Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

Today’s story from Maren Pearson, a Special Education teacher with Marshall High School (Fairfax County Public Schools, VA), is the final installment in our Monarch Monday series.

We thank the Educational Information Resource Center and its Monarch Teacher Network for so generously sharing their stories of transformation with us. We hope that you have felt as inspired by Mary, Sarita, Hope and Maren as we have.

By Maren Pearson

Mexico’s history and culture are so much more rich and beautiful than I ever realized.

Our trip began in Mexico City at the Museum of Anthropology, which really started the entire journey off right by laying the foundation for what we would experience during the week. A labyrinth of halls, each museum hall is filled with artifacts and dedicated to a different indigenous Mexican culture. As a prelude to our adventure, we toured the halls of Teotihuacan, Toltec, Aztec, Olmec and Maya, getting our first glimpse of the Mesoamerican god, Quetzalcoatl, the “feathered serpent”.

Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent (Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City)

Throughout the week, our Mexican tour guide, Marcos Garcia, gave us the gift of his knowledge of Mexican people, history, culture and soul. Before becoming a professional guide, Marcos worked for four years at the Museum of Anthropology. Now as he moved fluidly between present and past… on foot or on horse… Marcos became our gateway to understanding.

Marcos Garcia at the Sierra Chincua Monarch Sanctuary

On the final day of our trip, we explored the ruins of the ancient city of Teotihuacan (Tay-oh-tee-WHAH-cahn). Built by a culture that flourished a thousand years before the Aztecs, Teotihuacan is dominated by the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, some of the largest pyramids in the world. After discovering its ruins, the Aztecs were so impressed they named it Teotihuacan, “the City of the Gods”. Visitors can climb the Sun Pyramid’s 260 steps to the top and ponder its connection to Mesoamerica’s 260-day Sacred Calendar.

Pyramid of the Sun

Also on the final day, we toured the Diego Rivera murals at the National Palace in Mexico City that capture the history and richness of Mexico’s indigenous past. A masterful explanation of the murals by Marcos brought our trip to a powerful close.

Diego Rivera painting at the National Palace depicting Cortez taking a bribe after the Conquest while the indigenous people are enslaved

I have always wanted to learn about other cultures, but Monarch Teacher Network’s trip to Mexico made me thirsty for more knowledge.

My professional ‘a-ha’ moment happened when we visited a school in the rural town of Santa Fe de la Laguna, a lakeshore community near the butterfly area. I teach students with severe disabilities, so learning that Mexican children with disabilities are not given the opportunity to attend school broke my heart (parents have to cope with their children’s disabilities the best they can). It made me grateful for what America offers people of all abilities. While I yearn to know more about the culture of the indigenous Mexican people I met, I am thankful for the inclusive culture and opportunity of America.

Sharing a bilingual copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar with a Purhepecha student, Santa Fe de la Laguna, Mexico

The Mexico trip was a chance for me to learn more about monarch butterflies, as I expected, but even more it was an opportunity to learn about a nation and its people. While monarchs are a great hands-on science unit, I now have information for a social studies unit about Mexico to accompany the science unit. Next year, I want to do more classroom work with cultures and include what I learned about on my journey.

As I reflect on my trip to Mexico I find new ways to bring those experiences to my students. I hope someday I have the opportunity to return to Mexico and learn even more to bring back to my students and school. I think my students could use their knowledge of Mexico to teach other people, which would empower my students.

I am a special education teacher of students with disabilities. The students I teach are not able to speak orally, but they can express feelings and communicate in other ways. I brought back lots of photos and artifacts for my students to enjoy and explore. Some of my artifacts made sounds, some had smells, some were brightly colored or had a great texture to feel. These items gave my students the chance to experience authentic Mexican culture in a way they could not do before. Telling my students about what I learned is not as meaningful as when I create opportunities for them to learn in new ways – this experience helped me to do this and have fun!

I have one student who was born and raised in Mexico, so my Mexico journey helps me to speak and relate to him more than ever. This also offers my class the opportunity to celebrate the different cultures that are found within our classroom. Students can learn about each other and interact in new and exciting ways.

Happy Monday! We’re pleased to share the third in our Monarch Monday series. Today we hear from Hope D’Avino-Jennings of the Bergen Community College Child Development Center.

