140+ Learning

Hmm…

It’s been about a year since I’ve written anything on this blog. I’ve also drastically reduced my edu-reading. There are a whole lot of reasons for my absence which can be distilled down to this:

I took a job with our school board that was a bad fit. It left me depleted and wondering why I ever got into the field of education.

...And then a year with some really cool kids happened. 

I started to heal, and return to myself.

Instead of reading about education. I slowed down and listened to my students.

I'm still not ready to post regularly, but I'm feeling more connected and I’m starting to feel like I once again have things to say.

So...

Yesterday, My friend Bart Vanslack, passed me this post by Mark Chubb, and asked me for my thoughts.

How Not to Start School - Click to Read

Here they are.. thoughts from a grade 2 teacher.

Overall, the article is a good and positive piece, but I had one major, lingering thought after reading it:

I reject the premise that kids are learning less at home. 

They might not following the Ontario Curriculum, but my students are cooking, planting and growing, trying out hobbies, connecting with family members. These are all learning opportunities. Heck, even watching Netflix can be a huge opportunity! Moreover, these are all experiences that are very hard to replicate in Ontario schools.

So instead, maybe we should start the next school days with:

What did you learn at home?  How did you spend your days? 

When teachers validate at home learning (experiential, hands-on, relationship filled), they unearth a powerful set of leverage points. They can say things like “when you baked, how did you measure?” How about, “who did you video chat with? What did you learn from that person?” They can even say “what did you learn from show x?” 

When we think about things that students “aren’t learning” we’re engaging in unproductive discourse. It leaves us guessing where to start. Yet, when we flip that notion on its head - when we look for things that kids ARE learning away from the classroom - we start to identify learning that we can built upon.

Asset-based thinking gives us a starting point that honours prior knowledge and gives all teachers a place from which they can build.

Experiential Learning usually refers to the kind of learning that takes students out of the classroom and thrusts them into new environments.

Not all experiences have to happen in this way.

In Ontario, we refer to many different “locations” for learning: virtual, face-to-face, and blended.

According to our Ministry of Education, “community-connected experiential learning builds on research that indicates that students are more engaged, more motivated to learn, and more successful when they can connect what they are learning to situations they care about in their community and in the world.”   

So...

How might we connect reading to situations that students care about in their community and in the world? How might we create accessible reading experiences that are not determined by new locations/environments?

Here’s one answer from LifeHacker: Read Movie Scripts With Your Kid. The post reminded me of something old, Reader's Theatre. Reader’s Theatre is a real opportunity for students to practice some of the skills that  good readers do well:

Applying past knowledge to new situations

Questioning and posing problems

Thinking about thinking (metacognition)

Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision

Thinking interdependently

Remaining open to continuous learning

When kids read in theatre, they have a chance to think about how characters will approach different situations.  In Reader’s Theatre, kids might think about themselves in relationship to characters and situations.  The more they read over their scripts, (YES, please read a text more than once), the more opportunities that they will have to alter their tone, voice, phrasing.  This will deepen their connection to the text.

In Reader’s Theatre, Students also get to work with others (interdependently) to come up with solutions for how to best express the thoughts of individual characters as they relate to others.  For instance, one person's selfish actions might result in hurt feelings from others.  Another character's compassion might evoke kindness in others.

One of the most beautiful parts of my home, Canada, is its rich diversity. We’re blessed with variety.

Superficially, we can see diversity in food, languages, and clothing. On a deeper level, we can see it in perspectives, ideas, and values. I often marvel at how well-suited Canada is to understanding others.

However, just because we’re well suited to understanding others, that doesn’t mean that it’s easy to do. As a teacher, as a family member, as a friend, I often hear stories from others describing difficulties in communicating effectively with their nearest and dearest - nevermind strangers! Just because we want to understand others, it doesn’t mean that we are always able to do so.

... And that’s why a book like Drawn Together matters. Check out this synopsis:

“When a young boy visits his grandfather, their lack of a common language leads to confusion, frustration, and silence. But as they sit down to draw together, something magical happens-with a shared love of art and storytelling, the two form a bond that goes beyond words.”

