My hope is that images and knowledge of the local natural world will become etched in students’ minds–they will come to know the Place in great(er) detail. Each walk can provide deeper understanding, clarity, richness, and detail to students’ understanding of Place. We can see how Mathematics or Science or Social Studies teaching can be broader and richer if it includes what Place has to teach.” ~ Gillian Judson, The Walking Curriculum
Having left my well-thumbed copy on my shelf at work, I’m so thankful that Gillian Judson is currently offering the kindle version of her amazing resource“A Walking Curriculum” free of charge. This book not only helps the educator learn more about place as teacher and the value of imaginative and ecological education, but it also provides specific walk themes and the ‘wrappers’ for how to go about introducing and implementing walks. Appropriate for K-12 and beyond.
- High Tech: consider sharing your walks as a vlog with students. Students might then reflect on and create a video of their own walks (for sharing in a secure LMS – learning management system).
- Moderate Tech: students and teachers can share photos or photo collages of their walks along with reflections on what they notices, wondered, learned (being sure, of course, to protect privacy – teach your students to turn off location services and avoid including themselves or their personal info in their submission).
- Low to No tech: why not discuss a walk theme by phone (perhaps a conference call?!) and decide to take a similar walk that day or that week to be discussed later?
I came across this lovely two page hand-out on Twitter encouraging students to make their own walking adventures and am sharing it here with permission from both the hand-out author, Peter @CoachVerdin as well as Jillian. I am constantly impressed by the willingness of educators to share! Thank you!
For more cross-curricular ideas, visit theImaginativeEd blog and don’t miss clicking on the sample walks and blog posts by other educators who have incorporated the walking curriculum into their planning.
