Ms Lena Tashjian
Reflections from the 2008 Toyota International Teacher Program to the Galápagos Islands
Tashjian at El Junco in San Cristobal.
My trip to the Galapagos Islands was transformative on both a personal and a professional level. This became immediately clear the moment I set foot back in the United States. I bought a bottle of water at the airport and could not bring myself to throw it away. I searched the airport for a recycling bin and, when I could not find one, opted to give the bottle to a fellow participant and friend who promised to recycle the bottle on my behalf. My newly developed commitment to recycling manifested itself in my classroom where I set up two makeshift recycling bins using cardboard boxes. When my students saw these new bins and heard me discuss my experiences on the islands, they approached me and asked me to supervise the new Environmental Club. Our agenda consists primarily of working to establish a school-wide recycling program. I have already been in contact with community planners and sponsors in an attempt to have bins donated to our school. In the interim, the students are on a scavenger hunt for boxes to use as recycling bins. The use of boxes further emphasizes our conservation objectives as we will be reusing discarded materials. I have coordinated with the Art teacher in order to create an IB Middle Years Program project that aims to decorate these boxes with “Green” themes and messages. This project will serve as an interdisciplinary unit and will set the foundation for future environmentally oriented unit plans.
Though one of my primary goals is to create a recycling culture at my school, another goal of mine is to generate environmental awareness through our curriculum and through school-wide events. Towards that end, I am currently planning an IB Middle Years Program Theme Day. Theme Days are all school events based upon a specific theme that cuts across courses and disciplines. These interdisciplinary events encourage students to investigate an idea through a variety of lenses. This particular Theme Day is called “The Paradox of Paradise,” which is the title of the literature based unit plan my team and I designed on the Galapagos Islands. On Theme Day, students will examine the dualities of the natural world. They will investigate its beauty and its danger – its allure and its threat. Each department will design activities to highlight this theme and all ninth and tenth grade students will attend and participate. We have already agreed to show a photo essay that highlights the Paradox of Paradise as it exists both on the Galapagos Islands and in Baltimore City.
While the majority of our Theme Day activities will take place during the course of the day, the event will culminate in a poetry slam activity in the evening. This event will be opened up to the larger community and will highlight student poems which demonstrate this paradox, especially as it manifests itself in our urban landscape. I have invited the Maryland Poet Laureate, Michael S. Glaser, whose poetry focuses primarily on images of the natural world, and he has graciously agreed to attend. Not only has Glaser agreed to read at our event, but he has also asked to participate more actively by helping the students write and revise their poems. I could not ask for a more generous donation of time and talent. The poetry slam event will begin with a reading of student work and will conclude with a reading of Glaser’s work. You will find samples of Glaser’s poetry below:
A Blessing for the Woods
Before I leave, almost without noticing,
before I cross the road and head toward
what I have intentionally postponed--
Let me stop to say a blessing for these woods:
for crows barking and squirrels scampering,
for trees and fungus and multi-colored leaves,
for the way sunlight laces shadows
through each branch and leaf of tree,
for these paths that take me in,
for these paths that lead me out.
Squinting Against the Light
The sky sows snow and sleet, though crocuses
poke purple heads through crusty soil.
Above, geese call their way north
spreading awkward V’s into the open sky.
A slowing, a pause, as if you wait -- perhaps
for the sleet to pass, perhaps for tomorrow:
Your clock is not ours, your rhythms your own
until your head breaks the salty waters
and your mother stops, tends to the pressure
of you as she will a hundred hundred times again,
remembering this rush between her legs,
the rush of you, headlong toward the world.
And when your head begins to crown,
one ear, misshapened, protrudes into
my fears, then unfolds
a petal into its own perfection --
Your head enters the doctor’s hands, is turned
then a last contraction squeezes your shoulders
out and you glide into the world
a sea creature, all the pieces in place.
I cradle you in my hands. Your face squints
against the light. Your eyes open, then close again
as your arms and legs flail their first
flailing into the world, against the world.
As a result of these initiatives and more, I feel both personally and professionally rejuvenated. This trip and this experience have transformed me and have transformed my teaching in ways that I could have never anticipated. I look forward to teaching literature from a new perspective – from the perspective of both English teacher and environmentalist. I credit our sponsors, Toyota and the Institute of International Education, as none of this could have been possible without their generosity and without their commitment to conservation and environmental awareness.