Professional basics…..Todd Beasley is Director of the School Environmental Education (SEED) Team and an environmental science teacher at Heathwood Hall School in Columbia, SC. He also serves at the current board chair for the Carolina Children’s Garden located on the Clemson Sandhill Research & Education Center Campus. With 20 years of experience connected to horticulture, Todd’s projects have become a state resource for sustainable campus landscape design and leadership through student driven projects with high focus on educational gardens. His areas of interest include sustainable & edible landscape design, environmental education, sustainable horticulture, diversity in the outdoors, and youth gardening.

Todd has won several awards for his environmental education efforts and numerous grants. It is the successful proposal that he wrote for the American Horticultural Society to bring their annual Children and Youth Gardening Symposium to his city (Columbia, SC) that he is extremely proud of. His school is being nationally recognized through this symposium which has brought major attention to the youth gardening efforts of the state of South Carolina to the national level.

Todd has capitalized on his horticultural skills by teaching the basics of landscape design to his students. Using his knowledge and approach, his students have designed, created, and maintained over a dozen thematic gardens on the campus of Heathwood Hall in Columbia, SC. These gardens include four rain gardens, a native garden, two butterfly/hummingbird gardens, a xeric garden, a Native American Medicine Wheel garden, an art garden, an edible forest, a native tree alley, a children’s garden, a geography garden, herb garden, and vegetable garden.

Due to his experience in the area of youth gardening, the Friends of the Children’s Garden sought his leadership to fulfill the position of board president to oversee the Carolina Children’s Garden location on Clemson University extension property. Current projects include the development of a master plan; revising, enhancing and expanding each garden; and development of an endowment in order to preserve the garden for longevity.

Todd is also extremely active through memberships with environmental and horticultural organizations as well as through partnerships. Examples of collaborative efforts within the area that benefit from Todd’s knowledge and tangible contributions, i.e. plants grown in the school greenhouse, include: Columbia Green, Historic Columbia, South Carolina Wildlife Federation, GreenSteps School Network, Greater Columbia Landscape Association, Environmental Education Association of South Carolina, The University of South Carolina, Clemson University, and the Carolina Children’s Garden. Todd also continues to pass his knowledge on to the community through speaking engagements at garden clubs, environmental organizations, and botanical gardens including Moore Farms Botanical Garden. Topics of interest and areas of research that are often requested include diversity in the outdoors, thematic garden design including plant selection, barriers to outdoor education, grant writing and ways to extend constrained budgets.

Visit Todd’s developing website: http://toddbeasley.weebly.com

And for a little bit more personal……

The Harvard professor and naturalist, E O Wilson, is considered to be one of my environmental heroes. I say that based, not only on his work ethic in holding regular office hours even in his

late 80s, but predominantly on his theory of biophilia in which he surmises humans have an inherent propensity to seek connections with nature. As an educator, I connect this to the issue of student detachment from nature in which one simply must utilize the appropriate search engine to capture the interest of today’s student population and show them the wonders of the great outdoors. The mixed emotional awe that comes with the new found discovery and experience is the reward.

The key with the last statement is being outdoors - something that a lot of teachers find challenging based on their own personal dispositions and edification. Thus, the opportunities must be such that the teacher and student levels of motivation, interests, energy, and barriers (traditional & new developing) are circumnavigated and equal access learning moments and sessions are created. Because I have a long connection with the outdoors and it is a natural setting for me, it has been easy for me to get my students outside. In fact, I try at least once a week. This is enough to keep them interested in wanting to go outside again to either physically work on a science related activity or have structured (or unstructured free play) recreation and not enough to have parental concerns wandering whether or not enough traditional learning is taking place in the safe haven of four walls. In fact, it is following the suggestion of the National Wildlife Federation of providing a ‘green hour’. The injustice would be not taking students outside and for allowing time for self discovery and exploration.

Clearly the above narration describes me as a formal educator that uses the outdoors as the impetus to teach. Others would say I am experiential, transformative, or even a multicultural environmental educator because of my interests to diversity in the outdoors. Regardless of how you phrase my pedagogy, I use the outdoors as the integrating context to bring classroom lessons alive and connect to real world examples.

While brainstorming how to ‘brand’ myself that not only captures what I am about without sounding like I am regurgitating facts from rote memory and at the same time affirmatively describing my story in an appealing manner to prospective networking opportunities, I reflect back to three questions that have been asked of me during past interviews.

