Here's the deal fellas. By the way, great question CFM..
My district offers teachers a small stipend for conducting activities with students during their "duty free" time in the day (lunch). A buddy of mine taught a class on fishing his first year of teaching. I've spoken with my principal and I'll be starting one in the spring. Several of the classrooms at my school are doing the salmon rearing/releasing project where we raise and release smolt into local rivers. Having a fishing class/fishing ethics class piggybacks the salmon fry unit perfectly. The first week I plan on teaching students the salmon lifecycle. Upon completion of learning about the fish we will move on to ethics. Students will learn how to read regulations, discern the difference between hatchery vs. wild fish, understand how quotas are established, etc..... The final two weeks will consist of fun activities such as casting, feeling a bite, reeling in a fish, different presentations, river vs. lake fishing etc.
I can't wait. I have always wanted to see more kids get hooked on fishing. Hopefully this class will get students pumped up about fishing and teach them some valuable knowledge as well. There's nothing like seeing a 10 year old kid reel in his first fish. It would be wonderful if more and more children could experience that thrill. Hopefully I can aid in that experience....
-Cuttie
Oh yeah, this course will be offered during students' recess time. No "curricular instructional time" is lost whatsoever. So to those of you that complain that our schools should be focusing on curricular activities, rest assured that I am still teaching kids to read, write, and do arithmetic.