Stories, Songs and Stones

Reimagining Sustainability Education

On my way to the Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education (AEOE) conference during May Day weekend, I was amazed to drive deep into the Petaluma hills. Who knew this region north of San Francisco was so vast? It was more than 20 minutes of driving beyond cell reception amidst those rolling green hills studded with wild flowers and spotted cows. I was welcomed into a weekend of wonder and learning amongst other educators off the grid at the Walker Creek Ranch and Conference Center. This site is a destination for many schools to have their outdoor education sleep-aways. While staying in the “Teacher’s Lodge” I got a taste and feel of what students and teachers experience this time of year when they head out for overnight field trips.

I was excited to learn how other educators weave the natural world into their curriculums. With workshops like “Souls of the Forest - A Creative Art Activity,” I found like minded-individuals who had found the bridge between art and nature perception - allowing children (and adults) to access and animate the wonders around us. This, I believe, is at the core of joyful sustainability curriculums that can combat the woes of climate change realities by first building a foundation of hope and the why of stewardship.

“That Song That Got Stuck in Your Head” workshop taught me how to take simple songs and transform them into fun learning songs for students. I was able to workshop my next ukulele song!

Did you know I write ukulele songs for children?

Workshops and general conversation also helped this group of educators grapple with the uncertainty we are facing in the world today. “Poetry as Balm for Challenging Times” was taught in the garden on Saturday, though the wind chased me away through most of it.

In this same garden, I was able to lead my workshop “Stones Speak: Harnessing Nature’s Narratives” the next morning. Luckily, the weather was wonderful! I had 28 participants which was an amazing turn-out. Each educator chose a stone and drew and colored what they could see. Naturally organized by picnic tables where they sat, each table group then shared what they had seen in their stones and combined their “story seeds” into one group story. Each group then shared the artworks and told their stories!

Here are those stories:

We then brainstormed how this activity (after the students complete it) encourages their imagination in nature and presents a unique opportunity for SEL development and problem-solving. The participants shared how students could use this technique not only with these particular billion year-old stones but with other entities of nature (clouds, wood grain, rock faces, etc). We explored how our brains naturally see faces in figures within nature (a phenomenon called pareidolia) and that this may be a natural capacity to connect with the larger natural world in an animistic and narrative-yielding way. After all, we tend to care more about, and care more for, that which we tells stories about.

Many thanks to Burke’s School for sending me to the AEOE conference and for the Cloud Institute for helping to guide this sustainability curriculum. It is a dream of mine to take this new curriculum to other schools. Excitingly, my stepson, Orione, is carrying the after-school torch and has started his own business, SuperNova.ly.

If you are an educator of any age please reach out to me or Orione at bayarea@supernova.ly