Citizen Scientists in the Great Backyard Bird Count!

Sighting a bird with Russ

Watching and identifying the bird

On February 18^th, my students participated in the Cornell Backyard Bird Count with help from birding expert, Russ Schipper.   Mr. Schipper, from the Kalamazoo Audubon Society, has come to North Shore for the past five years, sharing his love and expertise of birds with all of the fourth graders.  Every fall he comes to each classroom and teaches a lesson on bird adaptations, habitats and identification.  This year, he also came to the fifth grade classrooms and taught a new class specifically on owls.  He returns each February and takes my class into our outdoor learning center to identify birds and help submit our findings to Cornell University.  Cornell collects information from around the world to analyze trends in bird populations.  Students were able to watch online as the data was reported.  This was the first year that we saw robins in our backyard during this count.  We learned that some robins overwinter here and feed on fruit when insects are unavailable.  The robins were eating sumac berries.  A huge thank you to Russ Schipper for his dedication to educating and inspiring students at North Shore Elementary!          

Women's March on Washington: We are Worthy!

Me with my sign and my new friends standing in front of a memorial of
 Lincoln and the Emancipation; on our way to the March! 

Last Saturday, I had the amazing opportunity to walk with well over 500,000 amazing people in the Women's March on Washington.  I need to say, this is not intended to be a political blog.  The political issues of the day are complex and I have always believed that there are at least two sides to a story and more than one way to "skin a cat."  I have voted in every election since I was 18 years old and although many times my choice did not win, I have never protested the outcome.  In fact, walking on Saturday, was not a protest and it was not an anti-Trump rally (the protesters were out on Friday, during the inauguration).  This was different.  This was not an anti-Trump event.  This event was for women and the people and the planet that they love.  I went knowing that I had to be there.  I wasn't even sure exactly why I had to be there, I just knew I was going.  Perhaps, I felt something like a fall monarch being pulled to its homeland in Mexico that it had never seen before.  It felt like instinct.  And so. . . I went.

I made a friend on the bus I took out of Ann Arbor (we spent two nights on a bus together and shared our life stories).  Kiersten is a strong and amazing person that I'll never forget (standing to my left in the photo).  We later met up with 3 other amazing women from other buses and we instantly became a group of five.  My son John traveled from New York but we never were able to meet due to the incredible crowds (although amazingly, he bumped into his cousin and her fiancé).  My son Ben, marched in Detroit.

Our group started out at the stadium (where our buses parked).  We all had purchased transit cards to ride the subway to the rally, but the subways were packed and we chose to walk.  As we walked, there were lots of police and crossing guards helping us along the way.  Those of us close to officers, thanked them.  Some of us were given a high-five as we passed.  People came out of their row houses to say, "Welcome to DC!  Thanks for coming!"  We even got a smile from a guard dressed in a camo uniform and standing in front of a camo painted tank.  It made me laugh and think I was witnessing visual "doublespeak."  The last thing that tank or person was, was camouflaged.  They should really paint their tanks with row houses, streetlights and sidewalks if they want to look camouflaged and the guard should have ditched the drab colors and gone with pink.  We were several blocks away from the rally on our walk and we desperately hoped to find a bathroom (you can imagine the lines that we women made).  We stepped into a tiny diner and feared we might be kicked out.  Not only did they let us use their facilities, but they gave us free coffee.  Amazing.  We hadn't even arrived on the mall and Washington DC was already pouring out love.

If you watched the news, you probably heard more than I did of the speeches that were presented (I hope to listen to some of them on YouTube in the days ahead).  It was amazingly crowded and hard to get around.  But even in the thickest crowds, people were polite and generous and kind.  At one point our group was pinned against the back of a long row of porta potties.  We couldn't move and we couldn't hear and it became hard to breathe.  We decided that it was time to move and as we tried to get out, I told folks in front of us that we had someone with claustrophobia in our group and we needed to move.  It was a bit like the red sea parting. . . people started moving and calling ahead, "they need to get out!  Make room!"  All day long, people were kind and patient and generous.

