Back to School - Nature's Classroom

One of the things I love about my job as a teacher at Nature's Classroom is the chance to make a difference in a child's life every day.  I get the opportunity to change kids' perspective about nature from negative to positive.  For the kids who are already positive about nature, I get to enrich their experiences. 

Natures Classroom was founded in 1968 and remains a part of the School District of Hillsborough County which serves the cities of Tampa, Temple Terrace, Plant City, Riverview, and Apollo Beach.  Every 6th grader in the District Public School system spends three consecutive days outside with us for a total of 6 lessons; Animal Compound, Orienteering, Boating, Hiking, Shoreline Sampling and Interpretive Center. They get to see live animals such as panthers, bears, and alligators. They get to hold snakes and rabbits. They get to go on what I call treasure and scavenger hunts in the woods.  It is the best job ever!  

For example, when I take the kids past the Opossum cage, they usually know that the Opossum is sleeping because it is a "nocturnal" animal (sleeps by day and hunts at night). What they usually don't know is the word that means the opposite of nocturnal. After asking what do we call an animal (like you) that hunts during the day and sleeps at night, I usually get answers like ternal, dayturnal, and internal!  When I revealed that the correct word was "diurnal", one boy comments that it sounded like something you would find in the bathroom!  We all got a good laugh out of that one, especially after we went to the bear cage and saw her sitting back on her haunches; "she's diurnal"!  Too funny!

Here is a picture of my sharks teeth and some odds and ends that I found on the Peace River this weekend!  Lots of fun!