practice week 1 Natursenter_ week 2

Outdoor Education and Experiential Learning and Places for Learning in the field of practice

Week 14 +15

Practice Horten Natursenter

 

Information about the center

Horten Natursenter is a center that works for with different schools from Horten and Åsgårdstrand, and different high schools in the Vestfold County. Moreover, they are working with other schools from the surroundings of the places that I have already mentioned above, but they have to pay in order to enroll the courses at the center. As I have already stated, is it free for elementary schools in Horten and upper secondary schools in Vestfold. At the center, there were tree mentors working there, Andreas, Hege and Gunn. Each of them is working with different age groups. In order to get help, there are different volunteers that are helping at the center, from time to time. The volunteers are different pupils that took an outdoor education class at their schools.

The aim of this paper is to state the activities that we undertook during these two weeks or practice, and reflect about how much I have improved my level of literacy as regards being an outdoor teacher, and how my perceptions changed in just two weeks.

DAY 1 

In the first day, we met at the Naturesenter with Hege and Gunn. They were presenting us in detail all the information that we should know, about the center. Moreover, they presented us the history of the center, and the age groups with which each of them is working with: Andreas was working with children that are from 1^stgrade to the 4^thgrade, Hege was working with children that are between 5^thgrade to 10^thgrade and Gunn was working with students that were between 11^thgrade – college. After receiving the schedule for the first week of practice we set a camp fire for the volunteers that were supposed to come to help the ones from the center clean the boats and prepare them for the activities from the following days. After the volunteers came we helped them also by digging holes in order to make new places for the campfire, which we were using with the children the next days.

The first day was more about knowing the place, our supervisors and receive our schedule. When it comes to the relation that we had with our supervisors, in my opinion was an amazing one. They were very friendly and asked a lot of questions so they knew us and our skills better. I really enjoyed every talk with our supervisors and I think the connection between us was a strong one.

DAY 2

In the second day of the internship, a middle school class came at the center in order to practice canoeing. We were told before they arrived basic information about the first aid in case of drowning, and how they should set their equipment before rowing the canoes. They were split in two groups, half of the children were doing canoeing and half of them were doing different activities with another professor. My colleagues and I were supposed to be the “security” of the children who were doing canoeing. We were also split in two groups; each of the group took a boat with a mentor in it. It was really hard to keep it up with the children that were canoeing. I was really impressed to see how good were they doing this. In that moment I considered myself the pupil that needed “security”.  It was a really hard day but it worth it because each of us had the opportunity to learn how to row a boat and other tips and tricks related to it.

DAY 3 

In the third day, we went in Horten in some woods, were we did activities with two different classes. The activities were about bird watching, learning the trees species. Furthermore, we did a campfire with all the children. When it comes to the activities that they were doing, the first one as I have mentioned was about birds. The pupils received some papers with different types of birds that you can find in that area, and also they received binoculars. The children were supposed to find as many birds as they could, and identify them on the paper that they received. The next activity was more or less the same as the first one but implied trees. The pupils had to find the trees that were stated on the given paper. When it comes to my reflection about this day, I was very surprised to see that even if the weather was pretty bad, the children did not complain at all. It was an intense day because they were 75 children in total and I thought it is going to be hard to handle so many. But they were acting really well and we end up the day being their students while they were trying to teach us some Norwegian.

DAY 4 

Day four was in Åsgårdstrand. It was pretty similar with the third day because we worked with the same age group in both days, so they were doing activities that were related to the birds and trees. They had to do the same things as I have already mentioned in day 3 (search for the birds and for different types of trees). Beside that, they did some very interesting games in order to learn how to measure the height of a tree and its age. One of the activities was measuring the height of a tree with a wood stick by going far away from it. After the tree fitted the wood stick you would count the steps from that place to the tree.

Another activity that was interesting was teaching pupils how to find out which is the age of a tree by measuring the rings that are into a tree.

