Crunch time!

        I came into the office today with a competed rough draft and background for the 6th grade curriculum. You can see an early version of it under the internship project tab. Keep in mind that it is a rough first draft! There should be a more final draft tomorrow, and the finished draft should appear by Monday!    

        Today was a little chaotic for a while, when we realized that the draft for the lesson plan was due tomorrow morning so that we could get some feedback, but we divided and conquered the different sections so that we could be sure to finish it.
        But this little bird kept me company! Say hi to a friend from Durango Nature Studies!
        Nature club today was fun, as usual. We managed to actually get through all of the tasks today. Also, I got to read the book about stegosauruses to the kids, which was fun!

Stegosauruses?

        Today was a crazy intro into this week! Klancy and Allison are back from their wilderness first aid training, so this morning we had a staff meeting.
        Also, the Nature Club box was not quite ready for the lesson today, so I put the box together, and made a poster about the stegosaurus. We also had to come up with a fun activity about the stegosaurus.
        Nature Club today was fun. The kids were pretty riled up, so I ended up playing leprechaun tag with them for almost 20 minutes. We got through the rest of the activities, but the craft was a bit rushed towards the end.

        Fun Fact! Did you know that the plates on the stegosaurus's back may have had blood pumping through them and could have been intended for temperature control? I didn't!

1 week!

        Today was a very chill day. I was working independently from the library. I managed to get some work done on my curriculum plan in the morning. I was lucky enough to get to eat lunch with Nano and Lacey, which was a nice break. After lunch, I researched a few more grants, then went home for the day. It was a chill end to a great week! Thanks to the wonderful people at Durango Nature Studies for a great internship.

Nature Club Rocks!

        I am now well on my my way to having a completed outline for my 6th grade curriculum! I am struggling with finding a good activity for explaining convection and how it relates to weather. If anyone knows a good hands on demonstration/activity that takes fewer than 10 minutes, give me a shout out!
        Today I also appreciated the wonderful weather. I spent a few hours downtown posting flyers. If you want to become a volunteer naturalist for Durango Nature Studies, there should be no shortage of information on the bulletin boards downtown.
        Finally today was the last day of Nature Club for the week! I got to work with the little people at Riverview today. It was chaos as usual, but most of the kids participated and had a great time. There were a few troublemakers, as there always are. In fact, on of the kids that I have coached with before turned out to be at this Nature Club meeting! She was among the troublemakers. But we got through all the activities, and I am feeling great about what is almost my first week of internship! tomorrow is an independent day, so I won't be seeing anyone from the office. Hopefully I can complete or near completion of my lesson tomorrow, so that I can focus on the grant research.

Grants, Grants, Everywhere...

Today I began my quest to find the perfect grant for Durango nature studies. Despite the fact that there are over 10,000 grants on the Library Grant Database, there seem to be very few that are applicable to Durango Nature Studies. If you are a Russian orphan, or you want to adopt an orca, there is a grant for you! But if you just want to help fund an environmental education program for younger students, you really have to hunt. But I am so glad that there is a database. This search would be immensely complicated without it.

            Nature Club today went really well! There were almost twice as many students as usual, so I naturally assumed that it would be pure chaos. However, all of them already knew Rachel, so they were much more willing to participate. We made some very cool turtle crafts!

            Fun fact! Did you know that the turtle’s egg tooth is called a caruncle? I didn’t! So much you can learn from a 1^st grade curriculum.

            Well, tomorrow, I begin condensing my research into a lesson plan.

            Wish me luck!

        Today was almost as different from yesterday as you could get! I really appreciated it, because the quiet pace gave me time to process the information about the program thatI got yesterday. I finally got to begin searching for information for my 6th grade lesson plan. I am still trying to sort out what exactly someone should be teaching 6th graders about in the field of geology, climate change, and weather. It is difficult to know how much information should be contained in a one hour lesson plan! However, I came up with a bit of an outline today, so I am on my way!
        I also got to work with some of the kids at Animas Valley today! It was very different from the Nature club yesterday; the kids were very engaged, and we managed to get through every activity we had planned! It just goes to show you how the same lesson can change based on the kids, the day, and how much you know. I am finding it really helpful to be a bit more familier with the lesson, so that I can focus on helping the kids out a bit more. It is so rewarding to see these kids pay attention and remember these concepts about the western painted turtle that even I did not know before I taught this lesson.
        This internship is giving me a lot of independence within my project, and I also feel like I am getting a great insight into the workings of a non-profit. Tomorrow, I have yet another nature club with the kids at Needham, and I also will begin working on my grant research at the library.
        Wish me luck!

readysetGO!!

Having an internship is no joke. Today was a boatload of new information, expectations, and project ideas. I met the director of DNS, Sally Shuffield, as well as the current college intern, Rachel. I sat down with Sally in order to flesh out my project plan: I will be researching possible grants for DNS and compiling them into a list with short descriptions of basic info and why I think they would be a good fit. At around the 2 week mark, I will choose one to which to write a grant request. This encompasses the behind the scenes aspect of my internship. I also spoke with Rachel today about what my curriculum plan will look like. It will be a plan for the 6^th grade Children Discovering Nature classroom portion. More to come on that as I research further.

            Finally, today I started into the program aspect of things. I went and helped Rachel teach a Nature club meeting to 7 squirmy little kindergarten and 1^st graders. It was hectic, but we managed to teach them a bit about the State reptile: the western painted turtle (hopefully). And we will be teaching the same lesson to a different group of kids tomorrow!

            Wish me luck!