Dear People Who Care About Students,
Welcome! Bienvenidos! Karibuni to
in 2024.New readers: Thanks for joining the band! The green box above and the “about” section will give you a sense of what I’m doing here. Generally, I’m banging a drum about the need to mainstream nature-based learning in formal education.
Returners: Welcome back. Very glad you’re still here with us in 2024. Thank you.
Tl;dr (Too long; didn’t read)
*I generally (not always, but most of the time) provide this section for readers who want the cliff notes version of what I’ve written.
Today:
I have a few things I know for sure: my love for lots of people, my dog, and more-than-human nature. My passion for equity and justice. I also know and feel increasingly resolute in my conviction that nature-based learning is a force for positive change in education. And human-nature connections are ESSENTIAL. Beyond this, I know nature-based learning is a do-able way to (re)connect humans with nature, educators are the right people for the job and schools are a right place to start (re)connecting people with nature.
I’m going to actually write my book in 2024. (That was so scary to write.)
Housekeeping: I live in Kenya, help me grow my audience, and please comment and participate here on Substack.
Moving on…
I write early. This is because I have small children and my time is often not mine. Often (though no guarantees) my ‘morning pages’ allow me some space for freer thinking.
Mornings here include a symphony of birdsong surrounding our family’s rental in Nairobi. Especially mornings after a big rain, which we had last night.
We are fortunate to live in a beautiful neighborhood surrounded by old growth trees, lush foliage, and ample garden space. So many birds and insects. Occasional vervet monkeys. There’s a fish eagle nest in the tree I can see from our picnic table.
I downloaded the Merlin Bird ID app from Cornell Labs and there are some 1050 different birds in Kenya. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as powerful as in the U.S. where you can record the birds around you and the App will ID them for you based on where you are located. Here when I record birds, no suggestions come up.
Still, you can listen to my morning soundtrack here (and let me know if you recognize any of the birds!). This recording doesn’t capture the volume, quality, or magnitude of birdsong I can hear directly – but at least it gives you a taste.
(Note: if you’re in the U.S. and are at all interested in birds/birding, I highly recommend the app. It would be an especially cool tool to use with students of any age – and a way to merge tech with nature-based learning)
What do you think the birds are talking about? They certainly wake up with a lot to say (I can relate!). I have heard that birdsong reduces stress in humans in part because birds ‘sing when they feel safe.’ I have not read peer-reviewed studies on the matter – but I can say that birdsong makes me happy (except for the Ibis, which Eric tells me is the ‘loudest bird in Africa’ and sounds a bit like a dying crow who mated with a frog and got some sort of megaphone installed in its voice box). Anyhow, I shouldn’t be so judgey about the Ibis. Maybe it thinks of itself as a songbird.
Resolute. Resolutions.
I wrote in my debut Substack post on January 17, 2022:
How many things do you know for sure?
I can think of just a few. That I love the humans I birthed into this world - Clara and Nora - so fiercely. That I love my partner, Eric. And Arty (our family’s dog-brother). And my non-nuclear family and friends. That I love nature. That I want to dedicate my personal and professional life to a more just, equitable world.
I also wrote this:
I am sure nature-based learning is a force for positive change in our public education system.
After another lap around the sun, I’ve grown more resolute on the nature-based learning note. And its aperture has widened. I have removed “public” and “system” leaving
Nature-based learning is a force for positive change in education.
Now, after a year of writing and reflecting, after working with inspiring nature-based learning practitioners (teachers, principals, educators of all stripes!, and especially the incredible Good Natured Learning Fellows ❤️), I can round out my list with these interrelated convictions:
Nature connections are essential for humans.
Nature-based learning is a do-able innovation for any educator to integrate apple-a-day, bite-sized doses of nature connection into their instructional and classroom design practices. In any school. Anywhere. Any content. Any age group. Any school model. Any curriculum.
Educators are the right people to facilitate nature (re)connections.
Schools are a right place to start (re)connecting with nature.
Educators’ work on-the-ground (“kwa ground” to my Kenyan wasee wasee!) to advance nature-based learning innovations – however small each action might feel – matters.
