adedemmalee-blog

[adedemmalee-blog]

Reflecting on Experiential Education

·       Let’s go back to the bridge from my first post in this series. Imagine that you need to climb over the side of the bridge and rappel down to the bottom, next to a waterfall. Why on earth would you ever do this? Rappelling 40 feet to the rocky ground below? Why would you do this? Your mind settles on a short phrase with lengthy words – adventure-based experiential education.

·       To be honest, this was an actual experience I had, back in 2012. What did I, as an instructor learn that day? I learned quite a few things. One that there will always be things that students can learn outside of a classroom and perhaps only there. Skills like trust and trustworthiness, teamwork and how to work collaboratively, and helping to develop skills like respect and communication. The students also learn technical skills – knot tying, belaying, rappelling, gear information/terminology and safety procedures.

·       I saw it firsthand. My students were the ones responsible for my safety as I climbed over the side of the bridge, and I had to trust my own instructional skills that day. Teaching students how to tie knots, instructing them on belaying procedures, how to remain safe and utilize gear information. But most importantly, how to have fun while remaining safe. Had I not utilized all of my instructional plans that day, I could have been in far worse shape. But, those experiences were such a success.

·       I am so thankful for the experiences that I have been blessed to develop with co-facilitators. I am also thankful that I have always allowed my personal instructional philosophy to shine, despite the fact that it isn’t always easy. Because, in all honesty, seeing even one student shine in the context of experiential education, makes it all worthwhile. But, the most important thing? Seeing students have hope and believe in themselves when they succeed in this context, and translating it to their lives in other aspects.

[adedemmalee-blog]

Hope in Instruction: Experiential Education

o   Instructors should have hope. If that isn’t why we go into the line of work we choose to go into, what are we even doing here? Being hopeful for integrating quality instruction for the good of the students, with your personal philosophy of instruction isn’t useless. In fact, it’s healthy and positive.

o   But how do we as instructors go about integrating both? If you have a personal philosophy that endorses experiential education, you can utilize it for quality instruction. How does experiential education equal quality instruction? It’s helpful because it leaves room for flexibility and even individualized experiences with a student’s education. This gives quality instruction that is good for students because it gives a chance to adapt and make changes to better serve the student. And by this, I mean that we can make an existing system work for each student.

o   Even if experiential education isn’t what you want, you can take notes from this example. You can use my examples of utilizing experiential education and integrating it with instructional design. But, you can add in your own personal educational/instructional philosophy and make your philosophy work easily as well.

[adedemmalee-blog]

Overcoming Obstacles of Experiential Education

·       How many instructors have seen at least one obstacle in their classroom? All. If you haven’t, maybe you haven’t been teaching long enough. Different obstacles can stand in the way of students and instruction that is good for them. From the beginning, students can face several obstacles – lack of interest, lack of previous knowledge or the inability to participate on the level where the instructor has begun. All of these obstacles can be worked through with experiential education. Often times, experiential education with adaptability, the instructor can adjust for lack of interest. For example if the instructor’s job is to teach content on the Civil War (which is boring each and every student), the instructor could set up a mock Civil War battle perhaps with gray and blue bandanas and stage a nerf gun battle. Experiential education can help an instructor find a way to bring students interest in and relate it, in a hands-on manner. It is very similar with the case of a lack of previous knowledge or the instructor teaching on a more in-depth level. With experiential education, the instructor can pop back to the beginning and make the lesson an experience where students participate as opposed to a visual that students watch.

·       Another obstacle can be a lack of instructor knowledge. In this case, an instructor could read more information. Or, preferably, go the experiential route and attend trainings and seminars (again preferably experiential education-based ones). Then the instructor could adapt and relate how they learned this topic to the students. If an instructor is unwilling to cater to student needs or meet students where they are, the instructor can pop back to the beginning and think about student engagement. Instructors can generate experiences that involve students. For example, instructors can have willing students lead lessons and experiences on certain topics. Or, like in the knot-tying example utilize students as instructors and learn by doing.

