A Chapter Closing.......
Writing this final post has actually made me quite sad. I enjoyed drafting these posts as they provided me with an opportunity to express my views and share my thoughts and opinions with my classmates. The response process with everyone also provided a much-needed social interaction that was lost due to the pandemic. Yet I will not dwell upon what is coming to an end. Instead, I will reflect upon what I have learned about my development as a nature interpreter. In particular, how is my personal ethic evolving, what beliefs are influencing me, what do I view as my responsibilities, and what approaches are most suitable for me as a nature interpreter? The highly divergent views expressed by my classmates in their blogs has illustrated how important individual life experiences and circumstances are in forming their opinions, thoughts and views. Sharing our individual experiences has helped us collectively expand our horizons. So how has this influenced me?
Everyone has an ethic that influences the way in which they approach a task or respond to an issue. Ethics are referred to by the Government of Canada (2015) as “a way of living” that people use to justify their actions based upon what they deem right and wrong and just and unjust. The moral judgments that individuals make are not something that can be taught but is something that they need to cultivate. An individual’s ethics can continue to develop and change as people grow and learn valuable lessons over their lives. The beliefs that I have, the responsibilities that I feel, and how I go about addressing situations are all rooted back to my individual moral ethics.
My parents are two of the most important people in my life. A lot of the moral ethics that I have now are because of them. They have instilled values in me that shape every action I do. Photo taken by Brooke Murphy (my sister)
I believe that humans tend to take things for granted and we tend to not understand how truly valuable people, moments or objects are. I think that nature is one of those things humans undervalue.
Quickly take a second and reflect on how vital nature is for your survival.
Humans require nature for food, places to exercise, to find inspiration, and improve their mental health. That is why I believe nature interpretation is so vital. It helps enhance one’s appreciation for the natural world. Personally, the pandemic took a toll upon my mental health. One of the ways that I have been able to recover is through interpreting nature. Nature brings me this sense of calm, making all the anxieties, which tend to overtake my life some days, disappear. The significance nature plays in my mental health recovery is why I believe that nature is so vital as the benefits it has tend to go unnoticed by most.
I started really understanding how important walking through nature was for my mental health in 2017 when I started to develop severe anxiety. This photo is around the time my anxiety was becoming extremely bad and I was going on frequent walks just to try to feel calm and I found nature was able to help me find this calm.
Given how positively impactful nature has been on my life, I feel responsible to serve as an interpreter for nature. I do not necessarily want to be a formal nature interpreter, but I would still like to be a nature interpreter through my day-to-day actions. The natural world has helped me immeasurably and improved my mental health. That is why I feel responsible for helping to improve nature’s physical health by discussing endangered species, climate change, and other pressing environmental issues. When I graduate, I plan to pursue a career in teaching and use the concepts that I learned in this course in my career. I learned that effective communication is essential! To educate an audience about nature, I need to be able to effectively communicate to an audience in both an engaging and inclusive manner in order to appeal to their moral ethic to act as stewards of the earth!
Freeman Tilden says…..
“we must not tell one what they can do, but what they should do and not what they must be, but what they can be”.
I believe that in order to do this I will need to tailor to my audience how I present a topic. In the course and textbook, the notion is discussed that how people interpret and connect with a presentation will be influenced by presentation style. Understanding and customizing each presentation to address each audience’s different learning styles is critical and my responsibility.
I feel responsible for being an effective nature interpreter, not just for nature, but also for the individuals that I am presenting to. I believe and feel everyone has a right to be included and that no one should be made to feel as if they are not welcome - speaking from experience. As a nature interpreter, it is my responsibility to ensure that everyone can engage comfortably with an issue or concept that I am discussing. As a person who suffers from social anxiety, I can relate to the difficulty of group engagement. I know that as soon as my anxiety begins, I start to zone out and cannot remember anything. To ensure that this does not happen to others, I would give consideration to making people feel physically, mentally and socially safe. Doing this will help to ensure that everyone is given the same opportunity despite what they have and lack in their “invisible knapsack”.
I remember I was super anxious this day and was very quite during this tour/experience. The tour guide picked up on it and in front of the whole group made me come and kiss a stingray for 7 years of good luck. This gesture made me feel so included and special that I stopped feeling as anxious and began engaging more. Highlighting how important it is to make sure everyone feels included and has the same opportunity to learn.
I find that humour is one of the best ways to present a concept as it makes people more engaged and relaxed. Adding humour to my presentation, while effectively articulating my point, makes an experience more engaging and memorable while creating a sense of joy and calm. I use humour often in my everyday life. Humour helps to lighten the mood and make experiences more enjoyable, I also find it helps reduce my anxiety, which is an added bonus.
This course taught me that there are many ways to be a nature interpreter, present a topic or write a blog. The diverse means of completing different tasks allows us to add our own values and beliefs to everything. Therefore, when someone wants to use different approaches, teaching styles, and so on, that is 100% okay! The ways that individuals choose to work in the future will be effective regardless of the style, as long as they stay true to their morals, beliefs and values.
As long as you stay true to you the impacts you can have and the lessons you can teach will be unmeasurable!
References
Beck, L., Cable, T.T., & Knudson, D.M. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage for a better world. Sagamore Venture Publishing LLC.
Government of Canada. (2015). What is ethics? https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/values-ethics/code/what-is-ethics.html
Hey Abigail,
Thank you for sharing this week’s post as I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on the prompt for this week. I too found that this pandemic took a toll on my mental health, especially at the beginning of it all when everything was changing so quickly. I moved back home which was a real change for me after 3 years of living in Guelph but found peace within nature as my family did many hikes with our 4 dogs. After taking many science courses and being more in touch with nature, I too look to help improve nature’s physical health. I believe that it is important to start discussing these pressing issues that we learn about within a small group of individuals that are closer in terms of relationship (family, friends, etc). This way there can be more of an open conversation about the matter rather than just educating them.
(Photo was taken by myself during a hike with 3 of the 4 dogs during last spring)
I really enjoyed reading about how you will use your social anxiety to try and find new ways to make a group feel included and safe when you pursue a teaching career. It is important I believe to use our previous experience and make the necessary change to avoid that for others around. We are constantly learning as individuals and must always keep in mind that there are underlying concerns due to an individual “invisible Backpack” (Hooykaas, 2021). When you mentioned humor being a way of presenting a concept, I found that to be true as it keeps your audience engaged. I have learned and still learning and it is always great to make fun and laugh at yourself to allow others to feel comfortable around you. It shows to them that we aren’t all perfect and it's okay to laugh at ourselves sometimes.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas this semester.
Emily
References
Hooykaas, A. (2021). Unit 3: Risk Versus Reward in Interpretation [Course Website]. University of Guelph Courselink. https://courselink.uoguelph.ca/d2l/le/content/666945/viewContent/2590559/View


