During the march there were several times when the gravity and beauty of the moment brought me to tears.  As we marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, we were surrounded by people from all walks of life.  There were young adults, families, elderly couples and people in wheelchairs.  There were people of all colors and faiths and backgrounds marching together in grand unity down the street toward the White House.  And it was the diversity and the love that made this march so amazing.  We were there for our own reasons but I think we were there, even more, for each other.  It is powerful to feel that you are in a crowd that marches, not for themselves but for you and that you march for them.  It was a mothering of sorts.  There was not a single arrest and there was hardly any litter (although all the garbage cans were overflowing, garbage was stacked neatly around the cans).  This was a women's march.  And for the first time, I really understood that we need women in leadership.  We need peaceful, powerful and positive movements led by women.

As we headed back to our buses at the stadium, one woman and her sign stood out.  I never saw her face, she was ahead of me.  Her sign was small and handwritten with black sharpie marker on cardboard.  The march was over so it was swinging by her side.  The sign read, "I Am Worthy."  For some reason, that image is ingrained in my mind and in my heart. . . . I think that is what I was seeking and why I was marching.  I wanted to say to women (and men and animals and rocks and trees and every creature everywhere) . . . you are worthy and I desperately wanted to hear, "you are worthy too."  

Thank you everyone who marched with me and for everyone who made me feel worthy.  We are Worthy.  We are all Worthy!      

      

Teaching A Growth Mindset

I have the above Growth Mindset image posted in the front of my classroom and it reflects the current brain research on best teaching practice and learning.  Successful students need to have what is called a "growth mindset."  There has been a great deal written about growth mindset, but in a nutshell, it's about learning from challenges and mistakes.  It's about figuring out what you don't know and seeing those challenges as an opportunity to learn and discover.  This mindset means that education is not about perfection or IQ; rather it's about working on things that are hard and knowing that there is a great deal that we still don't know and can learn.  A growth mindset is what makes us smarter and more productive.  Most of us have been around long enough to know that we learn from mistakes and that when we overcome challenges we grow.  It's logical that having a growth mindset leads to learning.  The real question is, how do we impart this frame of mind to our students?  We have students who come to school expecting learning to be easy, because they have been told they are brilliant.  And at the other extreme,  we have students who believe that they can't possible learn.  They think that anything that requires thinking is somehow beyond their ability.  They feel stupid even before they know what the challenge or lesson is.  How does a teacher proceed?

I suppose if I am honest, I have been both those types of students myself.  There have been times when I've felt like I knew it all and other times when I was sure I was totally incapable of learning anything about the subject matter at hand.  And I'm pretty sure that in the future, there will be more times such as those.  How do I proceed?  I think that teaching a growth mindset requires having a growth mindset.  Having a growth mindset as a teacher means being vulnerable in front of your students.  It's about sharing your lack of knowledge as well as your knowledge.  It means we are never done learning.  It's about teaching that the process of learning is more important than the product.  The irony is that, when you focus on the process, the product usually improves (although sometimes it takes a lifetime or more).  If I want my students to have a growth mindset, I need to remind myself that I need to have a growth mindset.  I need to always be learning and growing and becoming a better student as well as a better teacher.

I suspect that developing a growth mindset will be a lifetime struggle and adventure for me on this journey called life, but I know that it is worth striving for.  In fact, I think we all started with a growth mindset.  Have you ever seen a baby stop babbling because he/she couldn't pronounce the words properly?  Or have you ever seen a toddler stop trying to walk, because he/she toddled into a fall?  We come into this world already hardwired with a growth mindset. Somewhere along the way, it can slip away from us and I think that's when we start growing old.

Developing a growth mindset is not simply an academic pursuit; it's a life pursuit and it requires action to be meaningful.  Can you image if our culture embraced a growth mindset . . .? What if the criminal justice system operated from a growth mindset?  It would no longer be about punishment; it would be about restorative justice and forgiveness.  We would try to help people become better citizens and to learn from their mistakes so that they could live productive lives.  (If you have ever met a person who has spent time in jail and has had a second chance to redeem his/her life, you know what a gift that person is to the community).  What if politicians embraced a growth mindset?  Can you imagine?!  They would admit mistakes and share areas of growth instead of the negative attack mode that was so rampant this election year.  And more importantly, can you imagine if the Senate and Congress had a growth mindset instead of a partisan mindset?  Discussions and actions wouldn't focus on party lines; rather, they would focus on learning from mistakes and from each other and then getting down to work.