I have been a preschool teacher at the Bergen Community College Child Development Center, a laboratory school in NJ, for the past 25 years. When I began planning my trip to visit the monarchs in Mexico I had no idea the trip would become a defining spiritual journey. A pre-trip letter from Monarch Teacher Network (MTN) suggested that participants visit a doctor prior to the trip. As a result of that suggestion, I discovered that I had breast cancer. Instead of packing for the trip, I found myself riding a wave of diagnostic procedures. Finally, my doctors approved my trip to Mexico, with surgery scheduled for the day after my return. I packed in a haze, then off I went, traveling with other teachers from New Jersey, other states and Canada.

Personally and professionally, that first Mexico trip was the most defining experience of my life. As I quietly rode on horseback through the high mountain forest of the Sierra Chincua monarch sanctuary, I realized how truly interconnected I was to the forest, the butterflies, the horse and my guide. What a very small thread in this web of life I was, but an enormously important one. I imagined I felt like the preschool children whom I teach: both tiny and huge all at the same time! I was open in a way I had never been before. I wanted to share this joy and wonder with my students. I envisioned having “Circle Time” with my little ones while a river of thousands of monarchs swirled like autumn leaves overhead. I wanted to introduce my New Jersey students to the Mexican students children I met, who were so very much like themselves.

Because of my illness, upon my return from Mexico I could not return to my classroom that first year. But I had traveled to Mexico with a class mascot, a stuffed raccoon named Yummy. So I created a book for my students about the adventures of Yummy and me in Mexico. And, just like the monarchs, I find that I MUST travel to Mexico each year, and so I have, each year since, with Monarch Teacher Network. This past February was my fourth trip.

My students help me plan for my trips. We create tri-lingual books: Spanish, English and Purhepecha (Purr-HEH-peh-chuh is the language of the indigenous people who live in the area where the butterflies stay each winter),  and games for the Mexican students I meet. We create a quilt to present to a Mexican school as a symbol of friendship. My students create photo albums to share the life of our classroom.

And I return from Mexico with so much to share! Videos from my trip, dances and games from the Mexican students, hand-made Purhepecha embroidery that I display in our classroom, tiny “butterfly fishing boats” for our classroom water table (the Purhepecha people fish with butterfly-shaped nets), Loteria for our classroom game table, and painted butterflies from the sanctuaries which are counted in the math center. My students create papel picado needlework and murals. They prepare frothy, hot chocolate the way the Aztecs did 500 years ago, using a carved wooden utensil called a Molinillo (Mole-le-KNEE-oh). They prepare guacamole with a mortar and pestle made from volcanic rock, exactly as people in Mexico do today. My students listen to music from Michoacán (the butterfly area) and set up a “Market” in our dramatic play area. They create butterflies to place on an oyamel fir tree (a donated artificial Christmas tree—oyamels are the trees in the sanctuaries that protect monarchs through the Mexican winter). Through songs, stories, pictures and art my students and I learn about this distant, magical place where Monarchs go every fall.

The monarch’s cycle of life, including its fall migration, is now at the heart of our curriculum. The curriculum stems from student interest in monarchs and the outdoor environment near our school. My students are intensely curious about Mexico. Where is this place? Who lives there? What is it like there? My students feel a sense of pride and accomplishment that they are helping nature “raise a butterfly.” They become teachers as they share their knowledge with their parents and with community college students on our campus.

The teachers and directors of Monarch Teacher Network, both here, in Mexico and Canada have enriched my life in ways that are precious. Mexico has become my sanctuary. In turn I have become a more inspired teacher.

I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to the Dodge Foundation for their support of this project and for giving me and other teachers the opportunity to participate in this amazing journey.

Every teacher who has the privilege to go to Mexico and witness the monarch spectacle has their own story to tell. Like me, they will be inspired to tell that story and bring the joy of that experience back to their students.

Below are links with photos and information from three of my trips to Mexico with Monarch Teacher Network.

Best wishes on the wings of butterflies,
Hope D’Avino-Jennings

http://www.misshope.org/mexico

http://www.misshope.org/mexico2008

http://www.misshope.org/mexico2010

Welcome back to Monarch Mondays! This is our second week of this new guest series. If you missed last week, you can see Mary Lenahan’s wonderful guest post here.

