People Place and Land; semester close out itinerary

This week we’ve been divided into 9 groups, each group is tasked with leading an outdoor activity.

1. Out door Pictionary. We volunteer terms, then use materials from the forest floor to recreate them
2. Pond study. Booklets, nets, and buckets were provided. Students were sent out to explore!
3. Walking Curriculum; A series of questions were posed on laminated cards. groups wandered, wondered and shared before changing cards up
4. Scavenger hunt with key facts about the region. The scavenger hunt was used to deliver key information. We then used that information to write a creation myth related to the plant
5. Jill’s group let us sketch, draw, and identify plants using apps
6. Jannik and Sarah’s team had maps. We were anticipating drawing a big map with chalk, then filling important locations to us. Great idea, but we had to stop because we didn’t book the concrete. Booking concrete haha. What a notion.
7. Reflecting on purpose in teaching.
8. The intention stone: One of our closing activities was to find a stone (typically found outdoors, this group hid them on the Education wing) and paint it. The idea is to take it with us and to hide it somewhere on campus for the final practicum.
9. Rebecca’s group had us write letters to our future cohort. We had the opportunity to write what we want, where we wanted. The group would then evaluate the letters and make sure that they were “appropriate” to pass on to the next class.

I recall Glenn’s amazement that we have reached such deep understandings of people place and land. not only are we acknowledging who we are, and where we are, but we are observing the value of passing information from our cohort to the next through the letters. I had previously envisioned that the best thing we could get out of this program was a content based binder. A room of 20ish content experts we should each, in our field, be creating lessons for students grade 8-10. While I am adamant in that process being cool and valuable, the letters reflect a completely different package to carry with us. Instead of content knowledge, the letters offer cultural practices to carry with us. What to celebrate, what to fear, how to overcome the obstacles, who to trust, how to trust. A different kind of information transfer. Is information the correct word?