In the end, I think that having a growth mindset is about the positive actions that we take from wherever we are.  It's humility and hard work and a belief that we can make this world a better place.  And isn't it wonderful, that we are born into this quest?  It gives me hope for our future.  In the words of Mohandas Gandhi . . .        

"It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important.  You have to do the right thing.  It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit.  But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing.  You may never know what results come from your action.  But if you do nothing, there will be no result."

Peace and Love.

Words of Wisdom

Let us hope for a great deal of light and love.

Politics and Teaching

"The End is Near" Time Magazine Cover

We are in an election year like no other.  It is a year when the sides are so polarized that whichever side you are on, you are pretty much sure the other side is crazy (and maybe criminal).  My students asked me who I was voting for the other day and I gave my usual response, "I don't share who I'm voting for."  But this year I realized that if I told them, about half my students would lose total respect for me (or if not my students, surely their parents who might not hear about the math assignment, but would certainly hear about who Mrs. Linstrom was voting for).  In class, we have talked about the importance of voting. Next week, we will talk more about the democratic process. We have discussed the right to our own opinions and the importance of respecting other people's opinions, but this has been a hard year for adults to set that example.  Politics has become something of a mud slinging circus that we don't really want our children to view (and certainly not to emulate).  It is clear that people on either side find it nearly impossible to image the other point of view (and I will admit, this includes myself).  What has happened to us and how do we move forward?  Next week when the elections are over, how will be respond?  Politics and policies are important.  How should we proceed?

Here's what I think . . . On Wednesday, I will still have twenty-eight students who need to learn long division.  I will still have students who will walk into my class bearing the burden of a "less than adequate childhood."  I will still have students who think that they can't learn (or they are not smart enough) and some students who think they know it all.  I need to teach them they are both wrong and they are both right.  I will still have students who read at about the first grade level and some who read at about the sixth grade level and they all need to be challenged.  I will have students who are scared to go home and some who are scared to come to school.  My plate is full.  I can't change the world, but I can keep trying.  

On Wednesday I know that the monarchs I raised late summer, will continue their flight to Mexico. The milkweed in our gardens will invest in their roots and rhizomes, and lay dormant through the winter.  When spring arrives, the milkweed we planted (and the milkweed that no one planted) will grow and feed the great-great-great grandchildren of the monarchs we raised (and the monarchs we didn't raise).  If there is a wall between us and Mexico, they will fly over it.  Life will continue.

  

Mother Teresa was quoted to say, "What takes a lifetime to build could be destroyed in a day . . . build anyway. . ."  I think she is right.  This life is about building.  We build, we plant, we work and all the rest is just . . . all the rest.  We have children to raise and a planet to care for.  On Wednesday, like every day, we have work to do.  Let us keep building.    

Headed to Mexico

Milkweed Planting (saved from the lawn mower)

Outdoor Learning Center Additions

New archways onto our two nature paths!

Weaving into our new butterfly sculpture!

  

Planting native species into our gardens!

Michael Zillins, Eagle Scout helping with our new Butterfly Garden!

Butterfly Release!

On September 17th, we celebrated the new additions to our Outdoor Learning Center here at North Shore Elementary School!  Thanks to a great many generous people, the vision and support for this project continues to grow.  

Thank you to Lisa Rostar, art teacher who received a grant to have sculptor, Kathy Kreager create the amazing butterfly sculpture that now graces our backyard.  Lisa received the grant from the School Foundation and the Garden Club.  It is beautiful!    

Thank you to Tom Small and the good people from Wild Ones, out of Kalamazoo, for the grant they awarded me to develop a butterfly garden.  I purchased plants from Hidden Savanna, a native species nursery out of Kalamazoo.  The garden is well underway and we couldn't have done this without your support!

