Microplastics: The Tiny Menace That's Adding Up

To build on our learning and reflections from the Attenborough doco, we had Michelle from AUSMAP visit our OUED class for a presentation about microplastics. Michelle shared what some of the microplastics in Australian waterways are, some of the places these microplastics come from and the impact they are having on our environments and wildlife. The stats and images from our shores made the reality hit a little harder for the students and gave some the spark to make a difference. 

Following from Michelle's presentation, we headed to Tiranna Reserve at West Lakes. West Lakes has been proven to have a significant amount of microplastics compared to other waterways (some of the highest numbers in the country). Check out the hotspot map AUSMAP have created to show the data they have collected so far. Our job at Tiranna Reserve was obviously to remove some microplastics, but also to collect further data.

In addition to this experience, recently our faculty has been learning about key numeracy terms and topics. The aim of this learning is to increase numeracy across the school and the HPE teachers were given the task to create at least one lesson with a numeracy focus. I decided that there were so many opportunites for connections with numeracy vocabulary and skills throughout the learning and microplastics experience. Many of these connections were natural, I just hadn't been using the correct/consistent vocab! Check out my lesson plan below:

As an addition to our lesson plan, we were given a 360 degree camera to film (I ended up with 6 clips as the camera saves them as 8 minute files). A local uni is analysing our lesson plan, video and reflection from our lessons (see my reflection below). Unfortunately this process is continuing into next year so I won't get to see the results. However, watching myself back is always interesting. Several years ago I filmed myself and refelcted on the lesson. I remember being so surprised how much I missed in the moment of the lesson! Some thoughts after watching my recording back from last week:

- When kids share their ideas in a group discussion, I repeat back what they say and then add a little further information. I didn't realise how often I did this and I think it was actually useful for students! 

- I used a lot of jargon throughout the lesson. Jargon that was relevant to our excursion and our unit of learning, but there were also several numeracy terms. I made assumptions that the students would know what all of these terms are, but I should have spent a minute or two checking in with them they they understood the terms/jargon. I did this partway through the lesson but not at the beginning, so I must have reflected on this subconciously!

- I quite liked the presence that I had in the class. I was always nearby if the kids had any queries and I could overhear the conversations they were having. I knew I paced a lot, but I actually think it was a good thing. Hopefully the presence is the same in a larger class!

- There were a few moments when I said "I'm not sure about that sorry" or "I don't know the answer to that". I like how I was clearly open to learning with, alongside and from the students. We don't know everything, and the kids certainly highlighted this!

- Their results for their estimations were all so different. I knew this in the moment (and reflected below), but I definitely should have chatted with a Maths teacher prior to the lesson so their results were closer. 

The trip to the beach was incredibly eye opening as the students found so many bits of plastic (macro and micro). The discussions they had while sifting through the sand were great to listen to because there was true amazement with what they were finding. I'm glad that we managed to include this experience for the students this semester, because informal chats with the students have indicate they feel they've learnt quite a bit about our environment. I also became more confident with my trip planning and inclusion of numeracy terminology and skills. Unfortunately this whole process was incredibly time consuming, so I will need to think about how I can realistically learn and embed more numeracy within my teaching (without having to invest a tonne of time that I don't really have!).

 

Fatality Prevention: Grim But Necessary

Today I went to an OEASA workshop called Preventing Fatalities in Nature Based Outdoor Activities. Yes, it was as morbid as it reads. I knew when I signed up that it was going to be quite a confronting day and really challenging emotionally. But I also knew that conversations around preparing for the possibility of deaths are important! 

We had some pre reading to complete before the workshop - one paper covering 4 cases that have occured for whole group discussion this arvo and one case that was specifically designated to me to share with the group. I really enjoyed having this prep time beforehand, as it gave me time to process some of the information, reflect on the scenarios and how I would have responded in them and also complete some further research about what could have been done to prevent/reduce the possibility of the tragedies. I also felt like I was back at uni, which I loved because I love learning!

