So the beaver festival is officially approved in Susana Park and our use fees have been waved, We were hailed as doing a wonderful educational thing, and we’re officially off to the beaver races. Hopefully city staff will unlock the bathrooms and hang the banners for us in the park and not turn the sprinklers on the day Amy starts chalking!. Our blue shirts arrived yesterday and they are lovely so we also have that going for us.
Next hurdle: Earth Day! I just found out that we are down by one volunteer so I’m seeing about recruiting another. It’s usually a very busy all-hands-on-deck kind of day, so it would be great if I could give Jon and Leslie a little back up.
I just heard this from Sarah about last night’s premier:
Squeeeee!
The premiere was sold out! With people packing the lobby wishing they could get in! And people loved it! The reaction to your scene especially was SO GOOD! I’m ready to start coordinating the screening in Martinez. I’ll keep you posted! Thanks!
Sarah
Wow wow wow! This is a pretty auspicious news and a great way to debut a beaver film. If it works out I think the screening will be at the Empress theater in Vallejo on the Thursday before the festival. Stay tuned, I’ll keep you posted as I know more. In the mean time congratulations Sarah!
To get us all in the mood for Saturday here’s a nice letter about the benefits to children of a green education.
Letter: Huge educational opportunities at new elementary school
Before people dismiss Doyon as a location for one new school, I wish to present some facts that everyone should carefully consider. First, it’s the open space. For a town that values open space, what is better than having over 17 acres for the children of Ipswich?
Nature is the best way to nurture pupils with special educational needs:
“The results showed that students with higher exposure to greenness show better academic performance in both English and Math. More research along these lines is needed in additional locations and with more extensive academic performance data among various grades to determine the effects of greenness under different education systems.”
Walking the halls of Doyon means seeing joyously happy rows of puddle boots outside of classrooms, and it means that the students get to come home throughout the year with the stories of venturing outside to study ferns and frogs, learning about the critical importance of vernal pools, and the native flora and fauna of our town.
Frog eggs are carefully collected from vernal pools, which are then sent to every student in every second grade class in the district, so that the children can see the eggs hatch into tadpoles, and transform into frogs, before releasing all of them into the same pond in which they were spawned.
They get to see beaver impounded wetland, and they gain an understanding of stewardship.
Doyton has dedicated teachers who go beyond the classroom, using their location to offer unique and priceless hands-on learning to their students.
Heck I’m sold. We have certainly seen first hand that beaver/nature education is a powerful way to open up a child’s mind and get them to learn from the world around them. Go read the whole letter, it’s really well written and could be the subject of the next five posts. Thanks Erika Turner for reminding us why green education matters.
