Making Outdoor Education Possible in a School Forest

Making Outdoor Education Possible in a School Forest

by Matt Armstrong

            At the 2013 Minnesota Conference of Science Educators in Duluth, I attended a presentation about using a school forest to enhance outdoor education opportunities. Seeing as Cedar Park has been designated as a school forest by the DNR (way to go Kelli!) this seminar seemed like an obvious choice to attend. Presenters Robin Halverson and Chris Hanson teach science at Forestview Middle School in Baxter, MN. Eight years ago, the school was granted a 63-acre school forest just outside their back doors. While this is clearly on a much larger scale than what we will have at Cedar Park, the implementation opportunities will be very similar for us in the coming months and years.

            The main thing to remember when beginning a school forest is that it is an ongoing process. No one is expecting us to have a completely integrated and functioning curriculum utilizing the forest on day one. It will be a process that we will take steps at a time. Starting small and adding onto ideas over time is the best way to build up school forest usage. We can start by looking for individual activities that connect with our current curriculum. Our kindergarteners could go out and plant a tree and as a class adopt that tree. They care for it during the course of the year. They can observe it as it grows. They can name it. Then as they move into first grade, they have this tree to which they have a vested interest. I thought one of the most fascinating things Robin and Chris talked about was students being able to care for a tree all through elementary school and then when they got to Forestview Middle, they had a connection to their tree. We could try to foster the same for our students during the course of their elementary years.

            Another important aspect of a school forest is fostering a sense of community. A school forest is something that students should have a stake in; it belongs to them. If they feel ownership and responsibility for the forest, they will more actively participate, they will begin to care about what they are doing and they will make strong educational connections to the work they are doing. Along with involving students in the forest, we should also foster community support for the forest. It is on public land, after all, and the community should also feel some ownership in it. If we can get parents involved in helping us care for the forest that will help relieve some of the workload from the teachers. A school forest can be a great community builder and we should take advantage of that.

            The final point that I want to present is that we will be well supported in our implementation of our school forest. The people at the DNR that are responsible for setting up our forest will also be more than willing to help us support it. They will help us take care of the forest and they will also help us come up with ways to utilize our new forest. They have been doing this for many years and are very enthusiastic about their work. They take pride in it and we should as well. An outdoor forest makes for incredible outdoor learning capabilities and as we move forward, we can look forward to a school forest program that will nurture our students’ appreciation for the outdoors.

A Serious Talk

What are your thoughts?  Please share a comment. 

How well is your PLC functioning?

Characteristics of Effective Teams

1. There is a clear unity of purpose.
There was free discussion of the objectives until members could commit themselves to them; the objectives are meaningful to each group member.

2. The group is self-conscious about its own operations.
The group has taken time to explicitly discuss group process -- how the group will function to achieve its objectives. The group has a clear, explicit, and mutually agreed-upon approach: mechanics, norms, expectations, rules, etc. Frequently, it will stop to examined how well it is doing or what may be interfering with its operation. Whatever the problem may be, it gets open discussion and a solution found.

3. The group has set clear and demanding performance goals
for itself and has translated these performance goals into well-defined concrete milestones against which it measures itself. The group defines and achieves a continuous series of "small wins" along the way to larger goals.

4. The atmosphere tends to be informal, comfortable, relaxed.
There are no obvious tensions, a working atmosphere in which people are involved and interested.

5. There is a lot of discussion in which virtually everyone participates,
but it remains pertinent to the purpose of the group. If discussion gets off track, someone will bring it back in short order. The members listen to each other. Every idea is given a hearing. People are not afraid of being foolish by putting forth a creative thought even if it seems extreme.

6. People are free in expressing their feelings as well as their ideas.

7. There is disagreement and this is viewed as good.
Disagreements are not suppressed or overridden by premature group action. The reasons are carefully examined, and the group seeks to resolve them rather than dominate the dissenter. Dissenters are not trying to dominate the group; they have a genuine difference of opinion. If there are basic disagreements that cannot be resolved, the group figures out a way to live with them without letting them block its efforts.

