Students from Putnam County Middle School’s unique Adapted Purposeful Personalized Learning Experiences (APPLE) class visited the Butterflies and Blooms habitat on March 31 in support of student-teacher Taylor Casey’s graduation requirements from Georgia College and State University (GCSU).
Casey has been teaching at PCMS throughout this school year, assisting APPLE teacher Carla Dabbs in the classroom.
Her final major GSCU assignment was to organize a “service learning” experience, which typically ends up as a food drive or writing letters to hospital shut-ins or veterans – all worthy efforts, she stressed – but Casey and Dabbs wanted to find something that not only serviced the community but directly benefited the students in their classroom.
“We sat down and talked and just decided that something hands-on would be much, much better for our kids. We thought they would learn a lot more and they would have a better experience,” Casey said. “We wanted to get them somewhere and have that hands-on experience because then we knew it would be more helpful to them and hopefully more beneficial to our community as well.”
Butterflies and Blooms founder and program director Virginia Linch said she was “thrilled” to have the students on hand to help with planting and watering at the unique facility that features native plants and butterfly-friendly confines in a park-like setting less than a mile north of downtown Eatonton.
“You know me, I’m glad to have whatever help I can get,” Linch joked as the outing wound down. “But really, these kids did great out here and I think they had a good time, too.”
Casey explained the students visited a week before they came to work, just to get familiarized with the people and layout they’d face.
She added they were excited about going on a field trip for a hands-on experience.
“We were actually really worried about some of our students' sensory issues, just if they would be okay in the dirt and if that would feel okay to them or if they would be okay outside, but I was very happy with the way they participated and the way they interacted with the volunteers, they were more than willing to help,” Casey said.
“And I loved watching them explore the park and the way they were climbing all the things and swinging on the swing and looking at all the flowers and the dirt. I was just very happy with the whole experience.”
Dabbs said she suggested the Butterflies and Blooms experience to Casey based on personal visits she’d made in the past just to walk and enjoy the atmosphere and nature at the habitat.
“I noticed it might be a place that was user-friendly for our type of students, where they could have some freedom to get out and around, but it’s not too close to the highway,” she recalled. “So we kind of did our homework and found out about Miss Virginia and she met us over here a few weeks ago and she taught us so much, just myself and Miss Casey. We learned so much that day and I said then that this is going to be great.”
Likewise, when Casey pitched the idea to her GCSU advisor, Rob Sumowski, she said he immediately liked the angle she was taking.
“I think he was very happy that we were doing things hands-on because, with a project like this, it is maybe a little easier to do that book drive or do all the work yourself as a teacher,” Casey said. “So, me and Ms. Dabbs really focused on that. This project wasn't for the teachers, we wanted our students to be able to do the work for the service. So yes, I think (Sumowski) was very happy. I think he was happy that we were able to come to that agreement.”
Dabbs said she was happy with the activity, too, because it was well suited to the journaling her students do that involves pictures with specific emotions attached to the pictures.
She explained the kids did a journal entry when they got back to school.
“Of course, they all picked that they had a good time, and they were happy, and then they got to pick their favorite things that they did, whether it was planting or digging in the soil,” Dabbs said. “We are planning to go back at the end of April, because I definitely want them to see their work and the flowers they planted and the progress they’ve made because that’s the same way we look at them, at how much they've progressed since we've had them here. So it's going to be great.”