Wild Classroom Spotlight
Connecting educators and parents with the tools and resources they need to help kids explore and understand the world around them. Together we can inspire the next generation to build a future where people and nature thrive!
Featured Educator / Class
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Mireille Hess
Mireille Hess, a third-grade teacher at Edgewood Elementary in Greenfield, Wisconsin, was a winner of Natural Habitat Adventures' first-ever Monarch Butterfly Scholarship Grant—an opportunity awarded to exemplary environmental educators to travel to Mexico and observe millions of monarch butterflies during their winter hibernation as part of the Kingdom of the Monarchs adventure. Here, Mireille shares how she uses her experience to inspire her students. Click to read more
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Molly Foster
Molly Foster, an art teacher at Hollymead Elementary School in Charlottesville, Virginia, empowers students each year to put their artistic creativity towards a great cause by hosting an art fair to raise awareness and fundraise for endangered animals. Click to read more
Previous Spotlights
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Trevor Hance
Trevor Hance, the Coordinator for Enrichment and the Environment at a public school in Austin, Texas, was a winner of Natural Habitat Adventures' first-ever Monarch Butterfly Scholarship Grant–an opportunity awarded to exemplary environmental educators to travel to Mexico and observe millions of monarch butterflies during their winter hibernation as part of the Kingdom of the Monarchs adventure. Here, Trevor shares of his continued curiosity in nature and why it's important for young people to form a relationship with the environment. Click to read more
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Janelle McCarthy and her Class
Janelle McCarthy, Multiple Disabilities Support Teacher at South Lebanon Elementary School in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, shares how she used Wild Classroom with her students and why it’s important to bring conservation to life in the classroom. Click to read more
Mireille Hess, a third-grade teacher at Edgewood Elementary in Greenfield, Wisconsin, was a winner of Natural Habitat Adventures' first-ever Monarch Butterfly Scholarship Grant—an opportunity awarded to exemplary environmental educators to travel to Mexico and observe millions of monarch butterflies during their winter hibernation as part of the Kingdom of the Monarchs adventure. Here, Mireille shares how she uses her experience to inspire her students.
© Mireille Hess
Mireille Hess and her students planting milkweed
When I applied for the grant, I knew a lot about the monarch. But after my amazing experience in the sanctuary, I understood more than ever that we are all in this together. Mexico, Canada, the US, and every one of us needs to come together to save this incredible species. My experience in Mexico renewed my sense of urgency to educate people about the monarch and about the importance of planting milkweed and native flowering plants. It's going to take all of us, especially in the Midwest, working together to plant native flowers and milkweed to save this migration.
Where I live in Wisconsin, the monarchs arrive at the end of May, stay all summer, and begin their migration in early September, if not sooner. I spend my summers educating groups of people and whoever will listen about the monarch. I kick off my school year with an in-depth study of the monarch. I enjoy having students raise a small caterpillar into an adult butterfly and tag and release the butterfly. Unfortunately, with the population of monarchs continuing to decline, I can't always collect enough caterpillars for every student, so I don't necessarily get to carry out this activity each year. During this unit, students discover the issues the monarchs face. Children love to help so we put together a plan for something they can do—planting milkweed, petitions to stop using pesticides, etc. These lessons are part of a greater migration unit, where students study a grand migration that an animal takes and then make an action plan to help it flourish.
© Mireille Hess
Mireille Hess amidst the monarchs in Mexico
Our children will be facing many issues relating to climate change and species survival. To get people to care about something enough to make changes in their own lives, they have to see it and experience it. I hope that raising and releasing a butterfly is an experience they're not likely to forget. After traveling to Mexico, I realized it's just as important to learn about the other people that want to save the monarch, as it is to learn about the monarch. When everyone comes together, creative solutions can be found. Conservation is more than just loving an animal; it's taking action in a meaningful and respectful way.
Molly Foster, an art teacher at Hollymead Elementary School in Charlottesville, Virginia, empowers students each year to put their artistic creativity towards a great cause by hosting an art fair to raise awareness and fundraise for endangered animals.
