Some of the challenges in building out the Outdoor Learning Lab project included limited cross-curricular planning time. Because my planning time as an educator in the English department did not align with my teacher collaborator in the agricultural department, we were not able to engage with one another as much as we’d like to in regards to the project timeline & opportunity for cross-curricular student collaboration throughout the project.
The U School is based on a competency model.
We have subject specific competencies, and more global ones, with performance indicators like
“I can monitor my progress, set and track my goals, and create a post-secondary plan to ensure that I am college and career ready.”
There are a set of relevant, but inadequate Next Generation Essentials competencies, that we are currently working to make more robust, in the interest of Target 4.7 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) education for sustainable development and global citizenship. Read more
The U School explored creating alternative pathways for high school seniors, and in 2019 made a commitment to considering how to bring some sort of agriculture CTE program to the U School. Over the course of many months, the first one-year CTE program in the state (country?) was outlined and then approved and then staffed. Read more
Throughout the process of the EFS program, the largest takeaway I took as a teacher and a person is that creating a sustainable community begins with building a community. There are many issues that our students face in their school and home lives that can be addressed by creating sustainable solutions, but if those communities do not hold shared understanding of the need and value of these solutions there is unlikely to be enough momentum to keep these solutions ongoing. Read more
The U School was founded with a mission to break down the “top down” approach of education, and instead center students, granting them autonomy and agency that is not what one would find at a “traditional high school.” This of course presents challenges for staff and students! The educators that come to the U School typically know what they’re getting themselves into, though, while students have frequently expressed feelings of being “duped” by the older students who came and spoke to them about what they liked about the school. Read more
The Earthseed Outdoor Learning Lab project, one of Saul’s initiatives in the EFS program, is inspired by Octavia E. Butler’s novel, Parable of the Sower specifically, the text’s concept of “Earthseed.” This spiritual belief system that centers on truth, knowledge, adaptatbiltiy, growth, nature, & community was used as the core value system to imagine the lab. Read more
At School of the Future, students are most passionate about building school community through field trips to local places of interest. My teaching team is committed to finding valuable connections between this goal and sustainability issues. As of right now, the students have become interested in trips to the Discovery Center, local nursing homes, community gardens, and more through research. Read more
Toolkit for Teachers- how/why do I teach outside of my content area and comfort zone?
One of the things that the AFNR program offers is an abundance of “real world” problems that are not contrived. Teachers need look no further than the schoolyard (or even their own classroom) to see all the different ways that students can be engaging in their particular content area as it relates to food access and the relationship between nature and the built environment. Read more