Outdoor Education
The Value of Social Learning
2010 has started on an extremely positive note here at Greenwood. Students and teachers returned from their various winter trips with many good things to share. One of the recurring themes from these reports was that the excursions enabled many or our students – in the words of Kurt Hahn, the founder of Outward Bound – to discover there is “more in you than you think.” Hahn believed that experiential education provided unparalleled opportunities for self-discovery as each of us possesses more courage, compassion and strength than we recognize. This is precisely why over the duration of Greenwood’s four- or six-year-program, students encounter a progressive series of character-building experiences.
One other benefit of these outings occurs in the realm of social learning. So often, we presume that learning flows from teacher to student. However, the very design of our experiential program enables students to learn from one another in a variety of settings and situations. Working with your group to build a quinzee, or manage the team of dogs that pulls your sled for the week, affords our students great opportunities to share and learn from each other. Many thanks to our teachers for planning the experiences and accompanying our students on the trips!
Out on Trip
Friday was a PD day for our staff and the first opportunity for everyone to be together after two weeks apart on our various Outdoor Education experiences. I was really pleased to hear that the teachers who accompanied Grade 11 students on their trip to British Columbia and Grade 10 students on their canoe trip to Temagami loved the experience. This was the first year that our teachers joined students and experienced third-party trip leaders on these excursions, so it was gratifying to hear that things worked out so well. When I asked teachers how things went, the words “awesome,” “fantastic,” and “fun” were frequently used. We had teachers complete a brief survey on the experience and at first glance the results look excellent. I am looking forward to speaking with students this week to hear their perspective on this new direction in the supervision of our OE excursions.
Winter Camp
I had the opportunity to spend a wonderful day at two of our winter camp sites last week. Jane Audet, her husband Henri, and I began our camp tour at Kinark, which is where the Grade 10 ten students were located. When we arrived the students were filing in to the dining hall, fresh from the X-country ski trail. Though tired, they seemed in great spirits and spoke to me about how much fun they were having. After lunch we were able to observe a group of students and instructors get ready for some dogsledding. 14 sleds and 70 dogs–needless to say things got a bit noisy! It was great to see how warmly our students interacted with the sled dogs.
After watching the last of the dogsleds head off on the trail, we drove further north to the Frost Centre. There I had a chance to play snow football with a group of Grade 8 students. A few of the boys had no problem tackling their dear old principal, which led to a few sore muscles on Friday. After dinner and the evening activities, Lub entertained the group with a tall tale, and Holly and Henri sang a few songs for the students. All in all a great way to end a terrific day away from the office. Next year I hope to get up the Canadian Ecology Centre in Mattawa so I can see the Grade 9 program in action. These programs are a vital contributor to the community spirit here at Greenwood, so it was nice to witness this first-hand.