Same Sun Here Author Visit

Each year, the St. Michael’s College Education department has a common read for everyone throughout the department, and typically invites the author to visit for a talk at the school. This year, we read the epistolary novel Same Sun Here written by Silas House and Neela Vaswani, and had the chance to listen to Neela Vaswani talk about the book in mid-October. At the talk, she discussed the process of writing the book and why she included certain aspects of the plot, but she also mentioned how to teach the book to students and was also open to ideas about other possible ways to teach the book. One aspect of the event that I really appreciated was learning about how she and her co-author wrote the novel, which consisted of sending letters back and forth to each other, without discussing their any of the content in person. The novel itself is written through letters between a young girl from India living in New York City and a young boy from Kentucky, and each of the authors, according to Neela, has a personal connection to each of their characters. Silas House wrote as the young boy from Kentucky named River, and Neela wrote as the girl living in New York City named Meena. As a reader of the book, I really like that they chose to take this genuine approach, and as an educator, I really appreciated the thoughts shared by Neela Vaswani on different ways to teach the book.

Attending this event allowed me to draw connections between the Vermont Educator Performance Criterion and the St. Michael’s College Education department mission statement.  One performance criterion that this event connects to is 10.1: Candidates are prepared to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals, and community members to ensure student learning. At this event, she welcomed new ideas to teaching this book and we also looked at more specific ways to teach the novel in our education classes. We were split up into groups to come up with a learning activity based around this book. My group decided that one engaging and purposeful way to examine this book would be to stage a debate around mountaintop removal, which is something River, as a character, struggles with in his hometown in Kentucky. This Performance Criterion is also connected to this event because, in my opinion, one of the most influential demonstrations of learning and growth from a student is through student activism, which was also a topic discussed at the author’s talk. River portrays an example of a student activist in the book by standing up to the governor at the State House fighting for tougher environmental regulations to protect the beauty of his hometown, and Neela touched upon how this book could inspire students in our classrooms to become activists in their own communities. One way we as educators could facilitate this type of student activism would be to allow for a opportunity for students to perhaps write to a local official, or even a state congress or senate official. This aspect of education connects to the St. Michael’s College Education Department mission statement, which states “Our graduates are change agents committed to social justice and sustainability”.

After the event, there were two main themes that stood out to me which I will take away with me as a future educator. These two themes were the importance and value of interdisciplinary learning and the collaborative process it took to compose the novel they wanted. After reading and analyzing the novel Same Sun Here it is apparent to anyone in the field of education that this book could be used to teach from multiple different perspectives, and from multiple content areas, as well. I think novel’s like these are serve students well because this type of book doesn’t compartmentalize valuable learning concepts. One could look at many different factors, from friendship building, to mountaintop removal, to fixed housing prices. Studying a book like this in a class does not put student thinking in a box, but rather would assist in sparking young student’s imagination due to all of the different angles an educator could take while teaching a book like this.

The second takeaway from this event that I value as an educator was gaining insight on the collaborative process the two authors went through to produce a genuine novel of letters.  The two authors knew each other quite well before beginning the novel, so they knew if they wanted to create the book they both had envisioned, it had to be done by actually sending each other letters and really pretending to be their characters. I may not be a co-author of a book anytime soon, but I do plan on collaborating with colleagues inside of my content area and outside of my content area with other teachers and school professionals to ensure student learning and growth. One key point she had for working in a pair like this was that she had to respect his ideas (and vice-versa), even when the book was not going in the direction one of them may have wished. This makes me think, as a future educator, how important it is to always add your opinion, but most importantly, how important it is for you to listen to other’s opinions and try to make compromises when differences arise.

Back-to-Back Mini-Lessons

This past week in my Literacy/Curriculum education courses, we conducted back-to-back 20 mini lessons for our chosen unit for the semester, with one lesson being taught on Tuesday and the other part being taught on Thursday during class time. For this lesson, I chose to teach a lesson on the different advantage factors between the North and the South at the very beginning of the war. Linked below is a Google folder that contains all of the parts to my unit, including this particular lesson plan and materials (Nearpod presentation, graphic organizer, kahoot formative assessment, a creative writing formative task).

