Welcome Clare!!

Meet Clare Long! Clare is the Conservation Education specialist with the White Mountain National Forest (WMNF), and has been a lead instructor for the TTEC program since 2007. She will now be the agency lead for the TTEC program in partnership ATC staff! Clare will also supervise the Teacher-Ranger-Teacher position in the WMNF and assist with the Community Partnership program in New England. We are so excited to welcome Clare to Appalachian Trail team! Look for her smiling face at the Summer Workshop this July!

2012 Alumni Workshops!!!

APPLY TODAY for three great workshops we're offering to Trail to Every Classroom alumni in 2012!

Alumni workshops will provide an immersive experience where placed-based service learning content and pedagogy are explored in more depth, continuing to build upon the skills you learned in the original three workshops. These new professional development sessions are being offered this year to serve as a space to revisit key curricular topics and further develop the capacity of teachers to provide quality instruction to students along the Appalachian Trail.
The workshops are not cumulative and alumni are welcome to apply for one, two or all three in any region. As always, all workshops are offered free of charge and lodging, meals, camping equipment and materials will be provided.

Workshops for 2012:
Spring Workshop: Questing & Natural History in Virginia - May 4-6
Summer Workshop: Wilderness First Aid & Hike Leadership in New Hampshire - July 15-20
Fall Workshop: Trail Construction & Design in New York - October 5-7

Alumni are encouraged to attend the SUMMER workshop with a club member from their local A.T. maintaining club. If you're a club member who is interested in attending the Summer Workshop, team up with an alumni and sign up or pass this along to someone in your club who may be interested! Club members are welcome to join the spring and fall workshops as well.

APPLICATION DEADLINE IS MARCH 15, 2012

Learn more about these workshops and APPLY here.

We look forward to reconnecting with you 2012!

Maroons on the Trail!

The Maroons on the Trail, a newly formed outdoor club at Scott Memorial Middle School, headed out for their first adventure this week! The club contains 28 members and 9 of them attended the first outting and completed a training in Leave No Trace. They also spent time studying the different types of plants that survive through winter, and discussed why that may be. Ages ranged from 8-13. Several parents attended to help TTEC Alumni, Jon Kidd and his co-teacher have a successful event. They're already planning their next outing to Dismal Falls at the end of February or beginning of March!

Happy Trails Maroons!

Report:Benefits of Place-Based Education

A report from the Place-Based Education Evaluation Collaborative (PEEC), partners who evaluate TTEC programs:

http://www.nhcf.org/document.doc?id=576

EVERY CHILD NEEDS NATURE: 12 Questions About Equity & Capacity : The New Nature Movement

http://www.childrenandnature.org/blog/20...EVERY CHILD NEEDS NATURE: 12 Questions About Equity & Capacity : The New Nature Movement http://www.childrenandnature.org/blog/20... Field Notes from the Future: Tracking the Movement to Connect People and Nature

Field Notes from the Future: Tracking the Movement to Connect People and Nature

Kate Fisher's Appalachian Trail Poem

Our mountains are high.

Our mountains are low.

The ridge is a trail.

A hiking we’ll go!

Begin in the South.

And head to the North.

Gather your gear.

And let us go forth.

Which states will we see?

Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee.

Begin in the morn’

And walk til’ the night.

Waterfalls, wildflowers…

Oh, what a sight!

A shelter we’ll find

To get a night’s sleep.

Then up with the sun

And birdy’s sweet peep.

Which states are around the bend?

Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland.

Eager for news

And supplies in the mail

We’ll find a post office

Not far from the trail.

Then back to the woods

Where the trillium grow

And folks walking with us

Our trail name know.

Which states will we see?

Pennsylvania, New Jersey!

Our boots are worn out

Rain now falling.

Yet clearly the goal

of Katahdin keeps calling.

Weeks and months gone

We check off the dates.

Then onward we go

Through six more states.

New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts

Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, that’s it!

*Kate (seen on right) is the School Library Media Specialist at Upward Elementary in Flat Rock, NC

She went through the TTEC program in 2008

Invasive Exotic Plants resource

Hot Springs School removes invasive exotic, Japanese knotweed, along the A.T. 

Great youth activity book on invasive exotic plants:
http://www.invasiveplantcouncilbc.ca/resources/kids-corner