As the art teacher at an arts integration-based elementary school (preK-5), I came up with the idea to put an art show together that would showcase all of our students' work in art and other content areas. Now in its fifth year, the art show raises funds for WWF by selling our artworks of endangered animals.
Earth Day seemed a perfect time to integrate the arts with learning about our planet, the animals that live among us, and how human behavior is affecting the Earth. Local artists, environmentalists, and musicians join us in this day of art and support of endangered animals everywhere. A local animal sanctuary even brings in a few animals to visit with our students.
The students work for months on their art. They include the name of the animal and some students include the population of those animals left in the wild, which impacts viewers in a strong way. Students also make posters that share ways to help the planet. They feel empowered because they are raising money for endangered animals through their art and learning new ways they can help the Earth.
Trevor Hance, the Coordinator for Enrichment and the Environment at a public school in Austin, Texas, was a winner of Natural Habitat Adventures' first-ever Monarch Butterfly Scholarship Grant–an opportunity awarded to exemplary environmental educators to travel to Mexico and observe millions of monarch butterflies during their winter hibernation as part of the Kingdom of the Monarchs adventure. Here, Trevor shares of his continued curiosity in nature and why it's important for young people to form a relationship with the environment.
© Trevor Hance
Trevor Hance at Velo de Novia Waterfall, Valle de Bravo, Mexico
Mountain forests hug you and hold you tight. They are simultaneously wild and tranquil; seemingly infinite, yet intimate. Millions of monarch butterflies embrace that "hug" each winter as they cluster tightly amongst the stunning oyamel ("sacred fir") forests high in the mountains of Central Mexico after completing a remarkable five-generation, 3,000-kilometer migration from Canada.
As a recipient of Natural Habitat Adventures' first ever Monarch Butterfly Scholarship Grant, I witnessed the monarchs in those forests early each morning on an expedition in January. There, cool mornings would give way to warmer skies and warm wings, and the monarchs would simultaneously take flight, flitting and floating downhill like an orange and black river rushing through bouquets of wildflowers.
My teaching philosophy centers on creating transformative experiences that recognize interdependence in nature and holding ourselves accountable for our role in it. Connecting people with the world we all share increases self-awareness and an understanding of our responsibilities as part of the interconnected systems in the Universe. Over the past decade, I have designed and developed numerous living laboratories that provide a backdrop to cultivate wonder and create legacy. In these wild spaces, students are given time and freedom to explore, craft their own questions, and independently discover answers. They become conservationists through these long-lens experiences and develop a land-ethic that frequently carries them into positions of leadership.
© Trevor Hance
"A forest-hug" on Day 1 in El Rosario Sanctuary near Angangueo, Mexico
Monarchs migrate through Texas twice each school year and are part of our interdisciplinary learning journey that recognizes relationships between economics and ecology, and how those subjects relate to critical contemporary challenges due to rapid changes to our planet. My journey to the Kingdom of the Monarchs extended my personal boundaries and allowed me to pursue a point of collective curiosity I share with my students. The expedition experience included mountains and monarchs, as well as direct exposure to forestry-conservation work by WWF, visits with local community leaders, and an afternoon in a school in Angangueo, the town in the valley below the El Rosario Sanctuary. My images and experiences from the expedition help students see we all have a voice in this multinational conservation story. They have their own special place among the people around the world who are actively working towards a better, more informed tomorrow.
Janelle McCarthy, Multiple Disabilities Support Teacher at South Lebanon Elementary School in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, shares how she used Wild Classroom with her students and why it’s important to bring conservation to life in the classroom.
My name is Janelle McCarthy and I love my students! I teach Multiple Disabilities Support for kindergarten and first grade students. My kiddos have complex educational needs—many of them are nonverbal and all need some degree of physical support.
A large part of my role is finding and adapting grade-level curriculum to meet the needs of my students. I am so grateful for Wild Classroom materials because they provided relevant, easily adaptable lessons across content areas. Because of Wild Classroom, my students were able to learn about conservation in a hands-on way, just like their typical peers!
Conservation is relevant to all of us—regardless of age or ability, we all call this planet our home. The fact that Wild Classroom makes the abstract concept of conservation concrete in their lessons is developmentally appropriate and very engaging!
