Photo courtesy Jim Watson | Teachers relocate a loggerhead turtle nest under supervision of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources at a past teacher training workshop on Sapelo Island.A group of teachers from the Hamilton County area will travel to the University of Georgia Marine Institute on Sapelo Island next week for a five-day environmental education teacher training program.
Since its inception in 2008, the program has drawn teachers and returning program alumni across disciplines and grade levels for its hands-on approach and involvement of teachers.
Last year, no new teachers could attend the workshop due to the coronavirus pandemic, but this year’s workshop will bring a new group during its run from June 14-18. Teachers from public, private, parochial and homeschool settings attend the workshop each year, said Jim Watson, a teacher at Ivy Academy who put the program together in 2008.
“To me this is probably the most important thing that we do – the teachers are part of the instruction. They don’t go and sit and listen to somebody talk or show them something,” Watson said.
Along with meeting professors and locals and taking a tour of the island, Watson said, there are three types of activities that take place during the trip: planned activities they do each year, like a marsh study and marine debris study; accidental activities that come up unexpectedly, like meeting with turtle experts; and development of an environmental lesson.