Weekly Reflection: EDCamp

For our EDCamp group discussion I participated in the what does outdoor learning look like across subjects and further more, what individual experiences do we have with learning outside the classroom. I picked this group topic as last semester during my observational practicum I had the opportunity in connection with my PHE class to teach a mini unit of Outdoor Education 9/10 which consisted of two full lessons. I shared with my group what I learned during this experience which is during PHE it is very common for teacher’s to simply place their classes outside and define it as a being good by being outside alone in itself. However, despite this still being positive that student’s are outside, there needs to be a purpose behind going outside to make this learning more thorough.

The teacher in which I taught for during the mini unit of outdoor education based their philosophy of teaching outside in nature on “The Nature Fix” by Florence Williams . A lot of the meaning behind teaching students in nature is teaching them to respond and acknowledge how they feel in nature in comparison to in the classroom. An example I shared in our group is how teaching sexual education the teacher I was with shared can be more comfortable while being outside in nature in comparison to a standard traditional classroom. Here is a video explaining “The Nature Fix” more:

Other great points and discussions were brought up by my colleague’s during our discussion about how we can incorporate other teachable subjects into nature based learning. Everyone brought up excellent points when talking about their own respective teachable subjects. A highlight that I wanted to point out that stood out to me in relation to my other teachable of social studies was how going outside into nature in a social studies class can be a means of learning about Indigenous land claims and places of gathering. As well, exploring and examining what current land is being used for and what it used to be used for is another way we can incorporate outdoor learning into our classrooms I believe.

I believe that using outdoor based learning is a great means of incorporating UDL into our teaching as it can allow for more practical and hands on learning for students. However, we need to ensure that being outside and the locations we might visit with our students are accessible physically for all students to enjoy. I say this as I know with my work experience that many locations are not super accessible for students with support needs and therefore we need to ensure that we are being inclusive.