Carla McGrath (she/her)
Teacher
Phoenix Montessori Academy
Huntersville,
Roles at NAAEE
Languages
Interests
My grandfather taught me to love and respect the land. When other cattle ranchers were killing coyotes, his response was, "they're doing me a favor. They weed out the sick ones." He got his pickup truck stuck between two trees once and was forced to cut one down -- and cried. When I asked why he was crying, he answered, "it takes a lot of years to grow a tree."
I am immensely grateful to my grandfather for teaching me to respect and revere the world around me. Because of him I see Nature not as something to be tamed and/or controlled, but as Life, to be appreciated and shared, if not fully understood. My grandfather taught me to understand that I have a place in that world, but today I understand he was also teaching me that it's not enough to know that I have a place in the world. I also need to make a difference. For me, part of that is passing his lessons on.
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I try to bring that same love and reverence for life -- ALL life -- into my Montessori classroom. I am certified for both Early Childhood and Secondary (Middle School), and both age groups are characterized by a heightened interest in How Do I Impact the World? In addition to the many opportunities to teach the children how they can make a difference, I also share with them my personal love of BATS. Through discussions about bats, the children have learned to look at other species with an eye toward how they contribute to and survive in our world. They have also passed their new fascination with their parents. The children know I have bat houses and an Echo-Meter that helps to identify the species of bats. Frequently, the children ask, "will you show me the bats?" Together we watch the recording of the bats' echolocations and the images of the bats identified. I've shared with their parents the website batcon.org as well as where to get their own bat houses that meet the BCI guidelines. The past two summers, I traveled to Texas to see the largest colony of bats in the world - NOT the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin (with approximately 10 million bats), but Bracken Cave on private BCI-owned land near San Antonio where there are TWICE that many! Approximately 20 million bats emerge from the cave in what is described as a "bat-nado" as they circle the cave before flying away in what looks like a black river in the sky. In 2023, I got up at 4 a.m. to watch the bats return from a night of foraging; in 2024, I went back to watch the "batnado" at dusk and a similar black "sky river". For four hours, the stream of bats continues! 2024 Trip to Bracken Cave
I don't have a cave with 20 million Mexican Free Tailed bats, but I do have three bat houses that I like to think have been marked with a sort of bats' hobo code by migrating bats, and my Echo Meter tells me I do have an occasional Mexican Free Tail, though My Bat Houses are mostly occupied by Big Brown Bats. However, we also occasionally host Hoary bats, Northern Yellow bats, Seminole, Eastern Red, Evening bats, among others, and VERY occasionally a Little Brown Myotis.
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