8. Most decisions are made at a point where there is general agreement.
However, those who disagree with the general agreement of the group do not keep their opposition private and let an apparent consensus mask their disagreement. The group does not accept a simple majority as a proper basis for action.

9. Each individual carries his or her own weight,
meeting or exceeding the expectations of other group members. Each individual is respectful of the mechanics of the group: arriving on time, coming to meetings prepared, completing agreed upon tasks on time, etc. When action is taken, clears assignments are made (who-what-when) and willingly accepted and completed by each group member.

10. Criticism is frequent, frank and relatively comfortable.
The criticism has a constructive flavor -- oriented toward removing an obstacle that faces the group.

11. The leadership of the group shifts from time to time.
The issue is not who controls, but how to get the job done.

Sources: The Human Side of Enterprise, by Douglas MacGregor The Wisdom of Teams, by Kaztenbach and Smith

Cedar Park Goes Social

                   

           

Social Media and Cedar Park!

Last month the district office opened up social media tools to schools and students.  This allows teachers to use social media to help teach and schools to use social media to communicate to friends and families.  Cedar Park was one of the first Elementary schools to create both a Facebook page and a twitter account.  We use these accounts to share information, pictures, and updates about what is happening at our school.  It is a fantastic way for friends and families to connect, comment, and post information about our wonderful school!

Please visit our homepage at www.district196.org/cp to “Like us on Facebook” and “Follow us on twitter”!

Imagine the Future of Learning

4 inspiring kids imagine the future of learning

from TED Blog by Jamia Wilson

After more than 13 years of research convinced him that children have the ability to learn almost anything on their own,2013 TED Prize winner Sugata Mitra aspires to shape the future of learning by building a School in the Cloud, helping kids “tap into their innate sense of wonder.”
In the spirit of Mitra’s invitation to the world to “ask kids big questions, and find big answers,” we asked four brilliant young people to tell us: What do you think is the future of learning?
Here, their answers.
Adora Svitak, 15-year-old writer, teacher and activist

“One of the most powerful shifts in the future of education will come from not only the tools at our disposal, but from an underutilized resource: the students whose voices have for too long been silent. We’re increasingly pushing for seats at the decision-making tables, empowering ourselves by shaping our own learning, and taking on activist roles both online and off. To me, this signals one of the most hopeful signs of the future of education — the shift from a top-down, learning-everything-from-the-authority-figure approach to an approach characterized by peer-to-peer learning, empowerment  and grassroots change.”

Watch Adora’s talk to discover “What adults can learn from kids” »

Kid President, 10-year-old inspiration machine

“My older brother and I believe kids and grown ups can change the world. We’re on a mission with our web series, Kid President, to do just that. If every classroom in the world could be full of grownups and kids working together, we’d live in a happier world. Kids want to know about the world and about how they can make an impact. Kids also have ideas. It’d be awesome if teachers and students could work together and put these ideas into action. There should be lessons in things like compassion and creativity. If those two things were taught more in schools we’d see some really cool things happen.”

Watch Kid President’s inspiring “pep talk” for the world »

Ying Ying Shang, 16-year-old blogger, teen advisor to the UN Foundation, and SPARK Movement activist

“For most of my life, the media has been a constant presence, whether it’s in the form of a TV droning in the background or the billboards that whiz by on the highway or the never-ending barrage of sounds and images on social media. That’s why I know the importance of learning media literacy early. It’s so important that the power of the media be recognized, both in its capacity for sexualization and distortion of reality, as well as its capacity to be harnessed for good.

Also, it seems inevitable that future educators will turn to online learning tools, replacing blackboards with smartboards and note packets with YouTube videos. In the wake of this shift, analysis and critical thinking skills should be taught more than ever in classrooms.”

