|
|
|
The views expressed on this page are
solely
those of the author and do not
necessarily represent the views of County
News Online
|
|
NBC News
Schools seeking alternative to remote learning try an experiment: Outdoor classrooms
While some educators remain skeptical, others see outdoor classrooms as
a way to make in-person learning safer during the pandemic.
By Erin Einhorn
Aug. 5, 2020
DETROIT — With just days to go before the start of the new academic
year, schools around the country are rushing to gather materials they
never thought they would need: plexiglass dividers, piles of masks and
internet hot spots to connect with students remotely.
And then there are schools that have an even more unusual list.
The Detroit Waldorf School in Michigan is buying carriage bolts, berry bushes and 8,000 square feet of cedar wood.
The San Francisco Unified School District has been busy gathering tree stumps.
And the Five Town Community School District in Maine is buying tents,
yurts and enough all-weather snowsuits for each of its elementary
school students.
These schools and districts are all laying the groundwork to move at
least some instruction to outdoor classrooms. They're making a bet that
the lower risk of disease transmission in the open air, and the extra
space outside for children to spread out, can make it safer for
students to get face-to-face instruction, even as the COVID-19 pandemic
continues to spread.
"Schools need to figure out a new solution because the inside of the
building doesn't work as the only solution and online learning doesn't
work as the only solution," said Sharon Danks, the CEO of Green
Schoolyards America, one of a group of environmental education
organizations that have launched the National COVID-19 Outdoor Learning
Initiative to encourage schools to move students outside.
Many school districts, including some of the largest in the country,
have already announced plans to start the school year with online-only
instruction. That's widely viewed as the safest way to contain the
spread of the coronavirus but it creates severe financial challenges
for parents who need child care to be able to go to work, and could do
serious harm to children who need social interaction with their peers
and in-person support from their schools.
The idea of moving classes outside — as some schools did to combat
earlier epidemics in the last century — has gained steam as an
alternative option.
In New York City, parents and school leaders have called on Mayor Bill
de Blasio to close streets near schools to bring instruction outside.
Elsewhere, parents have circulated petitions urging their schools to
consider outdoor learning.
Many educators remain skeptical.
"It's a gimmick," said Kristi Wilson, the superintendent in the Buckeye
Elementary School district near Phoenix and the president of the
national School Superintendents Association.
"It's great to take advantage on a nice day but you can't plan for
that," she said, speaking on a day last week when the temperature in
Phoenix reached 113 degrees Fahrenheit. "The weather is too
inconsistent."
Schools that have spent millions of dollars in recent years to fortify
their buildings with bulletproof glass to protect students from
intruders might not be too keen to now put the children outside in the
parking lot, she said. And many teachers have questioned whether
outdoor spaces would be accessible to students with disabilities,
whether students would be too distracted, and whether some kids might
try to run off.
"In the spirit of innovation, you can't blame folks for putting
everything on the table and certainly giving it their best shot, but I
just don't know how realistic it is," Wilson said. "In theory, anything
is possible but let's concentrate on doing this the right way, the safe
way."
Despite these and other concerns, Danks said the outdoor learning
initiative has been inundated with inquiries from schools around the
country and has been hurrying to put resources online. The group is
posting tipsheets for dealing with hazards such as bugs or snow, as
well as budget guides for supplies like hay bale seating. The
initiative is also connecting interested schools with landscape
architects who've volunteered to help turn schoolyards into classrooms.
"What if Plan A were outside?" she asked. "What if, when the weather is
suitable, every class met outside where nature is present and helping
to calm everyone's stress? When the weather is unsuitable, you go to
Plan B, which could be online or inside. Why start with something you
know is not working?"
'We'll have more freedom'
At the Detroit Waldorf School, a small private preschool to eighth
grade academy on the east side of Detroit, the plan to build 14 cedar
wood pavilions to shelter outdoor classrooms went from a crazy idea to
breaking ground in a matter of weeks, parents and teachers said.
Brian Rebain, an architect with two children in the school, said when
teachers approached the school's space planning and development
committee with the idea in June, committee members acted quickly.
Rebain drew up plans for the structures, which will be open on three
sides and have one "teaching wall" to hang a chalkboard or other
materials. The school hasn't decided whether the structures will have
wooden floors or mulch, or whether they'll have canvas walls that can
be rolled down to block rain, wind or sun, he said. "There's still a
lot of head-scratching as we figure things out."
