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Specific Case Study Analysis Round 1: Examples of 21st Century Learning
Nature Journaling (lesson links at bottom of page)
Link to the Lawrence Hall of Science “Beetles” Nature Journal Project: http://beetlesproject.org/resources/for-program-leaders/field-journaling-with-students/#1447702870437-ba804ab5-cb15 YouTube Video of Nature Journaling Class by John Muir Laws and Emily “Dipper” Lygren https://youtu.be/EonfR2V1SJ4 I'm happy to say that I got a return email from Holland Gistelli, Education Specialist at Pepperwood Preserve, who directed me to some interesting resources for 21st Century learning as it relates to the increasingly important skill of environmental awareness. Here's the response! Hi Jeremy, Apologies for my delayed response - I found myself wanting to include a lot of info in my response here, and it took me a few tries to bring it all together! First of all, I am thrilled to hear how inspired you are by nature journaling!! It is so awesome that you have already brought your class outdoors to get started. There are clearly so many reasons this practice can be a crucial learning tool for your students, and I can't wait to hear more about how it progresses through the year. You are always welcome to tap into the education team here at Pepperwood for support. Beyond the academic learning that can come from the practice of noticing, wondering about, and recording nature - I would speak strongly for the social and emotional growth it can help facilitate for students. And this goes for experiences connecting to nature in general - like you said about your trips with 5th and 6th graders through NatureBridge, they are having a "great time"...but what exactly is that? There is a lot of room to develop self-awareness and self-management skills, as well as interpersonal communication and empathy. There are folks currently doing some great research around the connection between Social Emotional Learning and Environmental Education - trying to answer that question of yours! This includes the folks at NatureBridge and BEETLES (Lawrence Hall of Science). I attached here a presentation from a conference I went to where they discussed these connections - you might find it interesting. NatureBridge C&NN REEP Pres 5.16.19.pdf I'd also highly recommend checking out BEETLES - (Better Environmental Education Teaching, Learning, & Expertise Sharing) These folks are incredible leaders creating field tested methods, lessons, and tools for outdoor educators and classroom teachers alike. Pepperwood's Jesse and Nicole did an institute training with them, and we heavily base our teaching techniques on the BEETLES approach. They have very helpful videos to demonstrate how these practices work in the field with students http://beetlesproject.org/about/ These practices can help you facilitate time outdoors nature journaling with your students. As for technology - what a struggle to balance using tech as a tool and keeping it from taking over completely. I love your plan of letting kids share their nature discoveries using a google slides presentation. This gives the outdoor time its due space, with the structured tech time after. They could also make observations and write their questions in their journals, and then have time to research their questions with a few carefully pre-chosen websites (for quality control). Another idea is doing some citizen science using online tools/platforms - kids make observations in the field, and then upload their gathered data to the online tool. Examples of this are iNaturalist, Nature's Notebook, and Project Budburst:
In the end, I think keeping the nature journal practice consistent will be a big step for success. With ongoing time to develop those skills, and then couple that with extension research projects, art projects, or special topic focuses - I think you'll be able to capture their engagement. If your students are doing these things at school, they'll get much more out of the Pepperwood experience and vice versa. Journaling allows room for individual choice which can increase engagement versus having everyone journal about the same thing - you can have general themes, or specific areas of the garden/schoolyard, but they get to pick their subject matter. Also stressing for kids that it is about adding details they notice, labels, and color - rather than trying to make beautiful perfect art - some kids (or anyone, really) can get caught up on how it looks, so letting them know it can be "messy" can be helpful. Keep up the great work, and we look forward to seeing you and you students in November! Holland Gistelli, Education Specialist Pepperwood Preserve 2130 Pepperwood Preserve Rd. Santa Rosa, CA 95404 (707)591-9310 x124 www.pepperwoodpreserve.org Looks like Holland did my job for me on this first case study analysis. The links she included in this email are excellent. I have checked them all out and plan to use them to prepare my students for their visit to Pepperwood and the 21st Century. She opened my eyes with the first several resources related to the