Read Ying Ying’s blogs about creating healthy media and ending the sexualization of women and girls »

Thomas Suarez,13-year-old app developer and founder of Carrot Corp, Inc.

“The future of education should include programming as a major subject. The class will allow students to collaborate on code, teach each other, and communicate outside of the classroom using services such as Google+. This way, students will think more during other classes, be much more likely to get a job and, most important, have fun.”

Watch Thomas’s talk and learn about how he taught himself to build iPhone apps »

Join the conversation! What do you think is the future of learning? Tell us in the comment section below.

Great Links! - Differentiation Through Technology

Using Technology to Differentiate by Matt Armstrong

I attended a TIES training on using technology to differentiate instruction for our students. It was a workshop full of great ideas and the instructor provided great web links that I wanted to share with you. I think we are all aware of the importance of differentiation and I encourage you to explore the links on the following Wiki to see what you can use in your classroom and with your students.

Differentiate 4 Learners Wikispace

CK-12 Flexbooks

One website that I wanted to to highlight is called CK-12. It is full of resources that are divided by subject and content area. They cover everything from Math and Science to English and Astronomy. When you select a topic, it gives you links to resources that may provide readings, study guides, exercises, mind maps, etc. Much of it is teacher contributed, so you can share what you do with your class. Everything that I have looked at so far is free. It would be a great resource for you as a teacher to gain background insight into topics. It could also be a great resources for students, especially intermediate, to use for researching or independent work. If you only try one thing from the differentiation wiki above, I encourage you to check out CK-12.

Writing Ideas from the MnSTA Science Conference

Writing Ideas from the MnSTA Science Conference

By Carole Velasquez

At the MnSTA conference, I attended a session called “Do It, Write It:  Integrating hands-on experiments with great stories and kids’ writing.”  It reaffirmed the work we are doing here are Cedar Park around STEM and integrating lessons throughout our day.  I walked away with some ideas that I plan on incorporating around writing and science.

Here are those ideas:

• Do It:  Paper Chromatography; Read It:  Purple, Green & Yellow by Robert Munsch; Write It:  4-fold book with direction boxes, Beginning/Middle/End exercise
• Do It:  Paper Snowflakes; Read It:  Axle Annie by Robin Pulver; Write It:  Go outdoors to collect words for a group poem
•  Do It:  Color mixing; Read It:  Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Leoni; Write It:  Write directions in the boxes (see example)

_________’s Directions for __________________ Experiment

Words I need:

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3
Step 4	Step 5	Step 6

Teaching Habits of Mind: Part 2

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Teaching Habits of Mind: Part 2

written by Matt Armstrong

           As teachers, we want our students to be able to exhibit all of the habits of mind. We strive to instill them in their minds. But ask yourself this question: do you always want your students to use every habit? The obvious answer to this question is: YES! Of course we want our students to use every habit. But the question was about “always” using every habit. In reality, there are times when it is appropriate to use one habit but not others. Take for instance if you are having a brainstorming session with your students. Do you really want them to strive to be accurate and precise? Probably not. In brainstorming, you would want your students to be adventurous and open-minded or wonder, explore and ask questions. Certain situations call for different approaches and using different habits. It is important for us to recognize which habits fit the situation.

            As adults, we often use the habits of mind without being conscious of which habit we’re using. So when we see a student struggling with a particular situation, we may not initially consider which habit they should be using because we naturally use the habit. If a student is struggling, as teachers we should step back and consider which habit WE used (or would have used) in that situation and then point the student in the right direction. When planning lessons, we can take a moment before teaching to consider which habits we want our students to engage in during that lesson. Telling them which habit we should be looking for will help them focus on building skills with that habit.

Which Habit is Most Important?

Credit: Habits of Mind teaching tips

Check it Out! New APPS on the iPads...

