I begin with some of the questions guiding my inquiry. I hope you enjoy following my journey. I anticipate many twists and turns as the year progresses. Please feel welcome to contact me with any thoughts or suggestions. So, here we go...'one, two...let's see what we can do'!
1. How can I engage students in active learning in an outdoor classroom?
2. Hand-in-hand with the first question: can 'just playing' in the outdoor classroom produce active and authentic learning?
3.What core content areas can be enhanced using the environment of the outdoor classroom?
4. What curiosity and inquiries will using the outdoor classroom inspire in my students?
5. This one is near & dear to my heart: will this project inspire the students families to 'take the ball and run with it'...be inspired by their children's excitement about the project enough to carry on further outdoor explorations outside of school time?
July 2013 Received my September issue of YC: Young Children, a journal published by the National Association of Young Children. (note: any books/articles referenced in my blog are cited under the resources tab). I read...and re-read The Natural Playscape: A Real-World Study with Kindergartners. I would love to do what they did! There is an unused, wooded area on our school property that I have had my eye on for several years as having potential...for something. Now I knew.
August 2013 I began a graduate class which had the central theme of teacher inquiry. I must admit, I could not wrap my brain around what exactly this class was supposed to be about and what the expectations were. It took a few weeks, and even then, I was floundering. I now knew I was supposed to develop a teacher research (well, we use the word inquiry) about something, but what?
Mid-September 2013 So I have developed a few ideas for my inquiry, all rather boring, really. I suppose I was trying to come up with an idea that would impress others, dare I say...the professor? The thing is, I kept coming back to this environmental project I was inspired to undertake back in July. Wasn't that an inquiry? I mean, I knew that it would take research if I was going to do it 'right'. There surely were other educators who had engaged in similar undertakings. Could I combine the two? Could I use my teacher project as the basis for my collegiate project? A resounding 'yes!' from my professor sealed the deal.
Meanwhile, back at the classroom...
I did not want to just unleash my students into the wild without some kind of plan. I decided to begin with my students just as Ogu and Schmidt had done: read them a book called Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane. I bought the trilogy and we read each day for a week. Sure enough, the children were fascinated by the thought of fairies living in the woods. We talked about building our own fairy houses and what we would use. It helped that Kane's book clearly pointed out that all building materials must come from nature. That was the rule!
Armed with ideas and rules, we ventured out for the first time on September 13th (see The Project page for pics). It was a smashing success! The kids were busy, busy...some building, some exploring, and well, some picking up sticks and sword fighting! By the way, the wooded area has a driveway on one side and a residence on the other. In the interest of safety, I tied yellow ribbons around trees to mark boundaries that under no circumstances could be crossed. The children understood this so well that after several weeks I was able to remove the ribbons.
September 20 & 27, 2013 We venture into the woods again and more fairy houses are being built...getting more sophisticated in design and structure. But not everyone is into building fairy houses. Marcus, for example, has taken a huge interest in a rock pile we discovered. He keeps bringing me different samples, comparing their size and looks. This all while I am moving what seemed like tons of branches which had been dumped on the site through the years. With no where else to put them, my thoughts were to at least isolate them in one or two areas...habitat for some creatures, perhaps? In any event, there are the 'men's men' in the group who had little interest in play...all they wanted to do was help with the branch removal....that was fine with me. The boys just had to be aware of their surroundings so as not to whack someone in the head as they were carrying them! That in itself is a learned skill.
1. How can I engage students in active learning in an outdoor classroom?
2. Hand-in-hand with the first question: can 'just playing' in the outdoor classroom produce active and authentic learning?
3.What core content areas can be enhanced using the environment of the outdoor classroom?
4. What curiosity and inquiries will using the outdoor classroom inspire in my students?
5. This one is near & dear to my heart: will this project inspire the students families to 'take the ball and run with it'...be inspired by their children's excitement about the project enough to carry on further outdoor explorations outside of school time?
