Kindergarteners and Fourth Graders sharing stories in the outdoor classroom
(see former post: Mentoring for Monarchs, May 2016)
If you are new to this site, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Outdoor Learning Center had its groundbreaking in May of 2011. It was a labor of love for myself and the many people who supported it. The various posts throughout this blog chronical some of the activities that we did to help inspire and connect the fourth grade curriculum in a hands-on, meaningful way to the students in my classroom. I continued utilizing this outdoor space through 2022. It was especially helpful during COVID when getting outdoors was a great way to breathe fresh air and social distance while continuing to learn and explore together. In the summer of 2022, I retired from teaching and from the looks of it, so has the outdoor learning center. It's overgrown and broken down. Perhaps in the future, others will take up this passion. I hope that is the case. The reason I worked so hard at this small endeavor was that I found it helpful for teaching the curriculum and inspiring and sharing the joy of learning with my students. I did it for the positive educational outcomes. It was a lot of work by many people, for the benefit of students. I saw them begin to look outside the classroom with curiosity and to explore and connect learning a bit more with the world around them. Honestly, for some students, it brought a sense of joy into learning that they had lost along their school journey. The idea that formal learning only happens behind a desk with paper and pencil or a chromebook, is limiting. Perhaps I felt a bit alone in my outdoors teaching passion, but if I sound disheartened I am not. It was such a great benefit to myself and my students that I would do it all again without any regrets. Each year, in the back of my mind I would remind myself that whatever grade I was teaching (K, 1st or 4th) that I might have years at that particular grade level, but my students only had one and so every year, I tried to give it my best. I didn't want to leave anything on the table. My best, included teaching outdoors. And now, in retirement, I have no regrets. It was both a privilege and a joy to be a part of so many students' lives and hopefully to share the joy of learning with them on their own educational journeys.One of my professors in educational leadership was often quoted as saying, "If you're leading and no one is following, you're just out taking a walk." I've thought of that quote often in regard to the outdoor learning center, in part, because I actually did a presentation on this project for that class. The presentation and the concept was a big hit with those fellow teachers and the professor as well. They were actually a bit amazed at my vision and my hopes and dreams for the students in my class and the wider North Shore School community. In reality, it never caught on in the wider school. I have wondered over the years am I. . . "just out taking a walk?" In retrospect, I can very confidently say, no, I was followed by more children than I can count and we enjoyed the lessons and the time together very much throughout the years. I can only teach from who I am, and what I know. . . and do my best and that is what I tried to do. We really do "teach who we are." What we say is shallow compared to what we actually do and how we actually behave. I hope that someday, there will be more teachers that find outdoor learning helpful. I know there are many, many out there that already have experienced the benefits of bringing students outdoors to teach. Maybe one will stumble upon this blog and find a lesson or two from these last eleven years that is useful. That would be great, but it would simply be icing on the cake. The real joy of teaching is in learning and sharing that joy with the students that you teach. Happy learning to all!