The book makes me think of a group of educators (Nada Aoudeh, Mandy Lau, and Debbie Donsky) and some very important work that they have done with some English Language Learners in their board.

To get a better idea of the project, take a look at their website.

It’s a real-life version of Drawn Together: educators and students working to build empathy through art.  In a country well-suited to understanding each other, this is the kind of work that helps us make good on that potential.

When I saw our new Food Guide, I instantly fell in love.

I come from a family that grew up growing, cooking and loving food. That love came from my immigrant Grandmother, Babunia, who prioritized good food for her loved ones even during the most difficult times.

I love that this document focuses on food habits. Many of these habits - cooking more often, enjoying your food, eating meals with others - make me wonder if Babunia was a consulting editor.

… But not everyone shares my love for the new guide.

Two big concerns from others got me thinking:

1) eating healthy is a more expensive option

2) many of the new guide’s recommendations require some kitchen skills

So, how can we make this right?

Education.

Fortunately for us here in Ontario, the Food Guide plays a central role in how we ought to approach healthy eating in our classrooms.

I can think of some pretty natural connections between the worries expressed above and topics that teachers ought to be bringing into their classrooms.

Concern #1: Eating Healthy Is A More Expensive Option

Eating healthy food is expensive. In schools, perhaps we could teach our students how to eat seasonally and avoid waste.

We can also show families where they can grow food when they don’t have access to green space.

Finally, we might also connect our classrooms with foragers that use nature's garden to supplement their food stocks.

Concern #2: Many Of The New Guide’s Recommendations Require Some Kitchen Skills

While there are some recipes connected to the guide already,  perhaps school is the place where we could start to teach students how to prepare healthy meals and snacks for themselves and their families.

Last year, one of our Elementary Guidance Counselors, Frank Amato, used some Experiential Learning funds to bring the experience of cooking together to his students. 

The best solution might be putting some funds into kitchens and cooking at school (check out the last paragraph of this post by Corey Mintz). While we wait for this to happen, partnering with people in the food industry might be a good place to start this kind of learning.

Yesterday, Dr. John Portelli, prodded us to think deeply about Education Vs. Miseducation. I kept thinking about his words after our time together.  

Last night I jotted down this poem. Sadly, I think I identify with both the speaker AND the audience.

Frank Severino’s tweet last week got me  thinking about wordless texts again.

I’m wondering if wordless texts are perhaps the most equitable texts to use in class. They level the playing field for readers of all levels.

“Since wordless literature is free from print, it actively promotes visual literacy by inspiring children to look closer and become perceptually aware of the visual information presented before them. Furthermore, wordless books can be especially useful resources for encouraging perspective taking (Lysaker & Miller, 2012). Without text to provide descriptions of what characters may be thinking or feeling, these books require children to remain mindful of facial expressions and to constantly be on the lookout for visual clues that could assist them in understanding portrayed emotions and experiences.”

A good wordless text can be a wedge into deep reading. The competencies of “looking closer”, “perspective-taking”, “using visual cues to build understanding” are important for all reading and all readers.

Moreover, if we believe that...

1) Literacy supports and is developed through thinking, expressing and reflecting.

AND

2) Literacy is fostered in active, inclusive and responsive learning environments which feature explicit literacy instruction and meaningful experiences, which provide adolescents with avenues for social connection, discovery, motivation, and relevancy.

… then wordless texts work because they not only invite, but also demand readers to reflect on what’s happening. This process is active and inclusive because it’s open to interpretation. Wordless texts spark conversations, and encourage readers to re-read and look for the things that their peers might see. I often think about the ways that my students read The Mysteries Of The Harris Burdick or the ways that they understood Pixar’s La Luna or how they were able to remix the scores for wordless films to show their understanding of texts. I have to think that a large part of their interest had to do with the open and provocative nature of each visual.