We have added four new apps to our iPads!  Did you know that you can recommend apps for us to install on our iPads?  Just e-mail Tony Eatchel an app you would like to see on the iPad and it can be downloaded and installed after it goes through a verification process!  Check out the four new apps that you can start using right now!!!!

Watch and Learn about Wildlife

3 Good Places Where Students Can Watch and Learn About Wildlife

by (Mr. Byrne)

Explore.org produces and hosts high-quality documentary films and photographs. The films and images focus on exploring the world and the work of non-profit organizations around the world. The films and images are organized by location and by charitable and or environmental cause. Explore.org is funded in part by the Annenburg Foundation. Part of the video gallery includes live webcam feeds of animals in their habits as well as recorded videos. Explore.org offers a lesson plan section for teachers. Not all lesson plans are appropriate for all grades and the lesson plans are labeled accordingly. All of the lesson plans are based upon videos hosted by Explore.

Arkive.org offers an extensive collection of videos and images of plants and animals. The videos and images are cataloged according to animal, plant, eco-region, and geo-political region. You can navigate the galleries by selecting one of the broad categories then choosing a subject within that broad category. For example, choose the Antarctica eco-region and then you can explore all of the images and videos about plants and animals found in that eco-region. Videos on Arkive can be downloaded to for your classroom use. Arkive offers a dozen online games for kids. The games collection is a mix of quiz games and problem solving games. One of the games that I tried out is Animal Survival that required me to keep a Sand Lizard alive by correctly answering questions about Sand Lizards' daily lives.

Wild Earth is a site that has organized more than three dozen live webcam feeds of animals. While watching the video feeds, registered users can chat with each other about what they're seeing. If the video feed is not live when you visit the website, you can choose from any number of recorded videos.

This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers .

Winter teaching ideas

Using the Outdoors: Winter weather ideas

The weather in Minnesota presents students and teachers with a varied and plentiful amount of outdoor teaching ideas. Unlike many places south of here, we get a chance to experience a full range of the 4 seasons during the course of the school year. Taking advantage of these resources benefits both teachers and students. Now that we find ourselves heading into the doldrums of winter, let’s find a way to make the cold and snow educational for our students. Here are some ideas that can easily be implemented into a lesson on winter.

Winter weather idea 1:

Snow can be used to teach students about the concept of insulation. Since there is a lot of air between the flakes, snow does a wonderful job trapping in either cold or warm air, relatively speaking. This is most evident in that the air under the snow, close to the ground, can often times be warmer than the actual air temperature above the snow. You can demonstrate this with your students by placing a thermometer underneath the snow, next to the ground, and comparing its temperature to another thermometer that is above the snow, measuring just air temperature. I think this experiment would work best on a day when the air temperature is well below 32 degrees. If you want to try this, I suggest using a probe thermometer to measure the temp under the snow, and we have some great USB thermometers in the lab that you can use.

Winter weather idea 2:

Take your students outside and have them form snowballs, making sure they do not throw them at each other of course! Tell them not to compact the snow too much, just enough to make it stick together. Once they have formed snowballs, bring them inside (preferably in a bucket) and place them next to a block of ice. If the snowball and piece of ice are about the same size, that will make for better comparison. Let the snowball and ice chunk sit in the room, checking on it periodically. Have your students predict which one will melt faster and why they think so. Since the snowball is made of snowflakes, which have more surface area than the block of ice, it should melt faster. But even if it doesn’t, it makes for a great discussion of ideas with your class about why.

Winter weather idea 3:

To teach your students about how frost forms try this activity. Take a metal coffee can that has a lid. Fill it with a bunch of ice and ½ cup of salt and let your students stir. At this point, you can put the lid on and let it sit for a few minutes, but you’d be missing an opportunity to discuss the freezing point of water.

Many students will know that water freezes at 32 degrees F, or 0 degrees C. But how does salt affect the freezing point? Before putting the lid on the can, take the temperature of the salt and ice mixture once you have stirred it (again, the USB probe thermometers in the lab would work great). You should find that it will be below 32 degrees, yet there will still be liquid that has not turned to ice. This is a good point to discuss how salt lowers the freezing temperature of water, thus we use it to keep sidewalks and streets from getting icy.