The key things I took away from the pre-reading were;
- Competitiveness can have significant impacts on young people's choices and ultimately their safety. The word 'challenge' therefore, should be used carefully!
- "Adolescents tend to wrongly assume something is safe if they try it and experience no adverse consequence" (Reyna & Farley, 2006). We know that assuming generally has it's own consequences...
- There shouldn't need to be a near miss or incidents to occur for people to act on it/prepare for the possibility of something occuring. This shows the importance of having discussions about a variety of scenarios that could occur, no matter how low the likelihood is.
- Prepare for the worst case scenario in any setting - and prepare the students for this too. They need to understand that the teachers/facilitators/instructors are vulnerable in the outdoors too, so at some point they need to be the 'leader'!

A large section of the day was sharing the narrative of the case we were given, and then discussing how the fatality could have been prevented. In all of the cases, something could have been done. Majority of the cases were water based - mostly drownings. Many of them were also based in New Zealand, which made me super uncomfortable (but I had an early colleage, Adam, in my mind saying 'be comfortable with the uncomfortable!'). I found the discussions with the group incredibly valuable too though, because people were able to see things from different perspectives as well as share their own experiences. 

My case was about a young boy who drowned only a few metres away from the edge of a lake with his peers and teachers closeby. Truly devastating. Unfortunately there were several steps that could have been taken to prevent (or at least significantly reduce) this fatality from occuring; more active supervision, education for the students, flotation aids available, greater knowledge about the depth and colour of the water, aquatic knowledge and skills taught, risk managament discussion and plans for this swim (this was not an aquatics camp or a planned activity), confidence and competence checks of students in, near and around water and more efficient procedures in first aid scenarios (such as faster contact with emergency services). See below the quick drawing I created while I was explaining the case with the group (it's a bit messy, but I find visuals to give more context! The x's represent people, and there were others that I did not include). Honestly, it was gobsmacking to read and gut-wrenching to recount.

Throughout the day we had a lot of great discussion - it was so eye opening for me. There were parts of some of the scenarios that I thought 'how on Earth could you make that dedcision', but then other times I was left thinking 'I actually could have been in that position'. I feel like I will certainly be a lot more aware of fatality prevention and will certainly include this in my prep with students too. Here are a few things I was left thinking more about:
- Just because you have safety considerations, does not mean that you have fatality preventions. RAMS often consider low to medium level possibilities, but I don't think I have actually ever seen one that specific considers the possibility of a death.
- If there is an incident or tragedy - what measures could have been put in place to prevent this? (Note this can be any situation, not a personal one!)
- Many of the scenarios discussed today were the 'same story with different actors' - so they could have been prevented.
- "Experience is an unreliable guide to fatality prevention." Assume you know nothing.
- The use of real case/scenario based learning in class is helpful to prepare students for the possibility they find themselves in that situation. This rang particularly true with the fatality case of a student passing from anaphylaxis and another student wasn't sure if they could use an Epipen on them.

If you are wanting to learn more, check out this paper by Andrew Brookes, who was our workshop faciltator today. With regard to safety, you can never learn too much!

We Need To Protect Our Planet

We have recently started our Ecology unit in Outdoor Ed. Some of the key topics include ecosystems, food chains and microplastics in our oceans. Soon we will be having a presentation from AUSMAP and then a trip to the beach to remove some microplastics (I plan to blog about this later). So far, most of the students actually seem to be quite interested in the conversations we have been having which is a great start!

To begin, we had several discussions around what ecosystems are and why it is important we understand biodiversity. To give a bigger scale and more real-life contexts, we watched David Attenborough's A Life on Our Planet documentary. I watched this with my OUED class last semester near the end of our unit but realised it would fit well at the beginning! If you haven't watched it yet, head to Netflix ASAP because it is truly eye opening.

Throughout the doco it moves through time, from the past through to the future. As time passes stats are shown on the screen: human population goes up and wildlife goes down. Check out my quick graph I created of the stats up until 2020 alongside. This visual encouraged great discussion and students started to ask a variety of questions we could research together.

I planned a few questions to promote discussion;
- What do these stats suggest/show?
- How do these stats make you feel?
- Why do you feel this way?
- What are the impacts happening and why are these an issue?
- How are we contributing to these impacts?

(Sidenote: Preplanning questions is a great way in any class or topic to help you to guide discussion. Of course they can be ignored if there is great chat already, but it helps to reduce tangents and actually go back to the learning intention of the lesson).

