FIELD NOTES BLOG

Sydney's Farewell

Sydney Sherbitsky
August 26, 2025

I’m sitting at my desk listening to the distant chatter of kids outside and the excited murmuring of my coworkers. I am surrounded by tokens of memories - a sticker from the rot museum and a walnut shell owl I made with campers. On my computer screen, a half edited video about the Grove. In my desk drawer, a stack of lesson plans I once felt nervous to teach, but I now know by heart. Next is the bigfoot code from the cryptid hike, handwritten notes from my coworkers, and the spot where my notebook lives. This notebook has been with me from the start of this position and is full of the many things I have learned at Severson Dells. As my time here comes to a close, I flip back through the pages and reflect on what the past year has taught me…

Discover Nature Hike Lesson Notes

When I first started at Severson last October I was trying to absorb as much information as possible, so I copied down some field trip lesson plans, one of them being: discover nature hikes. These hikes were always a magical experience and I was so excited to lead my first hike on my own. I have now led dozens of hikes in addition to the countless other field trip programs I have facilitated in the fall and spring.

We love Graphic Design!

I was introduced to Canva and Severson’s branding guidelines early and I learned how to connect with a wider audience on our outline platforms. I have written many informational blogs in this position, created many Canva Instagram posts, and edited many reels. Some of my favorite projects were the big melt blog, the animal courtship ceremonies Instagram post, and the kids FAQ reel.

Lesson Planning 101

I helped lead afterschool programs at two local Boys and Girls Clubs throughout the winter and spring that reached 500 students. The Boys and Girls Club program allowed me to learn how to write lesson plans, and after many edits, I taught those lessons at the afterschool program.

Watershed Management Intro

This program is where I found my teaching style. This winter we visited 5th grade classrooms across the Rockford public school system to teach about the importance of water management. I taught this lesson many times over, so I started to add my own twist to things: I named some of the animals in the model and pretended I was an evil mayor that polluted the water before we brainstormed how we could keep runoff water clean on its way back to nature. And just like that, teaching went from something that made me a little nervous to something I really enjoyed doing.

City Nature Challenge Game Plan

One of my goals is to become better at identifying species of plants, animals, and fungi. City Nature Challenge gave me the opportunity to fast track this goal in an all out “bio blitz” of identifying all things nature using iNaturalist. The staff also started competing to find the most bird species using Merlin Bird ID. I found 80 bird species!

RPS Camp Planning

The icing on the cake of my experience was directing RPS camp with my co-worker and friend Shannon. We designed and carried out a five week summer camp that reached 100 Rockford Public School Campers! Each week we led the campers through shelter building, owl pellet dissections, creek walks, and more. We had a lot of fun getting to know the campers and watching them become more comfortable in nature.

Sydney’s Farewell...

It is now time to turn the page. While I am not sure where the next step in my career will take me, like a leaf to the wind, I will take my experiences and memories from working at Severson wherever I may end up next. I dedicate my success in this position to Andrea, Elly, Liz, Ann, Laura, Becca, Linda, Emma, Shannon, Rowan, Mason, and Salem. After moving from my hometown in New York for this soul-touching work a year ago, each of you have made me feel welcome and helped me learn as an educator along the way. Thank you for making this such an amazing experience filled with potlucks, discover nature hikes, “if you can hear my voice…”, hiding taxidermy, “No, there aren’t alligators in the pond”, songs of the week, and friendship. 

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