Team-up for Teachers On The Estuary

Everyone measures success differently. When a teacher says, after being in a Teachers On The Estuary (TOTE) workshop, that she will slow the pace during activity transitions to give her pre-K students time to pause and observe ants crossing the sidewalk, that is success. American biologist and naturalist E. O. Wilson would have been pleased to hear that. When an AP biology teacher and coach says he didn’t realize he could create art and poetry within science, that is also success. The enrichment that happens when FSU marine lab education staff, Rookery Bay staff and teachers with diverse backgrounds come together makes an ANERR TOTE really magical. This year’s workshop took place at the Reserve, the FSU marine lab and trawl boat on Little St. George Island. At the end of the day, after months of planning, nature is the greatest teacher.  All responses from our TOTE survey were very positive and the teachers all plan on using these techniques and materials in their classroom next year.  What follows is a group poem that was created as a final journaling activity; it is based on the three days of observations done during the TOTE. We can call it Summer Song of the Estuary; the structure is based on a poem by N. Scott Momaday.

I am the iridescent purple-green on the Gulf

I am the blush of the swamp mallow and the creamy froth of the tide line.

I am the summer scent of salt water

I am the buzz of the emerald bay

I am the soaring osprey in the midday sun

I am an eagle looking down at the hermit crab

I am the petrichor of summer

I am the seagrass bed drifting in the waves

I am cicadas hiding in the palms on a calm summer night

I am the purple martins’ melody hovering over the estuary

I am a river of light drawing forth a moth

I am thunder breaking the skies above the bullrush

I am a crab that smiles as the wildflowers grow

I am an oyster summer waits all year round for

I am the whole dream of these things.