Climate Change

At the Global Warming Alert Conference in Harrisburg, there were messages of hope, accompanied by speakers typically talking about climate change dangers predicted to take place in the future. That future is not only getting closer, but according to Donald Brown of Widener University, we only have about 5 years to drastically change our behavior to stop a ecological switch from flipping that would trigger runaway global warming.

He also spoke about a campaign of disinformation and named perpetrators. Disinformation gets my dander up, especially about such an important topic and for so self serving an end. This inspired me to poll readers about their understanding and feelings about climate change. Please take the poll on the side bar to the left.

Animal #1 - Horse - Science

The first talking animal I'm going to be writing is a horse. Since I am currently working on a horse scene.

Animal – Horse

Classifaction Scientific name – Equus caballus

Genus – Equus (One toed hoofed animals - Horses, zebras, asses)

Family – Equidae (Odd toed hoofed animals - Horses, tapirs, Rhinos)

Order – Perissodactyla (hoofed animals)

Starting a New Series from research for Talking Animals

 I'm writing my first post about animals. I'm planning to have some talking faery animals in my series. I know talking animals sounds childish, to some people, but they are a frequent part of faery tales and folklore about faery. Also, I really like animals. Since I'm a biology teacher I want my talking animals to feel like they are real animals given the ability to talk. That requires a deep understanding of the animals and a bit of research, which is where my blog comes into the picture since this is supposes to be research overflow.

New Disney's Jungle Book Movie Review

I finally found time to go see the new live action Disney Jungle Book movie.

 It was brilliant. I loved how they brought the whole jungle to life. It had a slightly Bambi-esque feel to it at times. Even the bugs were there. The CGI animals had a wonderful look to them. Even though they were clearly CGI and not real animals to someone familiar with animals, it was possible to suspend your disbelief for long periods of time and see them as real.

The actor, Neel Sethi, was amazing. So much talent for such a young person (age 12). The voice acting was well done too. I'm glad they went with big name top quality voice actors (Bill Murray and Ben Kingsley, etc). It made the suspension of disbelief all the easier.

Earth Day and Arbor Day

Earth Day is April 22^nd. That's this Friday. I've always liked Earth Day. People get all concerned about the condition of the planet and want to clean up trash and stuff. I would be nice to have more of that, but I'll settle for what we can get.

International Day of Forests - March 21st

March 21^st, [Monday this year] is International Day of Forests. Despite this being one of my busiest times of the year, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to write about forests and trees. [You'll just have to wait with baited breathe for me to finish up my posts about dragons next month.]

Mythic Humanoids – Serpent People and Dragon Shape Shifters – Part 2 (Symbolism)

Like fire that later came to be associated with serpent people's spin off dragons, depending on the people group the myths came from, serpent people could be good and helpful or cunning and evil. In some cultures they were both. For example, in ancient Egypt, Apepi, a giant serpent demon attacked Ra, the sun, while Mehen, another giant serpent coiled around the sun at night to protect him. Regardless of whether they are good  or evil, both serpents and dragons are usually associated with underwater or underground worlds, often with the roots of cosmic trees. (Niddhogg - Norse, Mictlan - Aztec, Veles – Slavic)

Mythic Humanoids – Serpent People and Dragon Shape Shifters – Part 1(Research Deluge)

I have been doing a lot of research on dragons to discover what dragons are like in my fantasy world. I've been amazed at the wealth of fiction books written about dragons. Clearly, dragons captivate and spur the imagination of many. More than I ever realized.

Magic School Bus - Plant Lesson - part 3

This hasn't been a popular series of posts lately, but I want to finish what I started for the few that did
like it.

Since there were an odd number of weeks due to a few snow days this last week I didn't have a second week to cut the video in half. So we watched the video of Magic School Bus Inside A Beehive in its entirety. I just choose to build on the plant-bee interactions part of that video to connect it to the previous plant lessons.

Magic School Bus - Plant Lesson for K-Gr.2- Part 2 of 3

First I had to catch up the two students that had been absent on the first lesson. Then I asked kids to report on what homework they tried. Some of the students already had roots on their seedlings and their cuttings. [I asked them to bring them back for the family night, but no one did.]