For many years, the Dodge Foundation has supported EIRC in their efforts to provide teachers with environmental experiences that both inspire and empower their classroom work. Our efforts started with the NJ Teachers for Biodiversity but when EIRC launched its monarch butterfly program, we witnessed the meteoric rise of the Monarch Teacher Network (MTN). MTN trains pre-kindergarten to 12th grade teachers, gardeners and naturalists. The training utilizes monarch butterflies to teach a variety of concepts, skills and issues (e.g., science, language arts, geography and cultural studies; character education, global warming and extinction, deforestation, lawn practices/gardening). As the project has spread across New Jersey, other states and Canada, it highlights our shared North American heritage and the need to be responsible stewards of the environment.

We continued to be amazed by the transformative effect of the butterfly’s journey on teachers and their students. Today’s post by Sarita Matari, a PreK Special Education Teacher at Jackson Avenue School in Hackensack, is no exception.

By Sarita Matari

“Gotta Go! Gotta Go! Gotta Go to Mexico!” is what I kept reciting in my head after leaving the Monarch Teacher Network workshop at William Paterson University this past summer. I imagined visiting the monarch butterflies in Michoacan, Mexico to interact with the people and experience this magical world. This past February, I was so fortunate to have that dream come true.

When I arrived at the Sierra Chincua Butterfly Sanctuary in Mexico, I immediately felt a sense of peace. Then, as I quietly stood, listening to the tranquil sounds of the forest, I heard a tiny voice singing about sweet raindrops and how much fun it would be to catch them one by one. When I turned to find that voice, I saw a butterfly keeper, a naturalist with a gentle hand and a loving smile: Marcos Antonio, an amazing nine year-old child who works with his father at the butterfly sanctuary. Marcos was as calm as the cool wind, and as captivating as the monarchs that flew around me. Through Marcos Antonio’s eyes, I saw the beauty and importance of this tree-covered forest that protects that most gentle of insects, the monarch butterfly. I was in awe as I heard his words express how special the monarch butterflies are to him and his family. It was like tasting the sweet raindrops that he sang about.

This trip changed my life in so many ways. It is an experience that will be with me always, and I will continue to share my stories with all who will listen. My journey with the monarch butterflies will continue as I help people to be like Marcos: a butterfly keeper, a naturalist with a gentle hand and a loving smile.

Nature was once a beautiful place full of wonder and life, a place where our mothers, fathers, and ancestors stood and listened. Sadly, so much nature is disappearing before our eyes, never to be seen again but in memory.

Not long ago, a child in my class asked me, “How can I help Earth? Earth is too big, and I am small”. I simply responded, “I’m so happy you asked. You see, our world has been waiting for you to help. Together we can keep our Earth clean, happy and free.” This was the perfect moment for me to introduce the monarch butterfly and the importance of caring for our environment.

The magnificent monarchs have started their journey back from Mexico. My pre-k students at Jackson Avenue School, also known as our “little scientists,” have been learning about the life cycle of monarch butterflies and how to care for them. They are amazed at how monarchs find their way to Mexico and back to New Jersey without directions or guidance. My students have seen monarch caterpillars hatching from eggs, eating milkweed, and shedding their skins. They have seen a caterpillar become a chrysalis in just a few minutes and witnessed the transformation that occurs inside that chrysalis. Beautiful butterflies emerged before their eyes! My students have created a beautiful butterfly garden for monarchs, an inviting environment of flowers and milkweed that will welcome monarchs back to our school year after year. Additional lessons about keeping our school grounds clean, and recycling, have motivated my students to want to preserve and nurture the world around them. We continue to take small steps to make a huge difference in caring for Earth and the beauty we see outside our classroom windows.

“I want to go to Mexico!”
“Look the caterpillars are getting bigger”
“My mom has a monarch butterfly too!”
“Look, I see milkweed.”

These are just a few of the things I have heard my students say in the classroom. When my students speak of what they saw or discovered through our monarch studies and butterfly garden, it brings me great joy and hope: the joy of knowing that my students will share what they learned, with other people, and the hope that someday my students will play an important role in preserving and caring for our world. My students continue to motivate me, and each other, to make a difference. Although my students are small, together they will achieve something great.

My students created a poem about the monarch butterfly and recited it at our first-ever butterfly release this past fall. It was a huge success!

