Using the Macleay Valley as your Classroom
Learning should not be constrained by the four walls of a classroom. If we want to equip our children and students to participate actively and purposefully in our society then we should extend our learning beyond the school walls as early and frequently as possible.
Authentic learning takes place when people of any age, see a purpose for learning and a connection to their life. Why should we restrict our teaching to within our classroom when within a short walk or a bus trip from our school there are so many formal and informal places of real learning?
The Macleay Valley abounds in natural and community classrooms. It stretches from the mountains with the world heritage listed Gondwana rain forests to the unspoiled coastline and is rich with its Dunghutti and European history heritage.
Read about Place Based Learning in these articles: The Foundations of Place Based Learning; The Benefits of Place Based Learning and on the Center for Ecoliteracy and Promise of Place websites.
This website aims to encourage teachers and parents to consider the whole Macleay Valley as their classroom and to provide links to programs and resources that they may not have considered before. Search by subject and age group, you will be surprised at what is out there. At the moment this is still a work in progress.
Each subject has a Bibliography. Use that and the information here to help adapt other lessons to make them local to the Macleay. Get Creative Commons Attribution Non- Commercial images of the Macleay Valley from Classroom Macleay Flickr Group. Join this group to share your photos by emailing me.
If you would like to contribute your lesson plans to this website email me. All work will be acknowledged.
Authentic learning takes place when people of any age, see a purpose for learning and a connection to their life. Why should we restrict our teaching to within our classroom when within a short walk or a bus trip from our school there are so many formal and informal places of real learning?
The Macleay Valley abounds in natural and community classrooms. It stretches from the mountains with the world heritage listed Gondwana rain forests to the unspoiled coastline and is rich with its Dunghutti and European history heritage.
Read about Place Based Learning in these articles: The Foundations of Place Based Learning; The Benefits of Place Based Learning and on the Center for Ecoliteracy and Promise of Place websites.
This website aims to encourage teachers and parents to consider the whole Macleay Valley as their classroom and to provide links to programs and resources that they may not have considered before. Search by subject and age group, you will be surprised at what is out there. At the moment this is still a work in progress.
Each subject has a Bibliography. Use that and the information here to help adapt other lessons to make them local to the Macleay. Get Creative Commons Attribution Non- Commercial images of the Macleay Valley from Classroom Macleay Flickr Group. Join this group to share your photos by emailing me.
If you would like to contribute your lesson plans to this website email me. All work will be acknowledged.
Further reading on Place Based Learning:
Beames, S (2015) Place -Based education: A Reconnaisaance of the Literature. Pathways The Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education 28(1). Retrieved on 28/12/2016 from https://beamingsimon.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/beames-2015-pathways-place.pdf
Cormack, P., Green, B., & Reid, J.-A. (2006). River literacies: Discursive constructions of place and environment in children’s writing about the Murray-Darling Basin. Paper presented at the Sense of place Conference.
Haas, T., & Nachtigal, P. (1998). Place Value: An educator’s guide to good literature on rural lifeways, environments, and purposes of education. Charleston, WV: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. Retrieved on 28/02/2015 from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED420461.pdf
Sobel D. (2012) Place-Based Education :Connecting Classroom and community http://www.antiochne.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/pbexcerpt.pdf
Smith, G. A. (2002b). Place based education: Learning to be where we are. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(8), 584-594. Retrieved on 28/02/2015 from http://legacy.lclark.edu/faculty/gasmith/objects/placebaseded.pdf
Gruenewald, D. A. (2003a). Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for place- conscious education. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 619-654. Retrieved on 28/02/2015 from http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3699447?sid=21105480113171&uid=4&uid=2&uid=3737536
Beames, S (2015) Place -Based education: A Reconnaisaance of the Literature. Pathways The Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education 28(1). Retrieved on 28/12/2016 from https://beamingsimon.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/beames-2015-pathways-place.pdf
Cormack, P., Green, B., & Reid, J.-A. (2006). River literacies: Discursive constructions of place and environment in children’s writing about the Murray-Darling Basin. Paper presented at the Sense of place Conference.
Haas, T., & Nachtigal, P. (1998). Place Value: An educator’s guide to good literature on rural lifeways, environments, and purposes of education. Charleston, WV: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. Retrieved on 28/02/2015 from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED420461.pdf
Sobel D. (2012) Place-Based Education :Connecting Classroom and community http://www.antiochne.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/pbexcerpt.pdf
Smith, G. A. (2002b). Place based education: Learning to be where we are. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(8), 584-594. Retrieved on 28/02/2015 from http://legacy.lclark.edu/faculty/gasmith/objects/placebaseded.pdf
Gruenewald, D. A. (2003a). Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for place- conscious education. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 619-654. Retrieved on 28/02/2015 from http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3699447?sid=21105480113171&uid=4&uid=2&uid=3737536
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