Pope on Ecology - Latest Encyclical on Ecology Fits Within my Mission Statement

I try not to get too religious or political here, since this is an author's blog about nature and mythology, but this is too apropos to ignore. If you want to read Pope Francis Encyclical on Ecology yourself, I'll warn you, like all philosophical, theological, historical and scientific writing there is a bit of staging and wordiness to it. [I generally leave the seriously factual stuff to my husband and let my inner teenager yawn. But I am forcing myself to digest this because I really wanted to read first hand Pope Francis's view.]

Magic School Bus - Plant Lesson for K-2 – part 1 of 3

Magic School Bus book 

This is a lesson designed for a homeschool co-op class of eight K-2 students, but the ideas can be adapted.

I started by asking kids what they knew. They already knew that plants need water, soil and air. Some knew plants needed sunlight as well.

I asked them to draw a plant. Some were uncomfortable with that. I assume because there are so many types of plants that they had trouble deciding which to draw .

Science Lesson – Magic School Bus - Flight

Day 1 – Air Foils and Lift

Using Magic School Bus Episode # - Flight, I taught the K- 2^nd graders about lift and air foils. I tied it into the weather lessons by reviewing the facts about updrafts and wind. Then I reminded them of our discussion about updrafts from hot spots helping raptors like turkey vultures, common in our area, get up into the stronger wind currents higher in the sky. That is why they circle. Then I equated wind discussed in the weather lessons with the moving air needed and the updrafts from hot air up drafts with the lift needed for flight.

Mother Nature – Mythic Persons #1

My Lady Yggdrasil

Until now I've been focusing on mythological species of humanoids or mythic peoples. This is my first mythic persons post. The myth or personification of Mother Nature has been on my mind lately as I continue to try to define this blog and my brand as an author. Also, depending on whether you look at nature goddesses/ personifications as separate entities or conflate them into different names for the same entity, they are so prevalent that they are practically a population of their own. 

Weather lessons for young children

Since I've been writing about Djinn, desert weather spirits, I thought I'd take a little break from mythical peoples and contribute to my science lessons areas.

This will seem like a drastic shift for many readers but since this blog is about nature, the mythical, scientific, emotional and moral aspects of nature, in other words, the impact nature has on humans, this topic fits right in.

I've been doing some easy lessons on weather for a home school co-op class as a short notice replacement teacher. The class is based around the Magic School Bus animated TV series produced by Scholastic Productions Inc. (recommended for ages 4 - 10.) My class has 8 students from kindergarten through second grade. This is a much younger level than I'm used to teaching, but the topic of weather dovetails nicely with my latest posts and appeals to my muse.

Mission Statement

This is the first anniversary of my first blog post. I want to share the mission statement I've been working on for myself as an author, teacher and blogger. This will get its own page a little later, but for now I want to make it accessible and easy to find.       

  K.C.Trae Becker

Self Proclaimed Ambassador for Trees and Forest Communities; Purveyor of Forest Related Myths

Autumn and Mythological Humanoid #27 – Zombies

Seasonal Mythology – Autumnal Equinox had just passed and the post from the Vernal Equinox has some important thoughts about the balance of day and night and the opening of the gates to the other world, that I won't reiterate here.

This time starting with the Autumnal Equinox until the cross quarter day of Samhein, called Halloween in the US or All Hallow's Eve, is a time of beautiful change in the natural world.

Water - Part 1 – Cape May Vacation

For August I'll write about water related topics, Cape May, Mer people, Pirates and a book review of a great middle grade series.

This week was a vacation. I went to Cape May, where I grew up. Its a fun place to live, if you avoid the over crowded roads that lead to the main beaches, the roads that are mostly empty in winter and in summer, bumper to bumper most days, especially weekends.

Fires of Inspiration (Part Two) – Mythological Species of Humanoids # 24 -Will-O-Wisps

Fire Flies always remind me of will-o'-the-wisps. These maybe considered creatures rather than humanoids, but the name and some interpretations of the phenomenon are humanoid. The latin name for this phenomenon is ignis fatuus (foolish fire.) There are will-o'-the-wisp legends (or ones with a similar glowing ball of light that shines in the dark woods and retreats when you get closer) around the globe. These ghost lights are see at night over marshes, swamps and bogs. In the stories and legends these lights are sometimes helpful, showing safe paths to follow or leading people to treasure, but mostly dangerous leading people get lost, to their deaths or to something horrific.