Change can and should happen more quickly than it typically occurs in education if conditions are right. The trick is changing the conditions - avoiding becoming too procedure driven. We, of course, do use strategic planning, but we are not bound by a plan. In fact, we relish the opportunity to work in the sandboxes of invention and innovation because that’s where the strategic work and eventually operational sustainability of change begins. You just have to make sure that the sandbox is there, is valued, is inviting.

Last week, one of the first slides in my presentation to Ontario School Counsellors’ Association looked like this:

It’s a strongly-worded sentiment that keeps me going every day. It’s also the main reason that I started documenting some of the work that I’ve been involved with in my board.  I’m certain, that there is system-altering work that is ready to happen if we as a board can - in the words of Ira Socol, Pam Moran, and Chad Ratliff - 1) make sure the sandbox is there 2) make sure the sandbox is valued 3) make sure the sandbox is inviting.

Make Sure The Sandbox Is There

This one is tricky. It requires a “we want to hear from you” and “we’re going to help and, when necessary, get out of your way” stance.

In our board, teachers had an opportunity in the spring to pitch their ideas for Experiential Learning Projects. Educators had to prove that the work that they were proposing met board criteria, and then they were supported with funds, co-planning, co-teaching, etc.

Make Sure The Sandbox Is Valued

It’s important to celebrate not only the work of teachers, but also the courage that they display in trying something new.  We need to share the ideas that each of us takes for granted, just in case those ideas are new to others.

Our newly launched Experiential Learning Google Site was built to honour the risks taken by teachers as well as their hard work.  The tab marked Spotlight On Experiential Learning showcases some of the exciting projects led by educators in our board.

Make Sure The Sandbox Is Inviting

My favorite parts of the site are invitations.

The first appears on every single Spotlight On Experiential Learning. At the end of each of these pages is the heading Transferable Skills where readers can find a little something that might apply to their classrooms. While not all classrooms are the same, there are a lot of lies that bind different grades and schools. Transferable Skills attempts to show that while our classrooms might be different, you are welcome to try parts of ____________ in a way that suits your students.

The second is a form at the bottom of the Interactive Map tab. My hope with this map is that it will be a crowd-sourced map full of pins. It will grow with time and gradually show more and more locations where educators might take their students to experience something different that’s connected to their learning.

As time progresses, we’ll see how this approach works. In the words of Ira, Pam and Chad, “the sandbox is messy, and is always a work in progress.”

I think there’s value to reading criticisms of the work that I do.  My old boss, Jan Murphy, would say “a criticism is just a poorly worded concern.” Another perspective is that without considering the pitfalls and shortcomings of a thing, we’ll never be able to make it better.

So, yesterday I read an opinion piece that digs into Why Experiential Learning is Not As Good As Classroom Learning. There’s a lot to the article, but I think that the crux of it appears in these paragraphs:

“Almost all of us will eventually have to work for a living, and that will always require sustained ‘real-life, engaged learning.’ It will also call for immersion in interactions with average minds (like most of our own) working toward mundane ends. As educators, we should be proud that we give our students, while they are students, the opportunity to interact -- through their reading and writing, their laboratory work, and our instruction -- with what the best minds have discovered and developed within our various disciplines. This is something the ‘real world’ is unlikely to offer them regularly once they leave college.

Oscar Wilde once said (contradicting Goethe) that it is much more difficult to think than to act. The most valuable thing we can teach students is the ability to think through, with patient focus, demanding intellectual challenges. Solving a difficult linear algebra problem, working to understand an intricate passage from Descartes, figuring out how, exactly, the findings of evolutionary morphology explain the current human stride -- all these are examples of the sort of learning that we should be proud to provide our students. And not one of them features ‘real-life’ engagement.”

 I wanted to hate the post.  

I wanted to scream the message that I have privately saying for years: “School is not the best place to learn. The more we can make the learning in school match the learning that happens out of school, the better.”

 But I don’t hate the post.

I think that the author, John Kajinsky, has a great point.  There is value to pondering, to thinking, to immersing ourselves in ideas. Good Experiential Learning needs to keep that in mind. 

