My PLN

Project Wild

This year, I have had the privilege to attend many fun and interesting workshops in order to help me become a better teacher. One workshop that I attended this year was the Project Wild Workshop, which took place at the St. John's Outdoor Education Center. This workshop was sponsored by the Canadian Wildlife Federation to provide teachers with a wide variety of strategies to incorporate "environmental stewardship" into the existing school curriculum. The term environmental stewardship refers to sustainable living practices that protect and take care of the natural environment around us.

Leung, Vivian. (2012). Project Wild Certificate. [Personal Image]. 

In a world filled with technology, sometimes it is easy to forget to look past the screen. Although incorporating technology within the classroom is a great way to engage students, I learned many outdoor activities at this workshop that are just as interesting and fun! We spent the entire day outdoors, playing games and going on hikes. I learned about historical events that took place in the Niagara region (social studies),  natural ecosystems (science), graphing (math), as well as hierarchies that exist in nature (social studies), and had a great time doing so!

As a teacher, I would love to use many of these strategies within my classroom. Taking students outside could be a great way to introduce a new unit (i.e. ecosystems in science, landscapes in visual arts, types of land in geography). Outdoor field trips can also be a great way for students to apply their knowledge and understanding after learning their unit in the classroom. An example of this could be seen in a measurement unit in math, where students can go outside and calculate the area and perimeter of certain places.