I was excited for this week as I strongly support outdoor education and what it has to offer students. I love spending my time outside and appreciate any opportunities for outdoor learning and playing. As the introduction for this week says, "we may be able to put ourselves in a mindset of wonder and attentiveness to beauty, pattern and changeability in the living world, and the delight of finding elegant ways to connect with these patterns" (Gerofsky, 2024). Thinking about finding wonder, beauty and elegance while learning sounds quite lovely.
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Reading Reflection
Williams, D. (2008). Sustainability education's gift: Learning patterns and relationships. Journal of education for sustainable development, 2(1), 41-49.
The reading begins with an overview of sustainable education and how it provides a solution for the isolation and silo thinking of traditional education - what Orr (1992) calls the "crisis of sustainability" (p. 41). There are three understandings as requirements for sustainability education being that (1) the whole is more that the sum of its parts; (2) living systems at all levels are networks; (3) relationships among members of an ecological community are nonlinear. After the introduction, the reading includes a case study on learning patterns and relationships. In this program a Food-based Ecological Education Design (FEED) program was started, through this program students participated in developing learning gardens and creating an environmental and nutrition farm. With these gardens students are learning about medicinal plants, nutrition, cultural significance, healing properties of gardening and resource cycling. Students felt ownership in what they were learning and developed a sense of connectedness. These school garden programs are emerging to help enhance curriculum understanding and encourage outdoor learning.
The program emphasizes seasonal learning and showcases how the program takes shape throughout the year. I was thinking about school gardens that exist in communities around me and think they only use the garden in the warmer months when it is possible to grow plants, however I liked being able to see how this project can be carried out in an indoor setting, with designing and building garden beds and investigating soil. This would make the students feel connected to the project as it is a full year endeavor and not only a month or two of the school year.
The students in the project were developing a concrete understanding of sustainability while creating a sense of connectedness and relationships. Students at one middle school use their school garden in conjunction with a service project to support a homeless shelter. This connects to the teaching for social justice course we took and I found myself thinking about how this could a great project for all students to make a difference in their community and see the value of the math that they are doing.
At the end of the reading Williams (2008) is discussing the challenges for establishing school gardens, he states that "the challenges for establishing these gardens have more to do with whether these projects will become mainstream or they will stay at the margins embraced only by those who believe that environmental sustainability must be our priority" (p. 49). This resonated with me as I have seen lots of teachers avoid any kind of outdoor education either because they do not believe in sustainable education as a priority, or because they don't like going outside themselves. As someone who believes in sustainable education and thinks taking learning outside is important for all ages, I find these opportunities exciting but I know that some teachers may find the idea of a school garden project or outdoor learning a daunting feat.
Questions
- A school garden is a big project: What are some other examples of sustainable education you have done or seen in schools?
- How can we encourage teachers to see the importance of sustainable education and make it seem like less of a challenge to those who may be hesitant?
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Activity
I decided to do this activity twice: once at the ski hill where there are a lot of human-made things and then again as I was walking my dog one day on a trail in the forest where there are less obvious human made things. I have made a list of things I saw but did not add all of them to my picture.
Ski hill
living beings: trees, mountains, people, birds
human made: chair lift, skis, boundary sign, ski run signs, cars, buildings
Walking Trail
living beings: trees, squirrel, dogs, people, birds, plants growing through the snow
human made: trail sign, mittens left on tree, barrier to block off one of the trails, cars, barn
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| This picture looks more summery than it did outside, we have a lot of snow right now! |
Reflection
Most of the living things I drew did not have straight lines, or they were a mix between straight and curved lines. The human made things seemed to have a more straight line to them and similar angles in each shape (aside from a few). The human-made objects seem to have more rigid shapes whereas the living things include more flow to them. There are some exceptions to this and I think it depends on how one draws the images as well. I did notice that clothing (the mitten on the tree) was more round in shape than other human made things such as the chair lift and the signs. I feel like these patterns exist as humans make things that are easier, take less time or are more efficient. When I think of the signs both at the ski hill and on the trail I imagine that they came from a larger piece of the same material, more signs could be cut from the material if the lines are straight and align with one another than if they were circular. This reminded me of the bees from my reading last week!
Using observation and drawing to help students learn about lines and angles allows them to develop a deeper understanding and connect what they are learning to concrete examples, this will allow them to bring meaning to what they are learning in the classroom. These activities also allow students to enrich their relationship with the world they are apart of (Gerofsky, 2024). Like in this activity, exploring the differences between the living and human-made objects, students could see how the human-made are a part of the world and are different than those that exist naturally without manipulation.
