Last year I decided to put myself in one of my learner's shoes and have a go at completing my own Adventure Learning project. This is something I should have blogged about at the time, as it was so beneficial.
I did this for two reasons
1. To enable myself to learn alongside my students.
2. To help me begin to design an inquiry process (model) for children to work through when participating in Adventure Learning, or to work out whether I needed one at all.
We live in a rural area and for some time now I have been contemplating buying a few chickens so that we could have our own free range eggs. I knew that I had very little knowledge about chickens and how to look after them, let alone how to go about building a chicken house. If you know me, you'll know that I'm the last person who is likely to pick up a skill saw or fire a nail gun. Not to mention that maths also isn't my strength. However; I'm forever telling my kids to take a risk with their learning and give something new a go so I felt it was time that I did the same. Luckily my partner is a builder so I knew I had an 'expert' available to help me out a bit.
To start with I decided that I needed to record what I already did know about chickens. It really wasn't a lot. I knew they needed a house and run; I also knew that I didn't want a rooster squawking out like a strangled cat at 6.00 am. That was about it! My next step should have been to work out how I would build a chicken house and run. It wasn't... I jumped straight on Trade Me and started searching for chickens. It wasn't long before I was emailing a lady about a couple of cute Frizzle chickens I had come across. So now I bought chickens that would be ready to pick up in a couple of weeks, but still had no chicken house. It was one way to get motivated! I was on holiday at the time so it wasn't as bad as it sounds.
I started pinning different concept ideas on Pinterest, spoke to my dad (who is a farmer and previously had chickens) and a friend from work who has several shaver hens. I soon worked out that I wanted a chicken run that was big enough to walk into, but still had no idea of actual measurements. This was where my partner Paul came in. He has his uses. We made it 2.4 m cubed. We also had a brand new dog kennel sitting in the garage that had never been used so decided to use that for the chicken house. We ended up putting a perch and nesting box in, but other than that didn't have to do too much.
Next stop was ITM. For anyone overseas it's a trade shop full of building materials. It's safe to say that I felt completely out of my comfort zone. Half the time I swear they were speaking in another language. We came away with a van full of timber, some hinges and a lot of chicken wire. Over the duration of building the chicken run I learnt how to use the nail gun, skill saw, how to hang a door and ensure things were level and square. I was constantly writing down odd words e.g. flush (yeah, you can all have a laugh) with a rough definition next to the word. I was continuously reflecting and I can honestly say it was a new learning experience for me.
It gave me a genuine insight into how a learner in my class feels and the process they work through. Although each group has their own adventure and path, I still feel that there are some common stages they work through - exploring, planning, learning, creating, reflecting, sharing and digging deeper. The model continues to be a work in progress. It's something that I've played around with for the past four years, but feel that I'm getting a better understanding of what may need to be a part of it. The plan will be to simplify the ideas I currently have around the process and to make it more kid friendly.
Now to think of what my next Adventure Learning project will be.
I started pinning different concept ideas on Pinterest, spoke to my dad (who is a farmer and previously had chickens) and a friend from work who has several shaver hens. I soon worked out that I wanted a chicken run that was big enough to walk into, but still had no idea of actual measurements. This was where my partner Paul came in. He has his uses. We made it 2.4 m cubed. We also had a brand new dog kennel sitting in the garage that had never been used so decided to use that for the chicken house. We ended up putting a perch and nesting box in, but other than that didn't have to do too much.
Next stop was ITM. For anyone overseas it's a trade shop full of building materials. It's safe to say that I felt completely out of my comfort zone. Half the time I swear they were speaking in another language. We came away with a van full of timber, some hinges and a lot of chicken wire. Over the duration of building the chicken run I learnt how to use the nail gun, skill saw, how to hang a door and ensure things were level and square. I was constantly writing down odd words e.g. flush (yeah, you can all have a laugh) with a rough definition next to the word. I was continuously reflecting and I can honestly say it was a new learning experience for me.
It gave me a genuine insight into how a learner in my class feels and the process they work through. Although each group has their own adventure and path, I still feel that there are some common stages they work through - exploring, planning, learning, creating, reflecting, sharing and digging deeper. The model continues to be a work in progress. It's something that I've played around with for the past four years, but feel that I'm getting a better understanding of what may need to be a part of it. The plan will be to simplify the ideas I currently have around the process and to make it more kid friendly.
Now to think of what my next Adventure Learning project will be.
Good on you Simone. Your students are really lucky to have a passionate teacher who is willing to walk a mile in their shoes! I'm sure your new chickens aren't complaining either.
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