Taking Our Students Offline in an Online World
There is ample amounts of evidence showing that the increased use of online learning and people working online from home is having a rather positive impact on the environment...however it is also disconnecting our students from the world around them having to spend so much time in a virtual reality. It is our responsibility as educators to re-connect our students to the world around them.
A really great way to re-connect our students to their communities and the environment is through the use of indigenous teachings. There are no greater groups of people who are so connected to the earth and world around them, and there is so much that we can learn from them. I have had the opportunity to spend some time on the Six Nations Reservation and just listening to their stories about Creator and the different remedies that they have in place of 'western medicine' was just so fascinating. We don't need to be a geography teacher to be able to teach our students about the environment, there are so many ways that we can connect it to the content that we are teaching. I am adding a list of a few ideas that I have come up with to help connect our students to the world around them.
E-Learning Practices to Connect to the Environment
Having students complete fitness assignments health assignments outdoors for gym classes
Having virtual guest speakers that require students to do prep work in their environments prior to the presentation
Teaching students about the history of the community that they live in and have them create assignments or projects based off of the history and their communities
Incorporating concepts such as earth hour into many lessons to have the students connect back to the earth
Creating public service assignments that require some sort of personal reflection requiring them to think critically and emotionally
Doing presentations of their community environments with connections to what life was like for the indigenous peoples of that area
Check out my collection of resources to help incorporate Indigenous teachings into the classroom
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