The most important part of our discussion I think, was our brainstorms around what we can do to reduce these impacts individually as well as globally. Please note this obviously isn't an exhaustive list, but a great place to begin! The kids were surprised how much of a difference turning lights off as we leave a room or not having the tap running while we brush our teeth can make.

TIC of A Camp - Tick!

Last week I ran my first camp (well actually 2 back to back camps because of 2 classes!). I have been on a few camps as an extra pair of hands and eyes before, but I have never been the teacher in charge. There's certainly a lot more responsibility.... and a tonne more paperwork! Preparing for these camps took a lot of admin from phone calls to bookings to rebookings to emails to RAMS forms to supermarket stops. I've always known how much was needed to prep for a camp, and I've planned a day trip before, but I don't think I've actually ever fully understood or empathised how time consuming everything is! My mind is blown that there is never additional time given for camp prep. 

Not only was there a lot of prep I needed to do behind the scenes, but I obviously needed to prepare the students in the weeks leading up to camp too. There was a lot of being one step ahead of the kids throughout because there were skills/knowledge that were new to me too! Here are some of the key things we covered in class:

Why bushwalk?

This is the question I was expecting many students to ask, so we started with a big brainstorm and discussion around the varieties of reasons why people bushwalk. It baffles me when people have never bushwalked before, particularly when it's free and reasonably accessible - especially in Adelaide! There are HEAPS of reasons; exercise, mindfulness, able to disconnect, social time or self-care time, increase mood, environmental awareness, the opportunity to see wildlife and so much more!

Basic navigation

Navigation certainly isn't my strength, but I do find it interesting! It has been great to learn a little more about compasses and map reading (but I certainly am not super comfortable yet!). On camp the students were thrown into the deep end as they were given the task to navigate the group using their navigational skills. I was happy to see that some of the things we covered in class the students were able to apply into a real life setting. Key skills;
- How to read a compass
- Getting red in the shed
- Taking a bearing
- How to orient a map
- How to use a compass with a map

How to cook on a trangia

Before moving to Australia I had never heard the word 'trangia' before, and now it's well and truly embedded in my day to day chat! When I move back NZ I will definitely be suggesting purchasing trangias because they are easy to carry and set up (let's not talk about the cleaning though!). During class we had a practice cook to discuss nutrition, what to pack and the safety considerations. This created great discussion and reflection for the kids to think about what they were actually going to take on camp. I've created a little checklist alongside for others who may not have used a trangia before and for me to refer to in the future.

How to pack your bag

Carrying a pack with all of your food, water, clothes, sleeping bag, tent etc can be a big challenge if you haven't experienced it before (and actually every time after your first time!). I remember the first time I went on a multi-day hike and my pack (here they call it a rucksack) was about 18kg! That's a lot of extra weight to be carrying for hours of walking. I think I managed to get this down to 14kg and now I aim for about 11kg (but some people have much less than this!). To help with the comfort of carrying a full hiking bag, you need to consider how you are packing it. There are several videos and articles out there, but I liked the below one the best. I think it helps with creating an equipment list and she breaks down why she is putting each item in a particular place.

Basic knot tying

This is also an area that I don't know too well (but I am less interested in, so I guess that's why this knowledge hasn't stuck over the years!). I gave the students some rope, and videos and step by step pictures of how to do the figure 8, the clove hitch and the double fisherman's knot. Although they may not be specifically needed to bushwalk, they may be needed to create shelters, to secure a tent, to hang up washing and so on. I also knew that these knots are beneficial for students to learn for their rock climbing unit. I personally underestimate how knot tying can be useful in so many settings (which became apparent during my remote first aid course as well as camp last week). 

To practice using the knots straight away though, students got into small groups, were given ropes and a tarp and headed outside to create a little shelter. While creating this shelter they needed to think about which knots would hold, how their shelter would protect against the elements and the positioning/location of their shelter. This activity created great discussion and reminded me of a Junior Outdoor Ed unit I co-taught a few years ago.