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jUpsNGq8jOhIErEGvz0M0_-zBqCuFw3w

Standards addressed in Lesson:

D2.His.14.6-8:  Explain multiple causes and effects of events and developments in the past.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.4:
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.

To begin the lesson on the first day, I presented a Nearpod slideshow that focused on four influential factors that would eventually lead and determine the outcome of the Civil War. These four factors included Population, Military leadership, differing economies, and their respective infrastructures at the time. The slideshow, as well as the accompanying graphic organizer students that was handed to fill out during the presentation, were both formated in a clear compare and contrast manner between the North and the South. At the end of the slideshow, the students gathered into a group to compare each other’s graphic organizer notes, as well as creating a group Venn-diagram comparing and contrasting the difference in factors. My reasoning for doing this was because my accomodation focus for this lesson was to assist students with note-taking anxiety. Students were able to listen and gather their own notes, had an opportunity to convene with fellow classmates to write down anything they may have missed, and created a Venn-diagram to discuss, recap, and confirm the newly presented material.

To begin the lesson on the second day, I conducted a four question formative Kahoot assessment that had a question on each of the four factors we discussed on Tuesday. Students demonstrated their understanding of the content in both the graphic organizers and kahoot assessment to a point where I felt it was appropriate to begin to apply the knowledge to writing. Students were then prompted to complete the creative writing task, where they essentially summarized the difference in factors at the beginning of the war, as well as taking on a perspective from either the North or the South. The final summative performance assessment task for this unit is a creative writing assignment, so my reason for completing this creative writing task was to begin to creative writing, which entails taking on a role, writing to a specific audience, and using a tone separate from the student’s usual writing tone. Through employing this write-to-learn activity, I felt the students were much more engaged and were able to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the content. I could have asked students to just write a summary, but allowing students to take on a perspective from the North or the South and having them defend which side holds the superior difference at the onset of the war created a much more memorable and effective learning experience. This activity also created an opportunity for students to demonstrate learning for the standards I chose to address in this lesson. Students were able to effectively explain the difference in factors between the two sides, as well as demonstrating their understanding of unit vocabulary. This lesson would probably take place after an extensive vocabulary lesson, so this was also used as an opportunity to become more familiar with Civil War related vocabulary and big ideas.

The three Performance Criterion I was looking to address through planning and administering this lesson are:

Performance Criterion 3.1: Candidates design learning environments that support individual learning marked by active engagement.

Performance Criterion 5.2: Candidates integrate cross-disciplinary skills (such as critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving) to help learners demonstrate their learning in unique ways.

Performance Criterion 6.1: Candidates implement multiple methods of assessment to monitor learner progress to  inform instructional practice.

Performance Criterion 3.1 was addressed through providing a graphic organizer to students as they followed along to the Nearpod slideshow. This gave students an opportunity to take clearly formatted notes that assists their understanding of the comparisons and contrasts between the North and the South. Students also had an opportunity to work in a group to go over any content they may have missed and constructed a Venn-diagram for evidence. My focus for doing this was based off of the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model (I do, we do, you do). The ‘I Do’ would be the nearpod presentation, the ‘We do’ would be the graphic organizer and Venn-diagram, and the ‘You Do’ being the kahoot assessment and creative writing task on the second day.

Performance Criterion 5.2 was addressed through administering the creative writing task, which gave students an opportunity to practice their creative writing skills, and writing skills in general. Students were using the writing strategy RAFT to construct their responses. In retrospect, I wish I could have provided time to go over RAFT and conduct a pre-writing activity to get students cognitively thinking about what RAFT means and how they could apply it their creative writing throughout the unit.

Performance Criterion 6.1 was addressed through students being assessed on the content multiple times in multiple ways over the course of the lesson. Students were assessed on the first day by turning in their graphic organizer and group constructed Venn-Diagram. On the second day, they completed both a selected response (Kahoot)  and an essay (creative writing task) assessment.