Together we are weaving a vast and powerful mycelial network of small-scale nature connections for students and educators. This network has the strength to support whole ecosystems. And to transform lives for the better.
So I resolve to help grow the mycelial network of educators who practice nature-based learning – and to co-create a future reality in which all educators and students have equitable access to nature’s benefits in school.
Birth
Speaking of resolutions and the humans I birthed into this world…a bestselling author I admire likened writing a book to giving birth in both pain and reward. He is a father, so has borne witness to childbirth. And he has birthed several books into the world. So his advice seems credible enough, though as a mother I do wonder about the pain piece of his metaphor given he has not directly birthed any humans…but I like the concept, so I’ll let that piece go 😉.
The same author also advised doing this:
When he’s writing a book, he makes a physical representation of the book so it can sit on his desk or shelf. I think this is an old-school “manifestation” exercise, to cite an increasingly popular approach to making things happen in your life. I don’t know much about the now-popular “field” of manifestation (though in a brief moment of self-helpy-indulgence, I signed up for a Zoom workshop which I left within 6 minutes of starting because a) my internet connection via hotspot was not hot but was very spotty and b) the tone of this particular workshop left me feeling icky and self-indulgent in a way that was only manifesting annoyance and disgust), but I think this strategy is a good one for me. I like tangible things and it makes my book feel more real.
Anyhow, this version of my book has fewer pages than I imagine it will have in real life when all is said and done (is it ever, though?), especially given how much I love words. Its incarnation was limited by my own proclivities to reuse and make do with what I have on hand. It consists of recycled pages – Nora’s (my 3.5 year old) prolific artwork (don’t worry - we have a LOT of it hanging up too), printing mishaps, receipts, junk mail, and other one-sided paper I collect for to-do lists, packing lists, reminder notes, and other scrap-pappery tasks where physically writing things down still works better for me.
I’ll have to build my recycled paper supply back up now that all of the pages have been incorporated in my book. Its cover is a takeout food paper bag on which I’ve drawn an apple – to represent apple-a-day nature-based learning because I like the symbolism of an apple as a nature object, apples for teachers, apple-a-day keeps the doctor away, etc. And, I’ve written the title – a placeholder perhaps or maybe the real deal – on the spine and cover and cover page.
The title positions nature as the author of learning (by nature). Which I think is right. This gets into musings about nature as our “first teacher” (thank you @Maleka for that one!) and about nature as the actual author of this books (thank you
for that nudge awhile back). I’m just here to support.2024 is the year of my book. I will write my book in 2024. (TERRIFYING!)
Which means I might not be posting as frequently here because I’m only me and…life. So I’ll try to be consistent if a bit less frequent (I’m told by Substack that consistent and frequent posts are two of the best ways to grow your audience – see housekeeping #2 below – and I also know that I’m only human. I hope you’ll stick with me anyhow.)
Some Housekeeping:
I live in Kenya now. For readers, this matters because in 2024 you can expect a lot more writing from beyond the borders of the U.S.A. Specifically, there will be more coming from Kenya where Good Natured Learning just launched a cohort of our Fellowship with 14 inspiring Kenyan teachers. Exciting things will be emerging from these Fellows and from this continent. This is a space to watch.
I aim to grow my audience. If nature-based learning is going to be a mainstream thing, then A LOT of people – especially educators – need to be reading and talking and DO-ing it. If you’re a reader with your own Substack, please recommend this ‘stack to your readers (thanks
, , and for doing this already!). Others - please share. Here’s a button for you:Some Substack authors I admire (
, ) have done a great job getting active participation on their Substack in the form of likes and comments. I would love to have this space feel more conversational and less monologue-y. Several of you send me separate emails with comments. This is awesome and also a way to keep your comments confidential. IF, however, you are game to share your thoughts with the broader community, please make your comments public on the page. I think this requires you to be a subscriber (it’s free!) and “signed in” (just enter your email to read on the web or read it in the app) so you can comment.
The journey continues in 2024! Thank you for reading.
❤️,
Becca
I love the birdsong! I would love to put it on my phone and use it for sitting quietly because there’s something about the birds that calms me down too. If you could email it to me that would be great. I don’t see a way to download it.