·       On the administrative side – lack of funding can always be an issue. And while experiential education can’t generate money where there isn’t any, it can occasionally generate interest in donors’ who might be persuaded to support programming like those of experiential education. For administrators who are unwilling to do something different or those who have a lack of interest in making school a better experience for more students, experiential education can help. At in-service days for administrators – adventure-based experiential education can be used to show that while fun, it can be used to make connections to learning. Then, hopefully by experiencing the benefits of experiential education, administrators will be persuaded to utilize it in their home districts.

[adedemmalee-blog]

Adaptive Experiential Instruction

o   Instruction is one of those ideas that really builds upon itself. If you have a shaky foundation, your entire instructional plan will be shaky and perhaps even collapse due to being unsteady. I would define instruction that is good for students as instruction that is well-thought out, very specific and intentional. This would also need to be applicable to many situations and it would need to have flexibility. On this note, when there are difficulties within the instructional plan – that is where the flexibility comes in to make applicable changes to help all students.

o   Experiential education can be incredibly flexible and adaptable. This is one of the major positive aspects of choosing to embed experiential education. Experiential education can help level the playing field. It can give students who feel that they are not as good, a place to shine. Not everyone can learn from a book. Not all students can get an A+ on a test. But, with experiential education – students can dive into their learning, take the power into their own hands, and practice until it’s perfect. \

o   For example, a student can read about how to tie a figure-eight knot. But how many students would be able to tie a figure-eight knot just from reading a book? Not many. However, if tying a knot is demonstrated several times and a handout with diagrams of each stage of knot-tying – how many more students would be able to tie a figure-eight knot? Definitely at least a few more. If an instructor paired up students who can successfully tie a figure-eight knot with students who are less successful at tying said knot, it would give students time for individualized instruction. And at the end of individualized instruction, how many students would be able to tie a figure-eight knot? Most, if not all students. This is how experiential education can be adapted.

[adedemmalee-blog]

Experiential Learning

o   Imagine climbing over the side of a bridge and rappelling down a dam, right next to a waterfall. Doesn’t look much like a stereotypical classroom, does it? But is it a classroom? Absolutely! Just because there aren’t desks, and a blackboard contained within four walls doesn’t mean that it isn’t a classroom. Students can definitely learn in an environment like this.

o   But, what exactly are the students learning here? Things that can’t be taught in a book, personal skills like trust and trustworthiness, teamwork and how to work collaboratively, and helping to develop skills like respect and communication. The students also learn technical skills – knot tying, belaying, rappelling, gear information/terminology and safety procedures.

o   In this series of posts, I’m going to talk a lot about the correlation between adventure education and experiential education. But, I’m also going to spend a lot of time detailing how even teachers who find themselves in a stereotypical four-walled classroom, can utilize experiential education. I want to talk about the added benefits for students and instructors alike. I definitely want to help administrators understand how experiential education can have an overall positive effect on their school district, as a whole. And I want everybody to understand that no matter what level of experiential education your classroom and/or school chooses to commit to/embed into their programming, it can have positive effects. Whether you utilize experiential education on a full-blown scale or just use a portion of it – your classrooms, schools and districts will benefit.

[adedemmalee-blog]

ELL’s and Adaptability

Designation and deliverance of instruction that is good for ALL students – is always going to be a challenge. I realize that the support available to the instructor might be limited for working with students with in-depth needs. I also understand that the means for support can vary based on geographic area, financial means, staff shortages, technology shortages, etc.

As an experiential educator, I understand the basis of working with students on different levels. Some come in with no interest and no knowledge of my content area. Others come in with high interest and no knowledge. Some come in with moderate interest and knowledge. These levels all speak to the adaptability that is necessary to design and deliver quality instruction to students who may struggle with specific barriers as well as those who do not.

When I choose to utilize them, I am more inclined to design and use handouts that have some sort of a visual aid. This helps those I may be instructing who may have a language barrier. This at least gives them some sort of starting point or a place to refer to when asking follow-up questions to what information I have given them.

