Day 40

I spent days 35-39 with the 5th grade classes at the Teton Science School (Kelly Campus).  Check out the website I compiled during our stay @ https://sites.google.com/site/tssebls/

Some things I take away from the experience...

• I love being outside.
• Place-based learning is still one of the most effective methods of instruction.
• Students view things through refreshingly naive lenses.  ie... Adult = run away from the moose  student = cool, a closer photo op w/a moose.
• Some educators/schools 'get it.' 
• Doing is often more relevant than knowing.
• A good teacher engages the student.  A great teacher adapts to engage the student with the content.
• It's good to be nice.  It's better to care.
• Nature is surprisingly loud.  Just sit on a hillside listening to the wind come through a conifer forest sometime.
• Everyone can do hard things.  They make us stronger.
• Time lapse video is still makes me excited and giddy.
• Flickr and Youtube are still amazingly easy to upload content.
• Flickr and Youtube 'get it' by allowing Creative Commons licensing options.
• Flickr and Youtube are easily accessible for parents to 'check in' with their students who are two states away.
• Flickr and Youtube are great, until you get back to the school and the internet content filter takes over.
• Flickr and Youtube ought not to change.  The filter is the one who should get a good talking to.
• Too many people are more excited than they should be about the prospect of seeing a grizzly bear up close.
• Students want to be outside.  They want to experience nature. 
• 1.25 miles on a GPS = 9.0 miles in a student's mind.
• Dusk + elk herd + elk bugling = bliss
• It is hard to take a bad photo of nature.  
• Lastly... my classroom last week was way more impressive than your classroom will ever be.  (see photo below)