Educator Spotlight: Jessica Ireland

Jessica Ireland, director of education programs for the NC Forestry Association, recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification.

Jessica oversees the education and workforce development program for the association and their more than 4,000 members. “Our programs include the Sustainable Forestry Teachers Experience, a week-long professional development program that provides teachers with first-hand experiences learning about North Carolina forests, sustainable forest management, and the forest products industry. In addition, we oversee the AN53 course in North Carolina, a semester-long Career and Technical Education forestry course for high school students that includes a certification. We also work closely with Project Learning Tree in North Carolina, teach forestry-based environmental education programming to all age levels, and develop forestry educational materials.”

Jessica said that her favorite part of the program was networking with professionals in the field. “I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to engage with environmental education and natural resource professionals across the state working in all facets of both fields. I learned so much from interacting with these individuals, including learning about flora and fauna and gaining ideas for new ways of thinking and teaching about natural resources. I thrive on collaboration and engaging with other professionals, so the opportunity to do this throughout the certification was extremely beneficial to me.”

For her community partnership project, Jessica teamed up with fellow educator Abigail Ridge on a pollinator garden project at Follow the Child Montessori School in Raleigh. “I received a notification from my neighborhood about my community being established as a Monarch Waystation, so I did some research into this initiative. I learned that, in 2017, the City of Raleigh was established as a Bee City USA, which means the city is committed to creating sustainable habitats for pollinators, working with community partners and providing support for pollinator projects around the city.”

Jessica said the Montessori school’s campus was the perfect place for a pollinator garden. “The campus has a wonderful outdoor learning environment that consists of a variety of play and learning areas that foster imagination and development for the children, including climbing areas, bars, sand play areas, a learning greenhouse, and gardens. The gardens on the campus are annual gardens, so I really liked the idea of establishing a perennial garden with native, pollinator-friendly plant species to provide opportunities for ongoing learning and to nurture conservation values related to the importance of native plant species, pollinators, and the role that humans can play in supporting healthy pollinator populations.”

Jessica says the program changed her approach to teaching. “My participation in the certification program really brought home for me the importance of taking into consideration the experiences and backgrounds of the individuals I am teaching. I've always known that 'knowing your audience' is important, but I think I mostly thought about this in terms of the age level, what subject they wanted to learn about, etc. I believe that getting an understanding of the knowledge as well as the values and interests that each individual brings to the program is important. Providing a space for participants to share this with others is an opportunity for everyone to learn and practice the skill of truly listening to understand. This is something I have been working to better incorporate into all of my teaching and programming.  

Jessica says her experience changed the way she views environmental issues; she said it helped strengthen some of her beliefs. “I have always been someone who values collaboration, so I wouldn't say that the program changed me in this way, but it further solidified my belief that it is critically important for all stakeholders to be engaged in exploring ways to address environmental issues. I get frustrated when I see one group blaming or bad-mouthing another group. We need to respect multiple perspectives and positions on the issues and understand that these are based on the underlying interests. When we can find common interests, we can work together. We may not agree with everything another person or group believes, but we need to be open to listening and taking into consideration their perspectives. I think my experience, throughout my participation in the certification program, of interacting with environmental educators and natural resource professionals across the state and listening to the way they present a topic really brought home for me the importance of collaboration when it comes to environmental issues.”