Teacher vs Student

Parkinson's chapter on the shortcomings of binary thinking really resonated with me and has helped me to think about my teaching since then. One of the really valuable applications of a more holistic thought process in regards to teaching is recognizing how inextricable teaching and learning are. Any time you teach you learn and when you are the learner or student you are teaching.
Last Thursday I had a really unique opportunity to take a group of students out on the trails near the learning center in the morning and then in the afternoon go out on the very same trails as a student. It felt like a controlled experiment. The group sizes were similar, the paths were the same, and the experiences happened within 4 hours of each other so recall was fresh. The manipulated variable was my role a teacher and then student. The results were that the differences in the experiences in the two conditions were very few.

In both conditions I found a lot of value in what other people found valuable. On both walks people would point out things they found interesting or beautiful and all of the members of the group would offer any pertinent information. Sometimes I would know a thing's name or some piece of information about it and sometimes I wouldn't. I do think that the expectations of me were different in the two conditions. When I was the teacher most of the questions were directed towards me. When I was the student most of the questions went to Lisa. I didn't hire a statistician to help me out on this but I would guess that I had answers as frequently on the first hike as on the second. I also think I probably learned as much from my compatriots comments of the first as the second. In both instances peoples questions caused me to seek further information about certain questions that were raised on the trail.

I guess what I am trying to say is that that day acted as a stark lesson in always being willing to be flexible in your rolls. Just because I show up ready to teach mean that I wont also be learning or visa-versa.

Touching is seeing?

Yesterday, Amy, Matt & I, taught Kindergarten at Chamberlin. It was a new experience for me to be in a school building, as a teacher, not a student. 45 mins is not a very long time to have with kindergarten to attempt to cover living/non-living, MASH, Seeds & Plants, and seasons. I really wished that I could have taken those children to Merry Lea. Their curiosity and energy was contagious. Instead of having them come to carpet and since we had Autumn Adventure workbooks for them to write in, I had them stay at the tables. This helped with crowd control, and I was able to bring things to each table group. I am constantly amazed at how many times I hear "I can't see" from a child in the group of students that I am working with. This did happen occasionally in the classroom, but even more often in groups at Merry Lea. Often, when I observe the child, this was especially true in the classroom, that to me there is no reason that the child can't see. I was holding the plastic jar of frogs right above the middle of the table group, the child had no obstruction to seeing the jar or the frog inside. When she was able to put a hand on the jar she calmed down. Why is seeing so often associated with touching? How often do adults tell children to look, but not touch? How do we work with their natural inclination to touch, and yet make sure that each has the opportunity to "see"? We try to talk about being gentle, of leaving things intact, often adults emphasize the dangers of thorns or poison ivy. I want them to experience nature, not just think of it as something beautiful to look at, but something to interact with. In thinking about changing attitudes, it seems increasingly clear that interacting with nature is the only way that behavior changes. So how do we walk the line? Encouraging gentle touching (without scratches or itchy results). Is observing (without touching) a skill that needs to be taught?

Autumn Adventures

This week featured my final two Autumn Adventures (of three total). The experiences were polar opposite.

The first grade group had something like five or six parents and a number of quite rambunctious little boys. There were a number of times where I had to repeat myself several times, and when the kids did hear me they just ignored me completely. There were a number of stations where the parents kept talking, which modeled to the kids that it was ok to be obnoxious and rude. At one point I "sacrificed" the group and started teaching three kids who were actually interested in the topic at hand. I found myself silently counting the minutes for it to all be over, and when it was all over I fell to my knees. After lunch we were on the trail. While it wasn't perfect, being on the trail was exponentially better. They payed more attention overall, and the parents only talked in the back slightly. The teacher tried "catching" a snake by hitting it with a stick, but it got away.