The draft document: Community Connected Experiential Learning really emphasizes reflection and application as key ingredients to Experiential Learning.  Without both elements, we run the risk of Experiential Learning becoming “job training” or “a fun field trip”.  It’s by transferring knowledge from the experience to larger concepts/ideas that deep learning occurs. 

Here’s an example: 

“... experiential learning in the classroom means students learn through doing, such as gardening to learn botany. But it is important to note, that experiential learning goes beyond an active methodology. Experiential learning is about cultivating a keen awareness of the lesson’s meaning and relevance to the individual… it is about bringing lessons from the abstract to the concrete.

When a child asks, “Why do I have to learn math?” They are not requesting examples of how math may be relevant to a particular future job. They are asking, “Why does this matter right now? How is this relevant to my immediate reality?” This is why a major component of bringing successful experiential learning into a classroom involves making lessons immediately relevant to the student, so that they can respect the process of learning.”

Another, example happened in my board two weeks ago.  Students used the experience of milling fallen trees to dig deeper into ideas around human interactions with the environment.

They used the day’s experience as a provocation to learn more about how human interactions affect the environment.

While I recognize that a “classroom only” approach would allow more time for deep thinking, it would also not present the rich provocation for learning that this experience provided. Perhaps this question ought to be asked before planning any Experiential Learning: “What learning will this experience help us to flesh out through deep reflection and meaningful application?”

This weekend I read a pretty great post by Max Roser. It is a thoughtful, and insightful description of this graphic that Max made:

As I read the post and stared at the map, I kept thinking about all of the different stories that this data tells. It talks about equity, about representation, about sharing. This graphic shows the reader so many things that a list of numbers simply can’t.

In Ontario, one of the areas of focus for our Math Curriculum - or as we call them, strands - is Data Management and Probability.  It’s a part of the curriculum because, we are surrounded by data; students need to learn how to interpret and understand that information:

“Graphs and statistics bombard the public in advertising, opinion polls, population trends, reliability estimates, descriptions of discoveries by scientists, and estimates of health risks, to name just a few. In this strand, students learn about different ways to gather, organize, and display data. They learn about different types of data and develop techniques for analysing the data that include determining measures of central tendency and examining the distribution of the data."

When data is represented in ways like Max's map, it’s far easier for students to see all of the stories that the numbers can tell them.  As I reflect to some Data Management work that I have done with my students, I wonder if it would have helped the kids to first, visualize what the numbers are telling them through diagrams and sketchnotes like this map.

“... the “aha” moment, the flash of clarity that arises at unexpected times - in a dream, in the shower, on a walk - often emerges after a period of contemplation. Famous accounts  of Archimedes figuring out a method for measuring volume as he sat in the bathtub or Isaac Newton grasping the theory of gravity after watching an apple fall from a tree often fail to recognize the knowledge that these scientists had already acquired. It takes time to reach an epiphany. Information comes in consciously, but the problem is processed unconsciously, studies suggests, so that the resulting solution often leaps out when the mind least expects it. “Great ideas don't tend when you're narrowly focusing on them,” says Kaufman.

History's most creative minds know this to be true. Henry David Thoreau documented the necessity of wandering to unlock his musings. “How in vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live!” he wrote in his journal. “Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.’ Julie Taymor, the theater director and creative force behind The Lion King, has revealed that some of her most inspired insights surface after rest. ‘A lot of my strangest ideas come from early morning sleep, and it’s really an incredible moment,” she said during a forum on the enigma of genius at the World Science Festival in New York City. “I get up and the thing has become very clear very fast. It's not deliberately done.”

When ideas begin to flow, one must be ready. Oliver Sacks, the neurologist whose best-selling books take the readers on Odysseys through the brain and human behavior, started keeping journals when he was 14 years old so that he could jump down ideas as they transpire. “I always keep a notebook by my bedside for dreams as well as night time thoughts, and I try to have one by the swimming pool or the lake side or the sea shore,” Sacks wrote in his autobiography.”

This summer I took a real break.  It was done deliberately. 

Part of my thinking was that I needed to keep taking control of my own health by striking a better work/life balance and being present to the most important people in my life.

