By Glenda E. Fauske

Hank LaBore, a newly trained PLT Facilitator in North Dakota, convinced the United Tribes Technical College (UTTC) in Bismarck to go “out on a limb” and offer their first Project Learning Tree (PLT) workshop as part of their sixth annual Summer Education Institute in July.  ND State PLT Coordinator Glenda Fauske was there to help LaBore get these teachers off their “stumps” to join the rest of the trained PLT teachers in the state!  After an overview of PLT, each teacher was given a different item, such as a seed, pen, battery, class of water, etc., and asked to “leaf” through the K-8 guide book and find a couple of activities they could do in their class related to that item.  Each teacher then shared what he or she found and others recorded it on their “Classroom Planning” sheet.

A variety of PLT activities were implemented in the class, some which had been discovered by the teachers when searching their guide.  LaBore crafted a Leaf Bingo game that tied into PLT activity #64 “Looking at Leaves,” which utilized the Tree Trading Cards developed for the native and most common trees found in North Dakota.  The workshop concluded with PLT #75 “Tipi Talk” and all participants going outside to sit in a real tipi and listen to the “Star in the Cottonwood” story off the Spirit Woods CD, which features tree and forest stories of different cultures. 

LaBore said, “The workshop was a great success and I look forward to “branching out” and doing more PLT with teachers in the southern part of the state.”  Due to the long distances between communities, trained facilitators like Hank help the State Coordinator a lot in spreading the good news about PLT.

For more information contact Hank LaBore at hlabore@myway.com.