Orange and Black

Monarchs, Monarchs orange and black

Moving along for miles making your way back

You fly through the air and soar with ease

Quietly you move so gently through the breeze

I’m so happy you will soon be with me

Monarch, Monarchs, I do love to see

Welcome to Monarch Mondays! For many years the Dodge Foundation has supported EIRC in their efforts to provide teachers with environmental experiences that both inspire and empower their classroom work. Our efforts started with the NJ Teachers for Biodiversity but when EIRC launched its monarch butterfly program, we witnessed the meteoric rise of Monarch Teacher Network (MTN). MTN trains pre-kindergarten to 12th grade teachers, gardeners and naturalists. The training utilizes monarch butterflies to teach a variety of concepts, skills and issues (e.g., science, language arts, geography and cultural studies; character education, global warming and extinction, deforestation, lawn practices/gardening). As the project has spread across New Jersey, other states and Canada, it highlights our shared North American heritage and the need to be responsible stewards of the environment. The butterfly’s story of transformation has had transformative effects on teachers and their students. The monarch’s annual 2,000 mile migration to Mexico is paralleled by an EIRC-led trip for teachers to the monarch overwintering colonies.

Over the next few Mondays, we will hear accounts from several teachers who recently made the journey to Mexico with the Monarch Teacher Network. The first story comes from Mary Lenahan, a fourth grade teacher at Leeds Avenue School in Pleasantville, New Jersey.

View from Sierra Chincua (Mexico) butterfly colony as storm moves through

By Mary Lenahan

My journey to Michoacán was the journey of a lifetime. Never has a place touched me as much as this beautiful region in southwestern Mexico. The breath-taking mountains, the cool, verdant valleys, the kindly people, the rolling countryside in contrast to the bustling cities, and of course the multitudes of monarchs, all spoke to me in ways I never expected. I have done a great deal of traveling, mostly in our United States. Traveling abroad for the first time was an adventure in itself. Mexico is a much different place than I ever imagined. From the moment we started our adventure in Mexico City, I knew this would be a very special trip. I had no way of knowing just how life-altering it was going to be.

Mexico is a place of many peoples. Despite being conquered by the Spanish in the 1500’s, the indigenous Mexican people are numerous and varied. Our group of educators learned much about these native people, especially the Purépecha. The Purépecha are a proud group who strive to keep their history alive by teaching their language and culture in their schools. Our group visited a bilingual school on Isla de la Pacanda, situated in the middle of Lake Pátzcuaro. Students learn vocabulary, mathematics, science, geography and history in Spanish and in their native Purépecha language.

Students at Pacanda School

The Purépecha have a great appreciation for the land and its inhabitants. Our group visited two of the overwintering colonies of monarch butterflies in the Transvolcanic Mountain Range, west of Mexico City. Here at elevations of 10,000 feet, the monarchs gather in magnificent clumps on the branches of the oyamel fir trees. Millions of monarchs migrate to this region to rest for the winter. The Purépecha people have a close relationship with the monarch and understand the importance of protecting this delicate ecosystem. Learning about the Purépecha way of life has made me realize the importance of keeping one’s culture alive. The Purépecha people do just that by instilling in their children an appreciation for the mountains, the land and the creatures that coexist there.

Leeds Avenue students learning about monarch butterflies

The excitement that I felt upon returning from Mexico and the knowledge I gained was evident to my students and staff at school. My students were very interested to learn about Michoacán students and that they studied in both their native Purépecha and Spanish. The teachers were so excited about my journey that several of them decided to take the Monarch Teacher training that summer. As a result, our school contracted “monarch fever.” Our students and teachers raised and released more than 300 monarchs at a school-wide release ceremony, with the school superintendent in attendance as well as the local media. The joy that students and staff felt when the monarchs were released was obvious and overwhelming. Each person felt a special attachment to the monarchs that were released, and our collective hearts flew away that day on a journey to Mexico and the oyamel fir trees high in the mountains of Mexico.

I have been teaching almost 20 years. Our butterfly release was the first time I witnessed anything that got all students and staff connected and working towards a single goal. The experience made our school feel more like a large family. It was a joy to watch, and an even bigger joy to experience. Since then, the teachers who participated in the monarch training have continued to spread their monarch fever, and it has been contagious with many other people.

As another school year comes to a close, my students continue to ask, “When are we going to raise more monarch butterflies?” I smile to myself, pause and reply, “Let’s go check the milkweed patch.”

Mary Lenahan is a fourth grade teacher at Leeds Avenue School in Pleasantville, New Jersey. Ms. Lenahan was chosen as the 2009-2010 Teacher of the Year for both her school and district. Mary is a New Jersey Volunteer Master Naturalist and a Certified Interpretive Guide for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. She volunteers at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. Be sure to check her fourth grade class blog!

Molly de Aguiar, Program Associate

For the past few days, we have hosted these little guys at our office.

Do you recognize them? (more…)