After a refreshing winter holiday filled with sickness and catching up with my family, I am excited to get back to Hawley. It’s expected to snow the day I arrive and I feel as if this is a good omen for the next month and a half. I’m looking forward to getting back to our environmental education work which has turned out to be much more enjoyable than I originally thought. The idea of teaching others formally has always intimidated me but while it’s pretty stressful to plan lessons, it is also really fun to be in classes with the kids getting to know them and how they learn.
We will be starting our after school program, SCA Destination Exploration, at Colrain Central School this January. I am incredibly stoked to hang out with the students in a less formal educational role where we play games, do crafts, perform fun science experiments, snowshoe, and provide homework help. I can’t wait to see how the kids respond to what my teaching partner and I put together.