I boarded a bus with a class of anxious fifth graders from Hawley Environmental School and headed north to Riveredge Nature Center. We were spending the entire day studying the inhabitants of this rural part of the Milwaukee River through River Connections, a collaboration between Riveredge and the Urban Ecology Center.

Spring is always a time of excitement and of release. As the snow melts and the birds return, I feel a sense of relief from the cooped-up restlessness of winter. The students I work with seem to have the same experience, though of course in a more exaggerated way. After a winter in often windowless classrooms, they are as wiggly physically as I am mentally.

The typical structure of our classes with the Neighborhood Environmental Education Project, our school program, is to do one or two short activities inside before heading out into the park.

It is my first autumn as an educator with the Neighborhood Environmental Education Program at Washington Park, and I’m thrilled to be able to start a full year with my students. One of my first trips this school year was with a four-year-old kindergarten class from the MPS charter school Hawley Environmental.