Sea To Sky Outdoor School CFE
I did my three week community field experience at Sea to Sky Outdoor School on the beautiful Sunshine Coast in the “Wow Sound” or Howe Sound. I worked with students of various ages and got to experience three different school groups on two camp sites. I worked with a Montessori school from Portland, Oregon, a private school from Tsawwassen, and a humanities cohort from Surrey. They all varied in age and ability outdoors.
30 person voyager canoes eagerly awaiting the arrival of students in the Wow Sound
Myself on a beach explore covered in mud we found on the beach, so nice!
The camp programming was all around the environment, sustainability and being outside. I found it particularly interesting to observe all of these groups disconnect from the burden of time and technology for the time we were together. My inquiry as you may have noticed is around nomophobia and attachment to cell phones. I found the level and depth of conversation we could engage these students in way more deep than I would have on practicum.
Engaging with dinner.
The most interesting day we had in two of the three programs was definitely the global lunch. The global lunch suggested to students graphically that 20% of the world consumes 80% of the food produced globally. Often students would riot and be upset because only a few students would get fed and many would be given next to nothing. The conversation around this was often interesting and sometimes shocking. Students would riot and try to steal food from the 20% and of course there would be real world like consequences. Sea to Sky definitely had a message and the delivery was often interesting to experience and be apart of.
I spent so much time outside over my CFE it makes me sad to think about how much time I actually spend inside now. I learned some interesting new skills like how to eat stinging nettle, weave baskets, how to steer a 30 man canoe and make silk screens. I improved my fire building skills and shelter building skills. I learned how to work collaboratively with a team daily and how to improvise constantly with the weather.
One of the students enjoying a seaweed mask on the beach during beach exploration.
Chanting and paddling in the voyageur canoes.
My legacy project I left behind was a floating fire place I made with a bunch of scrap materials found at Camp Fircom. Sea to Sky was pretty excited to hear that I was a shop teacher and put me to work one night reconstructing and redesigning their original floating fireplace. Unfortunately I did not get to see it in action but it was a pretty cool project to leave behind.
In the shop at Camp Fircom.
The testing floating fireplace on the water in Halkett Bay.
I really enjoyed my CFE with Sea to Sky Outdoor school and I would definitely go back as an on call teacher next year. I learned so much about outdoor education and experiential education. I had so many magical experiences I could write about for days however, this is merely a quick overview. I loved being outside rain or shine and working in a team day in and day out. This is definitely not the kind of teacher education for some people that need strict plans because our plans would change with the weather. But it definitely helped me learn how to improvise, think on my feet and make connections to the bigger picture.