I was feeling a little nervous about going away and being responsible for this bunch of kids, but I knew that I had dotted my i's and crossed my t's and I was excited to actually get out there! Coming off the three-day course last week and then a long weekend where I was camping with my friends probably didn't help with feeling a little frazzled, but I was grateful I had my colleague Sam come along with me for the first overnight to get my confidence up a little. Aside from a couple of aches and pains, and a LOT of rain, I feel the camps ran smoothly and majority of the students enjoyed the opportunity. The kids had a genuine experience of getting 'lost', seeing wildlife, picking and cooking wild mushrooms (the guide had incredible experience and knowledge), basic first aid, weather changes and new social interactions. The best decision I made was making this camp phone free!

To encourage the students to reflect on their experiences and surroundings, I asked students to complete this journal before, during and after camp. We even had a 20 minute silent walk where students were not allowed to speak at all! Many noticed smells, sights and sounds they hadn't previously - I think this was a powerful 20 minutes for many of them. Overall, I am looking forward to giving this a crack again next semester with a new bunch of students and to continue to learn more about EOTC! Can't wait to hopefully have a Senior class in a few years when camps are more student-led.

Tourniquets in 'Timbuktu'

Over the last three days I was fortunate to complete a Remote Area First Aid course facilitated by St John Australia. Because I have started teaching my own Outdoor Ed classes this year, I thought this would be valuable, especially for camps. When I arrived I quickly realised most of the other participants were freelance outdoor instructors or tradies working in remote areas. I felt a little inexperienced and out of place as a result, but knew to get experience you need to start somewhere! 

Across the three days there was some repetitiveness across basic first aid courses, which is never a bad thing! I liked that most of the second half of the course were hands-on practical demonstrations and practice runs of a variety of scenarios that we could be faced with though to mix it up. Although the scenarios were as realistic as they could be in an office space, I do think that the course would be much more beneficial, rewarding and enjoyable if they were actually based in an outdoor setting. I was hoping that I would go on a course like this and actually be camping / in a remote area. 

The most lifelike experience was a fake arm with an open wound that water could be pumped through to replicate blood gushing out. On this we needed to practice stuffing the wound to slow the bleeding and encourage a clot and then place a tourniquet. It was incredible how many gauze pads needed to be stuffed into the wound to even slow down the 'bleeding'. I can only imagine if you had to do that for real for someone!

There is an array of evidence to show that the more people know, the more confident they feel and the more empowered they feel to respond to a medical emergency. As described by First Aid Melbourne, "a study conducted by the Red Cross showed that a staggering 59% of deaths from injuries could have been prevented if only first aid had been given in the first few minutes of the incident before an ambulance arrived". So, even though I feel I still know very little there is to know about first aid in the grand scheme of things, every little bit helps. I've been lucky to only have been involved in a couple of responses that would be considered mild, and hope I never have to respond to someone in a critical or dangerous scenario. Therefore, I encourage everyone to complete at least a basic first aid course - please don't hesitate! 

I do hope to get the opportunity in the future to learn about more preventative strategies, as the last few days have mostly had a focus on responses. I have heard about a course based around preventing fatalities in the outdoors that I may try go to - watch this space! Finally, as I have previously blogged about, first aid is more than a broken leg - mental health first aid is another great course to complete.

Discovering the Wonders of Kaurna Seasons

Weather is obviously an integral part of the outdoors and Outdoor Education. Not only do we want our OUED students to be aware of weather, we also want them to be aware of the environment and its history. The traditional custodians of the Adelaide Plains are the Kaurna people, and the Kaurna people have different seasons than we recognise in the Western world. 

The four seasons (Warltati, Parnati, Kudlila and Wirltuti) directly relate to weather patterns that we may recognise as summer, autumn, winter and spring and determine the lifestyle choices the Kaurna people make during that season. Here is a short video with a little more information. I met with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education officers to learn a little more about the seasons, as well as how to pronounce the Kaurna language. Check out the video below for the correct pronunciation. Sidenote - I have noticed and reflected on how ahead New Zealand is with the inclusion of our indigenous language and customs - Aussie is still very much in the early stages and as a result the language is not yet embedded within day-to-day chat. So, others were learning with me too, not only the students.

