Thursday, March 17, 2016

Day 6: #TeachingThursday: a photo story

Today was teaching day! After getting pumped up with Taylor Swift’s Blank Space, we arrived at the Karen Beasley center and practiced our presentations. More than 100 excited children arrived at the turtle hospital this morning to learn about and see the turtles. The kids moved from station to station and learned about types of turtles, facts about their lifestyles, and more! We split up to teach at 8 different stations, the last one being inside Turtle Bay with volunteers sharing stories of some of the turtles in the hospital. After the first group of kids, it was non-stop presenting for the next hour and a half. Our voices were a bit hoarse afterwards (but not hoarse enough to stop us from singing in the car on the way to the Raptor Center).



Katie and Ashley at the Bio Facts station


John at the Turtles of the World Station, and Janine at the Cold-stunning station
Emma at the Success Stories station, talking about October and Walker.


Tiffany and Danny at the Pollution station




Chloe and Nicole at the Nesting station

Melissa at the Sick Bay station
After the teacher was over and the kids had left, we drove to the Cape Fear Raptor Center. Greg, who volunteers at the turtle hospital as well, Faye, and Tamara showed us the raptors they have at the center. Faye gave a presentation and taught us a lot about the hunting and eating habits of the birds, the training and use of the raptors as education birds, and the ways that the raptors become injured and are treated and readied for release.

This is Faye with Archie, who is the mascot of the raptor center and a permanent resident after he imprinted on a human.
This is Karma who is a barn owl, which is an endangered species.
We got to see some of the permanent residents of the facility that were in cages outside and hear stories about what happened to them. Below is a photo of Tamara who brought this Turkey Vulture out of its cage so that we could get a better look.

We got to pet an emu, which was just about the coolest thing that Chloe had ever done in her life. See photo below.

On the way home from the raptor center, we stopped to enjoy some ice cream.

After coming back from the raptor center, the group took some pictures in matching turtle shirts, and many left to look for shark teeth or walk on the beach.
Boots and Katie made a delicious dinner of soup, salad, and buttery garlic rolls that we ate with pasta salad generously made for us by Peggy, a volunteer at the hospital.

During the reflection, we started with roses, buds and thorns and then talked about our feelings about the teaching and the raptor center. Then we were introduced to the concept of an involvement spectrum. It had four categories which included in order member, volunteer, conscientious citizen, and active citizen. We discussed the definition of the categories and placed ourselves on the spectrum based on our feelings on our experience and knowledge and then talked about how this experience has helped us move closer to being active citizens. Another thing we discussed was what type of interactions and experiences are valuable and can help us become more active. We then went outside to the beach and talked about the different things that we each value and appreciate about nature. Finally, we shared some of our favorite quotes and explained the meaning that they hold and why we value them.

Tomorrow is a full day--we'll do the normal turtle work, clean the trenches, and have a nice dinner with Jean. Time to make some sandwiches!

Goodnight,
Janine and Chloe

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