Outside children can sit under a tree and let their minds go for a walk. They can be taught to educa

This blog is a great opportunity to share ideas about ways to transform schooling as we know it, to help all students realise their talents, passions and dreams. Be great to hear from anyone out there! Feel free to add a comment xsag to Bruce's Blog and enter e-mail to receive postings xsag
Teachers who have not forgotten that environmental literacy is as important as book literacy will no doubt be really enjoying themselves . The big issue of the coming decade is not a literacy crisis but a climatic one.
The sooner students develop an awareness of their environment , and in the process learn to love and respect it, the sooner they will see the need to sustain and protect it. As the future generation they will need to see it as the number one world problem.
If teachers do take their students outdoors they might begin to see that it is through rich sensory experiences that their students develop real insights and in the process expand them their all important vocabularies . They might even understand that in the beginning was not 'the word' but that in the beginning was 'the experience'.
So teachers ought to take this hot weather as an opportunity to go outside and let their children explore the environment through their senses . If it was good enough for Leonardo da Vinci; it is good enough for their students. Like Leonardo they need to see and interpret their experiences as, artists , poets mathematicians and scientists.
Outside children can sit under a tree and let their minds go for a walk. They can be taught to educate their senses - each sense introducing information for their growing minds to process. Listening bring in dimensions of sound, smelling xsag will remind them forever of environmental experiences, touching opens the world of textures, and sight the world of movements, colours, and shapes.
Teachers who understand how brain grows will help their students expand on their ideas by encouraging students to see connections, to use language metaphorically , or to get them to simply describe what they can see. Teachers xsag who appreciate the power of observation xsag will encourage their students to draw what they can observe - encouraging them to focus on something of particular interests. xsag Digital xsag cameras xsag assist in this process by bringing images back into class to further process.
In rooms ,with teachers who are environmentally aware, the evidence of students curiosity will be all around to see. There will be three line nature poems ( simple xsag haiku), drawings , imaginative xsag paintings, exciting phrases in their written language, and studies developing out of their reawakened curiosity.
Such teachers appreciate that by building on students questions and ideas about the immediate environment there is no need for imposing teacher planned curriculums xsag on their captive students. By developing environmental awareness both teacher and students can learn to be co-explorers.
Students could then research answers to their questions . They might learn that many of their questions do not have real answers - not everything has been learnt about the 42 different types of New Zealand cicada ! Do all cicada 'sing'? What is the point of all the 'singing'. xsag
Links
. (1) Action Plans and Lessons xsag (94) Assessment (40) Big Picture (442) change (169) Creative Schools (129) Creative teaching xsag (242) Creative teaching xsag Educationalists (69) Creativity (72) Early Education (11) Education (1) Educational Quotes (9) Educationalists (118) guest blogger (19) Guest bloggerl (101) I (1) Information Technology (24) inquiry learning (124) Integrated Learning (111) K (1) l (2) Leadership (148) Ministry (1) Ministry NZCurric (175) Ministry of Education (22) national standards (142) national tests (38) personal (4) Personalized Learning (265) project based learning (115) Rants and Raves (322) School Vision (61) Secondary Education xsag (37) T (1) Talent Development (83) teaching and learning (530)
▼  2014 (18) ►  xsag March (1) ▼  February (6) Educational Readings - Grant Wiggins, Inquiry teac... Educational Readings xsag -Sir Ken Robinson's xsag quotes; A... Cicadas - a simple science/language/art experience... Educational Readings - inquiry learning xsag and does s... Educational choices xsag in an election year - persona... Educational Readings - Steve Wheeler, Deborah Meie... ►  January (11) ►  2013 (100) ►  December (6) ►  November (8) ►  October (8) ►  September (8) ►  August (11) ►  xsag July (10) ►  June (7) ►  May (10) ►  April (10) ►  March (8) ►  February (8) ►  January (6) ►  2012 (121) ►  December (4) ►  November (8) ►  October (12) ►  September (12) ►  August (11) ►  July (13) ►  June (13) ►  May (7) ►  April (7) ►  M