The second grade group on the other hand made me happy to be an educator. The children were responsive, friendly, attentive, inquisitive, excited, intrigued, fun, a joy to be around. There were two parents in my group, who were very polite and helpful. While on the trail, a number of kids kept showing me random things they would find: leaves, and nuts, and seeds, and a millipede, and mushrooms. I told them it was alright to ask questions, and they asked A LOT of questions. They were well behaved on the trail and at the stations. We were about seven minutes late getting back from the trail, but it was only because we were having so much fun turning over logs and exploring. I am very very happy that this was my last group of teaching Autumn Adventures as it will remain in my memory with a hint of sweetness.

I'm not sure if the big difference between the two groups was age, or the number of parents, or just the kids in general. I didn't really change my teaching style in between the two groups. I had a bit more direction during the second group, putting a theme to our walk (wild edibles), but I'm not sure if an increase in confidence is enough for such a big change. Perhaps I should have been more governing with the first group, but that's just not my style. I don't want to spend large amounts of time playing babysitter - I just want to be silly and goofy and have fun learning and teaching about the beautiful world. The excitement of the second group was infectious, and I could have spend all afternoon with them hiking on the trails and overturning logs.

Last Farmcraft and Autumn Adventures

My last 2 farmcrafts were for 2 different groups from the same Goshen school. They both went over well. It is such a great program for its purposes and the kids really enjoy them time at the farmstead. The second farmcraft was the very last farmcraft for the year. Too bad. The second group of students did really well. I would say the animals, toys/games and cider press are the favorites. It is getting hard to do garden at this late time in the season. The most interesting part, on the second day was Jane video recording the granary station. I thought there would be a small camera set up, maybe a hidden tripod. But no, Jane was standing behind the students with the camera getting all the action on film. It was hard not to acknowledge the camera. I caught myself looking at it and I could not help but smile at the camera. I can’t wait to see how silly I look on the video.

On Thursday, I had Autumn Adventures. I love this program!!!! I could do a program like this all the time. A wonderful nature hike with a bunch of very inquisitive and energetic youngsters. We had the hike before the stations. I think that the program works well either way - hike then stations or stations then hike. Personally I would rather do the stations and then the hike. It is easier to reinforce the topics discovered at stations during the hike. The hike is so much fun. Aaron and I merged groups to play the bird migration game on the long, wide lane instead on just on the trail. I think this went over pretty well- more room for them to run. I had a great compliment from the students teacher - she actually used the word phenomenal. Again here at Autumn we were video taped. This time it was put up on a shelf in the library for the insect station. It was not as easy to notice the taping of this station. I did not have the urge to look at the camera, because it was out of the way - out of sight out of mind. There was so much else to do at the insect station than worry about the video recording. Too bad these programs are winding down, now back to us being the students...

Highlights from a Great Week of Teaching

Today featured one of the best Farmcrafts I've taught yet. I'm not sure if it had to do with the students (first graders) or because there were only two adults in the group instead of five or six, but they were responsive, well behaved, friendly, and a overall a great group of students. I was also really excited to remember around five or so names compared to my zero-one a few months ago.

A few highlights: During our "migration" across the lawn I asked them to stay behind me just like geese stay behind the leader, and it worked much better. I hesitated to do the harvest for cottonwood leaves (for the goats) because I couldn't see many of them, and was about to change pace when they all seemed to find the leaves better than I could! At one point a little boy, Andrew, just sort of took my hand as we were walking, and it just sort of hit me: I could be a role model to some of these kids - scary thought!

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Enchanted Forest was a great experience! It was my first official "acting" role since elementary school. I've always wanted to be a character actor is some sort of feature, so this was a great opportunity to play the role of some non-human creature.

There was a bit of nervousness before the first group on both nights, but I quickly got into it. The guides were a relief, as there were many times where I wasn't sure of the timing or what to say or what to ask. For many of those awkward moments, the guides were quick to fill in the gaps and keep the conversation going. I was also really happy about my placement with other people.

Amy and I (skunk and owl) had a great interaction going as we transitioned. It was surprising to see how some groups would rally around the skunk to save it from the owl while others would try to give away her location.

