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Working with Children

Hallie Sykes

Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center

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Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center

Our mission is to inspire people to eat healthy, sustainably grown food and to steward our natural resources for future generations.

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Produce food. We cultivate 15 acres of mixed vegetable crops using agro-ecological principles and engage in research to inform conservation farming practice.

 

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Grow native plants. We operate a native plant nursery that produces plants for habitat restoration projects, educational gardens, and urban landscapes, and conducts research on native plant propagation using sustainable growing methods.

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Restore and sustain habitat. We carry out conservation projects and research to learn how humans can use land to our benefit while protecting biodiversity.

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  • Connect children to nature. We offer environmental education programs for children pre-K thru high school to build their comfort in the outdoors and provide them with opportunities to learn about the links between agriculture, conservation, and the environment.

Spring, Summer, and Fall Field Trips and Summer Camp!

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Children’s Passions

  • Enjoyed by children young and old and universal across many cultures, children’s passions are the avenue or doorway to mentoring young people in nature.
  • When given the opportunity to play freely outdoors, many children naturally engage in these forms of passionate play.
  • Learning by playing is the natural way to inspire curiosity, wonder, and connection to our place.

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Children’s passions are tools for nature connection and environmental literacy!

  • Young, Jon, Ellen Haas, and Evan McGown. Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature. Shelton, Wash: OWLLink Media, 2010. Print.
  • Sobel, David. Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators. Portland, Me: Stenhouse Publishers, 2008. Internet resource.
  • Louise Chawla (1999) Life Paths Into Effective Environmental Action, The Journal of Environmental Education, 31:1, 15-26, DOI: 10.1080/00958969909598628

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Children’s Passions

  • Playing games
  • Hunts, errands, adventures
  • Hiding, seeking, sneaking
  • Make-believe/imagination/fantasy
  • Animal allies/anthropomorphizing
  • Maps and paths
  • Small worlds
  • Special places!
  • So many more!!

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Supporting the cycle of inquiry

  1. Ask what they know. Ask them to describe it, and define words they know.

Use a T chart/Web of Wonder

  1. Provide time and opportunities to gather information
  2. Share what you noticed, ask them what they noticed.
  3. Come up with a theory, design, give opportunities redesign/students giving feedback to each other.
  4. Test it out!
  5. Try not to evaluate right or wrong, ask questions along the way.

Inspired by:

Supporting Children’s Thinking and Learning, University of Washington, Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS). Break-out session at Starting Strong Early Learners Conference

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A Culture of Curiosity

  • Children are scientists, constantly experimenting with the world around them.
  • What is Inquiry? Inquiry is how you explore the world around you, problem solving (not about what facts you know).
  • Children are natural scientists and learning through play is important
  • Model curiosity!
  • Use language that creates space for more than one answer! (Use hedge language)
  • Ask open-ended questions. “What do you notice?”

Inspired by:

Supporting Children’s Thinking and Learning, University of Washington, Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS). Break-out session at Starting Strong Early Learners Conference

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Childhood Brain Development, the basics

Sol Marie Doran training (and readings from the Whole Brain Child)

  • Left brain/right brain

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Upstairs and downstairs brain

Upstairs (logic, planning creative thinking) /downstairs (strong reactions, impulses, and emotions)

More tips for Working with Children- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UOFzY5BxkV-9HY747whcd3nR7T3FrYpIxJEizFxUQ8c/edit

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An integrated brain

The river of “well-being”

Seize moments and opportunities to teach- resilience, empathy, forgiveness, respect

Resource: The Whole Brain Child

by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. and Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D.

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Pivot Points

(Principles and practices that we fall back to)

  • Behavior is an expression of deeper needs
    • Cranky- hungry, tired, uncomfortable
    • If you can’t meet needs -> empathy (emotion is ok, feel your feelings, you don’t have to “fix” it)
  • Validating feelings
    • I see you’re having a lot of big feelings today.
    • Wow that sounds really hard.

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Pivot Pts Continued

  • Defining whether something is really a problem, pushing your own edge/disorientation
    • Is it really urgent? (Stretch the timeline)
    • Testing their own physical boundaries – give constructive advice, not “be careful”. Instead- pay attention to where your feet are. I’m here if you need me.

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Pivot Pts, continued

  • Give choices/redirect instead of saying “don’t”/give reasons why
    • Would you rather _______ or ___________.
    • We’re not going to do that right now, but you can choose to _______ or _______.
    • That is not for touching, but you can touch this.
    • That is meant for plants to climb on, not for people
  • Give children a chance at problem solving, give them a chance to be more specific with the words they choose.
    • “Convince me”
    • “How can we do this differently next time”
    • “Come up with a solution that works for both of us”
    • Would you like to know what other students have done?
    • I care about you too much to argue about this.