In teaching these two mini-lessons back-to-back, I learned a lot about lesson planning and execution. One aspect of lesson planning and teaching that I have noticed to be crucial is connecting every learning activity to the standards I am addressing, as well as making the desired standards and focusing questions transparent with the students. On the first day of the lesson, I never communicated with the students what the focusing questions for the lesson were and never introduced them to the standards we are trying to address. I made sure to begin my second lesson period by telling the students what the focusing questions were for the lesson, and felt as if students were able to begin class with a better focus of what is being taught and what they are about to do/learn. I also realize that in failing to be transparent with my students about the desired learning outcomes, I am not  aligned with my Accomodation goals for this particular lesson. As I continue to construct lesson plans for this unit, I will continue to think about and create specific learning opportunities that adequately addresses the standards I am wishing to meet with my students. Another focus I will have moving forward in every lesson that I design and implement in my classes is to be clear with my students on the focusing questions for that particular lesson. This will keep students focused on the expected learning outcomes, and it only takes about 1 minute of time do at the beginning of each lesson.

Gradual Release of Responsibility Model

Vocabulary Lesson for Unit Reflection

In my Literacy in a Middle/High School course, we prepared a 15 minute vocabulary lesson based off of our chosen units to teach for the duration of the semester. The unit I have chosen to teach is a US Civil War and Reconstruction Era unit, and for the vocabulary lesson, I chose to examine the terms ‘scalawags’ and ‘carpetbaggers’, in context with the Reconstruction era. To teach these terms, I began the lesson with a nearpod slide asking my classmates, in general, if they have ever heard of either of the words before. After responses came in, we looked at a reading from history.com titled “What are the difference between a carpetbagger and a scalawag?”. My classmates took turns reading passages aloud from the article. We then briefly discussed the terms, basically creating a solid definition and differentiation with the two words. I then passed out a song from 1868 written by T.E. Garrett called “The Carpetbagger Song”. We first looked at the cover page of the song as a class to see if the drawing conveyed a meaning of the term carpetbagger. After a quick discussion, I had planned on simply reading over the lyrics to the song, but one of my classmates was quick to volunteer to sing along to the song. Following the song, I asked a few discussion questions about the song to my classmates. To finish the lesson and to check for understanding, I asked my classmates to answer a nearpod slide asking them to write down one similarity and one difference between a carpetbagger and a scalawag in the Reconsturction Era. My lesson plan to this vocabulary unit is linked below.

Lesson Plan for Vocabulary Unit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11hFd-HtCiCGsRP4ELHuUK0MpHPc6kBsA5HT6E0LNTT0/edit?usp=sharing

In my view, this vocabulary lesson adequately addressed Performance Criterion 5.1: Engage Learners and 5.2: Integrate Cross-Disciplinary Skills. To engage my classmates in the vocabulary lesson, I presented them with two sources, one primary and one secondary. I felt as if it was appropriate to review the secondary source first in order to ground a basic understanding of the two terms.  To present the primary source, I printed out two copies of the lyrics, with one copy being the original lyrics written in music format, as well as an easier copy to read of the lyrics in case they were unfamiliar with reading music. Through analyzing the song, the students were able to gain context for the vocabulary words by examining both the cover page and the meaning of the lyrics. As I mentioned previously, I had originally planned to simply review the lyrics, but one of my classmates asked to attempt to sing along, so this shows me that my classmates were engaged and appearing to have fun with the vocabulary lesson.  I also feel as if this is cross-disciplinary with Language Arts because throughout the lesson, students were given two types of texts differing in styles and asked to read them aloud to the class. Throughout the lesson, my classmates were gaining an understanding through examining texts and class discussions.

The first reason I chose these two words to explore more in depth is because both of these terms arose out of differing perspectives between Southern democrats and those who supported the Reconstruction efforts. I feel as if it is important for students to understand why and how negative terms and labels for groups of people come about, and why Southern democrats may have felt negatively towards Northerners coming to the South and Southerners siding with the Union. I also felt like it was important to discuss and learn these terms because throughout history, and in general, carpetbagger carries a general meaning and it is important to discuss the context of the word as it pertains to this era of history. Another reason why I feel it is important to cover these terms for my unit is because the final performance assessment is individual profile project where students will in depthly research an individual from the US Civil War and Reconstruction Era and they will be writing their ‘mock diary’. Some students in the class may be interested in doing their project on an individual who was influential in the Reconstruction efforts, so it will be important for these students to realize there was a difference of opinion among Reconstruction efforts in the South and the negatives labels these individuals had due to a difference of opinion and perspective.

