I’m a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here!

Sue Fenoughty,  an environmental education consultant, gave me a very memorable analogy many years ago:

“Many youngsters lead what could be described as an artificial ‘box-like’ existence: going from a box (the home) in a box (the car) to a box (the school), where they are attached to a box (the computer), then back in the box (the car) to the box (the home) where they spend another 2 or 3 hours attached to another box (the computer, Playstation, television).”

I have a dubious theory about all the box metaphors used in eduworld and beyond. If you accept Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory then, it’s not unreasonable to assume all children are gifted.  That’s why adults have to place them in boxes (like gifts).  Then we can spend hours in schools examining the boxes into which we’ve categorized them and peeling off the wrapping paper. Some children are even wrapped in cotton wool before being put in boxes by their parents.  Children are reduced to being ornaments.

We also seem to like and encourage thinking outside the box.  I wonder where this leaves children who are stuck inside the various different boxes. I find myself imagining scenarios of having to teach kids ESP and how to have out-of-body experiences to escape and gain first-hand experience of the world beyond their boxes.  I hope they are allowed and encouraged to think inside the box in which they live and have been categorised.

Now at this point, I have to flag up one of the biggest selling education books of the 21^st Century. It’s called Inside the Black Box by Black and Wiliam.  These professors recognised the issue of boxing in education 10 years ago and offer suggestions based on research about how to raise standards through classroom assessment. It is important reading for every teacher.

In a previous post I mentioned using a wrap-n-mat to solve my plastic box problems.  I am now proposing a wrap-n-mat solution to edubox thinking.  Take the advice of Black and Wiliams and apply it to teaching outside. We need to stop being boxed in and to physically get children and teachers out of the boxes.

This may be a challenge to those who love living in their box. Try not to panic – I’ve come up with a few box therapy solutions to assist with the process:

1)      Give children cardboard boxes to play with outside, in unstructured and free play situations

2)      Create outdoor world scenes or “dioramas” using natural materials such as leaves, sticks and stones inside shoe boxes. By cutting a hole in the lid and covering the gap with green cellophane, adds to the scene created below.

3)      Put up some nest boxes outside.  Check with a local ranger as to suitable type and location and remember to ensure they are cleaned out annually.

4)      Go on a shape hunt and look for cubes, cuboids, rectangles and squares in the local neighbourhood.

5)      Start a compost heap in a wooden box or buy a square-shaped container for growing plants.

6)      Try not to get too wrapped up in being square.

Remember I offer free 30 minute phone consultations.  I’m not a therapist but if you’re feeling boxed in, I will offer a sympathetic ear!

A couple of days ago, a good friend of mine, Deremiah CPE*, blogged about the Get Em Outside video I had put on my Facebook profile.  Here’s the link http://www.deremiahcpe.blogspot.com/

He talks about the human need to have fun and how outdoor learning can contribute to this for children and adults.  This has been recognised for many years.  Dale Carnegie (1888-1955), author of How to Win Friends and Influence People and a pioneer in self-improvement stated “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing”.

Yet, I believe the new Scottish A Curriculum for Excellence draft experiences and guidelines do not mention “fun” at all.  Not once.  Occasionally children are permitted to “enjoy” the learning experience.  I think this is a sad and significant omission.

In the kingdom of Bhutan, the king rates his country’s success by using “Gross Domestic Happiness” as a measure.  Perhaps a similar consideration needs to be given to our curriculum.

However, all is not lost. I am raising my glass and toasting teachers everywhere who interpret curriculum guidelines in so many creative, interesting and fun ways. Cheers!

Now let’s all go outside and apply the same principles to our outdoor activities!

My son, MJ, typifies many children of today’s world.  Given the choice he prefers to play a wrestling game on his PS2 rather than be outside enjoying the rare heat and sunshine beaming down on Inverurie. My husband was aghast when he discovered MJ had not packed a book to read on his holidays, preferring instead to take his beloved Nintendo and brand new mobile phone.

