"Understanding How We Can All Fit Together On One Healthy Planet" is the motto of Camp High Trails, a residential outdoor education school that services elementary schools throughout Southern California. The school, a small business with its program grounded in California State Standards for science education, is run at three different sites within the San Bernadino National Forest, about 2 1/2 hours east of Los Angeles (3 1/2 on a snowy day). Over the course of a school year (September thru May), about 9,000 5th and 6th grade students spend a week with us and get a taste of natural science with their own hands and feet - identifying trees by smelling the bark, breaking rocks to understand their mineral qualities, and hiking through the snow to catch a beautiful glimpse of the mountains.
It truly is a "wall-less classroom" and as a field instructor, I take charge of planning the hiking route, making sure every kid has their water bottle, and incorporating nature-provided teaching props into my lessons...Ponderosa pines, acorn woodpeckers, and the clouds. Our classes range from Furry Friends (the study of mammals and carrying capacity/the food chain) to Water Works (discussion of the water cycle on a global scale), as well as one of my favorites, Little World (the study of fungi, bacteria, and insects). On a normal field day I take a group of 13-17 students out for seven hours, and we complete three classes through series of discussions and activities, with time in between for hiking and lunch.
As a staff member here, I also get to serve as a cabin instructor - High Trails is a residential program, so the students stay in cabins at night. Cabin instructors stay with the students throughout the evening and get to teach a different set of classes based on night hikes or indoor subjects. Astronomy and Nocturnal Nation are our two main night hike classes in which we wander out into the night to discuss the beautiful night sky full of stars or how nocturnal animals' eyes are designed for utilizing small amounts of light. An indoor evening class that's growing on me is our Snakes class - we have five snakes that we get to bring out and show to the kids, ranging from small king snakes to 5 foot pythons! (I'll try to get some pictures of that class on here soon!)
High Trails has been in session for three weeks during the spring season. I've had my first taste of classroom time with kids...and they are incredible clients. It amazes me that some of these kids know all the dance moves to "Souljah Boy" and yet, are completely spell-bound by the grey squirrels darting around in the snow. The shell of "being cool" is easily dismantled as they hunt for lichens and stare into the star-studded sky. It's a beautiful opportunity to take them out of their comfortable environment and show them the wonders of a whole new world, so wildly different than the paved cityscape from whence they came.
1 comment:
beautiful. beautiful. beautiful. I am so jealous ms. teacher! I wanna do it too! I am stuck in WALLED classrooms learning to make lesson plans and how to make interactive lessons and include all different subject areas (interdisciplinary) and you are doing it in real life. how depressing for me and super exciting for you!
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