social emotional benefits of children being in nature. Social emotional wellbeing is the foundation upon which all other learning must be built, and it is something missing in so many of our children today. The number of students qualifying for special services such as counseling, reading and math intervention, and medication to control ADHD, continues to grow. Here's a link to an article that explores the link between an excess of screen time to ADHD: https://learningbreakthrough.com/learning-breakthrough-blog/screen-time-adhd/ The social-emotional benefits that being in nature has for children is something I have really felt when on overnight trips to Yosemite and Marin Headlands. NatureBridge does an excellent job of bringing this out in kids through their cooperative learning activities and student centered learning. The reason I consider nature journaling to be a 21st Century skill is because it relies on students' direct observation and critical, questioning interaction with the world. In an environment where technology is advancing exponentially and requiring very quick reactions from citizens in order to realize what is going on and adapt to it, I think we really need to teach students how to closely observe and learn from their own observations. The 21st Century, I'm feeling, will need people who can see what is going on and teach themselves to adapt and benefit from it. I think traditional forms of education will be increasingly pressed to catch up with the quick changes. People really need to be able to observe what is happening and educate themselves to be prepared for it. Being able to observe and ask questions is essential to self-guided education. I have to flesh this idea out quite a bit more, (any tips?), but right now I'm seeing this return to and appreciation of nature, coupled with an integration with media technology as a form of environmental activism, as a magic formula to prepare students for the future, and ensure a viable future for them to prepare for. Here's the link again to Marty Peifer's talk on direct observation in nature journaling. He really inspired me to pursue this direction in my master's project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAmtqGtz1UA Peace Out, Jeremy Smith Edu 701 “The Flat World and Education” Notes
It’s no surprise to me, having began my teaching career in 2000, that there has been a major influx of minority and particularly latino students arriving to the United States each year. My classrooms have always been predominantly and increasingly latino. At the same time I know that our plan to bring these students up has been woefully inadequate. Thanks to this reading I’ve learned the big picture of this personal experience. About a million immigrants are making their way into the United States each year (Martin & Midgley, 2006). Ethnic minorities make up 100 of the total 300 million population in the U.S. And this trend will continue. Between 1974 and 2004, the percentage of students of color rose from 22 to 43 percent of the total population. In California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Texas they already exceed the number of Whites. And in two decades they will be the majority of students nationwide. Darling-Hammond shows in a detailed way how the achievement scores of low income students of color is lower than that of their white counterparts. This achievement gap, because of the large population of minority students, is going to have an increasingly important impact on our educational destiny. Most of these students, due to an apparent indifference, and a certain failure of our leaders, have been structurally excluded and marginalized in our societies and schools. Yet their status and attainment levels will increasingly affect our country’s future in an increasingly competitive world. Other countries have been doing much more to ensure equity in education for all students. Whereas the United States has been allowing inadequacies and inequalities in educational funding to persist, other countries have lifted themselves out of educational deficiencies through well planned, well funded, and equity based educational models. It is necessary to study their models and emulate them. The growing achievement gap, product of a mentality of poverty and the status quo’s incredibly shortsighted and “aggressive neglect” of minority students, has led to a school to prison pipeline. The United States, with 5% of the globe’s population, has 25% of its incarcerated people. Our high rates of incarceration are tied to undereducation, race, and poverty. Most U.S. prison inmates are high school dropouts and many are functionally illiterate and have learning disabilities. The majority are people of color. State spending on prisons has outpaced spending on schools by three to one. A reversal of this funding would have exponentially beneficial effects on the wellbeing of our economy, race relations, and the common good. Through education, we have to improve race relations in this country. Darling-Hammond’s “sobering yet hopeful” book points a way for educators to act decisively