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Talk Moves

  •  Hey I noticed ________, I’m wondering __________.
  • Using the concept of time to share what is appropriate:
    • “Now is not the time for….”
    • “When I’m giving instructions, it is time to listen.”
    • “I’ll be glad to get started with the ___________ once _____________.”
    • It’s not a discussion, it’s just what we do.
  • Using the concept of place to share what is appropriate:
    • Understanding the culture of your program is not necessarily the same as the classroom/home: “Here in the outdoor classroom, this is what we do.”
    • In appropriate topics: “Now is not the time or the place.”
    • We need everyone to feel safe here, and that is what _________ needs in order to feel safe.
  • When a child is wondering off/running away: “You’re not in trouble, I just need you to come back.”
  • “I was wondering if I can come be with you for a minute, you’re not in trouble.”

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Establishing routines and classroom culture

  • Group contract and expectations
  • Setting routines and expectations- gratitude, story telling
  • Songs and movement
  • Orientation
  • Language choices the “outdoor classroom”, empowering students as scientists, set boundaries
  • Framing the day around a learning theme or question
  • Building relationships before teaching. Empowering the students to come to you!
  • Using a call for 5 minute warning, a different call to gather together

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The Natural Cycle

Inherent in life’s processes, the natural cycle is rhythm that guides life’s patterns from the sun, to the seasons, to the life cycles of living things.

Aligned to the cardinal directions, the natural cycle tells us geographically and metaphorically “where you are”, conveying a vision of how energies move through a day, a life, and a year.

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The Natural Cycle in Seasons

SE: Midmorning / Late spring

SW: Midafternoon / Late summer

NW: Twilight / Late Autumn

NE: Predawn / Early spring thaw

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The Natural Cycle in a human life cycle

SE= Childhood

SW= young adult

NW= Late adulthood

NE= Conception/death

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The Natural Learning Cycle as an Organizer

Have you ever noticed shifts in student energy throughout the day? Patterns of engagement and ability to focus? Times when kiddos need to get their “wiggles” out?

DISCUSS

Ducharme & Derks Garden Buddies 3/2/20

  1. Start by building enthusiasm
  2. Move into focusing attention
  3. Direct experience of nature
  4. Gather and share the inspiration

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The Natural Learning Cycle as an Organizer

Have you ever noticed shifts in student energy throughout the day? Patterns of engagement and ability to focus? Times when kiddos need to get their “wiggles” out?

DISCUSS

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West

Using a peaceful signal for gathering, such as a drum beat or coyote call, gather the group to invite them to share their story of the day. Celebrate and value their experience, reflect and check for understanding. Invite a take-home challenge

Northwest

Look back on the experience, ask introspective questions, go deeper. At home this might look like sharing the experience with their families around the dinner table or journalling.

North

Integrate! In the North, we have some insights or big picture lessons learned from the learning process. Whether it’s learning about ourselves and how we felt through the process, or new understandings about how the world works. North means choosing to take action about what we learned, and sharing that with others.

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East- Open the learning experience

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South-- Focus

Channel energy into first hand experience

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West- Gather and share

Reflect and

Share the story of the day

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Where are we now?

In the context of COVID, protests for racial justice, food security, climate change, political uncertainty...

It’s natural to feel disoriented, afraid, uncertain- “fight/flight; freeze/collapse”. Things may be coming apart, but disequilibrium is part of any cycle, it is what allows for growth!!

It is a time of opportunity, for reconsidering norms, reflecting on what works and what doesn’t, “composting” old systems and habits to fertilize the growth of new ones, nurturing creativity and development of new life.

What is our role in this as educators?

Helping kids’ cope with uncertainty…

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Site-specific expectations, our “Farm Secrets”

  • 1. Watch where your feet go! (We can walk on grass, straw, woodchips, and in-between the rows in the Kids’ Farm. It’s difficult for baby plants to grow when feet are on them, so please walk only where plants are not growing (except for grass!))
  • 2. Please wait to be invited before picking and eating anything. Some things aren’t ready to be picked, and the farmers know where the good stuff is.
  • 3. When it is time to pick and eat, please use two hands: hold the stem with one hand and pick what you want to eat with the other—that way we don’t rip up the whole plant.
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_N2yh0jPSc&feature=youtu.be (1:23 – 2:04)

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Tips and Best Practices

Play with food!

Parent quote: “We’ve been really excited to come to the farm! Ever since big sister had a field trip last week, we’ve been opening up apples and counting the seeds, cutting into beets and admiring the bright colors inside.”

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Give opportunities for problem solving

“This is too crowded, I can’t see”

“Don’t forget me!”

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Use real science tools

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Use inclusive language

Flowers aren’t just for girls!

Ladybugs aren’t always a “she”

Remove pronouns in storytelling

Embrace differences in family structures and households

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Let the mystery be!

Guide with curiosity, observations and further questioning.

When asking “what is it”? What do students really want to know?

• What do you notice?

• What do you wonder?

• What does that remind you of?

• How might you explain that?

• How is this similar/different from…?

• What do you think about that idea?

• Do you agree with…?

• Tell me more about that.

• Can you explain/show me your evidence for that?

• How can you be more sure?

• What surprised you?

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Get down on the level

Empower students to teach

Comfort needs first!

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Questions?

hallie@oxbow.org

620 640 7037

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Bonus Slide: Polyvagal theory