Today began the practical part of our training and today was about coming together. Creating through experience and sharing, a sense of community and place. Coming into training today I was reserved, I held my fights, thoughts of nay sayers, my own doubts close and expected to justify my thoughts to explain myself and to put my ideas into a context for others before we could move forward. I didn't have to! Today I realised what it meant to be in the right place, at the right time and with the right people. Our group is eclectic, people were there because they believe, deeply that learning in and of nature is the right and most needed form of education for our children. We come with many experiences, much knowledge and thought but what has brought us all together in this place, as one this week is the same and for that I am truly grateful. Although there is so much about each other to get to know, there is a fundamental understanding that means that conversations flow easi
Forest Schools is a concept of which I have longed for even before Forest Schools became a thing. The idea that children learn in nature, from nature and with nature at their own pace and of their own doing sounds, well, natural! Within my classroom program the natural world and the opportunities for hands on, scientific discovery have factored heavily. I teach naturally within this type of environment. It can seem a little chaotic at times, slow at others but isn't that the natural way of things? There are ebbs and flows in most systems yet the more I teach within a classroom the more I fee that the schooling model, with however much freedom one is afforded does little to mirror this. As this school year has begun along with my own Forest Schools journey I find myself very much in the middle without a clear focus and feeling the need for some clarification of expectations. School has paid for my Forest School learning, there is a strategic goal agreed to by the board and
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