The fox and coyote station on the second night was also really fun. We had a great back-and-forth going the entire night, with humorous antagonisms, and I think it went great overall!

The only downside is that I didn't get to see what everyone else was doing, but it was a great experience and I hope to get another opportunity again. This sort of teaching (dressed up as a character) is something I can see myself doing as a side job.

Sight and hearing

I have often felt that there never seems to be enough time teaching farmcraft to relate to the individual children. While, compared to the 10 mins of being an animal for Enchanted Forest, it seems like plenty of time. I also have a new appreciation for being able to make eye contact with the children that I am talking to. I really disliked not being able to see, okay, to be fair, I could see some. At one point though between the hat I had on my head to try and stay warm, and the mask, my vision was drastically obscured, and it wasn't until the group left that I finally was able to adjust it, at that point I couldn't tell if anyone was waiting to ask a question, or as some children did raised their hands. This a great reason to have a guide, and it was nice to have someone else to help with encouraging questions, or even repeating quiet ones. (I found it difficult to hear with the mask on.) I enjoyed being a guide on Friday, and talking with the group between stations, and even trying to encourage questions, or repeating ones that had been missed. I am glad to have sight and hearing intact. I am also glad to have longer periods of time than 10 mins to interact with students.

Pulling teeth

For the past 3 years I have been helping out with the Quail Unlimited Youth hunt up in Elkhart county. I have always done a number of teaching things that have always revolved around teaching about habitat for quail and restoring prairies/ creating prairies. However, this years group was a little dull and unresponsive. For the first time, they didn't really want to learn about how the birds they just hunted survive in the wild and what they can do to help preserve their habitat. I typically have them go out and pick something that looks interesting to them. However, they didn't do that. Instead they just wondered trough the plants like sheep. It was also hard to get them to answer any questions. Its was like I was the dentist trying to get that tooth out of their mouths but it just didn't want to come out. Unfortunate I couldn't use power tools to get them out, that might of made things a lot better.
Although on the plus side all of the parents were super interested.
I don't know why this group wasn't like the ones in the past but I think that they still took something away from my lesson (or I hope so). One of the girls in the group did say that she was tired because she had to get up at 6am to be there. So maybe next time I should give them all coffee before my lesson. Maybe that will get them going next time.

Enter the Beaver

Oh man, so many good potential titles for this post: Leave it to Beaver; I am the Beaver, Choo-choo-ka-choo; DreamBeaver; A Tail-Slapping Good Time. But I digress.

In case anyone didn't know, I had the distinct privilege of being an enchanted beaver on Saturday, and it was even more fun and exciting than it sounds. I was somewhat nervous at first. I had spent some time studying up on the beaver and all of its intricacies. Finally got to use that Peterson's Field Guide to Mammals! There was more information about the beaver that I didn't know in the that book than what I did know, and I thought I had a pretty good handle on beavers. Heck, I even did the beaver for my animal adaptation profile in Natural History! So, I was really hoping that I could remember everything about them as I became one of them.

The studying paid off, because I don't think I got any questions that I didn't know the answer to, and I had enough material to talk about and fill the time when there weren't questions. I even had the foresight to grab a couple props. I took a paddle out to smack the water as groups approached, and I took the beaver chew from the learning center (hmm, I should probably return that) to show the kids that beavers really do chew on logs and what it looks like when they do. However, even more satisfying than the prep paying off was just how much fun it was and how much the kids seemed to enjoy it. I think some of them actually thought I was a beaver! Just awesome. I guess if the whole EE thing doesn't work out, I can get into the sports mascot business.

Enchanted Forest was a really unique teaching experience that I'm so glad I got to take part in. There's something truly special (or enchanted?) about physically "becoming" what you are teaching about. It creates a totally different dynamic: teaching in first-person rather than third. You can use different language and act differently than you normally would. I think it creates a totally different learning experience for the students, as well. It was certainly memorable for me, and I hope even more so for the kids.