Last week I taught Autumn Adventures. I thought that I had the material down pat because I had just taught it the previous weeks. Feeling confident I arrived on the scene ready to roll, and not feeling that I needed to look over the material for the stations. My confidence was apparently unjustified because all of the information had escaped me along with a lot of the procedures for the stations. The one that stood out as a less than stellar station for me was the spores station. All i was armed with was a crumpled up mushroom and a dried up brittle fern. That doesn't feel like very much to go on when you have 12 first graders for 15 minutes. Evidently we are supposed to spend much of those 15 minutes actually looking for spore producing plants right there in the LC yard. Brilliant! (if only i had reviewed the material)
Really thought I think that that is just a microcosm of the genius behind Autumn Adventures. My stations were a mess. Then we had lunch and went for a hike. It was like the magic came back! I could do no wrong out there. The kids and the adults were riveted by everything they saw. I didn't have to try to decide moss or mushrooms or trees to them. They were all right there. People had original and probing questions about the season changing. The pressure was off and the learning was on. Long story short I love that hike. I look forward to more unstructured OUTDOOR time in our programs. I think that all of the programs would benefit from including this as an element.
Rock on Carli! I've struggled with Autumn Adventures, too. I can't put my finger on it, but I just haven't clicked with that program. I think you're right that we just have to spend more time studying the curriculum. Although at some point it just comes down to application of the material. I feel a little guilty, because it really is a great program, and I feel like I'm cheating the students by not teaching it very well. Of course, the kids always do seem to have a good time, so maybe I'm just being too harsh of a critic on myself. Either way, there's always room for improvement, and I'll get one more chance on Friday!
ReplyDeleteHearing all these stories about Autumn Adventures is making me a little nervous to teach it. I wish that I wasn't scheduled to teach it till the last few days and had a little bit more hands on experience with it. but I am taking notes from all of you, on the what nots and such.
ReplyDeleteI did review the material the night before, and still didn't remember that little helpful clue about actually taking the time to explore for some spore producing plants. Although it can't hurt to keep reviewing the material. Unfortunately, we won't have nearly as much practice with Autumn Adventures as we did with Farmcraft. (I do miss having a bell).
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