One more week here at this lovely park; it has been great so far. This week was great because I got to help plan a junior ranger program and lead it with my co-worker. I had fun teaching the junior rangers about forestry. As well we got to work with Laura the curator. We got a chance to go into the room where all of belongings that are Marsh, Billings and Rockefeller’s. They have so many things that they have to take care of.
During this week I got the chance to be kind of a teacher. I had to plan out how I was going to run the junior ranger program and what I want them to learn from this. It was interesting. At first I was a little worried that it wasn’t going to go well but it turned out it did. We started with telling the kids about forestry. We wanted them to learn about how forestry is important and how taking care of the trees it important as well. First we started with the tree walk that showed them the different trees and how these trees can become useful. Then we moved on to different games where they would learn about what trees to keep or cut down. Is this tree helping any animals? Is the tree dead? We also talked about how useful trees can be for us. I wanted them to learn that it’s ok to cut trees but only certain trees, and as a forester that is your job to keep trees growing, use responsibility, and help the wilderness.
All in all it was a great day. I feel the kids had a wonderful time, and learned why we are doing the things we do but in a way that it helps everyone. They all became junior rangers. I was excited to have a chance to lead a group of children to give me that experience before I continue on my journey of becoming a teacher.
Another day we got the chance to work with the park’s curator. She handles all of the artifacts. She makes sure that everything gets recorded or clean, etc. We have a huge collection here at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. We don’t have as many things from Marsh as we do Billing and Rockefeller but we are lucky to have a couple of things like Marsh’s meat fork. Which was very weird, I think the fork itself looked weird but cool because we have this piece of history. We can learn from this piece of history. Our curator does a lot here at the park with making sure everything is in place, making sure everything gets clean, as well with making sure everything has a file. It's amazing what she does and how she gets to see all these cool old pieces of history. I think it’s exciting that she gets to touch Julia Billings’ dress which was from the 1800’s. Only a handful of people get the chance to be able to touch these things and be able to learn about their past. I find her job very interesting and cool.
Later that day we got the chance to help her with some of the photos that were documenting the many different artifacts on the property. No it’s not Julia’s dress, or Marsh’s meat fork but I found it fun to be able to put on gloves and look at all the different type of objects that we have here at the park. I got to see many things that many people are not even allowed to see. I find this job interesting, fun, exciting and more. I get to do, feel, and see many things that most are not allowed too. Being able to help the curator was great.
Here at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park I am finding more and more things about myself every day. I enjoyed this week with working with the junior rangers, and helping the curator. I always had an interest in history, and working with the curator this week I realize I may want to look more into something like her line of work. It has been a successful week.