Raelene Toomer, a teacher at Hunters Creek Elementary School in Onslow County, recently completed her North Carolina Environmental Education Certification. Raelene is retiring from teaching 2nd grade and hopes to start an encore career. “I am looking for a new job, and I would love to do something in an environmental field. Working on my certification was the best thing for me because it helped my students learn how to take care of a creek that was on our school grounds.”
Raelene says her favorite part of earning her certification was
the knowledge she gained and the networking. “I loved learning about different
environments and the science lessons in all of the workshops I attended. The
best part was meeting new friends that care about the environment we have here
in North Carolina.”
When asked about an experience that stood out for her,
Raelene says it was the North Carolina Forest Service’s “Investigating Your
Environment” Workshop. “This was an incredible experience and the knowledge I gained
was amazing. I was able to take that knowledge back to my classroom to help my
students learn more about the creek and the trees that are living nearby.”
For her community partnership project, Raelene focused on restoring
the creek that is on the school grounds. She engaged the students, parents, principal
and the larger community in the effort to clean up a creek that had been damaged
by hurricanes, erosion and pollution. “This
community has houses around these two schools where the creek runs into Little
Northeast Creek, which runs into the New River, which runs into the Atlantic
Ocean. My goal was to clean up the creek so the elementary and middle school
students will have an open classroom to study the environment and all the
different habitats and plants that live by our creek.”
Raelene partnered with the North Carolina Forest Service to identify
the intermittent creek, with a riverkeeper for the cleanup and with the county’s
landscaping crew to help connect the creek from the elementary school to the
middle school. She engaged parents through a STEM night at the school and a follow-up
cleanup. Raelene says the most important benefit of cleaning up the creek was
to make it a healthier place for the wildlife that lives nearby and to create
an outdoor classroom that teachers can use to teach about the environment and to
teach science. “Community members like to take hikes along the creek and there
is an open area where outdoor classes can be held for learning. Some middle
school students even go out there to sit on the fallen trees to read their
books in nature for relaxation. It is so nice to see this area being used by
the school and the community.”
Raelene says the certification program changed her approach
to teaching. “This program opened my eyes to see that we have a lot of teaching
to do about the environments that are in our backyards. Students today
are scared to get outside and see nature. As an educator, it is important to
teach students how to take care of our planet Earth and the habitats that are
near us. We can teach the NC curriculum to the students outside in nature which
is the best thing for the students. It gives them hands on learning and helps
them see problems in nature and encourages teamwork as they try to find
solutions to these problems.”
Raelene also says the program changed the way she thinks
about environmental issues. She says the program emphasized the importance of communities
working together to solve environmental issues.
