I was not there for the gardening session with Madi, but it looked very fun! Just seeing those beautiful crops pulled out of the ground brings me a lot of joy, as someone with a green thumb myself. I have been taking care of houseplants, and my parents’ lawn for a while now, and it is always so satisfying to see the “fruits” of our labour. In terms of teaching in a garden, I think that no matter the subject, it’s important to help the students to wind down after a stressful day of school. It is very nerve-wrecking for teenagers to study for 6 hours a day, while getting only a small break during lunch. I feel that when I am in the garden, it is very zen, a little getaway from the noisiness of school.
And now, for the sun dial activity, it was so cool! It was very fun to learn about our sun and how solstices work. The most important part in this activity is really to just move around. It is very engaging to be able to stand up, wave our arms a bit, get loose, do some silly poses, while learning about the nature. Those exercises feel like a way to do Land Learning without all the reading and studying. It is a nice change of pace to get away from all the concrete, and to learn about the glowing yellow dot in the sky. I believe that learning math is all about understanding how to problem solve, so in activities like those, they give students opportunities to figure things out themselves, which is often the fun part. It is also a very low-stakes environment, where no marks are given out, they just get the time to be creative or to wind down. I would probably enforce a no-phone rule here to help them get the most out of this :)
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