Rebecca Weaver

Sustainable Forestry Teachers' Academy

After teaching 5th grade for several years, I am now a technology teacher at an elementary school in Raleigh, NC.

I loved all the knowledge, resources, and ideas I received while earning my certification. Starting the EE program soon after moving to North Carolina encouraged me to explore parks across the state. Consequently, from searching for banker ponies to climbing Clingmans Dome, various workshops and site visits taught me the unique and complex geography, geology, and history of North Carolina.

The EE program also made integrating environmental education into daily elementary curriculum easy. My students enjoy having more classes outside and absorb any core subject objectives integrated into an environmental lesson!

I loved attending the Sustainable Forestry Teachers’ Academy sponsored by the NC Forestry Assoc. During these retreats we toured forests, mills, and manufacturing plants. I believe it’s important to teach students the science behind where a resource they use the most of, paper, comes from. I increased my understanding and appreciation of an industry that is important to our local history and economy.

My EE project involved participation from my students in revitalizing a wooded portion of our campus that was underutilized. We restored and added tree identification signs to a trail that connects our school campus with a local park.

Congratulations Rebecca!!

Stan Koziol

                                                                                                                                                        

Full-time, I'm an accountant that has worked twenty years at UNC-Chapel Hill. Fun time, I'm a scout leader and volunteer camp host at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area.

My favorite part of earning the certification would have to be the vast array of subject matter mixed in with interesting class mates and newly discovered classrooms that ranged from nature centers to
landfills.

The certification experience that stands out for me was certainly the excitement and creativity that is generated when adults get to do a crafts project designed for K-6 students. My favorite is the fish impression using watercolors during a Growing up WILD course. I proudly have mine hanging on the wall even though everyone assumes it was created by a Cub Scout.

For my community partnership project, I worked with State Park staff and a Boy Scout Troop to develop a butterfly garden at Crosswinds Campground located in Jordan Lake State Recreation Area. The garden is near the boat ramp and has a central walkway that leads to the amphitheater. Benches were built and installed strategically to offer a relaxing, open view to the lake. Over fifty nectar and host plants, all native to North Carolina, were planted and nurtured.

The Chatham Record highlighted Evan Seagroves, one of the local boy scouts who worked on the project at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area for his Eagle Scout Project. Read the article here.