From this vocabulary assignment, I have gained insight about the progress I am making with my presence and pose while teaching, as well as continuing to learn about how to teach vocabulary within my content area. In regards to my teacher presence in front of a classroom, I have been focusing on enunciating my words better and not trying to rush my thoughts to the students. After reviewing my recording, I do feel as if I am improving on making my voice more clear for students to understand and did not seem to find any place where I felt rushed. One area that I do still need to improve on is being more prepared on what discussion questions I should ask when I turn to the students for answers. In this video, I believe I ask relevant discussion questions to the readings we reviewed, but do not feel that these questions provided the understanding I had originally intended for. Moving forward, this forces me to think about how important it is for myself as the teacher to plan backwards, starting with what I want students to know and understand at the end of the lesson, and planning more concise discussion questions around those concepts. Although I do wish I had worded and guided our discussion a little differently, I still do feel as if my classmates learned the vocabulary words because they all provided sensible answers to the formative assessment at the end of the lesson. Teaching vocabulary in history or social studies is unique because each area of study and each era within that area of study has vocabulary that is particularly relevant to that moment, and understanding the vocabulary is part of understanding the historical big ideas. Through this vocabulary lesson, I learned it was effective to find analyze a primary source because it creates an engaging and hopefully memorable experience for the student. If they can remember a few words to the song or have an image of the cover page in their head, they will always remember these two terms while continuing their work in the unit. In regards to teaching vocabulary in the future, I hope to provide more unique and engaging formative assessments to check for learning. In my last few teaching episodes, I feel as if I am only providing Nearpod formative assessments, so I hope to look into other ways to formatively check for understanding of ideas, and in particular to literacy, vocabulary.

Launching a Technology Initiative

Technology Initiative Contract Example:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tBn-zrvevoWCQoUSbPfXkC09oZIlQZE_rDwms_EefZs/edit?usp=sharing

Technology Initiative Letter to Home Example:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UltcwWhNsk0dX8yynvDQrL9kpkZMBphAG01A9st2Whc/edit?usp=sharing

In my Literacy in Middle and High Schools course, we  devoted some class time to developing an example of both a letter home to parents and a contract that would be theoretically signed if we were to launch a technology initiative in our made-up school. During class time, we gathered into our Professional Learning Communities, which is broken up by content area within the class, to discover and gain more insight about launching a technology initiative in a school community, while keeping in mind the concerns that may arise among parents and guardians. To create these examples, our PLC explored numerous contracts and letters home to parents that have already been used by schools across the country. We pulled sections and ideas from  multiple sources in order to create a message home to parents that first and foremost, their child will be safe and secure while on the internet at school, as well as pointing parents in the right direction for developing a safe and secure digital experience while students use their device at home. In our letter home, I feel as if we were explicit about having parents be actively involved in their students technological journey to not only keep them safe online, but as well as improve their digital literacy so they will be best prepared for the 21st century job market and world around them. Our PLC chose to start a Google Chromebook initiative, due to the influence of google classroom and the  cost of technology compared to something like an iPad. The contract starts off with a pledge, as well as providing a list of actions students are responsible for having a school-issued chromebook. The letter home begins with why we as teachers feel it is important for their students to have a chromebook inside and outside the classroom, and finishes with providing resources to  the parents addressing common concerns and an open line of communication if they wish to know more or create additional control settings

By creating this contract and letter with my PLC group, I feel as if I addressed the Vermont Educator Performance Criterion 1.1: Learning Theory, 1.2: Developmental Theory, 3.1: Active Engagement, and 3.2: Positive Social Interaction. We addressed Learning Theory by providing insight to parents on how and why this initiative is beneficial to their students learning inside and outside the classroom. This will create more engaging opportunities to learn and technology will only grow more present in each student’s individual lives as their years go on. This project also addressed Developmental Theory because we outlined to parents that this technology initiative is crucial not only as a student but also a human being by improving their digital literacy in the classroom to foster independent thinkers when they leave our schools. Performance Criteria 3.1 was addressed in a few ways, I believe, by outlining to parents that this initiative will allow for more active engagement throughout their student’s academic career. I also feel we addressed this same criteria in the sense that we as teachers are actively engaged with the parents and guardians of our students in order to create the best learning environment for each individual student. Introducing technology into student and family lives can be stressful and full of questions, but it is imperative for us as educators to establish an open line of communication between us and families so we can be the most effective teachers as possible, and so students can get the most out of learning. Lastly as a group, I feel we addressed Positive Social Interaction by telling the parents and guardians that at our school and during the time these students will be using the technology under our supervision, they will be safe and will be blocked from any negative websites that may deter or distract learning.

