Under Construction - More to come - More to edit - Thank you for interacting with the material as I move forward
Guiding Question:
How to set the learning mind to think with ecological systems?
Engage with and embody the inherent Natural World sustenance systems of a particular place.
When dinosaurs were alive, on the earth, that is a landscape.
They are on a landscape.
They are on a landscape and people are on a landscape.
Everyone is on a landscape. Even if they don’t build it.
And if they don’t have a landscape then they don’t have a place to live.
Some animals have to leave a landscape because they can’t live there anymore.
They have to find a new landscape.
Outerspace, too is a landscape. You can get lost in a blackhole.
Abigail, four-years-old
They are on a landscape.
They are on a landscape and people are on a landscape.
Everyone is on a landscape. Even if they don’t build it.
And if they don’t have a landscape then they don’t have a place to live.
Some animals have to leave a landscape because they can’t live there anymore.
They have to find a new landscape.
Outerspace, too is a landscape. You can get lost in a blackhole.
Abigail, four-years-old
The study of landscapes with children is joyful. No landscape study is the same because change is constant. The land and the children change. I change. Differences emerge and adjustments are made with the landscapes.
Children need learning experiences that engage change and embrace difference as inspirational.
Landscape studies are creative endeavors that are academic, develop learner's social-emotional skills, require negotiation, and are foundational to living among the democratic ecologies of Mother Earth. Landscape studies incorporate pedagogical strategies for attending to the why and how of what I'm teaching. The studies are reflection tools to assess what I think I'm teaching is actually being learned. I listen and reflect on our learning with the use of documentation. I then integrate protocols of looking closely to uncover children's perspectives on their relationship to these landscapes. The landscape studies are opportunities for children to tell stories, explore ideas, and create representations through interactive materials.
Are landscapes and its parts here for human beings?
Are Landscapes and humans interdependent?
Do humans have a responsibility for landscapes and its parts?
How do children construct their knowledge about the world around them?
Children learn about the world in multiple ways from multiple sources. The messages they receive about how life sustains itself impacts not only the individual, but the group and the environment as a whole. When we learn the vocabulary to describe and develop the skills to share what one perceives we can self-advocate and build community. Understanding why a landscape is the way it is from multiple perspectives provides a place for meaningful conversations to exist. The existence of this place is important for a future that respects multiple ways of belonging so the tipping point on the scale of justice never bends too far one way. If it bends too far no one wins - as there will be nothing left to balance.
Children need learning experiences that engage change and embrace difference as inspirational.
Landscape studies are creative endeavors that are academic, develop learner's social-emotional skills, require negotiation, and are foundational to living among the democratic ecologies of Mother Earth. Landscape studies incorporate pedagogical strategies for attending to the why and how of what I'm teaching. The studies are reflection tools to assess what I think I'm teaching is actually being learned. I listen and reflect on our learning with the use of documentation. I then integrate protocols of looking closely to uncover children's perspectives on their relationship to these landscapes. The landscape studies are opportunities for children to tell stories, explore ideas, and create representations through interactive materials.
Are landscapes and its parts here for human beings?
Are Landscapes and humans interdependent?
Do humans have a responsibility for landscapes and its parts?
How do children construct their knowledge about the world around them?
Children learn about the world in multiple ways from multiple sources. The messages they receive about how life sustains itself impacts not only the individual, but the group and the environment as a whole. When we learn the vocabulary to describe and develop the skills to share what one perceives we can self-advocate and build community. Understanding why a landscape is the way it is from multiple perspectives provides a place for meaningful conversations to exist. The existence of this place is important for a future that respects multiple ways of belonging so the tipping point on the scale of justice never bends too far one way. If it bends too far no one wins - as there will be nothing left to balance.
Collections of Landscape Studies
Landscape studies engage children in their communities.
I adjusted my teaching practice with instructional skills I learned from the children within an Earth Language Approach.
An Earth Language engaged our studies as we looked closely within the surrounding Hyde Park neighborhood and the University of Chicago community.
My classroom is a vital piece of these wholes to maintain healthy community and educational systems.
When we are out in the community we look for other pieces that make up the whole in which we are a part.
When we are out in the community we are also self-advocating our importance as democratic participants.
When we are out in the community children interpret the landscapes. Their interpretations are important.
During the workday young children, ages three, four, and five are rarely seen together in spaces outside of school among adults. We spent a lot of time investigating the world outside of our school building. Adults were surprised and delighted to engage with us; many didn't pay us any attention. The information I share in these explorations underscores the important shift that needs to happen in relationship building among adults with children. The shift: children are essential.
The landscape studies are collections of pedagogical documentation across my fourteen years as Head Teacher at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.
Please click on a button to engage with our landscape studies.
I adjusted my teaching practice with instructional skills I learned from the children within an Earth Language Approach.
An Earth Language engaged our studies as we looked closely within the surrounding Hyde Park neighborhood and the University of Chicago community.
My classroom is a vital piece of these wholes to maintain healthy community and educational systems.
When we are out in the community we look for other pieces that make up the whole in which we are a part.
When we are out in the community we are also self-advocating our importance as democratic participants.
When we are out in the community children interpret the landscapes. Their interpretations are important.
During the workday young children, ages three, four, and five are rarely seen together in spaces outside of school among adults. We spent a lot of time investigating the world outside of our school building. Adults were surprised and delighted to engage with us; many didn't pay us any attention. The information I share in these explorations underscores the important shift that needs to happen in relationship building among adults with children. The shift: children are essential.
The landscape studies are collections of pedagogical documentation across my fourteen years as Head Teacher at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.
Please click on a button to engage with our landscape studies.
"It is the continuous reconstruction, moving from the child's present experience
out into that represented by the organized bodies of truth that we call studies."
John Dewey
The Child and the Curriculum, pg. 11
out into that represented by the organized bodies of truth that we call studies."
John Dewey
The Child and the Curriculum, pg. 11
