C&NN Natural Teachers Network

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Comment by Suz Lipman on July 26, 2010 at 3:26pm

These are all wonderful ideas for engaging the resource pool here! Thank you John and others. Perhaps a Classified group would work. That way people could post jobs wanted or sought, as well as other resources and opportunities, both offered and wanted. I'm eager to hear others' thought on this.

Comment by John Thielbahr on July 26, 2010 at 3:23pm

Good point about adding Canada to the clearinghouse, Rhonda. For that matter, lets add Australia, Scotland and South Africa. This is a global issue, and I suspect we have a global and mobile outlook about our work. Thanks for the post.

Comment by John Thielbahr on July 26, 2010 at 3:16pm

I just posted a query about the benefits of having a clearinghouse of job opportunities on C&NN Connect. Now comes another very interesting idea from Margaret Rietano who just started a new non-profit in DC called The Elements that works with elementary schools to get kids outside in inclement weather. Here is what she said: " I imagine that many people that start either businesses or non-profits related to kids and the outdoors are passionate about their cause but may not be as savvy about the logistics of starting a sustainable organization. A friend of mine started a non-profit here in DC called Fair Chance. Her organization selects 10 (give or take) local and existing non-profits and schools, and nurtures them into being stronger, more effective and better organized (capacity building). Therefore - once the organization graduates - it is able to reach more children and grow in a solid way.

I know that the level of expertise at C&NN is vast but could be tapped into more effectively. Imagine if Elements was selected to be 'mentored'. From C&NN's perspective they could choose organizations to guide and see those organizations reach more children. From the perspective of the applicant - one would be getting a 'tool-box' of steps and expertise. I would relish a structured and formal arrangement to tapping into all the expertise at C&NN."

What do you think about this idea for a different kind of clearinghouse?

Comment by Rhonda Ursulak on July 26, 2010 at 3:14pm

That would be very interesting, and I would like to add, is there a way to increase the Canadian Arm? Most of the info and offerings are in the States, would be great to see an arm reached out to Canada too.

Comment by John Thielbahr on July 26, 2010 at 3:08pm

This was just posted on the Natural Teachers Network Discussion Forum: "Kid4Trees Looking for General Manager." I am sure I am not the only member of the Children & Nature Network that has been asked, "how can I find work related to the children and nature issues we are confronting?" Cheryl Charles was recently the Facilitator of a Panel on the subject of Green Jobs. I would venture to say that the work we do isn't yet a job classification, so we have to form a clearinghouse of our own to match the needs of work and those who seek workers. My thanks to Stephen Redner,
Executive Director of Kids4Trees for posting this job opportunity. I had just been asked by Christy Schultz, home school teacher and Master Naturalist in Florida, to be on the lookout for just such a posting. Should we create a special "job matching" group site? What thoughts to you have?

Comment by Cara Pecchia on July 20, 2010 at 6:29pm

I would like to build a green building for my nature and art based preschool. I was wondering if anyone knew of any grants that would help in the process. I have gained so many great ideas from everyone on this site, so I thought this would be a good place to to start looking. My moto is, if you want ...to change the world you have to start with the children, so thats my plan. teachgreen@gmail.com Thanks:)

Comment by John Thielbahr on July 18, 2010 at 5:22pm

Hello Rodrigo. Thank you so much for sharing your work with the public school in Brazil. You are right that it isn't easy organizing outdoor experiences for children as a teacher, and many will just give up and stay in the classroom. We are hoping that people like you can inspire teachers to do more. It is so important that kids learn while they are in nature. Using nearby nature is excellent, and Richard Louv talks about this all the time. He also talks about allowing kids to develop their own activities, safely of course. Please keep up the great work you are doing and keep on sharing your ideas and suggestions on this site. Thanks again. John

Comment by Rodrigo Cavasini on July 17, 2010 at 2:29pm

I would like to tell you a semester experience that I had with 9/10 years old students in a Public School in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Well, I am PE Teacher so is easy for me (I love, work and research the outdoor environmental education activities) to involve the students in outdoor physical and environmental education activities. In that situation I used areas like internal and external school gardens and near parks to develop activities, so it was easier, safer and cheaper than uses a bus to travel to distant and huge natural areas (in fact, when someone plans to take the children away from the school there a lot of things to do, so they usually stay inside the classroom or in the internal areas of the school).
During the semester I have developed environmental education and orienteering activities (simple and cheap activities in 50% of the time) plus typical PE activities (the rest of the time, usually in gymnasium space, when it was raining). So, in the school garden areas the main focus was in the simple outdoor physical/educational activities, as we can find in the books of Joseph Cornell. In the near parks (that we could go by foot) the main focus was the adaptive orienteering activities. During all these classes, the children always had a time to develop their own activities individually or in groups, so they had the opportunity to create what was relevant to then in that moment, with the teacher just like a risk management responsible.
In a general way, the children speech should that they loved all nature contact during the PE classes and that they learned much more than just the planned contents. In fact, that was a short experience that reinforces the relevance of all kind of nature contact for the development of our children.

Comment by John Thielbahr on July 15, 2010 at 5:32pm

This is such rich information for teachers who are trying to align their curriculum with using the outdoors as a classroom. Thank you so much for sharing your experience, Juliet. In the U.S., there is a major effort at the national, state and local levels to align outdoor education to what is called STEM: science, technology, engineering and math. If anyone has specific activities and/or programs (in school or after school or home school) that connect directly or indirectly with inspiring kids to learn science, technology, engineering and math, I would welcome knowing about them so we can plant the best practices in every school community. I will be having a conversation about that next Monday related specifically to summer learning and after-school professionals. I will be using some of what Juliet mentions below to guide the discussion. Thanks again Juliet. jt

Comment by Juliet Robertson on July 15, 2010 at 3:18pm

Hi Jane

I think the "natural interlude" could be taken during break and lunch times if the soft and hard landscaping features enable this to happen within a secondary school estate. A school should have enough leeway in most instances to be able to do this. Learning Through Landscapes is THE school grounds charity which can provide advice and assistance.

Arguably - at least in Scotland, RME should allow legitimate time for reflection and contemplation. There's no reason this can't take place outside.

There are systems in many schools to manage meandering children - it doesn't mean disruption doesn't happen but I'm not sure how this would impact any more negatively on an outdoor lesson than an indoor one.

I recommend that teachers begin lessons outside and get the children used to meeting at a designated outdoor spot rather than in a room 3 storeys above the ground. This saves time walking corridors in the precious class time.

40 mins is a standard lesson length or double periods sometimes happen too. Again, why this is seen to be an inhibitor to outdoor activities I'm not sure. PE departments manage to get children changed and out onto the playing fields...

Last year there was a Doorstep Geography Campaign which came up with a few ideas.

Many maths and language activities can be done outside quickly, at secondary school levels. However, teachers are stuck very much to the programme of activities with little time to create outdoor activities that can replace core parts of the subject's programme of work. This is a key preventative factor along with health and safety concerns.

Risk benefit assessments (RBA) seems to vary from local authority to local authority. Schools can build up a bank of RBAs that only need minor modification for each local trip or outdoor activity. Usually the modifications are needed to take account of individual pupils' needs. As a HT (school principal), I used to get permission from parents on a once off basis for all local trips which also saved a lot of paperwork.

In my experience wildlife gardens are sometimes adopted by the science and/or geography departments. They are managed for biology/ecology work and/or "Managing Environmental Resources" courses. The school's Eco School Committee may also take responsibility for such an area. I've also seen home economics departments develop vegetable plots.

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