Wow, are we busy with great programs this fall!! Thank you, Docents, for keeping up with all our many scheduled tours. We can’t do this without you!

Here’s the link to our calendars:

www.santacruzmuseums.org/docents/

Contact Pete for Neary (x14), Matt for Sandhills (x13) and Liz (x10) for Ohlone, Animal, Hosting and Storytime shifts or stop by the front desk to see the schedule. 420-6115

Program Updates

Ohlone tours – This week we still need docents for:

• Thursday, 10/18 – 10am Ohlone, 11:30am Ohlone (call now 420-6115 x10)

It’s our busiest time of year for Ohlone tours. Please sign up well in advance to lead so we don’t have to schedule docents at the last minute. Thanks!!!

We welcome our UCSC interns Charlotte and Nicholas who will be helping with Ohlone tours and the front desk. It’s great to have you join us!

Remember to open the acorns and put the NUT in the mortar – not the whole acorn. The shell is too hard to crush and we can’t make fine acorn flour with the outer shell, thanks!

Animal tours – Thank you docents for signing up to lead these tours. Let Liz or Deb know if there are any specimen that need attention or replacement.

Neary Lagoon – We had a great week of 5^th grade Watershed programs, testing the water quality and engaging kids through scientific investigation. Third grade Wetland tours are booked for the next few weeks. We welcome our new interns helping with these programs: Erin, Alice and Allison!

Sandhills Exploration – First field trip to the Randall Morgan Preserve was today and it was beautiful! Next week we have a tour:

• Thursday, October 25, 9:30-11:30am

Contact Matt (matt@santacruzmusems.org, 420-6115 x 13) to sign up and keep checking the Sandhills calendar as we add more field trip dates.

Hosting – Our new Naturalists exhibit – up this Saturday! – will give hosts lots of new ways to engage with visitors with microscopes, cones, insects and fish (oh my!) Thank you for signing up for Saturday shifts – you add so much to our visitors’ experiences.

Nat Time – We have new titles in our storytime library:

My very first book of Animal homes by Eric Carle, A Swim through the Sea by Kristin Joy Pratt, Bajo las Olas by Kristin Joy Pratt, Forest Bright, Forest Night by Jennifer Ward, A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle, In the trees, Honey bees by Lori Mortensen

Find these books in the book nook or in Cabinet A and don’t forget you can use the Growing up Wild! Preschool curriculum book (located downstairs in the docent library) for ideas on songs and fingerplay. Great seasonal themes to do: weather, winter, leaves, migration!

Upcoming Docent dates:

Education Open House – October 24, 3-5pm

Please join us for this afternoon event to tell teachers about our programs and resources. It’s wonderful to have docents here to engage with the teachers who attend and give them an understanding of our programs. Please encourage teachers you know (preschool – high school!!) to attend.

And then, please stay for our:  Docent orientation of our new exhibit: Keen Eyes and Curious Minds – Exploring the Lives and Work of Local Naturalists Daniel Miller and Randall Morgan, 5-6pm

Storytelling workshop – October 29, 10am-1pm    Local storyteller Bethany Kilzer, who often entertains at Quail Hollow Ranch County Park with stories and myths about snakes, turtles, frogs and other critters, and museum docent Nancy Lenz, who has taught and told at school assemblies, book fairs and festivals, guarantee a morning of good times and realizing exercises to help banish fears for beginning tellers and encourage experienced tellers to use stories to bring to life our museum exhibits.  The Native American Storyteller says…”I will tell you stories of what happened long ago. Some of you will remember every word that I say, some will remember a part of the words, and some will forget them all — but you must do your best.  Hereafter you must tell these stories to one another.  Now listen, now tell.”

Community Engagement workshop – November 10, 1-5pm at the Seymour Center with our informal education partners (more info to come!)

Tour of wastewater treatment plant – December 5, 1-2:30pm by the entrance to Neary Lagoon (California and Bay). Limited number of participants. Sign up information to come.

Recycle! - Do you have your old Docent Handbook that you don’t use anymore? Since all our resources are online, you may want to bring back that thick binder. We’ll file the resources and have them available for upcoming trainings!