As a future educator, I have many hopes and one major fear revolving around digital teaching and learning.  My one main fear revolving around digital teaching and learning is the fact that our society and individual lives are highly digitalized already as it is, and feel that perhaps digital learning may take over some student’s lives and they may miss out on activities outdoors due to the dynamics of the world we live in. That same fear, though, gives me hope that one day I can be an educator who values digital teaching and learning, but also provides memorable learning experiences outside of the classroom and not involving technology. I hope to one day be an educator who finds the balance between digital learning and hands-on learning, because I truly do believe either of those two things could engage any learner in some form or another. Although I understand technology can provide engaging and meaningful learning experiences for students, I also understand that many of my personal learning experiences that I hold most dear to me take place outdoors and not near technology. As a high school student that experienced a weird blend of technology in the classroom, I feel as if I have some digital professional development ahead of to ensure I am a successful digital teacher. Through this, though, I am excited because I did not learn digitally very much at all during my school experiences, so learning as a professional will be an active learning experience that will require myself to be open with the changes new technology brings. In my mind, technology and digital tools for learning will always be changing and they will continue to change, so it will only be beneficial to myself and students if I am open to this change and learn with and through my students as we become better digital citizens together.

Literacy in a Digital Age and Humanism Curriculum Philosophy Project Reflection

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1RUNaqNZkFCZ1BHekVpNkZqdHc/view?usp=sharing

Explain Everything

https://spark.adobe.com/page/mkzyFCrVI97NV/

Spark Page

Over these first few weeks of the semester in my Literacy and Curriculum courses, I completed two separate projects with the iPad Apps Explain Everything and Adobe Spark Page. Using the Explain Everything App, I created a presentation based around the curriculum orientation philosophy that I most align myself with, which happens to be humanism. The audio features combined with the interactive slides allowed me to discuss the founders of humanism in education, and how it will influence my future curriculum as an educator. Using the Adobe Spark Page App, I also created a presentation on the meaning of literacy in a digital age, and what the implications of technology has on students as citizens of the world. This App allowed me to use visuals and text to convey my message about the way social media is can create literacy disconnect in the technological age, and the impact that has on the way we study current events and history.

Throughout my time working on these two projects and participating in class discussions and readings, I have developed a few connections between the two ideas. The first connection I made while reflecting on the presentations was that teaching digital literacy, especially as a humanistic educator, it is imperative for all educators moving forward in the twenty-first century. Humanist educators value student independence, voice and choice, and the belief that nothing should hold the student back from reaching their full potential. Those values cannot be carried out to students in their fullest potential if one is not digitally literate, due to the ability the technological age has of stripping us of our independence and freedom of thought. Whether it is political, economic, or social, the implications can be too large if one does not know how to think for themselves while viewing all different forms of texts on the web and social media. Another connection I made while reflecting on the project is that teaching digital and information literacy can be done in engaging ways when the instructor allows students to personalize their learning in order to build critical analysis skills. This can be done by students picking a topic of their own and choosing various sources that range in validity. Personalization brings it to life for the student and this is taps into the values of humanist philosophy in education. This will allow students to assess and evaluate which sources are credible and which ones are not. In the content area of social studies, information literacy is extremely important when evaluating sources to use for research because technology has given humans the ability to basically put whatever they want out on the internet and it is up to us, as digital citizens, to filter out persuasions and get down to the facts.

