Educational Origami

Well its more than just knowing stuff.
For me education is holistic and encompassing. It is about learning in all aspects of life. I have to admit that I struggle with the concept of academic schools, where the other equally important parts of a person life are ignored – culture, sport and service.

I find it very pleasing to see that some school are adopting and recognising the value of a holistic approach. They run programs that to bring into the school community the other aspects of life that are equally critical to the education of your young people, and I believe will have huge benefits going forward for us all.

My childrens school has a program it calls the “Shine Challenge” SHINE stands for Strength and Heart In New Endeavours. Depending on the age of the child they have a number of challenges to complete through out the year and these are not one off 10 minute tricks, rather they are enduring and committing. For the shine challenge the students choose from a number of categories:

• Academic excellence
• Physical activity and the outdoors
• Service to school and community
• Excellence in the arts
• Living the Gospel Values

They are required to complete atleast one challenge (out of 9 or 10 for my 9 year old) in each section.

Other local school are adopting similar programs. Another school has the PEAKS Challenge. PEAKS stands for Participation, Environment, Action, Knowledge and Skills – again the students are expected to select and complete a series of challenges with atleast one from each section.

So what are the challenges?

• Improve swimming swim atleast 400m
• Cycle challenge cycle 60Km in a 4 week period or run 20Km in the same time frame
• Explore the outdoors  – complete with your family at least 2 tramps (hikes)
• participate in a multisport event like tryathlon
• join surf life saving, cubs, scout, or girl guide for a year
• complete a technology challenge
• join a walking bus
• be a reporter
• give of your time visit an elderly relative atleast 4 times a term
• give to families in need
• give of your time through service – within the local church or community
• be involved in a musical or play
• join a choir
• visit an art exhibition and review it

The list of options is endless, and while this require some extra work for the teachers who administer it and the buy in of the community and parents, the benefits outweight the time cost immensely.

These two examples are of primary age projects, but this is a concept that has been successfully applied to the secondary environment for many years. I refer to the International baccalaureate program where at the core of the diploma are Creativity, Action, Service, Philosophy and personal challenge. All IB students MUST undertake and complete the following to gain their Diploma:

• CAS – Creativity, Action & Service – As the name suggests CAS requires the students to undertake Action and service beyond what they already do – i.e. the student who has always played hockey must extend beyond this into other areas. The Community service trips I have the pleasure of being involved with in Nepal and India fit within the CAS umbrella
• Theory of Knowledge – Indepth discussions and debate about what is knowledge, ethics, values, opinions and accuracy. Students present arguments consider issues and challenge there assumptions and beliefs.
• the Extended Essay – a 2 year research assignment presented as a 4000 word essay as part of the culmination of the  diploma program.

This is what education should be about, so WHAT IS EDUCATION? Well its more than learning facts and reciting the answer the examiner seeks, Education is holistic and involves all parts of the students life. It reaches beyond the boundaries of the classroom, the district or country. It involves challenge, commitment and personal sacrifice. Sometimes its not comfortable and it can even be unpleasant, but then so is life.

I heard last night and read online that New Zealand is ranked 3rd in the world. That’s Third in the world for OBESITY. Its is a sad day, but unfortunately not an unexpected one. .

The Glory of the fattest nation on earth Goes to…. USA, in silver is Mexico and taking the bronze in third place is NZ.

Its sad as we should not have any excuses, its sad because how many of us will be struck down with diabetes and other illnesses exaserpated by obesity. Dare I mention swine flu and the deaths we have seen that have underlying health issues including obesity?

Some people will argue and debate the definition of obesity, query whether this is correct or incorrect, but the fact is on a snapshot NZ is the third fattest of the 30 countries surveyed.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10584289&pnum=0

http://www.oecd.org/document/24/0,3343,en_2649_34637_2671576_1_1_1_1,00.html

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/28/2/42672411.pdf

I am a supporter of holistic education. I believe our that there are three aspects to holistic education linked and tied together by values and ethics. These are Academic, Cultural and Sport. Sport is not just formal sporting codes but also includes fitness, outdoor education etc

There is a place, and I suspect a need, for daily fitness within our schools. However, we have seen in the past knee jerk responces to current issues and reports that have seen schemes put in place with out due consideration, process and dilligence.

There is a need, but as a teacher, there must be consideration of how we could fit such a thing into what is already a hectic and crowded curriculum. Some would say well Physical education could should cover this. However, PE is a prescriptive course and has its own encompassing curriculum. It full and busy and rightly so! This is not a solution, its a band aid.

If daily fitness was to become a part of the day in day out routine of students across the spectrum, what will be removed from our full to bursting schedule to make way for this? Would syllabi be cut? Would assessment and reporting be reduced? Would administrivia be slashed? probably not.

Would the school day be increased to start early to include exercise? But wait research has shown that many teenagers do not function to their peak with early starts.

Is there another way? I believe 21st Century teachers are role models, leaders and visionary. We as teachers are hugely influencial on our students. As role models, we must not only profess, but actively model suitable behaviours. This could and should include healthy lifestyle and fitness..

There is much to ponder and consider, this is a bronze medal that we did not want to achieve.

The pre confernce workshop I booked into was Urban Outdoor education. The two presnters were a principal instructor/teacher from a state funded outdoor education facility and the DP at a local state school.

The session started by mirroring an activity they do with students. It involved:

• briefing the students (us)
• journeying to the location
• doing the task
• reviewing/debriefing

To start they discussed the language they were using – essientally this was defining the goals and objectives of their session, course or programme. They had a theme of resilience which had 5 different elements:

1. Problem solving – being prepared to think rather than giving up when it starts getting tough.
2. Autonomy – importance of being a self directed person
3. Social competence – adjusting behaviour to suit new circumstances
4. Coping skills – Keeping emotionally stable under times of stress
5. Optimism – looking for and building upon the best in your self and others

Our journey was a short one but during it we had to introduce ourselves to all the members of the group and find out about each other – a nice touch

Then in the Gallery of modern art (GOMA) we had to search and find a piece of art (while working in pairs) that represented one of the 5 facets and preapre a report back on this.

Again this experience reinforced the key facets of their programme  – resiliance.

They discussed with us how they apply this to teaching and learning in their school. The students are given a task of journeying to a destination. They plan and research this and then present the plan to their tutor teachers (most select public transport). This plan is then approved or modified

The students udenrtake their journey, they all carry cell phones and their are teachers shadowing the journey in cars to pick up the ones that get off at the wrong stop etc.

Once at the location they do tasks like the one described above as well as adventure based learning activities. Each with a focus on the key themes of resiliance.

All in all a good session. Fun, engaging and with Merit.

One of the other aspects they discussed was the three components that they though were essential for a successful outdoor education experience independent of whether it is urban, rural or wilderness. The three components were:

1. Language – This is essentially being able to clearly communicate the goals and objective of the program to all involved. The goals must be clear and inclusive, real and applicable, and be percieved as having value before the activity, during and after
2. Resource – this is the space (and materials) that provides the opportunity for the learning
3. Partnership – This is someone who has the skills that you don’t. for me this could be someone within the group (using the experts within to achieve the task) or an instructor.

Again this is a good model, simple and straight forward and one that is applicable to outdoor education.

One thing I did like wwas their ongoing emphasis on the experience often revisiting it with their students. They facilitated this by giving tehir students camera and making from their photo record a music video. This was used as a preface to activities to re-establish the communication – revisiting the video takes them back to the experience.

One comment I think has value was that – when you hit the wall is when you need to start problem solving.