make it real and for real...

Yesterday one of our teachers led us on an out-of-doors adventure in out door education. I was only able to stay for part of it, as I had my own work to do in the wood shop. In the meantime, it should become understood, that if it can be taught out of doors, it should be.

"Won't the sights and sounds of nature be distracting?"  you might ask. That depends of course on what your objectives might be. If you are trying to force feed a diet of information to prepare students for standardized testing, perhaps they should be kept penned up like animals in classrooms, just as they will be during the test.

On the other hand, if you are hoping that they are prepared to be life-long learners accepting adult responsibilities and seeing the interconnection of all things, get them out of the classroom at every available opportunity.

Children learn best when their hands and all their senses are engaged. There is no place better for that than out of doors, unless your school has a wood shop.

a lovely box

David sent a photo of his finished box from one of our summer classes at Marc Adams School. He said, "Learned a lot from making this one box."

Make, fix, create, and help others to do likewise.