I get so caught up in class and homework and chores and my to-do list that it is easy to forget to go outside and just notice. The Project Learning Tree workshop was a good reminder for myself as myself and also as a teacher of the richness of getting outside. When we hosted out math buddies this past week, my group was happy to be outside, and they were willing to count and estimate boards on the boardwalk, listen with closed eyes to bird calls, pick through a compost bin looking for worms, and compare the speed of running forward and backward.
I took a biology class to qualify for the teaching program, and one of the assignments was to go to 5 different places, and just notice till you had a list of 20 living things you had seen at each place. My lists ran to hundreds, and I was grateful for the assignment because I enjoyed doing it, and wouldn't have on my own. Chances are I'll give a similar assignment to my future students...
I took a biology class to qualify for the teaching program, and one of the assignments was to go to 5 different places, and just notice till you had a list of 20 living things you had seen at each place. My lists ran to hundreds, and I was grateful for the assignment because I enjoyed doing it, and wouldn't have on my own. Chances are I'll give a similar assignment to my future students...
I agree that there is a richness to getting outside. Our math experience, however, had me thinking a lot about purpose and knowledge. The group of students we worked with outside really wanted to fill the space with their energy. They found it a bit of a challenge to think mathematically. For them, it felt too assigned. When we were by the worm bin, one of the master gardeners came over and talked to the students about the worms. He told them where they put them for the winter, what kind there are, and how the university is changing its method of composting. The students were quiet and interested and looked at the dirt with a new perspective. The gardener was knowledgeable and passionate about this subject and he wanted to hear and respond to their questions. I realized perhaps that the students lack of focus about the math most likely reflected my own lack of understanding about how this exercise could be purposeful.
ReplyDeleteIn our mail, we recently received guidelines on what could be recycled in Kirkland. As came up in the PLC class, there are a lot of things for which it is hard to tell. But, if you have something you are unsure about, you can take a picture and email it to recycle@kirklandwa.gov, and they will tell you. It seems like a cool class project to assemble a guide for the community for all those hard to tell items. (Kirkland uses Waste Management for garbage. Not sure if other towns have the same degree of recycling service?)
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