My Biggest Hurdle

You’re a teacher. You’re an expert at what you do. You know it and I know it.

So when your principal stands in front of you at a staff meeting and promotes the latest trend in education or the latest political mandate, you nod your head and smile. Then you go right back to your classroom, shut the door and do what you know is best.

If you don’t believe in outdoor learning, if you have never experienced its power, or if you feel uncertain, you won’t do it. And you’ll find a million reasons not to. I did.

That’s why I say – when it comes to taking your kids outdoors to learn, the biggest hurdle could be you. My biggest hurdle was certainly ME.

In 2012, when I was teaching Kindergarten students, my Assistant Principal told me to “do outdoor learning” with my kids. I thought she was crazy. No teacher’s guide was provided. I didn’t have the slightest idea how or what to do in a school setting.

Not another thing to do!

I felt tremendous pressure from parents and school administration to get my young students reading and writing and give them an excellent foundation in mathematical, thinking and social skills. And now they wanted me to add yet another thing to an already jam-packed day!

Needless to say, that year, it didn’t happen. I didn’t do outdoor learning with my kids. It’s not that I didn’t want to do it. I just didn’t know how to make it happen and still fulfill all my other responsibilities to my students.

Take a minute to reflect on why you feel you can’t take your students outside to learn. If you know your “why”, you can start to dismantle your resistance.

I dismantled my resistance by learning about the benefits so I could defend my teaching choices to parents, by starting small (adapting activities I was already doing indoors for the outdoors) and by only going out on nice-weather days.

In a short time, I loved outdoor learning for what it did for my students and me so much that I transferred from Kindergarten to Preschool at my school so I could teach outdoors every day! Now I am the Outdoor Learning teacher for the Reception students, aged 4 to 5 years old.

If you don’t believe in it but you are open to learning more, please subscribe to this blog. It’s my mission to help you add outdoor learning to your toolbox of successful teaching strategies.

I know what you’re going through. I’m here to help!

If you’ve never experienced it’s power, take a leapt of faith and try it. I’ll be sharing lots of ways that outdoor learning benefits your students (and you). For more information right away, click here or here or here.

If you feel uncertain, start with baby-steps. Here’s five simple things you can do outside today with little or no planning:

1. (READING) Sit under a tree and listen to a story or do silent reading.
2. (WRITING) Do journal writing or draw a picture.
3. (SCIENCE) Use magnifying glasses to examine tree trucks and search through the grass to see what can be found.
4. (MATH) Go on a shape or pattern hunt. Let your kids take photographs to be displayed indoors.
5. (SOCIAL SKILLS/THINKING SKILLS) Take your students out to play any game you know. It could be as simple as pairing them up to play tic-tac-toe with chunky chalk on the sidewalk!

Challenge: Stay outside for 20 minutes or more. When you go back indoors, solicit feedback about the experience from your students. You could do this using exit tickets. Pose your own questions, or ask: What did you like about learning outside today? Why? Would you like to do more learning outside? Why or why not?

If your students enjoyed going outdoors, chances are they were self-motivated and engaged in their learning. Isn’t that already one good reason to try it a second time?