Reading Response: A Veteran Teacher Shadows a Student

    A high school teacher's short study discovers some glaring issues with typical school days that our students experience. The rigors of daily student life may have been forgotten by educators who have spent a great amount of time in front of the classroom. With my history in nature education, I was already well aware of these issues in formal education as something that I would like to solve for my students. Each of this teacher's key takeaways are met by many lessons from nature education -

1. “Students sit all day, and sitting is exhausting.”
   1. Outdoor ed has students up and moving and interacting with their environment. And this doesn’t need to be relegated to organizing field trips; exploring and using the school area itself to collect data or as inspiration for writing or even to draw parallels to history. With creative lessons that take advantage of the whole school site, beyond that of the classroom, students can break from the physical monotony of their school day in periods beyond P.E.
2. “High School students are sitting passively and listening during approximately 90% of their classes.”
   1. Actively encouraging exploration and discovery is tantamount to effective experiences by giving students personal buy-in on their education. Obvious to me as a nature educator - you have to draw off of their fascination and leverage that to build appreciation.
3. “You feel a little bit like a nuisance all day long.”
   1. This one is a bit more personal, but I have to comment because nature education tends to produce an interesting reaction in students. They have been invited to explore and interact with an environment that they may or may not understand; thus, they may feel out of place or hesitant, but they look at the educator as an expert in the field. I have to echo Wiggins in that you have to be careful in how you treat your students, especially regarding sarcasm and playful mocking. Particularly outdoors, when they look to your mastery for safety, it is key to approach students with utmost sincerity and be genuine in your responses.

    Within my school setting, I have found some opportunities to apply my lessons from outdoor education. I have had experts from fields come visit my students; I have had my class explore the school site to find correlations to the content taught in class; I have even brought in specimens borrowed from local nature centers. All to the benefit of the students.

Wiggins, G. (2014). A veteran teacher turned coach shadows 2 students for 2 days – a sobering lesson learned. Retrieved December 07, 2016, from https://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2014/10/10/a-veteran-teacher-turned-coach-shadows-2-students-for-2-days-a-sobering-lesson-learned/