Jessica's blog

“When we deny young children play, we are denying them the right to understand the world.”

Great article on the importance of play in young and older children – http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/12/29/christakis.play.children.learning/index.html

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So last week I helped judge the Discovery Middle School Science Fair. I had no idea President Obama was upstaging me with the 2012 White House Science Fair on the same day!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/08/white-house-science-fair_n_1263521.html#s676454&title=Battery_Power_

Oh well, the kids at Discover all did a great job – and it’s nice to see this happening on a larger stage as well!

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Kathe and my environmental education research project is off to a great start!! We had 18 teachers at Marquette sign up to take part and 2 teachers at LaSalle. The support from Principal Carlson at Marquette has really been amazing! I have spent the last three weeks surveying 1st-3rd graders – that has been a fun and eye opening experience. Since I have talked with each one individually I have really been able to get an idea of what the questions mean to them, something that is often missing from survey data.

Next up, I need to get the surveys done at LaSalle and I am going to be working with Pat Chrenka on brainstorming an outdoor classroom that she is working on – what a great year for environmental education in South Bend Schools!!

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Here are the last couple questions that we asked the teachers at the Institute this summer -

1) What are steps you can take this year to implement more place based environmental education in your classroom?

-I am going to start out using the activities to enhance my lessons. I would like to try the tree activity and use it throughout the year.

-begin discussing ideas with involved parents and enlist maintenance assistance

-The first step I will take this year is informing my team of what I learned. We work closely together and then we will have more manpower to get the entire school involved.

-I will use the resources that I received this week to implement activities to make students more aware of their surroundings.

-1st I need to have a good solid plan to present to my principal and 2nd I need to implement the outdoor learning right away !

-Integrating some of the lessons, going outside more to explore!

-Incorporate EE through reading and writing. Find an area for sit spots, plan 5-10 minutes several times a week.

I am going to work real hard to do as much PBE as possible

-I would like to begin with small steps, incorporating the activities with the L. Arts and Math program we have to use.

-1 I will start by talking to my principal, 2, plan to use some of the workshop activities to get my class out more, 3, seek out another teacher who might be interested in collaborations.

-I am going to plant a garden to attract birds and butterflies. I want to have a year round nature based science exploration activity that rotates out.

-Immediately trying to take steps to incorporate the activities learned and ‘excite’ the students.

-I will discuss the idea with administration and other teachers to try and get more understanding and excitement.

-I would like to try to find a way to make the outdoors familiar. The more outdoor connections, the better. Each unit can have an outdoor element.

and the last question – what are the obstacles?

-principal, time, resources, willingness of staff to buy in, knowledge

-support from colleagues, being allowed to have kids working outside on a regular basis and be sure to have land-use!

-Time, integration into other curricular activities

-my students must be accompanied by staff in order to leave the building. Sometimes we’re missing staff, so we can’t leave.

-funding and lack of administrative interest

-taking the time to rewrite my lessons, reading the possible lessons, students who think they want to be inside

-There are many obstacles I would face implementing PBE at my school. The 1st is getting the administration on board. The 2nd is working around our curriculum calendars.

-Possible space, definitely money.

-Time and scheduling into the school day.

-Principal buy in, funidng

-Time, administration support, colleague support

-getting more staff interested, finding ways to dig and alter our highly maintained school ground

-Main obstacle would be a change in the teachers attitudes.

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I want to thank all of the teachers that participated in the Institute and for sharing all of their thoughts through out the week we spent together last summer!

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I’m trying to finally finish up the teachers comments from the summer institute – only a little behind schedule here!

So, for this question we asked teachers: What was the most important thing you got form the Institute – here are their responses!
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Materials!!

The lesson we did in class and all of the materials.

The most important thing is that it’s so important that students build knowledge base about their environment, since it’s a huge factor in their lives. They will realize how much of a factor they play once they start to delve into all the different environmental activities.

A knowledge of what place based education is and a variety of resources that will be easy and user friendly to implement.

Most important idea: Get the kids outside!!

The most important thing that I got out of this week was the massive amount of activities that I can incorporate into my lessons.

Project Wet, Project Learning Tree, and Riverbend Math and the “boatloads” of new ideas, exciting to both teachers and students.

I found the idea of using edible plants and learning local plant life of our area an exciting direction to move my classes.

Finding more opportunities to bring in people who can talk to/work with the students.

I learned so much and have the resources to provide high level curriculum to my students plus ideas for a variety of integrative activities NOT in a textbook, but outside.

I got tons of great ideas and resources to use AND a good definition of PBE.

Resources for field trips, lesson plans, and other same minded connections with my peers.

One of the most important things I gained this week is how a lot of PBE ties in with my school’s current science and culture curriculum.

The sit spot!! I wish there was more time to do this.

I need to do more environmental activities – great ideas and resources. I have some ideas of building place topics to research with my students.

Next question: What are some directions your school could take to implement PBE?

I want my school to use PBE. I think we can gradually more towards this goal.

It’d be awesome to have every classroom take PBE and run with is, but in reality I think if I begin and others like bits and pieces, I’d be happy if they took some ideas, too.

It would be great to get the staff interested.

I would love to get more Middleberry teachers on board – collaboration!

I would like to see more classes outdoors, and maybe find a project we could collaborate with another class on.

I would love our little school to really be a leader in PBE. Our kids are enthusiastic enough that there could be no limits to where they go with us.

I have very urban students who worry about their shoes when I say outdoors. It would be nice if my school would let me prove the positive effects of PBE.

