1st-7th February 2021
This week I have begun my research for my next written assignment which is able the different educational theories that influence Forest School practice. Within this assignment I have to summarise two or more theories and then explain how they apply to Forest Schools. There is a big selection of theories to choose from so I have gone through them all so that I can make an informed choice. I have decided to go with wellbeing and the work of Laevers for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I don’t know his work so I felt it would be beneficial to find out about a new theory and secondly due to COVID-19 19 I feel that wellbeing is going to be of upmost importance in the coming months and the role that Forest Schools takes in this area. Linked to this I am going to summarise Harold Gardner and his work on multiple intelligence as this links to wellbeing and looking at each child as an individual and Scott Peck and his work on establishing a community. I feel that these 3 theories will be especially useful in the present climate and will help me to set up and establish a Forest School at the Chandler’s Ford Infant School. I am looking forward to delving into some more theory and I realise that this is my comfort zone. The practical activities have not really moved on however I did collect some Apple Wood as we were pruning the Apple trees at the allotment last week. I know that this is a good wood for whittling and I hope that I will get a chance to practice my wood craft skills during February half term.
7th-14th February
My essay writing has begun and I am really enjoying reading and writing again about the three theories I have chosen. I have an understanding now of Laevers and have enjoyed finding out about his research and model for wellbeing and involvement. It seems pretty obvious to me now that children with low involvement have low wellbeing and I can picture one or two children who I have worked with in the past who would come under this. I was also interested to find out more about his assessments and also adult assessment. The key pointers he give for creating a stimulating environment that requires more involvement makes sense and these are all thing I would like to bring into my Forest School. The work of M.Scott Peck was interesting and his stages for community building made sense although his writing often verges into some religious stuff that doesn’t always sit well.
His main theme is moving away from what he terms pseudio-community which holds back and is reserved and plays by the polite exchanges thinking it is a community, but it is not. A true community must move past this and be open and honest with everyone being themselves and expressing their real feelings.
From reading about M.Scott, Gardner and Laever I noticed a strong theme for trust running through the theories. So I did take myself off on a tangent and explored ideas of building trust-explored trust games and the work of Megan Tschannen-Moran who wrote “Trust Matters”.
14th-18th February
Ok this has been quite a productive week. I have completed my summary report and all diagrams/appendices to with it and I feel quite excited about setting up the forest school. Am going to continue with my research and reading on community and building trust as I would really like this to be an area that I concentrate on especially during the establishing and setting up stage.
I have also managed to have time off this week and spent lots of quality time with son and decorated his bedroom-know this has nothing to do with the course, but it feels good to have achieved other things too.
I am hoping to start looking at the next assignment this weekend and feel that my pace has picked up again. I do need to plan another coppicing date in February so we can complete the first stage of the sustainability plan on the site.
18th-28th February
I have started my research for my next assignment and have to choose 5 theories and give example s of these in the Canopy Forest School Programme. The 5 theorists I have chosen are Bruner-enquiry, Csikszentmihalyi-Flow, Kellert and biophilia, Mortlock-adventure and risk and finally Roger Greenaway and Active reviewing.
I have started writing about Bruner, but this feels a big essay and lots of reading to do. I am again feeling that my pace is too slow, but it is impossible to get everything done so I need to be kind to myself.
29th-7th March
This week I have continued with my research on Bruner and have begun to form the first section of this essay. I have also had the chance to do some whittling this week with my son as we made magic wands for book day. We really enjoyed this activity, and it was very therapeutic. So, I have achieved developing my skills further in the skills section of the course and it was good to be able to apply to a real situation and need.
Next week schools go back so I am hoping that this is really going to help me as I will have more spare time and be able to throw myself into the course a little bit more. It also means that I will have less work to do for school and the last few month have been hard as I have been trying to juggle so much. Hopefully things will get easier from now on.
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