Happy FALL!

-Deborah, Liz, Jen, Pete and Matt

Happy Fall Docents!

Thank you for signing up and welcoming our new trainees as they shadow and start leading programs! Programs are picking up!

Here’s the link to our calendars: www.santacruzmuseums.org/docents/

Contact Pete (x14) for Neary, Matt (x13) for Sandhills, and Liz (x10) for Ohlone, Animal, Hosting and Storytime shifts (420-6115), or stop by the front desk to see the schedule.

Next week we still need docents for:

• Wednesday, 10/10 – 10am Ohlone tour
• Thursday, 10/11 – 10am Ohlone, 1pm Ohlone
• Friday, 10/12 – 10am Ohlone

New trainees – Don’t forget to bring your Volunteer applications and Docent Agreements to the luncheon on Monday, or drop them off at the front desk. Also, get in for fingerprinting so you can start with programs after observations. We’re so grateful to have you on board!

Docent launch and volunteer lunch

Monday, October 8, 11am-1pm

Please join us for the kick-off to the school year and our new trainees “graduation” in the outdoor amphitheater. Our wonderful community partners Shopper’s Corner, the Buttery and Beckman’s bakery are supplying food and drink. Come enjoy the great company! RSVP appreciated to Jen (jen@santacruzmuseums.org, 420-6115 ext. 15).

Program Updates

Neary Lagoon – The marsh is the place to be! Great bird and plankton sightings this week and the water temperature reached a record high of 74 degrees in the heat wave. Sign up now for observations and tours!

Sandhills Exploration – Our fall programs are going! We have three schools signed on for fall field trips and we need YOU to come lead stations:

• Wednesday, October 17, 9-11am
• Thursday, October 18, 9-11am
• Thursday, October 25, 9:30-11:30am

Contact Matt (matt@santacruzmusems.org, 420-6115 x 13) to sign up and keep checking the Sandhills calendar as we add more field trip dates.

Hosting – October 5 is First Friday free day at the Museum and a fabulous day to Host as we have lots of visitors coming to see our exhibits!  Deborah will be hosting noon-1pm if you would like to shadow or give it a try, come on by!! And we loooove to have Saturday hosts. Schedule with Liz!

Nat Time – Storytime docents, we’ve posted inside Docent Cabinet A a list of the topics we’ve covered weekly since February so we don’t repeat themes too often. Skunks this week, seals and sea lions next week. We’re storing some of the stuffed animals/puppets in Docent cabinet A if they are not in the book nook, look there. Keep spreading the word about the Thursday program (Facebook everyone you know!)

Recycle!

Do you have your old Docent Handbook that you don’t use anymore? Since all our resources are online, you may want to bring back that thick binder. We’ll file the resources and have them available for upcoming trainings!

Upcoming Docent dates:

Mark your calendars:

October 24, 3-5pm Education Open House and afterward…

* New time * 5-6pm – Docent orientation of our new exhibit: Keen Eyes and Curious Minds – Exploring the Lives and Work of Local Naturalists Daniel Miller and Randall Morgan

October 29, 10am-1pm – Storytelling workshop

Local storyteller Bethany Kilzer, who often entertains at Quail Hollow Ranch County Park with stories and myths about snakes, turtles, frogs and other critters, and museum docent Nancy Lenz, who has taught and told at school assemblies, book fairs and festivals, guarantee a morning of good times and realizing exercises to help banish fears for beginning tellers and encourage experienced tellers to use stories to bring to life our museum exhibits.  The Native American Storyteller says…”I will tell you stories of what happened long ago.  Some of you will remember every word that I say, some will remember a part of the words, and some will forget them all — but you must do your best.  Hereafter you must tell these stories to one another.  Now listen, now tell.”

November 10, 1-5pm – Community Engagement workshop at Seymour Center with our informal education partners (more info to come!)

December 5, 1-2:30pm – Tour of wastewater treatment plant by Neary Lagoon

Other enrichment opportunities:

October 7, 10am-4:30pm Gathering of Ohlone Peoples

A celebration of the history, culture and traditional skills of Ohlone Peoples at Coyote Hills Regional Park, Fremont. Details and schedule for the day at: http://www.ebparks.org/activities/events/Gathering_of_Ohlone_Peoples_-_2012_s_p1114

We look forward to celebrating you on Monday, October 8 at the luncheon!

