Sunday, Feb. 22 – Colebrook Park

teacherpriya5

  • Location: Colebrook Park, Surrey
  • Duration: 35 minutes
  • Intensity: Easy!
  • Mood (before): Tired & Cold – Mood (after): Excited & Warm

Summary & Findings

The final day of my reading week, and just a few hours before I was heading back to the island, I went for a walk with my dog and my mom. Colebrook Park is the usual place we like to take Finn for a walk. It has a beautiful, easy path through a big field, forest, and a gravel walkway. Some of the best sights here would be the bunnies that play around in the field, and the huge evergreens that fence the pathway of the forest. I loved this Sunday walk to end my time at home, and it especially helped ground me one last time before the eruption of stress that comes with going back to work and school.

Educational Connection

This week, I have yet another personal connection to the outdoors that I believe can be bridged to classroom education. Recently, at Colebrook Park, filming for a TV show or movie closed certain areas of the trail to finish their work. This sighting brought back memories from my teenage years of creating films for school projects, one of which took place in a forest.

I think implementing educational technology and teaching with the outdoors can help ground students in both worlds we immerse ourselves in. Technology can sometimes cause us to forget the nature and beauty around us. Combining the two for a project is a great way to get the benefits of being outdoors while completing school work and learning about ways to utilize technology to display information creatively.

I have a few great sites/articles I found with information on student-made films and how it benefits their learning.

Demonstrating Learning Through Filmmaking: https://www.edutopia.org/article/filmmaking-is-a-powerful-way-for-students-to-demonstrate-learning

The following link is more for upper-level students; however, I have no doubt that this could offer inspiration to middle-years or secondary school students on ways that filmmaking can be connected to building community and engaging in or learning about cultural practices worldwide. Perhaps beginning filmmaking and creation outdoors as a younger student could inspire discoveries, inquiries and goals to learn more about the world around us, and document it in real-time…similarly connecting to journalism/language arts: https://www.unc.edu/discover/making-natural-connections-on-film-and-in-the-classroom/