Toolkit for Take It Outside

Time outdoors is beneficial for students in so many ways. As described in “Take It Outside,” being outside increases our health, awareness of the natural world, creativity and even literacy development. As the article also describes, too often other pressures take away from the time teachers and students are able to spend outdoors. Professional development, like the rest of school time, usually occurs indoors. But why should it? This toolkit helps you and your colleagues discuss ways your students can benefit from the outdoors. In the meantime, you will benefit from a professional development activity conducted in the open air!

Essential Questions

1. What are some local outdoor resources your students can benefit from?
2. What are some ways you and your students would benefit from more time outdoors?
3. What aspects of learning and wellness can your local natural environment facilitate?

Procedure

Note: Pair up with one to two other teachers in order to do this activity.

1. Get ready to go outside! Dress for the weather, grab clipboards along with your handouts and a pen, and head out with your partner. 

2. Spend 10 to 15 minutes walking around with an eye toward what outdoor resources are available near your school. Are there good places to go for walks? Particular trees or water sources to notice? If you are in an urban environment, how does the architecture near your school fit in with the natural setting? As you walk, discuss these questions with your partner and think about what it would be like to take the same walk with a group of students.

3. Find a place outside to sit and talk about the following reflection questions:

• How does it feel to spend professional development time outside? Does being outside impact the way you are approaching this PD time?
• How much time do you spend outdoors in your daily life? What do you think you get, physically and emotionally, out of that time?
• What are some of the challenges to getting yourself outside? What about your students? What are some ways you can work as a school to overcome these challenges?
• In your ideal world, what outdoor activities or observations would you want to do with your students? What are some ways the outdoors overlaps with your usual curriculum? How might you carve out time to take the curriculum outside once in a while?

4. Review the Activities to Do Outdoors and Getting Out Survey handouts. With your partner, make an action plan to incorporate at least one outdoor activity into your students’ lives over the next week.

5. After doing the activity, report back to one another about how it went. What were the positive aspects? The challenges? How did being outdoors make you see your students differently?