January 29th, 2009
Girl outside with bubbles
I had a great opportunity to discuss playing outdoors with 6th graders this week.
Through the Resource Teacher program I worked with a phenomenal language teacher at a middle school in Circle Pines, MN. The program gave students some historical knowledge of what it was like being a kid 50 – 150 years ago through short readings (linked below), gave them an opportunity to play outside – completely unstructured, and then gave them time to reflect, journal, and discuss their thoughts and experiences.
Most of the students said they spend a lot of time outdoors playing outside. However, they expressed a desire for more freedom with their playtime. About half the students said that they thought their parents had more fun as children because they needed to be more creative in their play; they didn’t have organized team sports and technology to create rules and entertain them.
They also cited too much homework as a time barrier to outdoor playtime. I thought this might be a clever ploy, but the teacher confirmed that the students do bear a large homework burden.
The three readings were from the introduction to The Last Child in the Woods, a story about an encounter with John Muir, and Theodore Roosevelt’s boyhood journal.
Tags: creative, Environmental Education, freedom, play, sense of place, Teachers, woods
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December 18th, 2008
How about utilizing community organizations as a source of new program participants? There are many community groups and nonprofits looking for volunteers and new employees to provide programming for their constituents. What if the environmental educators of the Twin Cities were able to jump in and fill those roles? It could build a strong sense of place and home for community residents and perhaps even reduce crime, increase fitness, and create an overall happier community. It would also prevent the community organizations from reinventing the educational wheel. Furthermore, the opportunity to bring in other educational groups (arts, music, language, etc.) could be a real partnership boon for all organizations involved to share skills, contacts, audience, and more.
Here’s a good example:
Family and Children’s Services is looking for volunteers to provide activities and programs for children during parenting classes. The classes are in the Camden Apartments – which are within walking distance of North Mississippi Regional Park. Interpreters from the North Miss, or from the National Park Service (since its along the Mississippi), could either go to the apartment building or could invite the class to the Interpretive Center at North Miss. It’s potentially a great way to engage a new audience with their local environment and create more stewards, but also a way to build the local community’s sense of place and pride.
This process can grow even deeper. When I was a Ranger for the National Park Service I had the honor of establishing a Student Ranger Program. In this program, students from a local community group (The East Side Community Design Center), which had developed a relationship with the park through volunteering to restore the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, recommended students who were interested in establishing a career in environmental science. The NPS then hired two students (after reviewing resumes and interviewing) for the summer and provided them with a wide range of experiences which will help open the door for their careers. Giving the next generation of park rangers a healthy start. It was great for the community too because they were able to see a familiar face in the National Park Service uniform working to protect a valued community resource – the Mississippi.
Where can you find local community groups in need of programming? I recommend checking out the job postings page of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and VolunteerMatch.com for a start. If you would like help, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I would be happy to help establish new partnerships.
Are you already working in a community partnership like this? I would love to hear about it and perhaps post your story here. Please contact me.
Tags: audience, community, Environmental Education, sense of place
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