and thoughtfully through specific policies and school reforms that must take place in order to stop our nation’s academic decline. The political will that is necessary to improve this situation has to arise out of our democratic ideals of social justice and equality. Only equitable and multicultural education can foster the common good and the overarching goals of the commonwealth. What our leaders still don’t realize is that we will not succeed if we don’t bring everybody up together. I’m reminded of my experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay. This is a country like the United States in that it has a culture, or mentality, of poverty. In the past century, Paraguay has been a supplier of agricultural goods such as cotton, beef, and soybeans. It’s economy has not depended on a highly educated workforce. It’s educational system and society has reflected this. The wealthy hold on to their wealth and do not invest in education and the common good. They live behind brick walls in mansions and drive expensive cars. Yet outside these walls the streets are dirt, and poverty reigns. As a result they, along with the entire country, suffer. The United States seems to be following in their footsteps. Increasing wealth disparity, where the top one percent of the population now controls virtually all of the capital, has had devastating effects on our communities. Rather than seeing education as a means to bring everybody up, has been seen as just another way to make money off of the backs of its people, in the form of student loans. Sadly, I’ve learned from this book that California has been one of the worst if not the worst offender in providing quality education for all students. It is very ironic that our state, being the original hub of technological innovation, has not invested in the education of its own population. It relies on highly educated workers from abroad to fill highly skilled and high paying positions in this increasingly “flat” world. It has not been easy being a teacher here. Our inadequate funding, off target educational priorities in content and assessment, and punitive system of accountability have been palpably inadequate for myself and fellow educators. At the state level, the poor argument that increased funding will not improve educational outcomes has been used more than once to excuse a lack of equitable funding. Status quo backed Prop 13 has severely limited the state’s ability to fund schools. As of yet there has not been the political will to reverse Prop. 13, for a start, and adequately fund our schools. The missteps the state has made in educating our children make me wonder if we, too, are intentionally under-educating our children so that they will continue to fill our agricultural positions (like in our local wine industry), much the same as in Paraguay. Yet, Darling-Hammond shows that increased funding must also be accompanied by directing of funds to the right goals. Calistoga is a good example of this. It is an interesting place to work. Since beginning to teach here four years ago, I feel that for the first time we have enough money to spend on our students. We are a “direct aid” school that gets all of its funding from local taxes. Money comes from tax revenue from high property values and wine tourism. Yet even with adequate funding, our minority students (about 85% of the total student population), still fall short of academic achievement expectations. The problem would appear to be so systemic that even adequate funding at the local level is not enough to close the achievement gap between our minority students and white counterparts. We have to do better, and Darling-Hammond outlines the main targets that increased funding must target: These include (1) meaningful learning goals; (2) intelligent, reciprocal accountability systems; (3) equitable and adequate resources; (4) strong professional standards; and (5) organization of schools for student and teacher learning. These kinds of systemic changes need to happen at the state if not national level. It’s good to see however that local initiatives such as this master’s program in innovative learning we are participating in, where NapaLearns is funding half of our teachers’ tuition, are attempting to close the achievement gap and update our educational models to address the demands of a technological, fast changing 21st century jobs market, and 21st century multicultural reality. Over the past several decades I've been feeling increasingly concerned with the environmental catastrophes unfolding around us. As a teacher, I feel it is vital for me to foster in children a love for nature. I've just recently discovered a teaching technique that I know will help me to get kids back in touch with the natural world around them. It's called nature journaling. Kids get outside and observe plants and animals. They take notes and sketch what they see and experience. By focusing their attention on nature, kids can appreciate it more. When students appreciate nature, they are much more likely to make decisions that support its protection/recovery.