Thank you to Michael Zillins, Eagle Scout, who will help develop our butterfly garden!  He and his troop will create a border, a sign and enlarge the mulched area of the garden.  Michael is the fourth Eagle Scout who has helped with components of this outdoor project.  The Eagle Scouts of South Haven have invested in this project from the start and we are grateful!

Thank you to Frank Lawson, South Haven artist and friend, who made beautiful archways to the entrances of our two paths into the woods!  Stepping under those arches is a great way to begin a journey into our outdoor classrooms.  Thanks Frank!

This project began six years ago in honor of Dr. Liberty Hyde Bailey Jr., born and raised on a local farm in South Haven.  He left his home to become a scientist, professor, writer and poet.  Bailey was instrumental in starting what was termed, "The Nature-Study Movement."  In his book, The Nature Study Idea, (1904) Bailey writes to the question; What is Nature Study?  

". . . its purpose is to enable every person to live a richer life, whatever his business or profession may be.  Nature-study is a revolt from the teaching of mere science in the elementary grades. . . Nature-study is not science.  It is not knowledge.  It is not facts.  It is spirit.  It is concerned with the child's outlook on the world."

Bailey wanted to share his love for learning and exploring in the natural world with all students.  I hope that we capture some of that spirit and share some of his joy with the students of North Shore Elementary.  Thank you to everyone who supports this endeavor!    

Harold, The Wandering Iguana

Harold, after 7 weeks on the lam

Thanks to the kindness of neighbors and the first responders of South Haven, my green iguana Harold is back home.  Harold disappeared on July 2nd.  He was outside for his morning sunshine in his cage and although closed, it wasn't completely secured.  Harold nuzzled his way out and vanished within a span of five minutes while I was inside making his lunch.  My family and I searched the trees and bushes in our yard, the back ravine and our neighbors yards for hours and then days.  I left the cage open and stocked with food, hoping he would find his way back home.  I called the humane society and reported his loss in the hopes someone might see him.  Over a month went by and still sometimes I would go and gaze into the trees and wonder where Harold had gone. . . I finally put the cage away and faced the reality that he was probably eaten by a racoon or hawk.

Harold enjoys his freedom and when he is in my classroom, he spends a great deal of time hanging in the top of my ficus tree or sitting on my desk, keeping me from the distractions of paperwork.  His cage is more of a safe space for him; a place he goes when he wants to eat or escape the busyness in the classroom.  He appreciates his personal space.  Iguanas are not social creatures.  They prefer to observe the world from a distance and yet, he has a funny way of getting close to me without wanting me to pick him up or hold him.  When I'm in the room alone, he will most often wander over to where I'm working and find a place that's just a bit above me to sit.  He will cock his head and watch me.  He seems as fascinated by me as I am of him, and although neither of us could begin to imagine what the other was thinking, we have a working relationship and a certain fondness for each other.

My students think Harold is pretty cool even though I don't let them hold him or even really pet him.  They understand that he is not your average pet.  He is, in fact, a wild animal.  I'm not sure iguanas should even be called "pets."  I'm not sure pet stores should sell them, to be completely honest.  That being said, Harold lives in our classroom and my students and I hope to give him the space he needs and respect his privacy as much as possible.   Maybe there is a lesson in all of this and maybe not.  Either way, Harold makes our life a little bit better and I'm so glad that he is back.

Harold was spotted on August 23rd, about four blocks from home.  By the time the humane society contracted me and I arrived on the scene, there were two fire trucks, four police cars and lots of neighbors staring into a huge maple tree.  It took the tallest fire truck ladder to reach Harold.  By the time he was captured and riding down the ladder in the hands of a firefighter, he looked absolutely terrified and I was in complete shock.  Harold had survived seven weeks on the streets and in the wilds of South Haven.  He was a bit thinner and had a few scrapes and a missing toe but he looked pretty good, all things considered.  I can't imagine how he spent his days and nights or where he traveled.  That will be a writing assignment for my fourth graders.  I look forward to the stories they write.  As for Harold, he is keeping silent, as is his way.  
   

Harold, back home in his tree