Meet the Wild is one of a number of elective offerings that our 8th grade students can choose between, and all of these semester-long experiences are officially Pass/Fail courses. Last spring for the pilot, I was pretty content to give a “Pass” to anyone who didn’t get eaten by a wild animal. But one of my goals for this year is to provide more structure for those who need it; these are middle schoolers, after all, and some of them need to at least be pointed in the right direction before they’ll find a path to intrinsic motivation. Plus now that we’ve moved well beyond pilot stage, I guess it’s time to go legit.
Last spring, while I had some kids who immediately caught the spirit of nature journaling and made the most of every opportunity, I had some who just went through the motions until I started taking up journals every other week to look through them and offer feedback on sticky notes. Unsurprisingly, this simple change made a big difference.
So I’ll continue that practice this fall, and I’ve also put together something of a syllabus that makes goals and expectations for the course more concrete. Hopefully I can add a touch of class and still keep the “lets take a break from academics and go wander around in the woods and look at cool stuff” feel of the experience.
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