Once you put the lid on the can and let it sit for a few minutes, frost will form on the outside of the can. Where did it come from? This is a great way to show students that the air is full of water vapor, even though we can’t see it. When the temperature dips below freezing, the water vapor condenses on the cold surface of the can.

Winter weather idea 4:

Let your students discover the unique beauty of snowflakes. We have all heard the expression that no two snowflakes are alike. Take your students outside, preferably on a snowy day, and let them catch snowflakes on black paper. Then let them use a hand lens to observe the snowflakes. While it would be hard to prove that no two flakes are alike, they will still get to see the many variations in snowflakes.

Winter weather idea 5:

Have an “Ice Cube Melting Race” with your students. Give each pair of students 2 ice cubes in plastic cups. Have several saltshakers ready for the class to use. When you start the time, have one student pour some salt onto one of the cubes and leave the other cube plain. Have the students observe what happens. The cube with the salt on it will melt faster than the plain cube. If you let the cubes sit for a while but check them periodically, you can check to see how long it took for each cube to melt.

Thinglink a NEW Interactive Image TOOL!

Thinglink is an amazing new web based tool.  It is easy to make an interactive item for your classroom.  I created this Sample Thinglink about Penguins in just a few minutes.  To get started you need an image.  The next step is to add content, this is called tagging.  On my Penguin Thinglink I listed some facts about penguins as well as a YouTube video clip.   Another idea would be to add websites to the images you'd like students to visit.  Below are some video tutorials on how to use Thinglink.

Creating a Thinglink is an easy way to pull together all of your resources for a topic.  Another idea would be to have a group of students explore a Thinglink at the SmartBoard.  

What do you think?  What ways do you see yourself using Thinglink?

S.T.E.M Magazine

A recent publication worth taking a look at is STEM Magazine.  Wayne Carley, the editor of this magazine is an experienced educator working with students all over the world in the area of STEM.  The goal of the magazine is to present information by experts in each of the STEM fields. 

I especially enjoyed the article on ways to infuse writing in science and math.  The article speaks to predictions of the future job market and the number of STEM fields. 

Take a minute to check out this resource.
http://www.stemmagazine.com/index.php

Getting the Most out of our SMART Boards by Tony Eatchel

Hi All!

Over the last five years we have been working hard to integrate our lessons with our SMART Boards.  We have come leaps and bounds from where we started.  I attended a training called SMART Advanced - Marzano Lesson Creation Strategies that Increase Achievement.  It was a great training based on Marzano Research (see link below for full article).   I pulled out some great tips to think about while you are using your SMART Boards.  Check it out!

Getting the Most Out of the Technology

This study, as well as what we know about good teaching in general, suggests how teachers might use interactive whiteboards more effectively. I recommend the following:

• Teachers should think through how they intend to organize information. They should group information into small, meaningful segments before they start developing the digital flipcharts (notebook files). Once they've organized the content, then they can design the flipcharts to complement the organization. To ensure that they don't run through the flipcharts too quickly, teachers can insert flipcharts that remind them to stop the presentation so students can process and analyze the new information.

• Digital flipcharts should contain visuals, but those visuals should clearly focus on the important information. Also, no single flipchart should contain too many visuals or too much written information.

• After asking a question and getting student responses using voting devices, the teacher should typically discuss the correct answer along with the incorrect answers, making sure to elicit opinions from as many students as possible.

• When using reinforcing features like virtual applause, teachers should make sure that students focus on why an answer is correct or incorrect. Although these features can produce high engagement and certainly enliven the atmosphere in a classroom, they can also be distracting if used without a clear focus on essential content.

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov09/vol67/num03/Teaching-with-Interactive-Whiteboards.aspx