Reflection by LL

While I felt fairly conversant with Wildland Urban Interface issues (as I live in a WUI), I feel my week at the institute expanded my education and understanding of wildfires exponentially.  I wish that everyone on my staff could have come because the firsthand experiences were powerful.  There were so many facets to each day that it makes it difficult to give the full impact second hand.  Steve Jennings and his dry humour were a great balance to Shawna and her passion for everything trees.  The Project Learning Tree units brought home to me how often one needs exposure to an idea for it to truly sink in.  This was my fourth PLT experience.  Each was great, and this time, I finally grasped how easily these themes fit into curriculum and how important it is to our school's magnet mission that we dedicate entire years to PLT .

One thing I thought about in reviewing our week, (and maybe this was influenced by some of the blogging after our "Independent" article came out online) is that our forests and watersheds are not political.  They are finite and they are a part of our lives.  Dendrochronology does not give us an opinion; it gives us facts.  Serotinous cones don't choose to open or not depending on a wildfire policy.  They know exactly which conditions engender a response.  I am hoping that teaching the facts of the forest will help my students be seekers of information, writers of information, speakers of information. 

On a more practical level, the following are brainstormed ideas that I had for our school and then, quick lesson plan ideas I thought would work for different subject areas.

-I think we should do 3 rotations for teachers to incorporate in their daily lessons: PLT, Project Wild, Project Wet

-I think we should develop service learning projects with our local Fire District to do Defensible Space Assessments of Beulah homes: the Valley, the Mobile Home Park, Siloam Rd, North Creek Rd., Squirrel Creek, Middle Creek, Watterbarrel.  NJHS could create a plan for assisting homeowners.  Using the mapping program, we could chart coordinates and label needs with layers based on greatest level of urgency.

-Tailor professional development with PLT to provide Elementary teachers with support for PLT lessons targeting their year's focus. (e.g. 3^rd, micro and macro invertebrates).

-Do Parent/Staff book study on Aldo Leopold

-GT kids use books like those we've read and discussed and have them create a webography with a particular focus/perspective/theme

-In the same way that 7^th/8^th works with the Riverwatch program to create and collect data, use tree plots for the 6^th/7^th graders and incorporate GIS for both.