Overall, this experience was fascinating and fun for me. I had a good idea of what might happen during the excursion because of my experiences taking youth on canoe trips. However, the attempt to have them analyze their experience in depth was very new. As well, I never took a group of youth that were this diverse on a canoe trip. I was also a bit nervous that the journaling would take away from the enjoyment of the experience because it was forced onto them. Lastly, I definitely didn't know whether the journaling would facilitate the translation of my student's sensory and visceral reactions into their final projects. With all of this uncertainty, I realize that I have likely done as much or more learning than my students through this project. With this in mind, below are my thoughts about what went well and what I think needed to improve.
First I want to talk about the glows. I wanted my students to simply get outside and enjoy their environment. I think we accomplished this ver well. We had tonnes of fun all through the day and my students were laughing and playing the whole time. There were no confrontations, arguments, complaints or requests to go home. I also wanted to immerse my students in environments that were very different from each other so they could get a full sense of what made each environment unique, and how the uniqueness affected my student's feelings. Again, I think we succeeded in exploring many different environments from the corner of Spedina and Dundas, the subway, Rosedale, and several different parts of the Evergreen Brickworks grounds. The fact that so many students started exploring their environments in more and more detail - eating, touching, playing with their environment - meant to me that they were getting a very robust experience of what they liked and didn't like. In other words, they identified what parts of environments made them happy by gravitating towards them. I also explicitly asked whether they liked one space more than another throughout the day in order to bring those questions to their attention. In that moment most students said that they had a strong preference for the more natural spaces. However, it was difficult to determine if their responses were fleeting thoughts or deep meaningful beliefs. Judging from their final projects, I can say only that most value nature, and the technologies and behaviours that they think protect and conserve nature. But I don't know if their inclusion of nature and eco-friendly technologies were inspired by our trip, or if they were pre-conceived ideas, or if they were just trying to appeal to my environmental bias.
Not knowing where my student's ideas came from points to the fact that the project needed to be more student driven. Although my students loved the idea of getting out of the classroom, most weren't very invested in the visioning as the purpose of the trip. Many begrudgingly did the visioning activities (reflection, journaling) because they were told to and they are diligent students. But I didn't want this to be an archetypical teacher-student experience, where the teacher is making all the rules to be followed. If I had more time this project would have been something I worked on for most of the year. We would have practiced journaling and observing from day one. I would have developed the tools to support my ELL students and LD students so I knew all the accommodations were available to them before the trip. Each student would have had input into the field trip so they were going with their own intentions and questions. We would have chosen the trip itinerary so it best reflected the questions my students had. In essence, this observation is mostly a reflection of how difficult doing this type of experiential learning really is during a 1 month practicum.
The assessment of the journaling was another aspect where growth was needed. Through writing their explicit experiences, I wanted my students to start realizing that they are reading their environments everywhere they go. Knowing that the reading may be conscious or unconscious, I tried to get my students to bring their attention to all their senses through journaling. I'm not sure how effective this was though, because I also told them that the journaling would be private. I didn't look at their journals at all. I wanted the journals to be a safe space for my students to express everything they experienced, and I thought this would only happen if I allowed them to keep the journal private. I now realize that it would have been much more useful to give students the option of keeping portions of their journals private while other parts would be reviewed to see whether there was a thread between their experience, the journal and their final project. Another challenge was that I encouraged ELL students to journal in their native tongue, so I may not have been able to understand what was written regardless. This challenge connects back to the hard work that is necessary to accommodate for ELL students in advance of a trip like this. If I had more than a week to do this, I would spend a lot of time working to develop an effective communication strategy with all my students. In addition to the ELL accommodations, I would have liked to have many options for journaling, not just written. The few students that used my camera created incredible journals with the images they took.
I believe the final action or learning for the environment aspect of the project could have been greatly improved by incorporating much of what I have already said. Most importantly though, what is needed is a dedicated teacher. I couldn't be that because of I was only there for one month, but Ms. Rigler really proved the value of a dedicated teacher. First, we wouldn't have gone on the trip if it wasn't for her willingness to take risks and do what she feels is right. Most other classes in the school weren't doing any trips because of the labour situation. Second, Ms. Rigler continued the work I started so her students could continue their learning. After I finished my practicum Ms. Rigler continued to work with the class so I could return and pick up their final projects after practicum. It will also be with Ms. Rigler's guidance that these students may share their ideas with city councillors and the community development committee. This learning began and will continue because there is a fantastic teacher in that classroom.
I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to be a part of this experiential learning activity. It opened my eyes to the myriad challenges facing classroom teachers in inner-cities. I had always thought that my life experience to date was sufficient to take students into experiential learning situations and they would learn and have a great time - just like at camp. My naivety is shocking now! I most definitely need to develop the skills, tools, understanding, and knowledge that are necessary to effectively create deeply meaningful and purposeful experiential experiences. I recognize that for some students this was a very memorable experience. For other students it was very meaningful and profound. Yet for most students it was a really good field-trip that reinforced a lot of what they already knew. Subliminally, they were getting all sorts of positive experiential messaging from their environment. And maybe that's enough. Maybe re-connecting on that very basic level is actually much more than enough, it's essential. Maybe I'm asking too much of my students when I ask them to think about advocacy and learning for the environment. I ask myself now: Does a trip like this really have to be earth-shattering? No. But my convictions about the urgency with which we all need to act for the environment pushed my thoughts into the realm of, "we must act." This experience taught me to be patient, to continue to act, but act according to where every student is at. I need to recognize their needs as well as my own. If I can do this at least, I think I will create much more authentic and inspiring experiential learning opportunities for my students. With greater authenticity will come greater connection and thus more genuine actions. At least, I hope that this is true.
