National Teacher Day: Here's a Story from PLT Outstanding Educator Robert Taylor
Robert Taylor is a 2011 National Project Learning Tree Outstanding Educator. Taylor works in Jay, Maine, as a District Gifted and Talented Coordinator and Science Teacher at Jay Middle and High Schools.
"Expeditionary learning, experiential learning, outdoor education, service learning."
I see these "buzzwords" a great deal lately, but the ideas behind the terms have been around a long time. Its been more than 100 years since John Dewey said, "It is he (the student) and not the subject-matter which determines both quality and quantity of learning."
To maximize learning, Dewey advocated for education that provides a balance between delivering content and providing students experiences that they can relate to in their own lives, and teaches students how to live.
With the No Child Left Behind Act's push to get all student to meet standards, the pendulum swung to focus on content delivery.
Today, some teachers are seeing that simply delivering content does not get the job done; Students need to make meaningful connections to content in order to master it. Now the pendulum appears to be swinging back.
Just as a pendulum reaches maximum velocity and kinetic energy as it reaches the center of its swing, we maximize student learning when we find the right balance between delivering meaningful content and involving students in their own learning by providing them with meaningful experiences.
My school provides a number of "expeditionary learning, experiential learning, outdoor education, service learning" opportunities for students to complement their classroom learning. For example, students developed and implemented a management plan for a 180-acre municipal forest, they constructed and now use a geodesic dome greenhouse, and they installed a wind turbine to generate power for the school, to name just a few.
These experiences in themselves are worthwhile, but the real power in them lies when we tie them to content. Learning math by collecting and analyzing forest data, learning science by designing, constructing, and testing model geodesic domes, learning writing by developing a brochure to inform the community of a wind turbine installation project and its positive impacts are just a few of the ways we have connected learning and experience here in Jay, Maine.
Teachers maximize their students potential when they connect student experience to content. The difficulty for teachers is oftentimes the time and effort needed to do so effectively.
But, thats what makes Project Learning Tree such a useful resource for teachers. PLT provides teachers with easy-to-implement lesson plans and hands-on activities designed especially to provide students with meaningful experiences.
With a little more time and effort, PLTs service-learning programs, and the community action components of many activities, encourage educators to take their students outside where they can learn about their environment and work to improve it.
In this way, PLT helps inspire and empower students to become responsible, productive, and participatory members of society.
When we make these real-world connections for our students, we maximize their potential both academically, and by instilling in them a personal responsibility for a civil, sustainable society.
In addition to Robert Taylor of Maine, the 2011 National Project Learning Tree Outstanding Educators are:
•Joy Barney, Conservation Education Program Specialist with the U.S. Forest Service’s Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, South Lake Tahoe, CA;
•Cindy Kilpatrick, Environmental Science Facilitator at Oil City Magnet School, Oil City, LA;
•Sandy Gresham, recently retired Science Teacher and Environmental Education School Coordinator at Low Country Preparatory School, Pawleys Island, SC (now living in McCormack, SC);
•Susan Campbell, Education Coordinator for the City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation Natural Areas, San Antonio, TX.
Photo of Robert Taylor and student using an increment borer on an ash tree in Maine.
