BRATTLEBORO — Students can learn a lot from a river.
Carol Berner, a Marlboro resident and coordinator of the River of Words program, believes that teachers and their students have much to gain by promoting education through discovering the wonders of their environment.
River of Words (ROW) was co-founded in 1995 by writer and activist Pamela Michael and U.S. Poet Laureate Robert L. Hass, who held the post from 1995 to 1997.
This national organization, dedicated to international watersheds, connects people throughout the United States and the world who are committed to teaching the art and poetry of place to young people.
ROW encourages young people to explore and savor the watersheds where they live, and supports them with trained educators who guide with inspiration and passion.
Through professional development and other educational services, traveling exhibits, publications, and community programs, ROW reaches thousands of educators and young people around the world.
Berner is the founder of the local branch of ROW on the Connecticut River. She works with young people and educators to integrate environmental education, literacy, and the arts.
She says she believes that teachers and students together learn how they can make a difference by exploring projects, lessons, and local resources to connect to their watersheds and engage their communities.
ROW is offered in partnership with the Connecticut River Watershed Council (CRWC), which advocates for the entire Connecticut River watershed and works to protect the river, its tributaries and lakes, fish, and the land, plants, and creatures connected to the river to keep them safe - now and for future generations.
The local ROW programs engage young people and educators in four states along the Connecticut watershed: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
Integrating science, literacy, and the arts for students from kindergarten through high school, lesson plans are designed by and for teachers along the Connecticut River to make learning local and relevant.
Students make it happen
According to Berner, it's exciting to see the river through young people's eyes.
“Their poems, paintings, and parades bring new perspectives to the river's ecosystems. Students are inspiring their communities to pay attention to the environment and protect the health of the river,” she says.
Berner has more than 20 years' experience teaching students of all ages, and has taught in the education departments at both Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and Antioch University New England in Keene, N.H., since 2004.
Prior to that, she served on the graduate faculty of Bank Street College of Education and taught elementary school for 12 years in Connecticut and New York City.
Berner became involved with ROW five years ago, after attending a poetry reading by Hass at Smith College. When an audience member asked Hass what he would like to do to change the world for the better, the poet replied that he aimed to get kids to understand the importance of taking care of the environment, and that out of this concern he co-founded ROW in 1995.
Hass's advocacy of the program was so compelling that Berner wanted to become part of it right away. On learning there was no branch of ROW in her area, she formed River of Words along the Connecticut River.
Berner explains three sources inform and inspire the regional program:
ROW's national education program promotes environmental literacy through the arts and cultural exchange; Connecticut River Watershed Council preserves the health of the watershed through science, advocacy, recreation, and outreach; and students and educators engage their communities in watershed projects.
Berner met with classroom and nature center instructors, and civic and education leaders. She says she discovered that wonderful work was being done, but in isolation.
“My job became to connect the dots,” she explains.
So she invited educators to write up their favorite lessons, paying attention to nature and creative expression, and these she put online so other instructors could see what exciting work was being done.
Berner says that ROW sponsors programs spanning kindergarten through 12th grade and include classroom workshops and outdoor investigations integrating science, literacy, and the arts with grade-level curriculum topics.
Teachers receive professional-development sessions modeling innovative pedagogy, and tools to integrate the arts and outdoor learning into current curriculum.
The whole community enjoys initiatives fostering watershed connections, a sense of place, and environmental stewardship.
From the river to the Web
Perusing the ROW website, visitors will find a wonderful showcase of the creative ways in which youth interact with their watersheds and provides educators with resources to inspire and inform their classrooms.
Online lesson plans and classroom resources are designed by and for teachers along the Connecticut River.
The website's project gallery features student videos, booklets, artwork, and poetry on environmental topics such as the annual CRWC Source to Sea cleanup: the annual trash cleanup of the Connecticut River system, which involves rivers, streams and banks, parks, boat launches, and trails.
Each fall's cleanup draws thousands of volunteers, of all ages and abilities, on foot and by boat, to destinations of their choice along the four-state watershed to clean the Connecticut River and its tributaries.
ROW's online news center celebrates school and community projects and forges new connections between students and teachers both upstream and downstream.
Students who participate in ROW are encouraged to submit their work to the organization's international art and poetry contest, held annually since 1995 in conjunction with the Center of the Book in the Library of Congress.
Although Berner has worked on the project in all four states along the Connecticut River, she says she's done her most extensive work with several communities surrounding her hometown, starting with Marlboro Elementary School.
For the past five years, on a spring morning in May or June, she has helped introduce students to nearby Hogback Mountain. There, children observe their surroundings, learn to really see and paint the landscape, and develop an appreciation for colors and structures.
It's all about learning to work attentively in nature, Berner says.
It's all about perspective
She also has worked closely with connecting schools in Gill and Turners Falls, Mass. These students have been part of the CRWC's Source to Sea Cleanup, as well as a project in which both school districts make paintings of the river in their community.
Students sharing an environment, but from within different communities, can see the land quite differently, says Berner. Gill and Turners Falls are “only a bridge apart,” she says, yet when she asked students in both places to draw the landscape of the river, the results were distinct:
“The kids in Turners Falls drew the factory and the bridge, but just on the other side in Gill, the images were of farms and meadows. But all these images are connected to what makes up a river.”
Berner says she wants to encourage teachers to go to the website where they can learn about the projects and lessons as well as find a source of inspiration.
“In this day of standardized school testing, ROW meets common core requirements by taking kids outdoors to learn,” Berner says.