My class had a great time at shoreline today. I heard kids actually say "I like bugs!" That makes my day. One of them brought me an injured adult dragon fly that was floating on the water with a broken abdomen. It was still alive and one young lady described in great detail how she could split it with a stick and tie it on with vines. She wants a career with animals and I encouraged her to pursue her passion. She would have smiled if it were not for the poor injured dragonfly in my hand that she could not save.
Many thanks to Dr. Mark Deyrup, of Archbold Biological Station and author of "Florida's Fabulous Insects" for helping me identify which type of dragonfly we held on the eve of a holiday weekend. It was a Banded Pennant that prefers sandy bottom areas. I also learned that wing markings vary with individuals which made this one hard to ID.
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| Banded Pennant Dragonfly (Celithemis fasciata) |
Milestone Day: After 21 published posts, I have been fortunate to have reached 1,000 views as of today to this blog alone including views from the United States, the UK, Italy, Spain, the Ukraine, and Australia. We are truly in a time of great global communications and my students have more power to reach out on global issues than I could ever dream of when I was their age.
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| Worldwide Page Views |
I recently contacted my State Representative about access to a natural area near my neighborhood. People have been using that access point to public lands instead of driving to the two managed access points for years. It's been a backyard battle for some time and I finally decided to try to make the access official. My elected official actual called me back, listened to my plea, and said he would have someone on his staff contact me...and they did! I am so excited about trying to make some positive change in my own backyard, so to speak. I finally did what I encourage my students to do; call your elected officials and tell them about a specific problem that needs a solution. Write a compelling argument. Make your voice heard. In the words of The Lorax, "Speak for the Trees"!
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| Beautiful Oak at Nature's Classroom |
My mother recently posted a link to my Facebook page that I really enjoyed. It's called "Home is where you stake it", and the best part is the short (under 2 min) video called "Home", about living in a tent. I love tent life and can't wait for my two night planned for this holiday weekend. I have put a lot of time into organizing this trip and hope the scouts have a fantastic wilderness paddle experience on the Peace River. Enjoy! More to come from the River this weekend!
So glad I can still make a contribution to you busy life!! I am hopeful that you can get access to Flatwoods. Those ate good memories of biking with you. Have fun this weekend !
ReplyDeleteSorry about the typos. Someone said I was creative ..if i can spell words more than one way..
ReplyDeleteI like "home is where you stake it". Your Dad likes "home is where you park it"!!