Last month I celebrated my birthday with my usual long run, during which I expected to pass by some farm animals.  I always manage to either live or work in a town within running distance of farm animals, horses, cows, bison, perhaps some quail.  Luckily, my school is near a large body of water, which to us water sign babies is always a renewing sight. During the second mile, as I closed in upon the banks of the Salmon River, five deer crossed my path, unmolested by truck or tractor. On the thrilling downhill portion of the run from the high school in Moodus to the Connecticut riverfront village of East Haddam, very few vehicles passed me, this being a low-traffic town at a low-traffic time of day. As I left the village, the uphill portion of my run thrilled me in a different way as I panted smugly up the hill, thinking how a woman possessing thinner thighs would not be trotting upward and onward through mile six, but walking on her rare, thin catwalk limbs, useless to confront such an incline. As the route leveled out in the last mile, I slowed down enough to count the cows chomping away at the tall haystack in the center of their metal pen, ten fawn colored cows, twice as many domestic as wild creatures. Of course the cows echoing the whitetails proclaimed: Look to nature! Even in this rural place, we are at least doubly overrunning the wild.  I should incorporate some acknowledgement of nature into my school day, which could simply be conserving copier paper and part of the non-renewable one gallon of oil used to produce one measly laser printer cartridge.

Twice during my birth month, I was able to take a one mile walk to and from our destination of East Haddam Elementary, through the woods and fields around the elementary and high schools, with a few of my teenage students in order to share beautiful, newly published picture books with Mrs. Laurie Hall’s full day Kindergarten class.  My goal of rotating this one hour field trip through our learning week for the rest of the school year appears to be within my grasp, since the snow finally melted mid-March. On our second brisk walk/visit, wanting to connect with the five and six year olds current course of studies regarding the oceans, and also to heed Women’s History Month, we shared prolific author, Claire A. Nivola’s picture-book, Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle, a woman who once spent two entire weeks living under the ocean back in 1970. Posing with the sign from left to right are: Kylie, Noah, Me and Amber. (Photo credit: Debbie Ryczek)

 Connecticut educators who are willing to attempt a new teaching strategy that promotes literacy are eligible to compete for a $750 materials grant through the International Reading Association’s Connecticut chapter. The winning teacher must be a current member of CRA, and be willing to share a feature article about his or her teaching experiences on the www.ctreading.org website.  If you live in another state or country, please visit the International Reading Association’s website www.reading.org for more information on local IRA chapters, teaching grants, professional development and other exciting opportunities.