The Wrack: tote

In July, fifteen middle and high school teachers from seven different states participated in the Teachers on the Estuary (TOTE) four-day field-based workshop at the Reserve. Since then, they have been teaching their students about estuaries and watersheds, while also implementing student-driven stewardship projects. On Saturday, the more local contingency of this TOTE group (and one teacher skyping from Kentucky!) met at the Reserve for a follow-up session. The teachers shared information about their stewardship projects, which are very impressive!

Fifteen middle and high school teachers, hailing from Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Florida, and Kentucky, attended the Teachers on the Estuary (TOTE) workshop July 11-14 at the Wells Reserve. Due to a generous B-WET (Bay-Watershed Education and Training) grant, the workshop was offered free of charge, including hotel accommodations, most meals, and a variety of educational materials and equipment to use back in the classroom. In addition, each teacher will receive a $100 stipend and $200 to put towards a stewardship project with their students in the fall.

Teacher Edward Tivnan chose trout rearing as his Teachers on the Estuary (TOTE) classroom project. Eggs were delivered to Notre Dame High School (Lawrence, Massachusetts) in November and his students got a lot of hands-on learning over subsequent months. The fish were later released into a local trout stream.

Read a newspaper article about the project

Alison Doucette, a teacher at Nashoba Regional High School in Bolton, Massachusetts, was the first to report on the stewardship project that all TOTE participants committed to as part of their involvement in the 2010 Teachers on the Estuary workshop.

The thirteen educators who are participating in the Teachers on the Estuary program arrived this afternoon. In between introductions and their first workshops, they came to the farmhouse porch for a brief social.