I would love to have an outdoor classroom – for PBE to become part of all grades 5-8 in some way, whether math, science or english.

I would like to see it implemented in many subject areas especially science, math, social studies and language arts.

It would be great if more teachers would use PBE and then the importance of the environment would be endorsed as well as improvement in learning in all ages.

I’d like to see soem of the school grounds developed into an outdoor education site.

I would like to see my school integrate PBE with our peace curriculum to create natural play areas that encourage exploration and non-competitive play.

Next I will post the last two questions – steps you can take in the next year and the obstacles to PBE implementation.

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We ended the ENVIRO week with a carousel walk -it was Kathe’s idea and it was a great facilitator of closing discussions. We posted 6 questions on butcher paper and teachers wrote their responses on sticky notes and stuck them to each piece of paper – I want to hear provide the teachers responses as a way to perhaps continue the discussion.  This first post I have labeled place, and it will focus more on the philosophical or theoretical issues we talked about – in a separate post I will do the logistics questions.

1) Where did you begin this week and where are you know in regards to understanding of place-base ee?

Jeanne: My mind kept going to the idea of place as to the immediate area (classroom, school grounds) and one teacher working in isolation. Now I realize it is community-based and involves not only the classroom but beyond.

Kathy: I thought of place as much larger. Now I know that the grassroots (small place) can have much more impact and be just as if not maybe more important.

Diane: We first had to determine what our place was. Throughout the week we have learned how one place affects another and how we are all interrelated.

Pat: I have taught enviro for a number of years – what changed this week was my approach to teaching and making sure I am positive with teaching these ideas.

Joe: From random approaches to place-based education in the classroom to a very effective format on how to go about it with tons of new ideas.

Deb: I began with very little knowledge of activities related to our environment – I’m leaving with a wealth of activities.

Lauren: At the beginning of this week we focused what was around us in our environment (backyard). We then built upon that concept to include all of the environments in our world.

Beth: I have done a little bit of PB, but have not followed through. I hope to be able to be more intentional about getting my students involved in their own learning.

Mike: I though I knew what place was, but reading Sobel, I think it is much more important and inclusive for all subjects.

Kurran: My understanding of place and my schools surrounding deepened = a stronger observation of school/where/what my students can see, learn about, etc.

Tracy: I went from sketchy, vague ideas about doing outdoor lessons to having concrete examples to engage my students.

Kathe: I began this week loving Nature and I am leaving wanting to see how helping children to get outside and learn can improve their lives.

Linda: I thought “place” involved the school building and grounds. I didn’t realize it involved the community – as far as we wanted to extend it.

What does place-based ee mean to you?

Diane: Place based education means getting out in the place where you live and becoming an active participant.

Salima: Place based education is a way of learning to help sustain the needs of a community and the environment in that community.

Pat: PBE means having and using a natural setting for learning. For me its science of all kinds with a format of outside seasonal lessons.

Kathe: It means creating and recovering a sense of wonder and sharing it with my class. Nature is right outside my door.

Kurran: exploring, getting to know and learning about the environment that surrounds you

Lauren: Place based education is teaching all subjects through our environment.

Tracy: A chance to do what I love in a place I love!

Linda: Using the resources we have nearby. Getting students to understand bigger concepts by having them work with what they can use their senses to observe, rather that just reading or listening.

Joe: “PBE” means not one “environmental” education but involving the social issues and “all” involved with it (ala Sobel)

Jeane: means using the school area and local community to teach environmental topics

Deb: Doing fun outdoor activities with my students on a regular basis.

Kathy: Taking the “world” directly around you and learning from it. The “my spot” theory.

Beth: PBE means getting students out of their chairs and learning through their own inquiry.

Mike: PB me4ans using the environment to get the students attenetion and make learning of material relevant to their everyday life and future.

Jessica: – civic engagement – access to nature

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I think that the ENVIRO week was a huge success this summer, not that I am biased. I was so excited to hear the teachers talk about their excitement and what they want to do in their classrooms. They have been an amazing, thoughtful group and I am really excited about possibilities of continuing to work with many of them into the future!

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Today we did taste in the sit spot. This was another difficult one – so often we don’t pay enough attention to how things taste, to exactly what things feel like on our tongues. It was interesting that as I began walking outside I was snacking on my dried pomegranates and blueberries, not paying too much attention. Once I sat down, the main thing I noticed was that as I payed attention to the taste, my mouth began to make so much more saliva!! The pomegranates were much more tart, while I think I would describe the blueberries as smooth, softer than the pomegranates. I would really like to add sit spots into my daily or at least weekly routine. It is so hard to find time for quietness in the busyness of life.

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I think there are so many reasons to do place-based ee. Most importantly to me are to demonstrate to children the wonder of the world around them, just outside their doors. And, that everyone has access to that wonder, it is not something that we have to drive to, or that we go visit – it is right outside. No one should feel that they don’t have access to the natural world, and I think place-based helps to demonstrate that access to all kids.

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Well, I would say it smelled hot today. It was hard to notice anything other than how hot it was outside since the heat index is ~110 I think!! Once I closed my eyes I could smell the soil that I was sitting on and I could smell something sweet, very faintly. I am not sure what that was, however. I also decided to pull a leaf off of the plant next to me. When I rubbed my fingers along it the smell was I would say rather chemically. When I broke the leaf and smelled it, it smelled fresh, like chlorophyll I suppose. Definitely smell was the hardest to do so far.

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