July 2013 Received my September issue of YC: Young Children, a journal published by the National Association of Young Children. (note: any books/articles referenced in my blog are cited under the resources tab). I read...and re-read The Natural Playscape: A Real-World Study with Kindergartners. I would love to do what they did! There is an unused, wooded area on our school property that I have had my eye on for several years as having potential...for something. Now I knew.
August 2013 I began a graduate class which had the central theme of teacher inquiry. I must admit, I could not wrap my brain around what exactly this class was supposed to be about and what the expectations were. It took a few weeks, and even then, I was floundering. I now knew I was supposed to develop a teacher research (well, we use the word inquiry) about something, but what?
Mid-September 2013 So I have developed a few ideas for my inquiry, all rather boring, really. I suppose I was trying to come up with an idea that would impress others, dare I say...the professor? The thing is, I kept coming back to this environmental project I was inspired to undertake back in July. Wasn't that an inquiry? I mean, I knew that it would take research if I was going to do it 'right'. There surely were other educators who had engaged in similar undertakings. Could I combine the two? Could I use my teacher project as the basis for my collegiate project? A resounding 'yes!' from my professor sealed the deal.
Meanwhile, back at the classroom...
I did not want to just unleash my students into the wild without some kind of plan. I decided to begin with my students just as Ogu and Schmidt had done: read them a book called Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane. I bought the trilogy and we read each day for a week. Sure enough, the children were fascinated by the thought of fairies living in the woods. We talked about building our own fairy houses and what we would use. It helped that Kane's book clearly pointed out that all building materials must come from nature. That was the rule!
Armed with ideas and rules, we ventured out for the first time on September 13th (see The Project page for pics). It was a smashing success! The kids were busy, busy...some building, some exploring, and well, some picking up sticks and sword fighting! By the way, the wooded area has a driveway on one side and a residence on the other. In the interest of safety, I tied yellow ribbons around trees to mark boundaries that under no circumstances could be crossed. The children understood this so well that after several weeks I was able to remove the ribbons.
September 20 & 27, 2013 We venture into the woods again and more fairy houses are being built...getting more sophisticated in design and structure. But not everyone is into building fairy houses. Marcus, for example, has taken a huge interest in a rock pile we discovered. He keeps bringing me different samples, comparing their size and looks. This all while I am moving what seemed like tons of branches which had been dumped on the site through the years. With no where else to put them, my thoughts were to at least isolate them in one or two areas...habitat for some creatures, perhaps? In any event, there are the 'men's men' in the group who had little interest in play...all they wanted to do was help with the branch removal....that was fine with me. The boys just had to be aware of their surroundings so as not to whack someone in the head as they were carrying them! That in itself is a learned skill.
Marcus's rock
Please forgive the flip-flopping, but in the interest of documenting this inquiry authentically, I will blog about my 'inquiring into inquiry' as well as the actual ventures.
Back to the collegiate studies...
Some articles I have read about teacher inquiries have helped shape why I should be an inquirer (getting tired of that word yet?), how I should conduct my inquiry, and how I can best document it. Any good inquiry should have supporting data, right? What would mine be?
Rather than bore you with too many details, I will upload logs summarizing different articles I have read under the Resources tab. Most of the readings focus on different examples of specific inquiries. Each had at least one point helpful to me: maybe a data collection method, an insight, or something 'not' to do.The one reading I will comment on is a chapter from Brian Schultz's book Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons From an Urban Classroom. Schultz's experience seems most akin to mine...an active, student-inspired and student engaged study. Much of his documentation involved student produced work. "Can this be data?" I wondered.
Back to the classroom...and wonderful coincidences. Part of our morning Math activities include number facts for each day in school. One day, hmmm...day 14 maybe? The number fact was that a Pill bug has 14 legs. Not knowing what a Pill bug, one clever young lady suggested looking it up on the computer, which we did. Fast forward to Friday in the woods and lo and behold...some children found and recognized Pill bugs crawling all over some logs! Sad news in November...they found piles of dead Pill bugs. But Marcus, always the optimist, said "at least this one's still alive"! (Honestly, I don't think it was, but who am I to say).