Another parent architect on the committee drew up plans for the
school's 4-acre property, including flowering and edible plants that
will separate classrooms. A parent with ties to the construction
industry helped find equipment and supplies. And, for the last several
weeks, as the school has begun raising the $50,000 it needs for
materials, parents and teachers have stepped in with volunteer labor.
They're building a fence, clearing brush and have driven posts into the
ground that will soon support the shelters.
"My kids are ready to get back, and I know a lot of other families are
ready to get their kids back in school," said Gregory Franklin, a
father of a preschooler and a kindergartner who was volunteering at the
school last week, helping to break down playground equipment that needs
to be moved.
Franklin isn't sure how he feels about sending his children back to
school in a city that's been hammered by COVID-19, losing nearly 1,500
people, but the prospect of outdoor classrooms "makes me feel a lot
safer," he said. "If they're talking or coughing or even sneezing, the
open air will help it leave sooner than being in an enclosed area."
The school isn't planning to hold classes exclusively outside, said Ben
Linstrom, a teacher who chairs the school's health and safety
committee. But students will be dropped off in the morning at their
outdoor classrooms. If they need to go inside because of the weather or
to use the bathroom, classes can stagger their trips so not everyone is
in the hallways at once, he said.
"Every school has had trouble with determining how to open up safely,"
he said, noting that infection rates and government guidance seem to
change every week.
The Waldorf curriculum, based on the teachings of early 20th century
Austrian educator Rudolf Steiner, has always emphasized learning in the
natural environment. Linstrom said his school would have embraced
outdoor classrooms even without a pandemic, but now the wooden shelters
will give the faculty more ways to respond to the changing conditions.
"We'll have more freedom," he said. "We'll have more options."
'Trying to take advantage of the moment'
At least a dozen other schools that follow the Waldorf model are
building outdoor classrooms this summer in response to COVID-19,
according to the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America. But
the idea is not just for private schools with architects on the PTA.
In Maine, the Portland Society for Architecture sent a design
professional to each of the 15 main buildings in the Portland school
district to "identify immediate, low-cost interventions that we could
do to create at least two outdoor learning spaces for each of our
schools," Assistant Superintendent Aaron Townsend wrote in an email,
adding that the architects are also helping schools find materials and
labor.
In Vermont, the White River Valley Middle School is planning a hybrid
model in which students will learn from home three days a week and come
to class in tents outside the school on the other two days — at least
until Thanksgiving, Principal Owen Bradley said.
In Texas, the Austin school district is encouraging principals to
consider outdoor spaces as they reconfigure their buildings to make
social distancing possible, and is training educators to teach outside,
Darien Clary, the district's sustainability manager, said.
The Austin district has long promoted outdoor learning to connect
children with their environment and make them healthier, she said.
"What COVID did is it upped the urgency."
In Seattle, though the school board is poised to vote to start the
school year with remote instruction, several board members drafted a
proposal to bring students together with teachers on school grounds or
in city parks for at least two hours per day, four days per week.
"You'd have your morning math, [English language arts] or whatever
lessons you're doing online, and then you'd come for your in-person
time and meet your teacher outside the school," Liza Rankin, one of the
school directors behind the proposal, said. "It could be a nature walk.
It could be working in a community garden. School counselors could come
or they could have drama or movement class outside."
And in the Five Town district in coastal Camden, Maine, Superintendent
Maria Libby said she's using money her district received from the
federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES
Act, to buy four $1,000 event tents for each of her three schools, plus
four $18,000 heated yurts for winter classrooms. She's also buying
snowsuits, plastic chairs and outdoor storage bins.
Libby had wanted for years to better take advantage of the beautiful
natural resources in her district, which include a lake, river and
mountainous parks. But the coronavirus took a maybe-someday idea and
turned it into a right-now idea.
In addition to finding ways to reopen safely, she hopes to build nature
trails or even a ropes course in the woods near her schools that
students could use for many years.
"We're trying to take advantage of the moment we're in," she said.
"We're trying to use the moment to make some investments that will be
valuable to us beyond the time of COVID-19. Our students can benefit
from being outside."
|
|
|
|