Rather than having seasons linked to specific dates throughout the year, the times of the Kaurna seasons change. The general time of year is somewhat predictable, but the seasons actually start and end based off what the weather is doing and how the animals are acting and interacting with each other and the environment. For example, during Warltati the yabbies come out of the mud, during Parnati skin rugs and seaweed cloaks are made to prepare for the cold, the ducks and water birds are nesting during Kudlila and crustaceans are collected during Wirltuti. I really enjoyed teaching about these seasons and feedback from the students was that many thought it was interesting too.

Here is the task that I gave the students to encourage them to learn more and compare the Kaurna seasons to the Western world seasons. To extend this learning further, students researched another cultural perspective around seasons and weather around the world. Turns out there are heaps! Some cultures have 2 and others have 7+! 

To learn more about the Kaurna seasons, check out this detailed website.

Co-Teaching Celebrations

Throughout the second half of this year I have enjoyed co-teaching our Year 9 PE classes with Alice. We've had three units together; Movement Ed, Fitness and Outdoor Ed, and each had a different Achievement Objective attached to it. I spent my whole first year at Tamaki co-teaching all of my classes, and I really enjoyed it. I felt like I learnt a lot alongside another teacher, and loved bouncing ideas off of one another before, during and after lessons. So I was excited for this opportunity again. 

Alice has a few more years experience than me, so brings lots of great ideas. As teachers, we have similar views, expectations and philosophies. We both have an interest in curriculum and how to integrate curriculum terminology and knowledge within our teaching and learning. We both have high expectations for students, wanting them to achieve to the greatest of their potential. We both like to challenge students to critically think about their choices, their involvement and their opinions. We both prioritise inclusion and participation. 

These similarities between us have been great for the culture we have developed in our class. Questioning students on their levels and the achievement objectives has certainly helped to develop the positive learning culture too. I feel majority of our students have moved away from the expectation that PE is just playing sports, as they initially thought. There now seems to be more understanding about the E in PE! I've also loved hearing other students starting to help one another when they are unsure, and holding each other accountable for individual and class success. 

  

Obviously Alice and I have some slight differences, but they don't have any major impact on our planning and teaching. The only thing we could come up with are slight expectation differences around behaviour and uniform. The stuff that fortunately is minimal due to the class culture!

I really hope that I have further opportunities to co-teach, as it is so valuable. So much can be learnt from having someone else alongside you, irrespective of their experience. I do think it can be very challenging if you don't have similar views, expectations and philosophies - but this provides quite different learning opportunities, more personal growth possibly.

Who knows what the future holds...

 

  

First XV On Form

For the past week my Year 13s have been buzzing for their big game this weekend, against the top team. As I have a long-distance relationship, and friends and family across the country, I am often away during the weekends. However, this weekend I was not. 

I was thankful the weather was in our favour, with beautiful sunny skies and no rain as we have had intermittently over the past few weeks. The boys had a home game, so my partner and I trotted along to support them. Boy, was it a game. I am so proud of the boys, they performed well. 

They worked together, supported one another and won 26-12. This means they are now sitting at top of the table for their division, so exciting!

I am unfortunately way too busy this year to help out coaching and with extra curricular activities, but I cannot wait until I can in the years to come. The sense of determination, motivation, achievement and cooperation evident throughout sports is incredible, sometimes this is not easy to see during school time. Involvement in extra-curricular activities also shows you in a new light to the students, which I think is important. We are people, with lives outside of school, which students can struggle to comprehend sometimes.

Although I cannot help now, I look forward to supporting more of the rugby, as well as the basketball teams when I don't have lectures, and helping where I can in the future. 

This clip has made me consider what a coach actually is, and what coaching is. Often we associate coaching with sports teams, however I think we are all coaches in a variety of ways.

Crash and Burn, Take One

Week 5, done and dusted. Hallelujah!

This week has been long and exhausting, even though I was really only at school for two days!

Monday: 

High Ropes and Mountain Biking with 12PE, check out my blog here to read more about our fun day out at Woodhill Forest.

I was considerably drenched from the rain, so I spent some time warming up with a nice hot shower and soup.

Planned. A lot. Even called one of my co-teachers to plan. Plan, plan, plan.

Tuesday:

My super busy day. 6 classes back to back, then a co-teacher meeting after school.