September 30th...great day! I met with a representative from Sullivan Renaissance to pitch our project in hopes of receiving a mini-grant. We got the grant and I was able to purchase child-size garden tools, flower bulbs, a rain gauge and outdoor thermometer, wood, hardware, soil, seeds, paint, a spider web frame, and battery operated digital microscopes. Check out pics on our Project page and acknowledgements on the Kudos page.
October 11th was a very interesting day. While we were not outdoors, we were very up close and personal with nature! Jerry the Snakeman visited our class thanks to a donation from a parent. It was a very interesting presentation and he was very good with the children, addressing all of their questions and comments on the KWL chart they had generated. And yes, folks, I did hold the Python! The skin was smooth & dry. What I didn't care for was feeling the muscles 'pulsing'...just felt creepy, for lack of a better word!
Part of our plans included creating a garden using recycled tires as planters. The children picked the paint colors, helped arrange the tires, and then filled them with soil donated by a local gardening company. Here are just some pics:
Back to the collegiate studies...
Some articles I have read about teacher inquiries have helped shape why I should be an inquirer (getting tired of that word yet?), how I should conduct my inquiry, and how I can best document it. Any good inquiry should have supporting data, right? What would mine be?
Rather than bore you with too many details, I will upload logs summarizing different articles I have read under the Resources tab. Most of the readings focus on different examples of specific inquiries. Each had at least one point helpful to me: maybe a data collection method, an insight, or something 'not' to do.The one reading I will comment on is a chapter from Brian Schultz's book Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons From an Urban Classroom. Schultz's experience seems most akin to mine...an active, student-inspired and student engaged study. Much of his documentation involved student produced work. "Can this be data?" I wondered.
Back to the classroom...and wonderful coincidences. Part of our morning Math activities include number facts for each day in school. One day, hmmm...day 14 maybe? The number fact was that a Pill bug has 14 legs. Not knowing what a Pill bug, one clever young lady suggested looking it up on the computer, which we did. Fast forward to Friday in the woods and lo and behold...some children found and recognized Pill bugs crawling all over some logs! Sad news in November...they found piles of dead Pill bugs. But Marcus, always the optimist, said "at least this one's still alive"! (Honestly, I don't think it was, but who am I to say).
September 30th...great day! I met with a representative from Sullivan Renaissance to pitch our project in hopes of receiving a mini-grant. We got the grant and I was able to purchase child-size garden tools, flower bulbs, a rain gauge and outdoor thermometer, wood, hardware, soil, seeds, paint, a spider web frame, and battery operated digital microscopes. Check out pics on our Project page and acknowledgements on the Kudos page.
October 11th was a very interesting day. While we were not outdoors, we were very up close and personal with nature! Jerry the Snakeman visited our class thanks to a donation from a parent. It was a very interesting presentation and he was very good with the children, addressing all of their questions and comments on the KWL chart they had generated. And yes, folks, I did hold the Python! The skin was smooth & dry. What I didn't care for was feeling the muscles 'pulsing'...just felt creepy, for lack of a better word!
Part of our plans included creating a garden using recycled tires as planters. The children picked the paint colors, helped arrange the tires, and then filled them with soil donated by a local gardening company. Here are just some pics:
October 2013 We are involved in the environment both in and out of doors. Having watched a video about how paper is made, and now having made friends with 'their' trees, we decide to try making paper. First try was a bomb, but they had fun. Then I got the process down pat using 6" embroidery hoops as forms and deckles. The children are quite good at it and what child doesn't like playing in water!?
We are also using one of our donated tires and recycled water bottles to create a 'Mr. Sun' decoration to put next to our tire garden. The children were excited to use the screw gun to attach wood to the tire...and quite good at it, I must say! Another project involving tires...tractor tire!...is putting a wood table top on it. We are going to decorate it first with 'tools': a measuring stick (or maybe I'll glue a yardstick on), a divided circle for sorting and classifying nature items, and a square for viewing with the microscopes and saving treasures. This will be a great Winter project when the cold winds are blowing!
Meanwhile, back to documenting my inquiry...
