Teach Outdoors

Manon McPeters is a lead nature instructor trainer at the Wilderness Awareness School which is based in Duvall, Washington.  She has been working with the 8 shields framework for mentoring for over a decade and also grew up as a teen student of the Wilderness Awareness program.  Her passions are engaging with the human body and observing the connection between brain and body and how they collaborate together.

Manon McPeters Instagram: asarum.caudatum

Wilderness Awareness School:
Instagram: wilderness_awareness
Twitter:  @teamcoyote
Website: https://www.wildernessawareness.org

Kamana Independent Study courses: https://www.wildernessawareness.org/adult-programs/kamana/

Book: Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature by Jon Young, Ellen Haas, and Evan McGown. http://coyotesguide.com

The Art of Questioning is an approach used in coyote’s mentoring. I wonder how I can use questioning to support inquiry and nudge learning in new directions? This isn’t formulaic or a set of check boxes that we need to complete.  We work with what our students are curious about.  What is catching their attention? 

Manon also talks about how we can use storytelling as a way to infuse and weave information during our interactions with our learners. 

I also ask Manon to talk about the ‘trickster transformer’ mentoring approach.  It’s a very powerful tool but we need to have a strong relationship with our learners first.  Trust is everything! 

Novelty Nature Note:

I’ve been learning how to identify the difference between a Coopers hawk and a Sharp Shinned hawk.  The Cooper’s hawk is about 6 inches bigger than a Sharpie – but also their outer tail feathers are shorter than the rest of the tail feathers – so it looks rounded or like a rainbow 

Manon’s Novelty Nature Note:

Woodpeckers have retractable tongues!  It spirals around their skull or even around their eyes. 

Place has a history, often we are unconscious of it. It is our responsibility to think about the indigeneity of our place and learn about different perspectives. We can help students develop a sense of responsibility for the land. 

Dr. Leyton Schnellert: Twitter @LeytonSchnell  Website: https://leytonschnellert.com

Today through zoom, Dr. Leyton Schnellert is joining us to talk about place-concious learning in the middle school years.  Leyton is an associate professor in the UBC’s department of curriculum & pedagogy and Eleanor rix professor of rural teacher education.  He has been a middle school and secondary school classroom teacher as well as a learning resource teacher for K-12.  Leyton has co-authored 7 books, including Student Diversity, Pulling Together, Developing Self-Regulated Learners, and It’s All About Thinking. As a researcher, he has the opportunity to present his work throughout Canada as well as internationally.  

When thinking about outdoor learning and place-conscious learning, think to yourself:

What needs to be transformed here?

What needs to be protected here?

What needs to be restored here?

What needs to be created here?

Resources:

Leyton believes that the first resource is place and the second resource are the learners.

Newsella: online researching tool

Nativeland.ca  

Mill Bay Nature School

Kootenay boundary inspirational handbook: https://kbee.ca/handbook/

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” Lao Tzu

“If we want kids to flourish then we need them to love the earth first before we ask them to save it.” David Sobel 

Inspirational People:

Kim Ondrik – visiting the bog and investigating community impact on the bog.  

Orrin Hawke – SD 5

Biz Tupper and Leslie Leitch: Math Wonder Walks 

Morgan Taylor – grade 4/5/6 – collaborative teaching 

David Greenweld: environmental education – what needs to be transformed here – what needs to be protected here? What needs to be restored here? Created here? 

Novelty Nature Note:

My random nature fact is about Wildlife Trees or decaying trees in the forest and how woodpeckers are “primary cavity nesters” which means they dig out the holes themselves to live in. But the next year they move onto a new decaying tree and dig out another hole.  This means that a “secondary cavity nester” can move into their old nest – these are often owls, kestrels, or swallows – so an animal that is unable to dig out their own hole.  

Leyton’s Nature Note:

The airport near him in Castlegar is nicknamed ‘cancelgar’, because of the inversions in the air. The birds have to navigate a lot of weather challenges!

He also talks about the forest fires and how that connects to the life cycle of trees.  

Let’s discuss the intersection between social-emotional learning and learning outdoors with Miriam Miller!

Visit mentoringnatureconnections.wordpress.com for outdoor learning resources as well as workshop and consulting opportunities.  

Casel reviews and recommends SEL programs that can be adopted into classroom practice.  casel.org

Investigating and discussing how outdoor learning can be a way we can practice and apply SEL. 

The importance of using nature routines to provide safety and consistency for our learners (e.g., a gathering circle, a sit spot). 

Mindfulness!  The outdoors is a place to slow down and attend to the environment.  Sometimes the invitation for our learners is simply to listen. 

SEED framework which stands for social-emotional and environmental education development framework. It’s a nature-based social-emotional approach for early childhood education.  

Novelty Nature Note:

Cougars are the second largest cat in North America, but they are unable to roar. They have the biggest range of large animals in the western hemisphere, and they can jump up to 20 feet in the air.

Bull kelp: you can cut off the end and use it to snorkel! 

Our guest tonight is Alexa Charles who is a Mentoring Support Teacher for the Coquitlam district. She leads us through her journey of “Learning with Purpose and Place in SD43” and how she infuses an ethnography lens with her documentation. 