I believe through these two projects I address Performance Criteria 4.1 and 4.2 in the sense that in both projects, I communicated the central idea of humanism philosophy and how it impacts social studies education. In the literacy project, I feel as if I addressed the importance of digital and information literacy in the technological age, as well as pointing out that this literacy class has changed the way I view the term literacy and its meaning. Before this class, my ideas of literacy was more focused around reading and writing out of a book, but this quickly changed, as literacy carries many different meanings depending on the context, and this can be seen in the Spark Page. For Performance Criteria 5.1, this was connected through both projects by discussing the need for personalized learning in the Explain Everything presentation, as well as discussing the need for independent digital citizens that can view various texts, which can be seen in the glideshow of the Spark Page. Performance Criteria 5.2 was addressed again in both projects by discussing personalized learning, which inevitably bring up cross-disciplinary skills through student choice on different subjects. This also allows for creativity, which is a key component in the humanist philosophy. In my Spark Page presentation, I also touch upon the need to evaluate texts in a variety of different meanings and lenses in order to evaluate for the underlying meaning the author is attempting to send. To link to the SMC Mission Statement Pillar (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QCkkwaJQohb3T4KYMRUp42gf5BbY3exx_EubgiRRfS8/edit# ) these two projects combined emphasized the core values of creativity, curiosity, collaboration, reflection, and social justice. Both in the content of the project and the design of the presentations, I was able to advocate for creativity and curiosity in education by discussing humanist values and the implications that has on one being digitally literate. I was also able to expand upon my own creativity as a teacher by working with and using Apps that I have never been introduced to before. Moving forward, becoming more familiar with the technology that is at my disposal will only be more beneficial for my students and will be more likely to apply the core values shown above in their own lives. 

Outdoor Education: a Tool for Experiential Learning

Outdoor Education: a Tool for Experiential Learning

By Christian Devine

Saint Michael's College

As the reader, I would like for you to think back all the way to your middle school experience and try to place yourself back into your old shoes. At that point in time, as a young adolescent, I am certain you were in some state of unrest, and this had a lot to do with where you were developmentally. Middle school are the formative years of one’s childhood where they develop changes in their social, cognitive, and physical health, and when all of this happens at once, it can create quite the stressful situation for a young adolescent. According to James Fenwick, middle school is the most crucial period in an individual’s life when it comes to synthesizing a rational, positive, personal value system, something that is crucial as one advances through the next few phases of life.

One aspect of middle school that I believe gets looked over by administrators and school boards in the age of standardized tests is the practice of Outdoor Education for middle grade students. Outdoor education provides educators a way of teaching and learning that embarks on the vision of 21^st century learning, and that is to provide students with meaningful, experiential opportunities, rather than just teaching the content through a certain process. About a century ago, John Dewey emphasized that experiential learning is an essential ingredient in meaningful and comprehensive student learning. I would say that is true considering when I look back at my middle school experience, most of the activities that I can recall were all outside; whether it was a team wide ropes course day, reading aloud under the sun instead of in the classroom, or even if it was our science teacher bringing us out to the parking lot with two metal baseball bats to show that light moves quicker than sound. There are an overwhelming amount of positive benefits of outdoor education for young adolescents, but this list, developed by Hood River Middle School, provides five reasons why they choose to do an outdoor classroom excursion every year.

 5 Benefits of Outdoor Schooling- Observed from Hood River Middle School

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/5-benefits-of-outdoor-education-michael-becker

1.     It Builds Community

2.     It Raises Expectations and Standards

3.     It Increases Connection

4.     It Builds Culture

5.     It Develops Positive Feelings and Memories about schooling and the outdoors

One other benefit of outdoor education that I find particularly intriguing from a study done by Joan James and Theresa Williams in the Journal of Experiential Education  is how valuable the experience is for the students that tend to struggle with traditional school tasks and have developed an apathetic attitude to schooling and learning over the years. It has been shown that these students and students alike are more likely to be leaders of their peers in an experiential setting. This practice alone allows all students to be feel empowered in a school setting, especially when done around their fellow students and in front of their teachers, thus creating empirical benefits for all students as they grow to become citizens of the world. Outdoor education also allows for students who are not particularly familiar with nature to gain a greater understanding and appreciation for nature. This not only enhances the student’s instrumental value for nature, but it also encompasses their intrinsic value for nature, thus developing more environmentally aware students; all through simply allowing opportunities for outdoor education to be a part of a student’s education.

