I. General Information
School Name: George M. Murray Elementary
School District: SD#74 Gold Trail
Inquiry Team Members: Jen Eddie: jeddie@sd74.bc.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: jeddie@sd74.bc.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: SRL Case Study
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Intermediate (4-7)
Focus Addressed: Self-regulation
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? To use outdoor experiences to impact a regulated classroom community.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: I interviewed students as a part of our learning exhibition, and also talked to the adults that the students toured through the exhibition. I don’t think I did any full ‘tours’ of our semesters learning, as I had 5 kids stay late and do a full two hour shift. They explained the entire process and answered all questions adults had for them.
Because the exhibition is an oral language activity – where students tell people about their learning – I felt confident that they connected strongly with what we had learned. I always want kids to be PROUD of what they achieve in a year, and exhibition shows a beautiful product and an authentic process underneath it. As they showed people the ride through video of their bike trail and then their trail posters with a semester’s worth of learning on it, I felt very reflective myself. They could speak to their own learning, but also the learning of others.
If I think about the triangle of learning, everyone had a beautiful artifact and were observed learning throughout the term. Some students were able to use their voices to share their learning with strangers/family and some felt less sure. I hope to empower more students to use their voices to share their learning. Having community partners from our local bike club, search and rescue, and the naturalist society, provided a scaffold for students who felt less sure of speaking to share with people they already had a relationship with.
Focus: This was the most dysregulated group I’ve ever taught. I felt I needed massive buy-in from them, so I engaged them in less ‘bubble wrapped’ school and spent a lot of time outside. I wanted them to feel what they were learning had value to our wider community and that there was actual responsibility involved.
Hunch: I think having community partners, using real tools, and creating something our entire community was excited about (bikers, hikers and walkers all commented on the sign hung in the forest) helped them to look back on their year and feel pride. The boundaries placed upon them had purpose and real-life applications.
New Professional Learning: I accessed a lot of community sources in the way of organizations – the naturalist society, search and rescue, and the invasive species society. I used a project-based learning template to guide my learning process and inquiry work by Trevor Mackenzie to provide a learning target for me.
Taking Action: I would say boundaries and co-designing an outdoor rubric with the kids was very pivotal. The rubric was co-designed with students and involved three areas: guardianship of the land, engaged learning, and safety. They practiced this between weekly field days to show they were ‘ready’ to come back on the land safely. I had them self-assess on a weekly basis at one point, and added my own feedback. Then I scanned it home so that families could have a discussion with their students. This allowed me to take kids on amazing outdoor days and a multi-day overnight hike, but provide them with clear criteria to show they were ready between field days. We used the same rubric at lunch time and my lunchtime supervisor helped build them back up.
Checking: I think exhibition was my marker of excellence. I am satisfied with the results. I would like to have more students talking about their learning at exhibition and will focus on building more confident speakers next year.
Reflections/Advice: This inquiry was a wild dream at the start of the year, but the kids clearly loved being outside with purpose. When they got to the end and could see what they had created as a team they were proud of themselves. The rubric allowed us to provide specific feedback to students and an authentic way for them to show they were ready to be safe, learn, and be guardians of the land. The trail we built is built on private land but we also presented to the Elder’s Council and they were very excited about building in their community. We now have to engage the Council and seek their approval. I hope to build another trail and mentor more guardians of the land. If I can get the land use approved, we would be building on Indigenous Land in collaboration with their Guardians. We would be identifying culturally sensitive areas and how to help educate others who may be using Indigenous land.
Photo description: This is a picture of our overnight hiking trip to Harry Lake. We were supported by many learning partners including pack horses (which the students learned about during horsemanship anchor lessons prior to the trip).