I also make sure to have tangible visible aids. For instance, I am currently teaching a paddle sports course. This entails rafting, kayaking and canoeing. For someone unfamiliar, they might just refer to it as a boating class. But it is more than that. So on the opening days of this course, I like to have the tangible aids. By this I mean actual, physical canoes or kayaks and the types of paddles that go with each. This helps give everybody a blanket starting point.

I realize that support can be expensive – especially to my counterparts in standard schooling environments. I’m not sure how to negotiate with districts or higher up school administrators. I am lucky to work under a director who wants to help others get as much from an experience with us as possible. Therefore, our accessibility budget has been highly ratcheted up in successive years – because the financial burden of support can be the biggest stumbling block.

[adedemmalee-blog]

Tumblr Post #1

Hi – accidentally deleted this while uploading my technology mandate post. Reposting now

My personal educational philosophy is that of experiential education. You, as an instructor can utilize good instruction while meeting state standards. But you as an instructor can also utilize sub-par instruction while meeting state standards.

 There are plenty of ways to design instruction and meet state standards. An instructor can stand at the front of their classroom and give a lecture that hits all of the points that are required by the state. The instructor could create a worksheet that includes all of these content areas for students to fill out. But would those points be considered good instruction? Probably not.

 So in order to hit state standards, I like to utilize experiential education. I like to get students up and moving. Whether that involves a reenactment of a situation that we’re talking about in class. Or if I bring in some of the safety gear being used for rock climbing. Like harnesses, chalk bags, climbing shoes, cams, quick draws, rope, helmets, etc. Having all of those things physically in the classroom as opposed to looking at pictures on a screen – is far more helpful to students. This way, they can identify things and separate them, but also allow them to be able to relate them to how they work as individual pieces as part of the larger scale puzzle of rock climbing.

 To follow up on this experiential learning method, I like to assess students in several ways. I utilize a paper test with a variety of question styles. These include multiple-choice, true-false, matching, short answer, fill-in-the-blank, and essay questions (which students receive ahead of time). Other testing styles include verbal tests, an expectation of a group project, etc. This is important because it allows the opportunity to succeed in my classroom for ALL types of learners and test-takers. In any of these cases, I make sure to use the class period before the exam to do a review session. This allows me to change the test if most students aren’t going to be able to succeed/helps me dial in as to where I need to focus on to help catch them up.

[adedemmalee-blog]

High Quality Instruction

There are a variety of ways in which to design good instruction which is good for kids, holds true to my own educational philosophy and successfully and safely exposes students to a wide variety of educationally appropriate tools and resources. As an instructor in the year 2017, there are so many options open to us, as professional educators. Every week it seems brings some new technology which can either be directly utilized in the classroom or manipulated in order to be able to be used in the classroom. I am personally a fan of interjecting interactive technology into my presentations in order to engage students more fully, like Kahoot! or PollEverywhere.

How I design good instruction while remaining true to my educational philosophy is by constantly changing. I hate the feeling of old school teachers, who have been around a time or two, who choose to use the same lessons – year after year after year. I am personally a staunch supporter of experiential education and I try to imbibe that with the courses in which I instruct. Whether that means reenacting theories of leadership by skits or utilizing fun games that have a meaning revealed later, I’m a fan.

In order to expose students to a variety of educational tools and resources, I enjoy having a flexible classroom. Technology is involved here, and can play a big role like databases and podcasts. But the option to do things by hand is also there. A feature I’ve noticed that the students really appreciate here, is the flexible seating. Of course, there are traditional desks with chairs, but there are also seats on the carpet, floor pillows, a couch, beanbag chairs, a large table with a variety of stools and chairs. This way students can collaborate at will and be comfortable while working. Other tools and resources that students are introduced to in my classroom are SmartBoard technologies, Google Chromebooks, and computer-aided design via the Mac Lab on campus.

But, what helps my students learn in all of these ways, is my willingness to get creative and not fall into a rut.