The problems that educators who advocate for outdoor education programs for their students face is distinctive to its own field in one way, but in another way the same problem that all educators face in the age of standardized tests. According to Quay in the work Outdoor Education and School Curriculum Distinctiveness: More than Content, More than Process, the challenge for outdoor education is distinctive because there is not a universal body of knowledge or subject matter for the outdoor education field. If educators worked to develop a broad framework of what an outdoor education program should look like, within the context of the local community, then educational institutions, especially public schools, would be more likely to begin to implement more outdoor, experiential learning opportunities for their students. The true problem lies below curriculum and content and is in fact shared by mostly all educators, and that is the desire to provide students with more experiential learning that brings the material to life. One question that is raised by school officials when it comes to establishing an outdoor education program is how outdoor education will effect schooling outcomes. Outdoor education programs have been seen to enhance personal and group development goals, but none of the studies done yet has proven it directly schooling outcomes. Until outdoor education advocates find creative ways of being outdoors that are measureable in today’s world of standards, I am sure more and more outdoor education programs will arise in order to enhance schooling outcomes.

As a history major and with the hopes of becoming a social studies teacher someday, it will be challenging to find ways to implement my lessons in the outdoors. One article that I came across earlier this year was how one fifth grade teacher at a local elementary school next to my hometown reenacts the American Revolutionary War with his students outside. This teacher has found a method of creating ways of being for students while they study history, which has proven to be beneficial for all students and their learning. He gives students an actual role to play in the American Revolution, thus empowering them to want to find out more about the character they are representing and the relationship their historical figures have with others in the class. The link to the article is attached below.

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/20170202/brentwood-teacher-brings-american-revolution-to-life

Outdoor education also has the ability to create more environmentally aware students, something that is very important for 21^st century learning as we all move forward in the age of environmental degradation. Through this, it also has the ability to create opportunities for service-learning in the community, whether it’s a beach cleanup day in the spring or constructing a garden.  The following link has ten ideas for outdoor education catered to young adolescents, with all of the activities linked to proven practice. The activities are more designed to cover topics of environmental education, but all of the ideas could be twisted around in some form or another to cover topics in most of the subject areas.

https://www.washcoll.edu/live/files/4270-ten-outdoor-education-activities

 There is no debate that outdoor education produces great personal and group developmental outcomes, but when outdoor education programs are instituted correctly, they find ways to connect the classroom setting to the field and then back into the classroom, thus enhancing educational outcomes for students, as well. Outdoor educators and advocates create ways of being outside of the classroom through the content and process established within the classroom setting. Also seen in the link above, outdoor education provides the opportunity for service learning. Many activities done outdoors can have a huge impact on the communities’ environment, for example cleaning up liter in heavily trashed areas.  This fresh perspective on outdoor education does not put the subject itself in a box, but rather is viewed as a broad program that finds ways to implement classroom content to the outdoors and also providing locally contextualized learning that would be beneficial to a majority of students. In my view, this could be seen as a program that works with classroom teachers on finding engaging opportunities for students, or also a program that provides curricular or extracurricular time dedicated to outdoor education areas that may relate to the community.

The youtube links below are all videos that I found particularly interesting when studying the topic of outdoor education. The first two videos discuss outdoor learning spaces at schools and how to best implement them for learning. The last video is an important TedTalk that I believe all parents and teachers should watch regarding the relationship that young adolescents of today have with the outdoors, and the importance of getting school children outside.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxeWMjwqVzM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edtWYcJuZaI

Get Hooked On Nature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArhjLa4xbNk

Sources:

Becker, M. (2016, April 19). 5 Benefits of Outdoor Education. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/5-benefits-of-outdoor-education-michael-becker

Quay, J. "Outdoor Education and School Curriculum Distinctiveness: More than Content, More than Process." Journal of Outdoor & Environmental Education 19.2 (2016): 42-50. Eue.

