Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/teachers-and-then-some-profiles-of-three-teachers/5011953/
Each of the three teachers here are inventors - they have discovered ways to combine their teaching of young children with very deep and long-lasting aspects of their lives as active, questioning adults.Carol Hillman:
Gardener, Naturalist, Teacher
I believe deeply that what you are outside of school affects what you are in school. I have a farm in Massachusetts that has for many years been a resource to me and to the children in my classroom.
There I grow things, looking after the whole process myself. I like having the knowledge that I can grow vegetables or flowers without relying on chemicals. The flowers are just as important as the edible things. I pick and dry many of them, making everlasting bouquets from them. The whole process gives me a feeling of self-sufficiency and a kind of calmness.
Those feelings translate to the classroom in ways that you might not suspect. I come to the classroom with a keen sense of the pleasure it can be to do with what you have, without having to go out and buy things. I try to show the children those same pleasures. We make bird feeders from cups and chenille-wrapped wire. They take the feeders home and ...