-Deborah, Liz, Jen, Pete and Matt

Dear Docents,

School tours, hosting and storytime – oh my! Fall is here and we are happy to get into the groove of the school year. We appreciate you using the docent calendar to sign up: www.santacruzmuseums.org/docents/. Our new trainees are eager to start their observations and shadow our experienced docents. Contact Pete for Neary, Liz for Ohlone, Animal, Hosting and Storytime shifts (420-6115 x 10), or stop by the front desk to see the schedule.

Docent trainings - Join us for the last three trainings:

• Neary Lagoon programs Monday, September 24, 10am-1pm at Neary (meet at California and Bay)
• Natural History Storytime – Thursday, September 27, 3-5pm
• Sandhills Exploration – Monday, October 1, 10:30am-12:30pm at the Randall Morgan Preserve in Scotts Valley (meet at 10 to carpool from the Museum).

Let us know if you plan to attend. More details here or call Deborah at 420-6115 x 12.

Museum-based tour refresher - September 28, 2-3pm. Experienced Ohlone and Animal school tour docents, feeling a bit dusty after the long summer? Come by for an informal review of the Ohlone and Animal tour artifacts and school program scripts. Share favorite techniques with your fellow docents and sign up to lead programs!

Docent launch and volunteer lunch – Monday, October 8, 11am-1pm. Please join us for the kick-off to the school year and help celebrate our new trainees. We’ll provide the food and drink in our outdoor amphitheater. Come enjoy the great company! RSVP appreciated to Jen (jen@santacruzmuseums.org, 420-6115 ext. 15).

Program Updates
Neary – Big news…off with a bang! Field trips start next week! After a few class presentations, we’re looking forward to getting programs going down at the lagoon (I mean, marsh!) Join us for training on Monday, 10/24, 10-1pm as we expand our docent crew for these award-winning field programs. Recent wildlife viewings include: the heron trifecta (green, black-crowned and great blue), a strong wood duck population, mallard drakes changing from their summer eclipse plumage, and returning coots.

Sandhills – This week, Matt and Deborah visited our Sandhills field site with the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County’s steward. We staked out where we will be doing our restoration for the fall and connected with a Morgan Preserve neighbor who has been taking wildlife photos, including bobcat, coyote, deer, thrasher, spotted towhee and quail. October 1, 10:30-12:30pm is our on-site docent training day. We’ll meet at the Museum at 10 to carpool. Contact Matt (matt@santacruzmusems.org, 420-6115 x 13) to let us know if you can offer a ride, or need to ride with someone. See you then!

Hosting – We had a great training on Saturday and are very jazzed about our new trainees and the great value of this program. We have lots of new artifacts to bring out to engage our visitors including: honeycomb, sea cow fossil bones, and the Ohlone atlatl!

Nat Time – We love our Thursday afternoon program! Storytime docents, don’t forget to use our great resources to enhance the themes: wooden figures, puppets, felt board cut outs, Ohlone dolls, artifacts from the education kits and docent bins. Next week is otter appreciation week and we’ll do a special program and training, 3-5pm. Aren’t those preschoolers and families adorable?!

Upcoming Docent opportunities
We are planning some fantastic monthly Docent Enrichments for the school year. In addition, we will send out information on community events that can enhance your knowledge of local natural history and environmental stewardship. Mark your calendars:

Wednesday, October 24

• 2-3pm – Docent orientation of our new exhibit: Keen Eyes and Curious Minds
• 3-5pm Education Open House

October 29, 10am-1pm – Storytelling workshop with Nancy Lenz and Bethany Kilzer

November 10, 1-5pm – Community Engagement workshop at Seymour Center with our informal education partners

December 5, 1-2:30pm – Tour of wastewater treatment plant

Thank you Docents for all the wonderful energy and time you devote to the Museum! We couldn’t do this without you. We look forward to a great year together.

