Your Teaching Edge

(Right on the Edge)

Photo from Tom Andrews

As I was sitting on my deck today, after a week of rain and winter storms, doing some reading and enjoying seeing the sun after a week. My awareness of the world around me kept drawing me out of my book. I began listening to the birds sing their songs around me, I began to notice how the light changed as the sun passed behind the trees in front of me, and began thinking about the edges of things. I know that my reading was influencing my thoughts. I was reading about Coyotes (Canis latrans) and how they live on the edges of human society. I began thinking about what edges do we work near with our participants.

As a facilitator I have found that from time to time I get into a routine of doing the same activities over and over. Sometimes because of time constraints, and sometimes from simply not challenging myself. And then there are times when I try out new activities or concepts during a program, either experiential or environmental, and I feel more alive and the programs get great reviews. I have a greater energy after these programs and they often push me into trying even more new things. It is a great re-enforcing system!

I challenge you to explore your teaching/ facilitating edge. Look at what you do that is safe and where you tend to be more restrained in your choices of activities, processing tools, and personal challenges. See if there are activities you use to find daunting, or try a new debriefing style, teach something new to your next field group, or expand your talk on your least favorite nature subject. 

Another way to explore and expand your teaching edge is to dive into the opposite side of where you usually fall in a discussion. Look into the other side of the political spectrum from where you usually look, listen to radio stations or blogs you usually avoid, you get the idea. Take some intentional time and explore your edges, and the edges you provide your participants.

Activities to explore:
ECO-SCULPTURES:
Here is an environmental variation of two classic teambuilding activities: Sightless Sculpture from the New Games Foundation, and Artist, Model, Clay from Karl Rohnke.
This activity allow participants to express themselves in an artistic manner in small groups. Take your group and divide them into smaller groups of 4-6 people. The small groups will be representing environmental concepts by creating living sculptures.

Depending on your group you can decide if you want to let their sculptures make noises. Sometimes being able to make noises makes the process easier, and it can sometimes allow the group to rely on sounds rather than their presentation skills. You will give the groups a topic which their sculptures will represent. I usually give each group 5-10 minutes to create their sculptures. After the creation period, each small groups presents their sculpture to the other groups. Here is a suggested progression that I have found to work well:

1) The Food Chain
2) A tidal pool or pond.
3) Recycling.
4) Sustainability.

You can use this activity in a couple of ways. First, simply as an activity to use in the middle of a program to get creative ideas going. You can also use this activity to recap information from another activity. I use this with kids the day after we go to tide pools and after a day of exploring the forests. I have also given out cards that have things that need to be in a sculpture, and then let the whole group come up with a larger sculpture. It is a way to front-load information before exploring an area.


If you are working in a more traditional ropes course based program, you can also use this activity with a group to get them to focus on certain concepts that may serve them well in improving their performance in your activities. You can also use it as an activity to recap topics that kept recurring through out the program. This activity also allows participants to express thoughts and ideas in a non-verbal method. You could use the following sequence of topics with a teambuilding group:

1) Working a plan.
2) Effective Communication.
3) Leadership.
4) Teamwork.

You get the idea. I have also used this with summer camp staff and asked them to build the following sculptures:

1) Camp Spirit.
2) A safe cabin.
3) What a parent should know about camp.
4) What excites them about this summer.

Websites to visit:
The Association for Experiential Education.
http://www.aee.org/

The North American Association for Environmental Education.
http://www.naaee.org/
Upcoming conferences:

National Challenge course Practitioners Symposium: Feb. 24-27, 2010. Boulder, Co.
http://www.leahy-inc.com/nccps_invitation.php

The Connecticut Challenge Course Professionals conference. March 13, 2010. Windsor, CT
http://www.thecccp.com/

Have a wonderful week and if you have any comments, please feel free to leave them here. If you have any suggestions for future topics or other questions, please email me at: 

asinglefootstep@gmail.com

or visit my website:

www.asinglefootstep.com

As a self promotion bit:

I will be at the National Challenge Course Practitioners Symposium-NCCPS

 February 24-27th, 2010 in Boulder CO. 

On the 24th, as a pre-conference offering, I am running a workshop on 

Ecological Debriefing Methods and Metaphors. 

Contact me for more information.