First I want to talk about the glows. I wanted my students to simply get outside and enjoy their environment. I think we accomplished this ver well. We had tonnes of fun all through the day and my students were laughing and playing the whole time. There were no confrontations, arguments, complaints or requests to go home. I also wanted to immerse my students in environments that were very different from each other so they could get a full sense of what made each environment unique, and how the uniqueness affected my student's feelings. Again, I think we succeeded in exploring many different environments from the corner of Spedina and Dundas, the subway, Rosedale, and several different parts of the Evergreen Brickworks grounds. The fact that so many students started exploring their environments in more and more detail - eating, touching, playing with their environment - meant to me that they were getting a very robust experience of what they liked and didn't like. In other words, they identified what parts of environments made them happy by gravitating towards them. I also explicitly asked whether they liked one space more than another throughout the day in order to bring those questions to their attention. In that moment most students said that they had a strong preference for the more natural spaces. However, it was difficult to determine if their responses were fleeting thoughts or deep meaningful beliefs. Judging from their final projects, I can say only that most value nature, and the technologies and behaviours that they think protect and conserve nature. But I don't know if their inclusion of nature and eco-friendly technologies were inspired by our trip, or if they were pre-conceived ideas, or if they were just trying to appeal to my environmental bias.
Not knowing where my student's ideas came from points to the fact that the project needed to be more student driven. Although my students loved the idea of getting out of the classroom, most weren't very invested in the visioning as the purpose of the trip. Many begrudgingly did the visioning activities (reflection, journaling) because they were told to and they are diligent students. But I didn't want this to be an archetypical teacher-student experience, where the teacher is making all the rules to be followed. If I had more time this project would have been something I worked on for most of the year. We would have practiced journaling and observing from day one. I would have developed the tools to support my ELL students and LD students so I knew all the accommodations were available to them before the trip. Each student would have had input into the field trip so they were going with their own intentions and questions. We would have chosen the trip itinerary so it best reflected the questions my students had. In essence, this observation is mostly a reflection of how difficult doing this type of experiential learning really is during a 1 month practicum.
The assessment of the journaling was another aspect where growth was needed. Through writing their explicit experiences, I wanted my students to start realizing that they are reading their environments everywhere they go. Knowing that the reading may be conscious or unconscious, I tried to get my students to bring their attention to all their senses through journaling. I'm not sure how effective this was though, because I also told them that the journaling would be private. I didn't look at their journals at all. I wanted the journals to be a safe space for my students to express everything they experienced, and I thought this would only happen if I allowed them to keep the journal private. I now realize that it would have been much more useful to give students the option of keeping portions of their journals private while other parts would be reviewed to see whether there was a thread between their experience, the journal and their final project. Another challenge was that I encouraged ELL students to journal in their native tongue, so I may not have been able to understand what was written regardless. This challenge connects back to the hard work that is necessary to accommodate for ELL students in advance of a trip like this. If I had more than a week to do this, I would spend a lot of time working to develop an effective communication strategy with all my students. In addition to the ELL accommodations, I would have liked to have many options for journaling, not just written. The few students that used my camera created incredible journals with the images they took.
I believe the final action or learning for the environment aspect of the project could have been greatly improved by incorporating much of what I have already said. Most importantly though, what is needed is a dedicated teacher. I couldn't be that because of I was only there for one month, but Ms. Rigler really proved the value of a dedicated teacher. First, we wouldn't have gone on the trip if it wasn't for her willingness to take risks and do what she feels is right. Most other classes in the school weren't doing any trips because of the labour situation. Second, Ms. Rigler continued the work I started so her students could continue their learning. After I finished my practicum Ms. Rigler continued to work with the class so I could return and pick up their final projects after practicum. It will also be with Ms. Rigler's guidance that these students may share their ideas with city councillors and the community development committee. This learning began and will continue because there is a fantastic teacher in that classroom.
I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to be a part of this experiential learning activity. It opened my eyes to the myriad challenges facing classroom teachers in inner-cities. I had always thought that my life experience to date was sufficient to take students into experiential learning situations and they would learn and have a great time - just like at camp. My naivety is shocking now! I most definitely need to develop the skills, tools, understanding, and knowledge that are necessary to effectively create deeply meaningful and purposeful experiential experiences. I recognize that for some students this was a very memorable experience. For other students it was very meaningful and profound. Yet for most students it was a really good field-trip that reinforced a lot of what they already knew. Subliminally, they were getting all sorts of positive experiential messaging from their environment. And maybe that's enough. Maybe re-connecting on that very basic level is actually much more than enough, it's essential. Maybe I'm asking too much of my students when I ask them to think about advocacy and learning for the environment. I ask myself now: Does a trip like this really have to be earth-shattering? No. But my convictions about the urgency with which we all need to act for the environment pushed my thoughts into the realm of, "we must act." This experience taught me to be patient, to continue to act, but act according to where every student is at. I need to recognize their needs as well as my own. If I can do this at least, I think I will create much more authentic and inspiring experiential learning opportunities for my students. With greater authenticity will come greater connection and thus more genuine actions. At least, I hope that this is true.
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