Alexa Charles Information:

She curates a blog entitled, “Learning with Purpose and Place in SD43.”

Follow her on Twitter @MsCharlesSD43

Other Inspirational People We Chatted About:

Megan Zeni @Roomtoplay

Dr. Gillian Judson (Walking Curriculum) @perfinker 

CBEEN (Columbia Basin Environmental Education Network) @CBEENetwork and www.cbeen.ca

Inspirational Quotes:

“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” John Muir

One of Alexa’s personal mentors, Collen Castonguay, a middle school VP in Coquitlam, once said to her…. “Anytime anyone anywhere shares a story, a story you know they are passionate to tell, you will find a connection to it.” That is her offering today, on the podcast. Her hope that through our conversation, you will find something to connect to with, big or small.

Novelty Nature Note:

*Hummingbirds: They are the only bird that can fly backwards, their legs are only used for perching – well they can move sideways when they are perched but they can’t walk.  They have no sense of smell, but colour vision is amazing – which is why feeders are bright red.  And they are the smallest migrating birds, but they don’t migrate in flocks.  

*Crows – commonly viewed as a nuisance so are often overlooked. The best thing about these birds is that they can be easily observed in rural and urban settings.  Go observe them! We can learn a lot from them   

Shelley Moore is the author of One Without the Other: Stories of unity through diversity and inclusion. Her website blogsomemoore.com has numerous resources and information about her endless work in this complex field of inclusive education and competency-based learning.  Shelley also consults throughout BC, Canada and across north America.

 Shelley's Social Media Info:

blogsomemoore.com 

@tweetsomemoore

We asked the Twittersphere if they had questions for Shelley about inclusion and outdoor learning.  We tackled 4 questions:

1)Alyssa Stapleton asked: "How might the universal design principles be adapted for outdoor learning opportunities? What might planning for outdoor learning for all learners and inclusivity look like at different levels within an educational and school setting? How does collaboration with learning support teachers and school-based teams look like in this context?" 

2)Josie Zahn:  "What dream team!! Outdoor learning is fantastic for all students. The only issues I’ve had have been around safety… For example, little ones who aren’t aware of the boundaries (when there’s only one adult) and sensory issues (wet feet, rain) … and preplanning helps these!"

3)Shannon Mills but actually hers is more of a comment.  She says that: "In our cohort we have 3 students who have autism and all thrive during outdoor learning. We visit the forest every day and it is a part of the day they most look forward to. They get very disappointed if there is a wind warning and we can’t go. Get outdoors. It’s the best."

4)Anna Dutke asks: "Any tips or advice on writing their special education goals/objectives so that they can be worked on in an outdoor classroom environment? Or examples of how teachers have incorporated data collection in an outdoor classroom? I often hear time and data collection as being barriers."

Other Things Mentioned:

Book: A Stone Sat Still by Brendan Wenzel

Anna Dutke: Outdoor educator in Minnesota – twitter: @ADutke

Novelty Nature Note:

Did you know that the hippopotamus milk is pink?!

Shelley lives on Bowen Island and part of her reconciliation journey was to get to know her new place a little better.  It’s part of the Squamish territory and is named Nex̱wlélex̱m.  Shelley also mentioned Glass Coral Reef. It was thought that glass coral only grew in one place north west corner of Vancouver island.  But it has been recently discovered on the north west corner of Bowen island.  Shelley is about to live in a UNESCO marine heritage site! 

April Pikkarainen is our guest tonight to talk about the importance of collaborative teaching. April and I taught in a collaborative setting for 2 years where we engaged in daily outdoor learning experiences with our 44 Kindergarten and Grade 1 learners.  Amazing!! I hope you have fun listening to our journey and what we learned from this experience.  

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions please visit and contact me through mentoringnatureconnections.wordpress.com 

What We Talk About Today:

*collaborative teaching in a K/1 classroom

*how our collaborative teaching helped with outdoor learning inquiries

*re-imagining how we used our resource support outdoors 

Inspirational people who were mentioned:

Kelli Lundi @KelliB12  

Alan Tesan @AlanaTesan

Catherine Ludwig @CathJule

Hieu Fraser @hieu_fraser

Novelty Nature Notes:

* skunk cabbage generates its own heat which melts the snow around itself – allowing them to bloom early.  

* conifers can “help” control the squirrel population by alternating how many cones / seeds they produce each year.  

Have you ever wondered how to infuse literacy with your outdoor adventures? Nature is a literacy-rich environment, a place where we can experiment with language in many ways.  Our land provides us with an inherently play-based environment where we can explore literacy in an informal way.  We can expand our vocabulary, develop conversational skills, recount stories and events, and the list goes on and on. And this isn’t just for our youngest learners, we can all develop our language through play and our outdoor environment is a very powerful tool that we can use to help us on that learning journey. 

Our guest tonight is Faye Brownlie, a literacy superstar! She has worked all over Canada as well as internationally to support and coach K-12 teachers in their journey towards creating an inclusive literacy framework for their classrooms. Faye has several publications, including It’s All About Thinking, Grand Conversations, Learning in Safe Schools, and Student Diversity. She flawlessly models open-ended teaching strategies and believes in the power of collaboration.  

