Final Entry: Self-Assessment

I can't believe that this semester has gone by so quickly!  For my final entry, I was to look back on the first self-assessment I completed my first week of the course.  After looking that over, I need to reflect on how my confidence and my abilities have changed in the arena of environmental education.

On the first quiz, I felt extraordinarily confident on the content area questions that focused on biology.  Although we won't take the post-quiz until Thursday, I still feel very strongly in my abilities in that section.  I also feel that I will do better in the areas of environmental science that are based out of geology, geography, and chemistry.  I think that my skills in terms of advocacy have remained relatively the same.  I don't think that I have decreased in any of the skills and areas of environmental education.

My confidence in being able to teach environmental education has improved drastically.  By going to visit the Central Wisconsin Environmental Station, I was able to see all of the different ways that students can interact outside with their environment.  During the discussion section of the class, I was able to watch and participate in several lessons that taught me how easy it is to incorporate environmental education into the day-to-day classroom environment.  I think that the most valuable piece of information that I learned is that environmental education is truly an interdisciplinary subject.  I look forward to incorporating it into my classroom.

Riverside Park

Week 14: Wandering

The next time that Mike and I went out to explore La Crosse, I made an effort to have so unstructured time.  We had driven around the area before, but I had yet to visit one of the parks in La Crosse.  After driving around for awhile, we made a stop at the Riverside Park on the Mississippi River.

We walked along the side of the river, exploring the fountains, restaurant menus, and frozen flowers.  The lights and decorations for the Rotary Lights were up around La Crosse.  They were even pretty to look at in the daylight.  Though the Mississippi River has just about frozen over, there was still a lone duck wading in the river between the ice patches. It was lovey to just go for a walk without having a plan or an itinerary.

A child's day has a lot of structure during the school day.  They are told when they can eat lunch, when they can rest, and what they are allowed to do and not do all day.  When one add's after school-activities, many student's spend most of their day in structured activities. I will use unstructured time in my classroom to allow children to have time to let their mind wander and utilize their creativity.