DAY 5 

Day five of practicum was the first one in which we worked with Andreas. That day was the best one for me at Horten Naturesenter. It definitely changed my perception about working with kids, and makes me realize that I want to continue to work with kids because they are a source of happiness. The activities were a bit related to the coming of Easter. We painted some eggs, and after that the pupils (which were 8 years old), learned about gravity. They had to isolate the egg in paper and throw it away in order to see if it’s going to break or not, and if they manage not to break it, they had to isolate it in a cartoon and cover it in tape. After these two exercises they were allowed to play in the area. They climbed a hill and asked me to go with them to show me the surroundings. After arriving in the top of the hill we build together a “hytte” for the troll that is living in the top of the hill. It was an amazing day for me, I end up crying in the end because I made some really good friends, and I promised them that I will visit them at the center in May when they are returning. (say about florwer).

DAY 6 

On the first day in the second week of practice, we have visited again, the school in Åsgårdstrand. This time the aim of the meeting was to explore the biodiversity in the lake that was close to the school. The children received different tools in order to collect insects from the water and explore them in depth. Moreover, they got some papers with the types of insects that they could have found in the lake. The children did a very good job in collecting the insects and seemed to be very interested to discover them. At one point, a pupil felt in the lake, for me that was a moment to see how children and teachers cope with this type of situation, how the student was reacting at what have happened. He was a bit cold and I expected him to want to go back to his class, but he stood near de fire until he dried and continue playing after that. After that, we have played a game that is both from Spain and Romania, called the “Tissue”, but we have adapted it and used a scarf instead. The children loved the game and we played it two times. What I learned during this day regarding facing unexpected situations like the one with the pupil that felt in the lake, was really important for me to understand how we should react when things like this happen.

DAY 7

On the second day of week number two children learned about oxygen and CO2. They had to put vinegar in a plastic bottle and then they had to put baking powder in a balloon. Later on they had to put the balloon on top of the bottle and the chemical reaction the balloon was getting bigger. Afterwards, they had to measure the weight of a balloon that was blown up with lung air and compare to the one that was filled by the chemical reaction. They realized that the one filled with baking powder weighted more than the other one.

DAY 8 

On day number 8 of our practicum, we worked again with Andreas and 6 years old kids. Because Easter was just a couple of days close, we decided to dress Miquel and Elena as a bunny and a chicken and do a small treasure hunt with some Easter eggs filled with sweets. We hid the eggs all around the center and a bit far away from it so children will run and consume a bit of their energy while searching for them. The day was more about playing with the children and enjoying the beautiful weather.  We painted their faces and dance after that. Communicating with them was a bit hard because they did not know how to speak English so we had to use our body language in order to communicate with them. But everything went perfect and at the end of the day we became very good friends, and we promised again that we will go to see them again next month. After that some of us went to clean the lake in order to collect the branches so more insects would come in that place. Afterwards, we made our own caramel. What I learned this day is that it doesn’t matter that much the language in some situations when it comes to kids and not only. People or especially pupils will feel your good energy and stay close to you if you make them perceive your good behavior.

DAY 9 

On the second to last day, we joined Andreas too, this time with children around 6 years old. They were said about the spring, and about the seasons, and they had to create, on the ground, a spring picture with different types of flowers. I was impressed to see that some of the children knew which flower they can break from the ground and which one they are not allowed to. They even knew the names of some flowers that they were using for the spring picture.

DAY 10 

On the last day of practicum, there were also some students from Bakkenteigen that joined the Naturesenter to make activities with the children. The activities were very interesting and made children move a lot, things that was good for improving their motoric skills. The activities implied for example, taking water from the lake in a special created hat that can keep water in it. After filling the hat with water they had to pour the water into some tubes without looking, just being guided by other colleagues of theirs. After that we played again the game that we have played in day number 6.  The children liked the game a lot so we had to play it 3 times this time.  After the pupils left we made waffles again and we stayed with our supervisors in order to discuss those two weeks and contemplate about them.

Conclusion

In conclusion, these two weeks of practicum have opened me some new perspectives about what really makes me fullfield. I realized that I want to continue working with children, and that this thing makes me really happy. I have learned a lot of things about how we should face different unexpected situations, how we should react when children are not behaving in the best way possible, how to express yourself without knowing the language, just by using your body language. And moreover, I have put in practice the concepts that I learned during this 3 months of studying Outdoor Education. I am very happy and satisfied with what I accumulated during these two weeks.