BELFAST, Maine – Presque Isle resident and active local volunteer Elaine Hendrickson presented a session on Observing Nature at a workshop for statewide educators at the University of Maine’s Hutchinson Center in Belfast on Saturday, March 19.
Her goal was to allow participants to experience a number of ways to develop a child’s sense of curiosity by exercising and using their senses while getting outside and hiking. She offered an array of resources and activities that teachers, parents, and grandparents can use with children of all ages.
According to Hendrickson, “I demonstrated how I organize a hike and shared activities I have learned or created by volunteering for the Katahdin Learning Project and the Francis Malcolm Science Center. Unfortunately it rained so we did a mini hike inside the Hutchinson Center!”
During lunch, she was able to meet fellow presenter Cindy Soule, who is Maine’s 2021 Teacher of the Year. Interestingly, Hendrickson was Maine’s Teacher of the Year 20 years earlier in 2001.
Other workshop sessions addressed such topics as motivation, helping children and adults to deal with anxiety, outdoor education curriculum, sensory issues, genealogy, using newspapers to teach history, integrated literacy, and inclusiveness.
The workshop was sponsored by the Maine State Organization of DKG International, a philanthropic society of women educators whose mission is to impact education worldwide. This was the fifth year, beginning in 2017, that Maine’s DKG group has offered a professional development workshop for educators. The pandemic forced its cancellation in 2021, and it was held virtually in 2021 during one full day and six consecutive weekly evenings to great success.