I think there are a lot of ways to experience lines and angles with whole-body movement. Going out into a field and using students to create shapes, either with their bodies or using footprints in the snow would be one that could be done on school grounds. I grew up figure skating so an activity that I think of is to use an outdoor rink and explore the lines and angles that the blades mark on the ice or if students can skate well they could use a similar idea to the dancing on the beach as seen in the weekly viewing.
Circling back to the beginning of my post, through this activity I was able to sit in nature with wonder on my mind and explore the beauty and patterns that exist in the world around me. It was nice to pause and take time to sit in tranquility as I explored these spaces that I visit often.
ReplyDeleteYou are totally right about school gardens – it’s hard to grow many things because most of them are harvested in the summer/fall! My school is K-5 so my students go on to middle school after I teach them so the plants they plant in the spring are left to the next group of students. I find that the connection and ownership over the process becomes a bit lost because they aren’t there in the fall to see the progress. However, I still am a huge advocate for school gardens, but I do see some of the issues that can arise. I grow potatoes in tubs with my class and we also have had indoor grow towers at our school for a few years. The towers are an awesome way to grow year-round so the students can see what their hard work does. There is SO much math to it all and a huge opportunity for ownership of their learning.
Your question about school gardens is a great one. I think there are many other examples of sustainable education that we can participate in without the undertaking of a whole school garden. I’ve connected with my local environmental society, and they have a program where my class goes to a local arboretum. For 6-8 sessions over about 12-14 weeks they learn about gardening, sustainability, ecosystems, local plants etc. It is such an amazing program, and my students learn so much! They get to participate in hands on learning (planting, measuring, testing water ph, using wheelbarrows, harvesting etc.) and I really think it has a big impact for many of my students.
At school, we’ve had things like “The Green Team” which was a group of students who created going green initiatives for the school. We also have a large recycling program that another class runs. This year I am doing a huge unit on Salmon, and we are currently learning about the impact we have on Salmon in our area. So far, it has been amazing, and my class is very invested in learning about what we can do to help protect Salmon. I am very passionate about teaching my students about sustainability so they can acquire knowledge and the skills needed to have a sustainable future. I feel like every little bit helps and maybe by participating in these types of things we might inspire other teachers to join in!
I loved your comment of sitting in nature with wonder. Whenever my students and I learn outdoors, I love watching them embrace the learning. My students teach me something from a different perspective, and I find we spend longer amounts of time outdoors than originally anticipated. Some teachers, especially primary teachers that I have spoken to, are a little apprehensive about teaching outdoors. The common reason that usually comes up is "classroom management" and inclusivity. Some teachers are fearful of keeping students safe (especially students with neurodiversity, or other challenges); keeping students engaged; and keeping students supervised in a larger area. As a primary teacher, it does take some practice getting students used to "dressing for the weather", respecting nature and going through safety procedures in the event that someone does get hurt. I have never yet encountered a situation where students were not engaged, or a lesson was not adaptable to suit student diversities.
ReplyDeleteQuestion #1: We have a school garden with a small pond. We run into the same problem with students tending the garden and not reaping the benefits the following year. During the summer months, a teacher volunteers their time to come in and weed and check on the garden. I know in the past, some gardens were left to "fend for themselves" as volunteer help was difficult to find. Some solutions: attaching tree bladders to fruit trees, and asking community members to sign up for weekly weeding tasks, and watering was accomplished on a timer.)
I like the idea of growing produce, and giving the harvest to help feed the local community. We have a similar program here in our school district, but local farmers grow food and contribute to the Local Harvest Food bank.
We also have a Salmon in Schools program and classes visit the Kingfisher Interpretive Center to release the salmon from the location that they were spawned. The only difficulty in this program, is that only two classes can participate in the release of the salmon and see first hand the place where it all began.
Question #2: When I first arrived in this district, a veteran teacher at the school "buddied" up with me and we did a lot of outdoor learning together. She was familiar with the locations, and safety protocols. I know that I felt immediately more comfortable taking my students to cross country skiing trails, and hiking trails knowing that a teacher had traversed the area before with similar aged students. She also introduced me to local elders and learned first hand about the local watershed, and traditional uses of plants. It was extremely valuable to have that shared experience.