Improving Discussions

At Eagle Bluff I continued to learn and grow as an educator. As a fellowship naturalist, I took a couple of graduate classes through Hamline University which helped focus my learning.  Among other things, I greatly improved my group facilitation skills and debriefing skills for adventure education classes. For this assignment I planned questions I could ask students that would help facilitate deeper levels of conversation related to Eagle Bluff's Cross-Country Skiing class. The concepts I focused on where taken directly from the class teaching objectives.     

 

Concepts	Knowledge/ Comprehension	Application	Analysis	Synthesis	Evaluation
Cross-country skiing was practiced thousands of years ago as a form of transportation and continues to be popular today.	Describe the history of cross-country skiing and how we use it today.	Summarize how skiing has been important to different groups of people.	Compare how skiing was done 1000 years ago to how it is done today.	Hypothesize why skiing was important for people thousands of years ago.	Evaluate skiing as a form of transportation.
Cross-country skiing requires specific knowledge and skills, but can be enjoyed by people of nearly all ages and ability levels.	Explain how people of different abilities can enjoy skiing.	Summarize the skills you used skiing today.	Compare how skiing might be different for someone who is very old and someone who is very young.	What if we started skiing with no instruction?	Evaluate how you feel now on your skies compared with how you felt at the beginning of class.
Practicing outdoor recreation promotes good heath and respect for the natural world.	Give examples of how you were respectful towards yourself and the environment today.	How can you model respect outsides of eagle bluff?	Relate spending time having fun outside to taking care of the natural world – can one lead to the other?	Predict what would happen if you went skiing with your family when you get home.	Interpret why Eagle Bluff encourages students to learn skills like cross country skiing.

Welcome to Eagle Bluff

Last Year: Eagle Bluff

I would like to present the 2010-2011 school year fellowship naturalists of Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center (I am top row, one from the right). We taught environmental science education, adventure education and living history classes to primarily 4th through 8th grade students. 

Typically, we welcomed new students on Mondays and Wednesdays. One naturalist was assigned to each group as liaison, or sight host. The rest of the naturalist ran the educational programs. There will be more up-dates to follow about the different classes we taught.    

The 12 naturalists lived on campus in the Nat's Wing of the dorms.  Here (from left to right) Patrick, Sarina and Creal are relaxing in the kitchen of the Nat Wing. 

http://www.eagle-bluff.org/

Base Camp

Happy Fall! 

I have been spending a wonderful fall in the twin cities and it has been busy. Recently, I've been teaching swimming lessons, substitute teaching and guiding at the Boy Scouts' Base Camp. 

Base Camp is a wonderful place for me to be working. We work mostly with upper elementary and middle school students, however adult work groups often come to work on team building, base camp hosts award ceremonies and speakers, and of course boy scout groups come to Base Camp. I have been teaching many adventure education classes that I first learned to teach at Eagle Bluff including Rock Climbing, High Ropes Course, Archery and Team Challenges. All of these exciting classes ask students to challenge themselves, trust others and grow as individuals. 

I was recently asked to create a white board to help facilitate the introduction to our Rock Climbing class. As I was creating this I directly used techniques I learned at Eagle Bluff.  I focused on the key points and safety rules important to rock climbing. I included the plan for the day, both to help the instructors stay focused and to help participants understand what needs to happen before they can climb. My white board set up is going to be the new standard for what a classroom set up looks like at Base Camp.    

When school groups come to Base Camp and go rock climbing guides belay while students climb and spot each other. Here I am belaying: 

At Base Camp we practice challenge by choice. I tell students this means they have to challenge themselves but they get to pick what that challenge is. At the rock wall, some people are challenged by getting both feet off the floor, many go about half way up, and some make it to the top of the wall. No matter what their original goal was, I always focus on how far the students made it, how they challenged themselves and how proud of themselves they should be. Having this focus helps all students feel successful and have fun.

At base camp, my typical days look like this:

10:00 - 10:15 Welcome the whole group and play a game with the whole group

10:15 - 11:15 Team building (now split into smaller groups for the rest of the day and I stay with one group)

11:15 - 12:15 Rock Climbing

12:15 - 12:45 Lunch 

12:45 - 1:30   Rock Climbing

1:30 - 2:15     Capture the Flag (combining two small groups) 

2:15 - 3:05     Archery

3:05 - 3:15     Reflection/ Send-off

Have I sparked your interest in Base Camp? Check out the web site: 

http://www.explorebasecamp.org/