that trip. That moment changed the way they were at school, the way they think about the earth, the way they connect with each other, the way they see the connections between humans and nature. They will carry that moment with them forever. Some of those students just graduated from 8th grade, and they were still talking about that moment at their graduation, three years later.

Sam's Story: Hawk Hill