More About Rosemary Senjem

Integrating Experience and Classroom: Middle School Enrichment

Desire:

I took a job as the Middle School Outdoor Education Director at the Sidwell Friends Middle School in Washington, DC. They hired me after asking me to teach a demonstration science class. The class was studying ions and ionic bonds. I presented a slide show of a canoe expedition down the Rio Grande, using images of human interactions on the trip as a metaphor for talking about different kinds of bonds.

Focus:

To me, outdoor education is experiential education, and a fabulous metaphorical lab for learning anything.

Opportunities:

At the start of the school year I realized how segregated the outdoor education department had been in this school. It was nowhere on the calendar or schedule, consisted largely of fun outings for each class once a year, and was not linked to the curriculum in the rest of the school.

Process:

By the end of that year, I re-organized the situation, with the help of teachers and students. I built a library of resources for all teachers about experiential education. I teamed up with English and earth science teachers to incorporate experiential techniques and outdoor experiences into their curriculum. I teamed up with a committee of 6th grade students to create a week of service projects, rafting, and a student-led potluck picnic.

Result:

In my final report for the year to the headmaster, I suggested that they were wasting money on an in-house outdoor education director. This money would be better spent supporting more experiential education in the classrooms and on field trips. He took this suggestion and did just that. The teachers went on to use the library to incorporate experiential learning in and out of the classroom, including greater use of local outdoor education centers.