Meg Lorton

“You have to go out to go in”-John Muir.  This is the philosophy of what this seminar can help to deliver for the free and reduced rural and urban population of approximately 1000 + students; whom,  I have the good fortune to impact through Response To Intervention.    My professional degrees are: Master's in School Social Work and Educational Leadership and further education specializing in Behavioral tracking and Interventions but, what you need to know about my qualifications are; the paths that I have been seeking that align with “Re-enchanting Nature: Humanities Perspectives”.  I have been an avid nature enthusiast- hiking the Appalachian trail, Becoming a Masters Naturalist, and Creating Saturday scholars classes that provided field trips with students and their parents to go out into nature and experience Native American Culture.  Native Americans truly had the right idea of ways to value and connect to nature in any environment.

     As a School social worker, I address issues with social communication: the need to develop communication skills with self and with others.  Society is losing connection with the self because minds are being busied and cluttered up with technology (excess video gaming, social media, etc.). Students have no space for inner connecting and building a conscience.  What is solitude? Where is the concept of solitude being developed? Teaching Mindfulness is offering a feeling of being comfortable in your skin (self). We all need these tools to develop our best selves when faced with the stressors of life. In our classrooms, I believe there can be a creation of eco therapy using guided imagery of nature that can provide mindfulness that will produce within our students a value and appreciation for learning as well as a primary quest for going out into nature and preserving it and themselves.