What is Nature Smart

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Just had an interesting conversation with a grade 5 teacher about "nature smart". 

He wasn't totally convinced that multiple intelligences were something we should be teaching towards, specifically with nature smart ideas. 

I fully understand that encouraging people to develop growth mindsets can get them out of a box of learning a specific way and not just focusing on their strengths. The conversation which really got me though was, what was nature smart? 

In the book he was looking at it said something like liking animals as a basis, his question (and rightly) was who doesn't like animals? Does that really make you nature smart. 

I started talking about the ability to see things in systems, not really sure if that's nature smart, but looking at connections between animals, and creating empathy that kind of thing. But wasn't really sure. 

So this week will be digging a little deeper into my ecoliteracy book, trying to convince him about maybe thinking ecoliterate is a little different from nature smart, we'll see. 

Finally getting outside

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The past couple of weeks here have been "haze filled" so students couldn't go outside very often, this included recess. 

After reading Richard Louv and learning more about nature deficit disorder and experiencing these last couple of weeks, it's easy to see how a school needs their students outside. More than just running around or getting exercise, students need the connection to other living things.  

Many of the units we've been inquiring into have looked at how we organize ourselves in groups.  The younger students especially had a difficult time with this because they had little time to connect with other living things (at least that's what I think).  By building that empathy with other things we are more able to see ourselves as part of a system. When we see ourselves as part of a system we're more likely (I think) to see how we can work for the benefit of a group of things, rather than just ourselves.

We (as teachers) had never really thought of this aspect before the haze.  Now we are wondering how we can reshape our units, to really look at how other living communities organize themselves, and if that is true, than how can we organize ourselves to benefit the community. 

We definitely had some interesting discussions, and once our term break is over, we're all ready to finally get outside. 

Reflection

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With our grade 3 classes we've been using blogs to reflect what we are learning. More than that though, I am hoping to make our reflections interesting.  Almost all of my students think that reflection is like a recount.  Here's what we learned, this list of things.  I know now this.

It's frustrating, mainly because I want to move away from that kind of learning, but my students obviously still see learning this way.  I try to tell them that let me know what you learned, not what was taught, what's your big take away, why does it matter? 

Then I wonder why or who taught us how to reflect.  I think for my next couple of lessons I'm going to look at some other student blogs and teacher blogs to talk about what's really important about learning. Then go to maybe tumblr or something to show how we are always kind of reflecting.  Maybe some comics, to talk about processing visually, maybe Nicki's Blog to show how we can even think differently. 

School is off for two weeks so I have heaps of time to prepare, but how can we teach students to write interesting reflections, I've used them as the audience, and even they are bored.  So time to inspire I guess. 

Outdoor Discovery Center

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Our Outdoor Discovery Center opens this week.  However, "The Haze" is making it nearly impossible to go outside. This is going to be a great way for students to learn about how to take personal buying action (hopefully).

We're going to be Looking Closely.  But first we're going to find spots to look closely.

This week I'm headed out with the teachers after school to look for great spots to notice life.  Then we will bring the students out with cameras and get them prepped for sitting still and being patient and then being a part of our living community.

With the smoke everywhere outside, I don't know when we can get the students out. Fall break is fast approaching so we may have to wait until after then, but we are all really excited.