Small Steps

Inspired by the Trail To Every Classroom workshops, I decided to start incorporating the outdoors into my lessons.  Students are always asking to have class outside, so why not grant their wish. The lesson seemed simple:  Take some time to walk around and find something inspiring.  The outdoors is filled with amazing sights, sounds, smells, and sensations.  Take a few pictures of what you have found.  Use different angles to really capture what has caught your attention.  Then, write a descriptive paragraph (or two) that describes what you have found.

It was a beautiful day in late September.  I opened the door next to my classroom, and sent my students out into the world of place-based learning.  Unfortunately, like a house cat that steps on grass for the first time, my students stepped outside and froze.  The majority of them took three quick pictures of the first tree they saw.  The tree right next to the school.  Then, they sat down leaning against the school to write their paragraphs.

Apparently, I needed to explain the the outdoor classroom is a bit bigger than just the shadow of the school building.

Being determined to make this work and be a meaningful experience for my students, I made a simple modification to the assignment.  The next class, we went outside again.  This time I led them out past the school lawn toward the woods.  On the way, I had them take a picture of the tall grass in the field.  Then, we entered the woods.  They were told to look around.  Just look around.  We found a birdhouse on the side of a tree.  We took a picture of it.  Now we had two different pictures to write about for this assignment.  Finally, instead of going back to the school, we sat a picnic table at the edge of the woods.  They just needed a little guidance and to be pointed in the right direction.

There were a few complaints about how hot it was out, but overall the second time was more what I was hoping.  Also, the paragraphs were better and more inspired.  Will I take kids outside again? Yes.  Will I take kids on a hike? Yes.  Will it be tomorrow?  No.  Introducing students to outdoor education will take some time.  However, with determination, this can and will work.  All with small steps...


Zack Reinstein
Buckfield High School

Carolyn Hits the Trail!

Carolyn McCarthy Jackson (teacher in GA) and Murphy Margaret paying a visit to Benton MacKaye!

The Springer Mountain summit was gorgeous today (10-13-13).

My husband got funny looks today since I had the heavy pack. I need a shirt that says BACKPACKER IN TRAINING!

Thanks TTEC for helping me work on being more brave!

Grayson ECO club Participates in Phenology

The Grayson County High School ECO club visited the ATC phenology site at Massie Gap in Grayson Highlands State Park on Sept. 29, 2013.  This was the second time the group gathered to hike and collect phenology data. The students observed and recorded data on red maple, red spruce, and cinquifoil. Carol Broderson from the Mt Rogers Appalachian Trail Club was there to point out wild flowers and identify trees. Rebecca Absher, a science teacher and graduate of TTEC also joined us.  The students hiked on the Cabin Creek Trail and enjoyed their lunch by a waterfall. The plan was to also hike on the AT but we ran out of time.  The group plans to work on the AT with the Mt Rogers Appalachian Trail Club on Nov. 17.
Other events taking place at Grayson County High School involving the ECO club include a new school garden through a grant from the Whole Kids Foundation and an on going project to rid our school cafeteria of styrofoam.

Bringing the A.T. to Colonial Heights

The title of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy magazine is Journeys.  That is a fitting title for the beginning of my TTEC adventure.  Upon my return from TTEC 2013, I had a number of people ask how I would bring the AT to a city that sits 2 hours from the Trail. I explained that’s it’s not just the AT, but it’s about connecting kids with meaningful opportunities in their community and getting them outside.  The end goal of course, is to get them onto the trail.  To that end, we have begun talking to local organizations in an attempt to identify the needs of the community.  My students are enthusiastic about the idea of getting outside and engaging in meaningful services opportunities.
Thus, we continue to be on the lookout for organizations that want to partner with our students.  We are on the beginning steps of our Appalachian Trail journey.

Dan Pulskamp

Colonial Heights High School

A Skyping Adventure!

I had a great Skype video call with a 4th grade class in Georgia this morning.  The students all asked fantastic questions about the Trail; we talked about volunteers, hiking, and they were especially interested in Trail Angels.  Researching the Trail for several weeks now, they developed a great presentation! Watch it here.

Excited is an Understatement!

Post by Sarah McGlothlinNarrows Elementary Middle School, VA

I walked away from our last AT session feeling revived with excitement.  The collaboration from other teachers was energizing.  Most of all, I walked away with a greater wealth of knowledge not only from the presenters but also from the teachers I was fortunate enough to collaborate with during the stay in West Virginia. 

 I have been pleasantly surprised with the willingness to incorporate the plan my group came up with at our summer meeting from not only our building administrator, but also from other teachers.  Our principal even  included us in his annual written plan.  In addition, Donna, Crissy, and I have been requested to present our plan to our local school board. 

I think this will open up many avenues for the knowledge of Mill Creek area and the AT trail to expand in our community.

  As you can see from the pictures above, today I took a group of 44 students to the site.  I was extremely nervous about taking a large group to the site, but after the first hour the joy of the student’s faces made every amount of fear go away.  They thoroughly enjoyed the hike, small activities, and the leaf identification.  We tagged several trees to come back and view over the next several months.  Feeling excited with the amount of progress today is an understatement.  I truly can’t wait to go back, explore, and continue to open up the minds of the students.  Without the support of the AT staff, I wouldn’t have ever dreamed that I could accomplish this outdoor classroom.  In addition, the amount of learning in this environment cannot be surpassed.

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Trail to Trail: Leave No Trace on the Boulder Face

Planning the TTEC unit was fun for me -- I especially love the unit template and plan to convert all my place-based units to that format -- but even more exciting is seeing the plan come to life. When you add kids to the plans, you add the magical ingredient that brings learning to life. Add a sprinkle of serendipity and you have place-based experiential learning at its best.

We've been in school only 18 days, but Leave No Trace on the Boulder Face is already rolling. We took our Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs hike about 2 weeks ago (see the bracelets in the photo representing each level of needs) and we are currently examining how a character in a book we are reading meets his most basic needs as he tries to survive alone deep in the forest (Hatchet by Gary Paulsen).

Last week we did a habitat study in a local community park which helped us to develop our understanding of the 5 Elements of Survival and how humans can impact other living things both positively and negatively. This will also contribute to our systems-focus on vandalism on the AT.

And we've started our work toward understanding vandalism with two experiences we've had very close to our classroom recently -- vandalism in the school bathrooms and vandalism in our tiny schoolyard wildlife sanctuary. While vandalism on our South Mountain Trail has always been a concern of my fifth graders, seeing vandalism on our own property is personal and makes the issue less "what's wrong with those people?" and more like "hey, what is going on with us?".

Next week my class takes on the issue of vandalism in our little wildlife sanctuary by presenting Leave No Trace principles (and signs) to our entire Seven Gen community in an all-school morning meeting. They chose to present the importance of Leave No Trace from the perspective of the worms that live there. This is one small step toward our larger service learning challenge - dealing with the vandalism on our own boulder field at South Mountain and then on Bake Oven Knob, the highlight of our section of the Appalachian Trail (see the photo above). My parents took me to hike on that section so often as a child that I had the trail not only to the boulder knob memorized, but also in the other direction about 2 miles out to Bare Rocks. It still stuns me to see how the boulder field has been defaced. Watching people try to take photos of the lookout with graffiti on the rocks is just sad. Our first trip to the AT is scheduled for October 25th, so we have one month to get ready for that experience, which I know will make a huge impact on my kids. 

Post by:

Alison Saeger Panik

TTEC 2013

Teacher, Grade 5

Seven Generations Charter School

Emmaus, Pennsylvania