What is it good for? The benefits of peer observing can be many-fold and so it is logical for educators to practice peer observation throughout their career. As an environmental educator towards the beginning of my career, I see there to be many advantages such as gaining and sharing knowledge, skills as well as dispositions.…
Looking back at previous lesson observations can be enlightening, especially when from the very beginning of ones practice, in this case residential environmental education. Yet this is what I did, and happily enough what I saw was not overly embarrassing. Unsurprisingly, I spoke softly which is a trait of mine, yet despite my low volume…
How does one rapidly build trust with a group of elementary students within a four day residential outdoor education program? By fostering a strong sense of community through team building activities. An instrumental piece of this puzzle is the Community Agreement, this is a living document created by the students and it declares their expectations…
This week, I attempted to utilize a new teaching tool to more effectively communicate instructions to my field group. These tools are primacy, recency and cueing or novelty; each of these relate to an increased probability of retention on behalf of the listener. We tend to remember the first and last parts of instructions, primacy…
What were some moments where you considered student motivation before choosing an intervention? What is your interpretation of the results? The most frequent moments where I intervened with student behavior was during instructions, here we would all be gathered together forming a circle. This was when I was providing specific information necessary for our…