Well, certainly this website is one form of documentation. But what other data can I include? Thinking about my own upbringing, I wonder what my students' parents experiences were, or even my colleagues? I have developed a survey and will see what kind of response I get (I'll let you know). Hmm, maybe I should interview my students now that they have taken ownership of the project...of their classroom in the woods. Another form of data is student work, which might show clearer connections with core curriculum and their environment wanderings/wonderings.
In the Classroom...In December, we used our paper 'tree' circles to create angel ornaments. Each child kept one, and we gave the rest out to faculty, staff, and our Parish Priest! Aren't they lovely?!
We are also using one of our donated tires and recycled water bottles to create a 'Mr. Sun' decoration to put next to our tire garden. The children were excited to use the screw gun to attach wood to the tire...and quite good at it, I must say! Another project involving tires...tractor tire!...is putting a wood table top on it. We are going to decorate it first with 'tools': a measuring stick (or maybe I'll glue a yardstick on), a divided circle for sorting and classifying nature items, and a square for viewing with the microscopes and saving treasures. This will be a great Winter project when the cold winds are blowing!
Meanwhile, back to documenting my inquiry...
Well, certainly this website is one form of documentation. But what other data can I include? Thinking about my own upbringing, I wonder what my students' parents experiences were, or even my colleagues? I have developed a survey and will see what kind of response I get (I'll let you know). Hmm, maybe I should interview my students now that they have taken ownership of the project...of their classroom in the woods. Another form of data is student work, which might show clearer connections with core curriculum and their environment wanderings/wonderings.
In the Classroom...In December, we used our paper 'tree' circles to create angel ornaments. Each child kept one, and we gave the rest out to faculty, staff, and our Parish Priest! Aren't they lovely?!
These are our Angel ornaments made from our 'tree
circles'...handmade paper using embroidery hoops.
(see Slideshow page).
We also have committees...did I mention that? Each committee has 3-4 children on it: Trash committee, Toad House committee, Tools committee, and the Bird Committee. Well clearly, you can probably guess which committee is busiest during these winter months...feeding the birds! As I watch them from our classroom window...laughing & giggling as they fill the feeders and try to chip ice out of the water source, I envy their resilience and exuberance...their apparent oblivion to the cold & snow! Lucky birds to have such conscientious stewards on their side! Yes, that is a window screen you see...I was INSIDE!
February updates: darn it's been cold! So cold that we have not even been able to venture outside. So we have started tackling some projects we can do inside. Using the rest of our Sullivan Renaissance Grant money, we have the supplies to grow a salad garden inside. We will also be growing annuals for transplanting outside in the spring.
As I think about this participatory inquiry project...and the photos I am posting...I have had an 'aha' moment! It really is the children who should be commenting on the photos, narrating, if you will. With that said, I will bring my handy little recorder in next week, project photos on the smartboard, and tape their comments. Ugh, I am not a fan of transcribing, but I think it will be a worthwhile venture.
College studies..so, I presented my picture narration ideas to my classmates, who agreed it was a better idea. When I actually did it, though, I felt a bit frustrated that the students were not coming up with better responses. Hmm, interjections on my part, I guess. I problem I have struggled with before....not letting things just flow, but rather wanting 'perfect' little answers. I should note that I have not yet transcribed the recordings. I think that's a good thing. Perhaps the break and my awareness of my expectancies will allow for a more open mind when I do transcribe them.
Post Script:Well, that didn't work out so well. But I am happy with the first year of this project. I am also rather pleased with the documentation of it in my inquiry paper, photos, and video. On to year 2!
College studies..so, I presented my picture narration ideas to my classmates, who agreed it was a better idea. When I actually did it, though, I felt a bit frustrated that the students were not coming up with better responses. Hmm, interjections on my part, I guess. I problem I have struggled with before....not letting things just flow, but rather wanting 'perfect' little answers. I should note that I have not yet transcribed the recordings. I think that's a good thing. Perhaps the break and my awareness of my expectancies will allow for a more open mind when I do transcribe them.
Post Script:Well, that didn't work out so well. But I am happy with the first year of this project. I am also rather pleased with the documentation of it in my inquiry paper, photos, and video. On to year 2!