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Family Involvement

As a future educator, it is imperative that I find ways to successfully integrate family involvement for the betterment of my students. Family involvement allows for all students to active and engaged learners both inside and outside of the classroom. As a future educator, establishing a healthy relationships with family and parents of students will only enhance the overall growth of the adolescent. Epstein provides a framework of the six different types of practices of family involvement that helps bridge the gap for students between school, family and the community.



One area of family involvement that I find crucially important is the communication aspect. Communication from school to home can happen through many different mediums. One way for parents to be in communication with families is through a weekly or bi-weekly newsletter, especially in a middle school setting through a "Team Newsletter". This can be sent home via mail, but it could also be sent home with the student, thus empowering the student to deliver news about their school life to their parents. Healthy communication could also be practiced with a follow-up email, to ensure the parents receiving the information about the school, or team. Communication with families also may consist of parent-teacher conferences, which can happen once or twice a year for each student, with follow ups as needed. Communication from school to home allows the student to feel a connection between the two important places of their life and parents can enhance their growth if they are aware of what they are doing in the classroom and at school on a regular basis.

Another area of family involvement that I find important for student growth is collaboration with the community. This can been seen in many different forms, but two way that stick out to me is bringing in family members to help further a content area or assist students students with a possible language barrier between teacher and student. When I was in school, my dad came in to a few of my classes to help further our study of forestry because of his knowledge on the subject. We would go on nature walks throughout the woods with my classes with our teacher and fellow students, with my father leading the way explaining the different types of trees. This is just one personal example, but I feel like this type of family involvement allows for the content to be practical for students and it never hurts for content information to come from another perspective than the teacher that the students listen to on a daily basis. Parents of students share all sorts of knowledge and experience, and its only beneficial for students if teachers and schools allow for opportunities for those parents to come in an find ways to connect content being discussed in the classroom to their real world experiences. Another type of family involvement that is successful through community collaboration is the use of translators for ELL students. Through some classroom observations at Winooski High School, I noticed this type of family or community involvement to be extremely useful for their ELL students. Having translators come in from the community to assist students really allows for students to feel welcomed and have a greater chance of truly excelling in the course. ELL students are just as a capable and English speaking students, but through translators, it really helps them learn the content successfully in a classroom setting

Teaming Reflection

Teaming, the idea of teachers collaborating together to serve the wide-ranging needs of young adolescent students, is what sets the middle grades structure apart from the junior high school system. Traditionally, students of that age group attended and approached their middle years of education just like they would during their high school years, which is now proven to be misappropriate when it comes to fulfilling their needs as human-beings, as well as students. Teaming allows for students to grow more personal relationships with the teachers, which encourages greater student involvement and participation within the team community, as well as the school community. Teaming brings a sense of belonging to student, for they are able to identify with a team and this allows them to be reassured they are a part of something meaningful. When students at this stage in their development feel as though they have a basic sense of acceptance within one particular community, they are more likely to broader their horizons and participate in other activities within the school, as well as making a difference at a young age in their respective communities. This is just one way that teaming can promote life-long learning at a young age. Students in the middle grades structure, when implemented successfully, feel more comfortable to learn and grow independently because of the reassuring sense of community they naturally feel by their peers and teachers when they are interacting within the team community on a daily basis. 

Advisory Reflection

After reading about middle school teaming, it appears the core of this whole practice of the middle grades structure revolves around the integration and implementation of advisory programs, or programs alike. Advisory programs in middle schools not only provide organizational structure for both the teachers and students, but also serves the daily needs of a student. This time period allows for middle school students to interact with adults in more of an informal way, something that is developmentally crucial for students of this age. This time period also gives students a break from the school day, a schedule that can be monotonous to a middle school student. Students also have the opportunity to catch up on work during this period that they may have missed, as well as work on engaging projects. Teachers can find ways to academically reach their students in their advisory by spending so much time with them and work with students to provide meaningful learning experiences in this block of time. This time can allow for social interaction between a close-knit groups of students, and can build a family-like attitude, an idea that will keep middle school students from falling into isolation. What really struck me following the readings was the importance that advisory and other times not in the regular classroom setting has for students in middle school. At first glance, and if not implemented correctly, advisory can only serve for the students’ academic needs, but when implemented properly by the individual teacher, it can meet their social and emotional needs on a daily basis.