I am up at Williams lake for my CFE practicum. The first two weeks I am part of “Skyline” alternative education school. Tuesday and Wednesday have been a very positive experience as my first two days with this program. Tuesday we went on a hike with some students from Skyline as well as a couple of teachers and a community worker to a sand dune about an hour outside of Williams lake. It made for an easy transition to interact with students. During our hike I engaged with a grade 8 boy (for the purpose of this article I will call him Jacob). Jacob was a very interesting boy who obviously struggled with social skills. He dd not talk with any of the other students but was very eager to discuss his roll in navy cadets and his knowledge of different elements of nature. The hike allowed for easy discussion about our surroundings.
Wednesday we spent some time in the classrooms and did a bit of activity outdoors in the afternoon. I am starting to see a trend in their approach to interaction with the kids, using their natural surroundings for a lot of outdoor ed.
When I think of my strengths and weaknesses and how they can impact me in this experience I feel my greatest strength is my ability to be very flexible both in scheduling and in my ability to adapt to sudden changes in group dynamics and tones.
I have found that the community I am working with is very diverse in terms of their backgrounds. Some lack parental guidance, some just lack motivation, and others do not have any discipline problems, they just like the alternative education methods offered in the program. With this diversity I feel my very open nature and flexibility can thrive. I have also had more experience with secondary aged students as opposed to elementary which I have been working with this year in the program. However, all the randomness of students’ attendance and who is going to be involved in which activity could strain me in terms of organization. I constantly need to work to stay organized. So, this would be something I would really need to work at in order to succeed in this type of environment.
I am very interested to see how using a heavy dose of “outdoor ed” works in terms of connecting with students from this area. I feel like, by default, outdoor activities are what people in Williams lake do for fun. Therefore I would expect it to be reasonably successful. I wonder, however, how this type of tactic would work in an urban area where there is a greater percent in sedentary lifestyles and less interest in nature etc.
I look forward to seeing the different strategies used ion this manner and trying to take some ideas from this experience for my own practice once I am actually engaging in my teaching profession.
I do worry about the pending Teacher Strike and how it is going to affect my experience up here or if it will actually cut it short.
Images will be uploaded for this blog a bit later.
Until next time, Stay fit and have fun!
Jared