It can be difficult for teachers to integrate art into everyday learning standards—let alone have the time and space to make art themselves. Through hands-on nature workshops, Willamette Partnership is giving teachers the confidence to use creative expression as a lens for environmental education.
With support from the Gray Family Foundation, Willamette Partnership conducted three outdoor teacher workshops at the 2016 Coastal Learning Symposium in Newport. In one exercise, teachers used muscles found on the Oregon coast to create watercolor illustrations while also learning how to align these activities with learning standards.
The workshops reached 38 teachers from four coastal counties, as well as 13 informal educators from groups like the aquarium and watershed councils. In total, these educators reach more than 30,000 Oregon students each year.
Willamette partnership knows that creative teachers make for creative students. Since 2000, its Honoring Our Rivers Program has published a student anthology of student art and writing inspired by rivers and watersheds. Each year, brave young people step up to a mic at Powell’s Books to read their creative writing submissions published in the anthology, as part of the Honoring Our Rivers Student Showcase.
“The Gray Family’s support has had a tremendous impact on leveraging this work,” says Tess Malijenovsky, Honoring Our River’s Project Coordinator at Willamette Partnership. “The Foundation recognizes the importance of offering students a creative lens to learn about the environment, and we deeply appreciate it.”