The first question relates to describing yourself in one word. Many qualified subjects on the matter connected to me within my profession i.e., my coworkers and peers, would say, and I tend to agree, that I am extremely:* resourceful through enterprising connections* multitalented with a hint of Bohemian * dedicated but not vehement* industrious and conscientious while avoiding being pedantic* enthusiastic without a hint overzealousness* adaptable & versatile* diplomatic with the ability to be apathetic

However, the goal with the above question was one word. As a way to capture all my background skills, education, and professional experience, the one word that continues to reappear on my radar is conglomerate. In geology terms, a conglomerate is a sedimentary rock that is comprised of rounded fragments or pebbles from other rocks. So, in humanistic terms and including my social and cultural capital, I am a rounded blend of many different skills, experiences, education, dispositions, and knowledge that comes together in a very solid, driven,

constant self. I am somebody that is able to adapt and fit into a variety of situations in a comfortable manner. What has allowed me to become this individual is how I have transcended from experience. I have served our Country, built cabinets, designed landscapes, taught continuing education courses, worked at a botanical garden, protected (and educated) city patrons as a park ranger, managed a plant nursery, sat on nonprofit 501c boards, and of course educated the next generation of environmental stewards. I collect stamps, make wine, mountain bike nowhere fast, and of course spend much time in nature with one of my favorite pastimes dating back to my days in Boy Scouts - backpacking. In the last couple of years I decided to start knocking off at least one semi-major trail in the area. I have also backpack in Dominica and the West Highland Way in Scotland. My wife, who accompanies me on many trips, often questions where I acquire my consistent levels of energy to keep on keeping on like the Energizer bunny while maintaining stalwart presence. I think the answer is simple - I am driven. I am project and task oriented and feel the need to stay busy in order to remain sharp and feel accomplished out of fear of becoming complacent or missing the next opportunity in my field while carving out a niche.

The second question I recall being asked on several occasions, and in various forms, is ‘what is something negative about you or what is something that you need to improve upon?’ One can view these as the same or separate questions. I agree with the latter in that they are separate, yet similar.

I believe after processing the information written in the first question a reader can connect to the first question here - I stay busy and have an extremely difficult time saying no. While constantly managing and juggling an excessively full schedule does not turn into a negative situation, the ability and energy level required to continually fulfill obligations that are not only consistently asked of me but self induced require an exorbitant amount of energy, mental and intellectual stamina. Thus, when down time finally arrives, the ability to relax is a forced venture without feeling the need to stay moving. It’s just the nature of who and what I am.

The second question interpretation referring to something I need to improve on is easy - technology. Let me be very clear with my message. I am not a stranger to technology nor am I completely oblivious to what is available, its usage, or purpose. The simple fact of the matter is, as an educator, technology is advancing more rapidly than educators can keep up with while trying to teach and fulfill their daily obligations. We see the daily effects of too much screen time with students - a disconnection in their ability to engage in social interactions and writing has now diminished to the point that students write the way they text. Technology must be viewed as a tool and not as a replacement to skills such as learning how to use a dictionary or write a rough draft.

Taking technological devices out into nature presents a very hard sell for me. When students are glued to a device, they are missing out on the very wonders that I am trying to introduce them to: the beauty of sight, smell, touch, sound, and yes, sometimes taste too. What I-pad can replicate that?

However, to be fair, devices have their place if used appropriately as observations can be recorded, analysis can be calculated, and collected data instantly inputed. The interesting point of contention here is that the majority of students I have taught in nature, without devices, have stated in multiple ways that what we did was pretty cool. For that, I will use technology, but with

caution, as unplugged acoustic skills have high value in developing the cognitive levels of maturation in our children.

And lastly, a common question of why do I want the job I am interviewing for or why am I wanting to leave my current job is also fairly easy to answer but with layers. Due to the variety of skills, education, and experience I have acquired and continue to expand upon, it is simply a logical and natural progression in life to take on a position with larger responsibilities and the ability to reach a larger and more diverse audience. To have the desire to take steps to advance one’s career in the course of one’s life and to continuously take on new challenges pushing the individual to continue their own pursuant of knowledge should be the aspiration of all. Secondly, the desire in the field of environmental education is to continuously increase the number of students that are exposed to opportunities as well as mentoring the next generation of educators regardless of whether they are subordinates or students. While there is something to be said about longevity with an employer as it demonstrates loyalty, there is the risk of complacency and becoming stagnant in the ability to continue to be progressive and creative. Thus the goal is to eventually find that position in which the autonomy to capitalize on all your dispositions and be surrounded by a staff that truly values and supports your efforts, is like minded, and works closely to build upon your work is key. And while early in one’s career the individual is being mentored to be a productive citizen in their chosen field, later it is the time in one’s career to be the mentor while still being a life long learner.