- A group of students playing a game of lawn bowling
This picture depicts a group of students in a game of lawn bowling. It was taken in June, 2011, at the lawn bowling club right next to the school in Vancouver where my practicum took place.
I chose this picture because it represents how educators can make good use of the resources available at the local community to enhance student learning. I believe that the best learning takes place where students are physically involved in doing the activity, but this can only be achieved through careful planning and a suitable amount of preparation and follow-up activities. By taking them on to this fieldtrip, they were able to access information directly from the lawn bowling instructor and immediately put their knowledge in to practice. In addition, during the beggining phase of the Science research project on Habitats, I also took the students down to the local duck pond so that they were able to see what the community already had to offer but examine it from a scientific perspective. By becoming involved in the community around the school, students were also able to deepen their sense of belonging. This was even more so for the students who had just immigrated to our society.
In the future, I will continue to take my students on to short fieldtrips around the school so that they can establish a better understanding of the resources that are available to them and form new connections to the local community.