For the past two years, I’ve been sharing my experiences teaching children outdoors.
I now feel confident in sharing this because of my 11 years of teaching experience, my MSc Outdoor Education that I completed alongside my practical experience.
Even with this background, I still try to avoid using prescriptive language when sharing: like “should” or “shouldn’t.” Instead, I prefer saying “you could,” because I understand that every school has its own unique context.
My journey in sharing has been a learning curve. I’ve received a lot of supportive and constructive feedback, which is common in a sector filled with so many lovely people.
However, I’ve also received interesting replies to my posts, including:
“Children shouldn’t wear yellow vests in forests… folllwed by I am an educational consultant, and I could provide you and your schools with some training.”
👉Context: For one year, I ran 70 field trips to a local forest where our risk assessment made wearing yellow vests mandatory.
“Children shouldn’t be given iPads while working on outdoor education lessons.”
👉Context: The children were having a great time making stop-motion animations in the playground as an extension to a class project, which allowed the children to be outside on a sunny day.
“Children shouldn’t be using leaves for art.”
👉Context: The children were learning about how Aboriginal artists often use natural materials for Dreamtime art. They were using leaves from offcuts to be creative, get hands-on with materials other than paper, and learn about another culture.
I looked at profiles of the indibiduals who were offering this advice. While they worked within the education sector, none of them had experience working within a primary school context.
While this doesn’t mean they can’t have an opinion, and I understand their thought process, it highlights the importance of reading information carefully, asking more questions, and understanding the full situation before offering advice.
Important to note:
🌱When constructive and well thought out, advice is incredibly important. However, it’s also important to remember to allow educators the opportunity to trial, test, and innovate.
Teachers and TA’s often have to overcome challenges and get creative with the resources at their disposal, which might mean that a lesson doesn’t perfectly align with an observer/advisor’s ideal definition or framework of what a lesson should look like.
Let’s champion the doers!