<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0d7Kbc_1H1HczlP00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0d7Kbc_1H1HczlP00" width="522" height="873" >Will Green is an award-winning local teacher who spread his wings to promote, protect, and proliferate Monarch butterflies. Will was born in York County. He moved to Columbia after graduating high school and attended USC. After graduating with a marine science degree, Will volunteered in Costa Rica for three months. “I had minored in Spanish, so I went to work on a Leatherback sea turtle conservation project. Sleeping in cots in tents and without running water,” he said. The project was located on Gandoca Beach. The group led night patrols looking for females laying eggs and watching out for potential poachers. Will also used his Spanish minor to teach the local kids English. He wasn’t paid for his time in Costa Rica, but living expenses were covered. After returning home, his dad informed him he needed a job, so he found work. “I started in Spartanburg, and after a year I moved back to Columbia and continued as an inspector at DHEC,” Will says. Seven years later Will decided he needed to do something else. “ I wasn’t sure what I wanted but definitely knew I didn’t want to manage adults,” he says.Will’s mom, a lifelong educator, began teaching second grade and ended up as an assistant principal in an elementary school. Will says, “She’s the one I talked to. She said look into this alternative certification thing. She was my inspiration for becoming a teacher.” Will attended a very intense two week program for Alternative Certification for Educators at Midlands Tech and began teaching. By 2006, he was a seventh grade science teacher at Sandhills Middle School, which fed Swansea High School. “ Seventh graders are at an awkward age. They’re old enough to listen and respect you but maybe won’t always reveal their feelings. They flourish when they can connect with a teacher that gives them opportunity to learn beyond the textbook and take action in the real world,” Will says. He loved working there. The specific age of the students, along with two teachers who became mentors to Will helped establish real teaching environments for everyone involved. After seven years, with his three children growing and the daily trek from Irmo getting harder, Will began considering a classroom closer to his house, saying, “It was a very difficult decision.” In 2014, Will started teaching at Irmo Middle School, also seventh grade science. He found vast differences in the makeup of the student population. Sandhills was primarily a rural population. Irmo drew students from a larger, more diverse group of urban residents. Will was also entering an Expeditionary Learning School environment. EL projects required long term cross-curricular study that gave kids a chance to take action in the community. Will was stumped trying to find something that would work for his students and check all the EL boxes. Since his wife, Sara, works with the South Carolina Wildlife Federation, she suggested Monarch Butterflies because of their international migrations, the population decline, and the need for positive human intervention. Will admitted he would be learning as much as his students. He knew little about Monarchs. Will connected with South Carolina-based educator, environmental consultant, and garden writer Arlene Marturano. “Will and Sara are a powerful pair for the planet,” Marturano said. “He as a teacher and she as director of SCWF. I met them years ago through EEASC ( Environmental Education Association of South Carolina). Sara is a Richland County Master Gardener and has worn many hats with SCWF. Will called me for help establishing a place that attracts monarch butterflies. I suggested a Monarch Waystation. Milkweed for caterpillars and nectar for butterflies year round.” Will found a large area of turf behind the Irmo school building offering the sunlight needed for native plants. District administrators were concerned about removing the turf and how the mowers would be involved. Arlene outlined the area and suggested a nautical fence around the garden. Several weeks later, Will and his students began clearing the area for a Monarch Waystation. Monarchs are dependent on milkweed. Female monarchs only lay their eggs on milkweed, and once the eggs hatch into caterpillars, milkweed is the only thing they will eat. Without milkweed, they cannot survive or complete their life cycle. Milkweed’s milky sap contains toxic compounds called cardiac glycosides. Monarch caterpillars are immune to this and absorb and store the toxins in their bodies. This makes caterpillars and adult butterflies unpalatable and poisonous to predators. Adult monarchs also use milkweed nectar to fuel their long-distance migration. Will’s students created signs for the milkweed garden and met with Irmo Town Council to establish a partnership. Even after EL was discontinued the Monarch program continues and students grow milkweed and other plants in the greenhouse. Will works hard to make this work a cross curricular effort, from mapping migration routes in social studies to creating educational materials in EL. Will’s students even participated in a field trip that resulted in native milkweed in Saluda Shoals Park. “We sell native milkweed each year at our plant sale. Wingard’s Market and Soda City have sold our milkweed,” Will said. “We’ve been featured on Making it Grow. Students have learned how to tag Monarchs. This has taken on a life of its own and moved in a direction I never expected. The point is to generate interest and realize you can participate and be part of something that makes a difference.” While at Sandhills, Will received Teacher of the Year honors for both the school and the district. He was also Teacher of the Year after moving to Irmo Middle School. In addition, he’s been recognized by EEASC as Conservation Teacher of the Year. He’s also found time to handle the children’s sermons at his church for the last 12 years. When EEASC’s Jane Hiller first contacted me about Will, she said he was funny. When asked for more detail, she hesitated. “I have no examples. I just know he makes me laugh.” Jane also agreed that Will and Sara are a powerful pair for the planet. Will and Sara visited the overwintering site of monarchs in the mountainous Oyamel fir forests near Mexico City several years ago in celebration of their wedding anniversary. Johnny Cooley, who also teaches at Irmo Middle, says Will is certainly an outstanding educator and advocate for his students and fellow teachers, saying, “He does have a unique sense of humor, more like hundreds of moments of witty remarks, funny shirts, and practical jokes with students and adults. He simply makes us smile.” Will mentioned his ability to use humor in tense circumstances as a benefit but proceeds with caution. People are more sensitive these days and children have always been capable of misreading adult humor attempts. He describes his humor as mostly sarcastic, “When students tell me their Chromebook is dead, we have a moment of silence and a quick funeral service.” He also admits to a few pranks, “Once I dressed up in butterfly wings and a royal robe with a crown to be a Monarch’s Monarch. Sometimes when students leave the room, I’ll put something in their chair, like a plastic rat or fake poop made from Playdoh.” But there’s something else obvious about this lifelong educator. His passion for teaching and his strong interest in student improvement during time in his classroom stands out, along with his desire to make science not only a subject about the world we inherited but also about the one we might be leaving behind. Will appears to be that teacher all lucky students remember long after they become adults. For more information, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySO46HH2Ggo&amp; t=198s or sites. google.com/stu.lexrich5.org/ims-plant-sale/home?pli=1&amp;authuser=0. </div></body>

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Will Green is an award-winning local teacher who spread his wings to promote, protect, and proliferate Monarch butterflies. Will was born in York County. He moved to Columbia after graduating high school and attended USC. After graduating with a marine science degree, Will volunteered in Costa Rica for three months.

Will Green’s Butterfly Effect

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Will Green is an award-winning local teacher who spread his wings to promote, protect, and proliferate Monarch butterflies. Will was born in York County. H

Will Green’s Butterfly Effect

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