has heard many of those objections in recent months. It’s a similar response that comes with “anything that's outside people's experience,” she said, but like her husband, Minor took her students outside regularly when she taught in New York City public schools. She noted that New York City erected
in just a week this spring and said that with a shift in resources and mindset, similar innovations are possible in education.that helps teachers envision and implement outdoor learning wherever they are. The goal, Minor said, is to support teachers in creating “doable” alternatives that “help everyone experience the things that we’re deeply missing about teaching and learning right now, which are those joyful experiences and kids being curious about the world.”.
“Writing very much has its root in a place,” Minor said, “So when kids show up and say, ‘I don't have anything to write,’ it means that you haven't been outside and really opened your eyes.” He started each year by taking students outside to turn their senses on as writers. The brownstone they passed everyday, the housing project down the block, the corner where they bought popcorn after school — all of those places contain stories, Minor said.
In his decade of teaching, Minor said he only suspended one student and often saw attendance rates above 95 percent. He attributed those successes to the engagement that comes with getting beyond the classroom walls. “I always feel like a kid is going to come to school if they know that their writing teacher is going to be showing them something weird outside so that they can write about it.
Minor, too, described his work with outdoor learning as an effort to undo the harm of colonization. “People, especially people of color, especially poor people, have been taught that they have no rights to the land. That's what colonialism has done to us. It's taught us that we have no place. It's taught us that we have no history,” he said.
MindShiftKQED For teachers wanting to build more outdoor time into current classrooms, the prompts and activities from which just started yesterday, might give some ideas. It’s a partnership between writingproject and NatlParkServlce . Or, check out WriteOutConnect
MindShiftKQED ❤️ Birds
MindShiftKQED There are many outdoor kindergartens here in Germany and the children meet no matter the weather. It is an excellent program
MindShiftKQED Kids in my neighborhood are raising $ for outdoor learning!!!!
MindShiftKQED expatheather