I then completed some admin for my tutor class and had a bite to eat before I pottered off to bootcamp. Yes, I go to a bootcamp. I decided to do so, because I have no time to think about my own training programmes. Therefore, a bootcamp keeps me active without having to think about what I am doing. If I am not active, my body gives up and my overall wellbeing (Hauora) crashes.

Post bootcamp and grass/mud removal, I worked through some of my PE 'to dos' such as planning volleyball lessons with a TGFU approach. Teaching Games for Understanding, is a model developed by Bunker and Thorpe in 1982, to teach skills and technique of games through modified, competitive situations (instead of standing and passing for example).

Diagram found here.

Wednesday:

In the pool for a short 1km swim at 5:45am to stretch out and invigorate the body a little.

Awesome day at school. Busy, but awesome. The kids are finally starting to warm to me, and open up, which makes a huge difference to our classroom vibe and overall learning environment.

Our first lecture! MDTA begun our Honours course this afternoon, with a basic intro discussion about critical thinking and how important it is to implement into our classrooms. I am definitely a critical thinker myself, and I do try my best to encourage my students to think critically at present - so I am really excited about what this course has to bring.

Tonight, I completed no work at all. Two friends from England landed this evening and I took them out for dinner in the Viaduct. I really enjoyed spending time with friends, this really boosted my overall wellbeing and Hauora. However, my throat was a little niggly...

Thursday:

Uhoh. I am sick. I woke up this morning feeling terrible. I think I have finally crashed, which was bound to happen eventually!

I am unsure whether it is a good thing or a bad thing that I wasn't at school teaching today. I was out with the Year 12s again, but this time we were kayaking. I really enjoy kayaking, so I tried my best to be involved and be positive even though under the surface smile I was feeling awful. Teaching involves acting!

After a power nap, I went to my sign language course. Ironically we were learning how to sign words related to Health and wellbeing, so I could explain all of my symptoms by the end of the night.

Friday:

MDTA digital immersion day. Boy, it was tough to stay mentally involved today. I really wasn't 100% there, but I tried to be.

Today we jumped into Google Sites and how we can best organise and present our sites both for our learning, and our students' learning. I was thankful I had already spent some time with a Google Educator learning about sites, so today was revision with the odd new piece of information thrown in. This screenshot shows the site I played with, creating a basic lesson about Little Red Riding Hood. Although it (clearly) needs some 'blinging' up, as it is ugly currently, I now know how to embed various photos, videos and Google products into my Sites.

Being sick and trying to learn is so difficult, I really just wanted to go to bed! This demonstrates the concept of Hauora wholeheartedly if one wall crashes, so does the whare.

However, my favourite part of today was playing around with HTML code. I remember writing HTML code in highschool and I really enjoyed it, so I can't wait to play around a little more and see what I can create in the future.

As this week as been a rollercoaster of emotions and hurdles, I think it is important to remind myself what I am doing here. Why I am putting myself through this organised mess. For the students. As cliche as it is, I want to make a difference. Not a teacher? Check out some ways others have made a difference.

Our Leap Day Leap of Faith

As much as I love and am passionate about Health, I studied Health and PE for a reason - I am also passionate about physical activity and the outdoors.

Today as part of their assessment, we took 12PE out to Woodhill Forest today, to experience a High Ropes course and mountain biking. Some of the students are petrified of heights, and some had never really ridden a bike before - but even though the activities were challenging, they were so engaged. 

The staff were blown away how positively they participated.

For majority of the students, today was once in a lifetime opportunity, and I am so glad I could be a part of that. The activities aren't cheap and they are located over an hour away from school, which for some families is way too unrealistic as a weekend hangout. 

I have always appreciated what I have, but these kids have provided me with a newfound love and appreciation for everything in my life, as some of them have nothing.

The kids were buzzing at the end of the day, with only a couple of complaints about the bucketing down rain!

What a sweet day at the office. 

Need some convincing as to why outdoor education is important? Dillon et al., will help you to clarify.

(Dillon, J., Rickinson, M., Teamey, K., Morris, M., Young Choi, M., Sanders, D., & Benefield, P. (2006). The value of outdoor learning: evidence from research in the UK and elsewhere. School Science Review, 87(320), 107-111)