Week 9

LORI RAYMAKER FROM MIDPENINSULA REGIONAL OPEN SPACE DISTRICT-

• Three docent programs: 1) regular docent program for hikes and walks (70 programs for summer)- training includes geology, animal signs, wildflowers, communities (i.e. earthquake walk), 2) school-aged kids program- an outdoor 8 week program, 3) an 8 hour training for the nature center.
• Improving your docent tours: 1) Bulk information. 2) Gee-whiz" facts (i.e.,"an eagle can see a rabbit from 2 ½ miles away"). 3) Research your information to make sure it is correct; look up the facts and be aware that they may change. 4) Be enthusiastic. Light the spark. Have them leave wanting to learn more. 5) Use 4 of the 5 senses as much as possible (smell a bay leaf, touch cattails/catkins/St. Catherine's Lace, hear the sounds of birds). 6) a theme holds the program together. Relate back to it and do not wander too much from it. 7) Make it smooth with transitions between the main ideas. 8) Make it tangible so that they can see it ( i.e., laminated cards with pictures of plants and animals); make it familiar to them. Makes them understand, relate it, recognize it, remember it. 9) Test your program before you do it. Talk to a mirror, a friend. 10) Change your program if needed. Gear your program to the appropriate audience. Do what works best for you and the group.

QUOTES FROM THE EARTH SPEAKS-

• The earth is in trouble but the voices of hope are there too; we must build for tomorrow on the concerns of people. (page v- S.V.M.).
• Emphasize the urgent need to seek out and act upon words of earth wisdom, and refresh and recharge an inner feeling of earth spirit. Reawaken the sense of wonder. (page vi- S.V.M.).
• Prepare to help learners develop a love of life and the systems of the earth that sustain it. (page vi- S.V.M.).
• Yes, the earth speaks, but only to those who can hear with their hearts (page 3- S.V.M.).
• We share this vessel with a grand multitude of other forms of life. Since they do not speak our language, we must seek them out and learn theirs (page 6- S.V.M.).
• We have so filled our lives with artificial nonsense and distraction that many of us can no longer hear the earth's voice. We need new teacher to help us rebuild a sense of relationship with the earth (page 7- S.V.M.).
• It is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. (page 35- R. Carson).
• By such a river it is impossible to believe that one will ever be tired or old. Every sense applauds it. Taste it, feel its chill on the teeth: it is purity absolute (page 52- W. Stegner).
• Be a reluctant enthusiast.a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. So get out there... (Page 57- E. Abbey).
• ...How we must all begin to change our lifestyles in order to live more harmoniously with the earth (page 65- S.V.M.).
• A mature maple tree spreads several hundred thousand leaves with a surface of some two thousand square yards (about an acre of chlorophyll). A square yard of leaf surface in full operation packs about a gram of carbohydrate per hour...The seasonal production by the leaves of a single maple tree can total 3,630 pounds of packaged sunlight! (page 80- R. Platt).
• Awaken people's curiosity. It is enough to open minds; do not overload them. Put there just a spark. If there is some good inflammable stuff, it will catch fire (page 112- A. France).
• You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell you children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children- that the earth is our mother... This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth...All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. (page 122- Chief Seattle).