Website: fayebrownlie.ca 

Twitter: @fayebrownlie


What we discuss today:

*Looking at the world through a literacy lens! 

*Story Walks – taking an image from a familiar picture book and displaying them around your nature walk path.  A fun way to explore retelling stories while getting some fresh air! 

*Guided Imagery lesson example – the benefits of being outdoors while writing in role 

*How nature can help us build a word bank and a world bank through our experiences

*Setting Collection lesson ideas. Gathering nature items to help inspire your setting for writing a narrative 

Inspirational People and Resources who were mentioned:

*Whonnock Elementary in Maple Ridge, BC. Heather Chapman and Renee Pennell run a program called Cedar Stream

*Georgia Herd’s book, Awakening the Heart.  A wonderful book to help you explore poetry and play with language and imagery. 

*Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book, Gathering Moss.  “With words at your disposal, you can see more clearly. Finding the words is another step in learning to see.”

Novelty Nature Note:

* Reindeer moss is not actually a type of moss, it’s a lichen – but it gets its name because reindeer are one of the only animals that eat it. It has a special chemical that helps the animal keep its blood warm during the colder months.

*Racoons are digging up Faye’s planter boxes on the second story balcony. Oh dear!

In today's episode of Mentoring Nature Connections, we are looking at how to infuse mathematics into our outdoor learning adventures.  

Our guest tonight is Janice Novakowski who is a K-12 mathematics and numeracy consultant for the Richmond district in BC.  She is also an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia, working with pre-service teachers and is on the board of directors of the Vancouver reggio association and facilitates the BC Reggio-Inspired Mathematics Project.

What we discuss today:

*Looking at the world through a mathematical lens! Where does math live outdoors?

*Expanding our understanding of what mathematics is. Looking beyond just computations and seeing how dialogue, discourse and doing mathematics is a key aspect of our BC curriculum.  

*Understanding our curriculum will help us follow the inevitable emergent opportunities that nature provides us with. 

*Documentation as a tool to help make our outdoor mathematical learning visible.  

*So many easy-to-use ideas on how to incorporate mathematics outdoors. For example, using simple prompts based off what you notice outdoors that day. What do you notice? What do you wonder? What math do you see?

*Janice references ‘The Studio’ which is a classroom she has set up at Grauer Elementary in Richmond where she invites classrooms of students and educators to explore play-based mathematics.

* BC Reggio-Inspired Mathematics: https://janicenovkam.typepad.com/reggioinspired_mathematic/archives.html

Inspirational People who were mentioned:

Dr. Cynthia Nicol, UBC - https://edcp.educ.ubc.ca/faculty-staff/cynthia-nicol/

Dr. Selma Wasserman, SFU - https://www.sfu.ca/education-research-hub/research-in-focus/spotlight-series/retiree-research/Selma-Wassermann.html

Terry Point – connecting mathematics, science and land.  Interview with the late Terry Point: http://thenhier.ca/en/content/x%3F%3F%3Fiw%3Fn-cep-k%3F%3F%3F%3F-n%3F%3Fey%3F%3F-remember-your-teachings.html

Local weavers: learning about the connection of cedar, wool and mathematics

Jessica Silvey - http://www.authenticindigenous.com/artists/jessica-silvey

Alice Guss - http://www.authenticindigenous.com/artists/alice-guss

Janice and Buddy George - http://weavinghouse.com/who-we-are/

Novelty Nature Note:

*Symmetry is very common in nature and the type of symmetry provides a different purpose – so we have bilateral symmetry whereas starfish have rotational symmetry which helps them attack their prey from different directions.  

*After touring the land of the Musqueam community, Janice learned about the indigenous connection to the land and how time is measured. For example, early spring is when salmonberries bloom.  This time of year can also be called the “time of the salmonberries.” 

Mentoring Nature Connections is all about sharing our experiences and questions about outdoor explorations.  I'm hoping you'll join us on our journey of investigating nature with our learners.  Today we are joined by Kelsey Keller, a Grade 3/4/5 Montessori teacher at Baker Drive in Coquitlam, BC.  Together we are exploring the topic of place-based learning and how we make the connection between story, perspective, and mapping. 

Key questions we are going to tackle today include:

How can we see place as being our teacher?

How can we uncover the history of our land?

How can we structure our exploration time during #Forestschool? 

I'm Lauren MacLean and I'm a mentoring support teacher in the area of mathematics and outdoor learning for the Coquitlam district in BC.

Website: mentoringnatureconnections.wordpress.com

Twitter: @lkmaclean

Instagram: @mentoringnatureconnections

Information on today's guest: Kelsey Keller

Website: kelseykeller.com

Twitter: @montessorimice

Inspirational people we discussed:

Erin Kenny, the founder of Cedarsong Nature School in Washington, said that “children cannot bounce off the walls if we take away the walls.”

 David Jardine and his views on restlessness. 

Novelty Nature Notes:

Trees cannot die of old age. Something external has to kill them. This makes them the oldest living organism on Earth.

Wood Wide Web.  Trees have a secret underground messaging system!