We went to Ullapool and Lewis for a week. MJ bought into this a while back.  He decided he was up for a cycling holiday on a Scottish island staying in youth hostels and bunkhouses providing I wouldn’t drag him up a hill. Instead we visited beaches.

I find watching children on a beach interesting.  The weather doesn’t matter, no equipment is necessary and the type of beach unimportant. They immerse themselves in being there. MJ will rock hop for hours in search of pool-life and the thrill of wave watching. He will mess about on the sand, chuck stones into the sea and prod beached jellyfish until the sun sets. He is in flow and completely absorbed.

But more than that, MJ is asking questions, investigating and experimenting. He’s learning through play, aged 11 years.  I reckon he learnt more science in three days on different beaches than a whole year at school. It makes me grin wryly to think that when I began teaching, the depute head turned down my request for a bag of sand, telling me “Children don’t play in Primary 2.  They’ve done their playing in Primary 1”. Sadly I believe this viewpoint remains more prevalent than folk like to admit, and before I go off on a tangent and start ranting (that’s for another blog entry) I will adjust my demeanour and get on track.

Ah yes, back to beaches…

When I was at university, someone once stood for president on behalf of the Beach Party.  The guy’s manifesto included creating beaches and inserting a wave machine into the campus loch. Hawaiian music was to be played in all the lecture theatres and pot plants replaced with palm trees. At the time I thought it was a novel idea.  Now I’m thinking that creating beaches for every school might be a Good Thing. It could save money in the long run, as rising fuel prices impact on the cost of trips.  So if you can’t take the children to the beach, then bring the beach to the children!

Jackman Avenue Public School in Toronto has made a great start to this concept. Their super-sized sandpit covers roughly 100 square metres. The stone seating area makes great rocks.  All that’s needed is some salt water, driftwood and shells (we’ll give the jellyfish a miss)! I’ve been trying to upload a photo here to show you, but can’t get it to happen.

That’s my blue ocean thought for today.

Postscript: My son’s phone did come in handy. I kept forgetting the camera, so he obligingly took photos with his phone.  The Nintendo was abandoned in favour of a Darren Shan horror story which he picked up in a bookshop the day after we arrived in Ullapool.  Demons that swore and ate teachers fed his imagination nicely all week.

As I mentioned yesterday, I wear more than one hat.  I am a part time supply teacher in addition to running my own outdoor learning company, Creative STAR. This is a deliberate decision inspired by meeting a Romanian school inspector on a Comenius funded outdoor learning course in Sweden several years ago. She was required by law to spend a minimum of half a day per week teaching.  Imagine that!

Now extend this line of thought a little further. Consider the impact of education directors, quality improvement officers and everyone else involved behind the scenes having to take up a weekly front line position at the chalk face interactive whiteboard.

To help us think rationally about this scenario, let’s don our de Bono’s Thinking Hats. For those of you who are not familiar with this approach, it is a handy tool for talking through a subject or gaining feedback from children and adults of all ages. There are six hats, each a different colour representing an area for discussion, thereby making fullest use of everyone’s intelligence, experience and information.  For example when wearing the black hat, the negative consequences or happenings are considered. The red hat is about feelings and emotions evoked, etc.

I have an enormous yellow hat super glued on my head when it comes to this topic. The yellow colour is for thinking about the benefits or positive results. In Scotland, the non contact time could be covered without the need for additional staff. The education officers and inspectors would have a pay cut, as teachers are mostly paid less than non teaching promoted posts. This will help financial accountability. Everyone in the education sector will have current firsthand experience of the impact on and outcomes for children of policy changes. It’s a win-win situation.

Back to learning outside….I often use de Bono’s Thinking Hats for reflective discussions after outdoor activities.  They are memorable and can be carried around in your head rather than on a piece of paper.  

For more information, read Edward de Bono (2000) Six Thinking Hats ISBN 0140296662. If you want to see how this works with children, contact me for an example.