Nature journaling is also a powerful tool in language development and critical thinking skills. When journaling, kids are encouraged to observe and interpret the world around them through three basic prompts: "I notice...", "I wonder...", and "It reminds me of...". They are encouraged to express their individual awareness and use that to ask questions about the world around them. Nature journaling can be paired with technology in the form of slideshow presentations, videos, and other tools I hope to discover during the course of my master's classes. The technology will provide motivation for kids to share their ideas with their peers, teaching leadership and speaking skills. I've been troubled about technology and children lately. It can be a powerful learning tool, but it can also do the exact opposite of what I hope to achieve in getting my students outdoors and back in touch with nature. I have heard, and experienced first hand with my own son, stories of "too much screen time". Kids seem to be getting away from outdoor play and exploration and favoring screen entertainment to an alarming degree. So, my BIG question might be: How can we use screen technology to get kids outdoors and away from it? If you are interested in reading more about my developing interest in these themes, here's a letter I wrote to the teachers who taught me about nature journaling at Pepperwood Preserve a couple of weeks ago. Hi Marley and Holland, Jeremy, here. I took the journaling class with you and friends at Pepperwood Preserve a week ago. At lunch, we talked about the biomimicry of carbon fiber bike rims from the 'lumps" on humpback whale fins. Remember? (Turns out, it reduces “sheer” turbulence on rims, especially in side winds, making them 15% more slippery than continuously straight edged rims.) This kind of inspiration that comes from observing nature is what I got a feeling for in your nature journaling class. I can't remember when a practice has so inspired me... so much so, that I am interested in making it the focus of a master's thesis. I just started an online program called Innovative Learning with Dr. Pamela Redmond at Touro University, located on Mare Island. Here’s a description of the program: Program Features: By embracing innovation in the context of open and collaborative approaches to education, cohort members in this program explore and prototype new models for learning and performance. Through problem-based action research, participants cultivate provocative methods to support equity, literacy, and the re-imagining of school and learning to close achievement gaps, promote social justice and equity. The curriculum encourages candidates to:
I’ve already taken my 3rd graders outside to nature journal. We used little containers for holding bugs. They loved it! (They can sure find bugs better than I can.) We wrote “I notice, I wonder, and It reminds me of” statements, and posted our drawings and notes on the wall. I’m training them on Google Slides so that they can eventually do presentations on their work. For the thesis, I’m looking for more ideas on how to integrate nature journaling with technology in a school setting. I’ve purchased the “Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling”, “Opening the World Through Nature Journaling" from the California Native Plant Society, and also “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv. I plan to do some serious reading this weekend! How about you guys? Any ideas to share on nature journaling with kids? I might be asking you for support and collaboration this year. I hope this is ok. I’m very happy that my students will be going to Pepperwood twice this year. What can I do to make it a more powerful experience for them? This feels so right because I’ve been feeling increasingly concerned about the environment. I have been looking for a powerful way to get my students aware and involved in protecting it. Nature journaling has given me a path forward to do this! It really resonated with my own machinations over the past several years on how to help kids enjoy life more by getting more focused on nature, (directly), and less on the 2D digital screen. Love that quote from “Last Child” where the kid says he prefers to play indoors because “that’s where the electrical outlets are”. I’ve participated in two “Nature Bridge” led, week long trips to Yosemite with 6th graders, and one to Marin Headlands with the 5th Graders. I’ve seen what a great time they have when they are out in nature. I’m not the only one concerned about kids losing touch with the outdoors. At a "Back to School" night, several years ago now, when I asked parents: "What is your biggest concern for your child/ren?", ALL five parents with whom I remember speaking that night said: "screen time". They were worried about what a draw the phones and laptops etc. were to their kids. And my job that night was to tell them that their kids were all getting personal laptops for even more screen time in the classroom! Odd things are happening. It’s starting to feel like kids do not need peers to be in close physical proximity. Instead, they increasingly rely on screens as the interface for friendship. They are also increasingly dependent on screens to experience physical world around them. Also, my role as a teacher seems to be shifting toward tech support. SO, given that screens are here and not going away soon, my big question is how can we use technology in the classroom in order to get away from it? Can we set up technology driven learning situations that make kids want to get outside more, putting their attention into, and therefore appreciating the natural world around them more? Regards, Jeremy Smith Here are a couple of links from two nature journaling teachers. John Muir Laws is Marley Peifer's teacher. Link to Marley Peifer's video on nature journaling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAmtqGtz1UA Link to John Muir Law's video on nature journaling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u1EOeuZxok |
AuthorJeremy Smith teaches third grade at Calistoga Elementary School. Archives
July 2020
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