-Deborah, Liz, Jen, Pete and Matt

We are excited to welcome our new docents to the Museum! Monday’s training had lots of new energy, new faces, and enthusiasm for a new year of connecting people with nature. We are very pleased to hear that most new docents want to participate in most of our docent programs! Whether you serve one or all of our programs, we are so lucky to have you all on our team!

If you missed the New Docent Orientation, but you still want to be part of the team, there is still time! Please contact Deborah@santacruzmuseums.org – she can help orient you to the program that would best fit your interests. We hope to see you at an upcoming training.

Here’s a quick list of our upcoming Docent trainings:

Saturday, Sept 15  |  Host Training  |  10am – 1pm

Monday, Sept 17  |  Ohlone Training  |  10am – 1pm

Monday, Sept 24  |  Neary Lagoon Training  |  10am – 1pm

Thursday, Sept 27  |  Storytime Training  |  3pm – 5pm

Monday, Oct 1  |  Sandhills Exploration Training  |  10am – 1pm

Greetings Docents!! We’re so excited to begin the new school year. We already have 53 tours booked. Check the docent calendar and begin signing up for upcoming tours! http://www.santacruzmuseums.org/docents/, call Liz for openings (420-6115 x 10), or stop by the front desk to see the schedule.

Docent launch and volunteer lunch

Monday, October 8, 11am-1pm

Please join us for our kick-off of the school year and to celebrate our new trainees. We’ll provide the food and drink in our outdoor amphitheater. Come enjoy the great company! RSVP appreciated to Jen (jen@santacruzmuseums.org, 420-6115 ext. 15).

Volunteer Information Night and First Friday Art tour

Friday, September 7, 5-8pm

Join us for an evening in the Museum to view the artwork of Steven Odell and help recruit new volunteers. Free refreshments!

Docent trainings

Experienced docents are always welcome at all our trainings. In fact, your knowledge is very valuable to new trainees. Come brush up on your skills, or get involved with a new program!

• New Docent Orientation – Monday, September 10, 10am-1pm
• Hosting – Saturday, September 15, 10am-1pm
• Ohlone Tours – Monday, September 17, 10am-1pm
• Neary Lagoon programs Monday, September 24, 10am-1pm at Neary
• Natural History Storytime – Thursday, September 27, 3-5pm
• Sandhills Exploration – Monday, October 1, 10am-1pm at the Randall Morgan Preserve in Scotts Valley

More details at: http://www.santacruzmuseums.org/education/public/docenttraining.htm or call Deborah at 420-6115 x 12.

Program Updates

Field programs – Pete and Matt are a power duo for the fall!! Pete will be coordinating Neary programs, as well as piloting a new high school restoration-based program at the Pogonip. Matt will be picking up some of the Neary action as well as coordinating our Sandhills Exploration program. We’re excited to have both of these experienced leaders heading up our field programs!

Docent program survey

Thank you to everyone who completed the end-of-year questionnaire. Your feedback is very important to us. If you did not get a chance to fill out the quick, online survey, there’s still time!! Click here!

Upcoming Docent opportunities

We are planning some fantastic monthly Docent Enrichments for the school year (storytelling, tidepools, water treatment plant, docent mixers, skills workshops). In addition, we will send out information on community events that can enhance your knowledge of local natural history and environmental stewardship. Here are some great talks opportunities around our community:

Ohlone Day at Henry Cowell State Park – September 8, 10am-4pm

This is a great event to learn more about the Ohlone people: traditional dancers, demonstrators making baskets, tools, instruments, and sharing songs, language and history. The action happens at Picnic Area 1.

From fellow Neary docent Dana Bagshaw:

Free Natural History Field Trip Series with Randall Morgan

• Saturday, October 6  10:00 -12:00   Neary Lagoon
• Saturday, October 27  10:00 – 2:00  Rancho Del Oso

To sign up for a trip, email Ken Moore, ken@wildwork.org Put the date in the subject line, and provide your name. More about Randall Morgan here.

Thank you Docents for all the wonderful energy and time you devote to the Museum! We couldn’t do this without you. We look forward to a great year together.

-Deborah, Liz, Jen, Pete and Matt