Inspiration
Read How This Vancouver School is Getting Ready to Take Classes Outside After Lockdown
Schools in British Columbia are planning ahead for when they reopen, one such school teacher has come up with an outdoor model to pursue
Schools and teachers are not only thinking about ‘something different’ for the online classes; they are also planning ahead for when the schools reopen to engage the children, transition them back to the classroom model and keep them safe.
Meagan Braun, who teaches lower primary grades in the Vancouver school district, Surrey’s East Kensington Elementry School, has some great ideas for her class when the school reopens in September. According to her, she would like to take classes outside instead of the authentic classroom. “My hope and my vision is that as many students as can be outside for as much of the time as possible,” Braun told Global News.
Since close proximity and the walled environment is more contagious during the COVID outbreak, Braun believes being outside shall be safer for her and her students and should also instigate creativity along with better learning. When she says outside, she does not mean moving tables and chair to the playground, it means experiencing the whole outdoors, having to learn life skills and curriculum, too.
“It’s going to take creativity, it’s going to take people thinking outside the box,” she said when asked what she thinks about the success of this model of learning. “I’ve always been passionate about the benefits (of outdoor learning) for self-regulation, for students learning about their sense of place in the world, the history behind where we live, the benefits of the sensory experiences they can have outside,” says Braun. She adds, “It’s just endless possibilities outdoors.”
Alison Leslie, the acting vice-principal of the school, describes how recently the interest of parents about the outdoor learning program and teachers of other schools looking to adopt some of the ideas has increased. “Take one subject and then you’ll find that you’re wanting to be outside more. Do your morning circle outside and talk about what you see, or how you’re feeling, and start with a social-emotional piece and then bring in the curriculum piece,” Leslie shared.
Source Credit: https://globalnews.ca/news/7270896/vancouver-outdoor-school-coronavirus/