The other part of my thinking was that I wanted to dig deeper into “experience” as it pertains to my role in our school board. So... I gardened, kayaked, played video games, biked, cooked, practiced yoga, took walks, spent time with people. I disconnected in order to do my work better. Or, in Thoreau’s words, I stood up to live. 

All the best to everyone as this school year starts. 

Stay healthy. 

“Most of the time, thinking is integrated with doing: We think in the context of interacting with things, playing with things, creating things. And most thinking is done in connection with other people: We share ideas, get reactions from other people, build upon one another’s ideas.”

-Mitchel Resnick

I think that this is the part of Lifelong Kindergarten that is the most relevant to the work I’m doing these days.  The language is a little vague, and the thinking is messy, but so is learning.

In the three months that I’ve been working as our board’s Leader of Experiential Learning I’ve seen students...  

“interacting with things robotics”

“playing with things rockets”

“creating things films”

I’ve also witnessed students...

“share ideas about plant/medicinal sovereignty”

“get reactions from other people about wind turbine designs”

“build upon one another’s ideas about what we can do to help each other out through high anxiety that happens at school.”

All of this learning is deeply connected to providing meaningful experiences, helping students to reflect upon these experiences, and, finally, applying that learning to other parts of their lives.

As I mentioned recently to a friend, school needs to be a place where kids can do things that they would not be able to do on their own or at home; otherwise, we have wasted an opportunity.  

Jane’s Walks: “Citizen-led walking tours to make space for people to observe, reflect, share, question and re-imagine the places in which they live, work and play.”

For years, I have thought about Jane’s Walks as ways for students to learn more about their city and the communities with whom they share space.

According to the Jane’s Walks website, organizing a walk is a pretty straight forward process

Organizers must:

1) Decide on a topic, theme, or neighbourhood to explore.

2) Plan a route and discussion.

3) Consider accessibility.

4) Get the word out.

5) Lead the Walk!

*click here to read more.

A student-led Jane’s Walk is a great canvas to showcase and push learning.  Here are some different areas that might fit nicely into the Jane’s Walk template.

Math: Measurement and Geometry and Spatial Sense strands.

Science: Wildlife, plants, or environmental impact of humans on their neighborhoods. In the words of the Ontario Science Curriculum: “to relate science and technology to society and the environment.”

Social Studies: Most of the topics in the “B strands” of Ontario’s Revised Social Studies curriculum.

All topics can further be framed by all four Language strands in Ontario: Reading, Writing, Oral Communication and Media Literacy.  After all, “a Jane’s Walk is a unique story about how you see, interact with, and feel about a place or topic.” Students can read, write, and then speak about their neighborhood while planning and carrying out a Jane’s Walk.  Teachers can infuse Media Literacy into walks by creating curated maps of their routes.  Maps can showcase stops that will happen along the way.  Students can also add links to maps, providing supplemental information for their audience. These links can act as a bibliography for the walk itself, or they can invite participants to learn more after their walk has taken place.

Last week at the OCEA Conference  I had the pleasure of attending a session by Tony Roes and Jessica Chateauvert.  In their session they discussed a variety of apps and how to use them within an Experiential Learning context.  Here’s the session as described by the conference program:

The part of their presentation that resonated the most for me was an assignment that they called Show and Share.  Take a look at this example:

I love the focus of this assignment.  Students choose one thing that they’ve  learned as a result of their Co-op experience, then they share that learning.

The assignment is an opportunity for students to think about their learning, which really resonates with the idea that “we experience something and learn from it only if we reflect upon it afterward.”

The assignment also emphasizes the holistic nature of Experiential Learning:

“Life is filled with complex problems that require individuals to solve them using a variety of subject areas.  Experiential learning utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to education because when students directly experience something, they are exposed to a variety of subjects that are linked together.  This process does not compartmentalize knowledge; instead it allows students opportunities to connect subject matters, ultimately seeing a bigger picture of how things are interconnected in the world.”

In the feed example (above), the student connects mathematical principles of measurement and ratios to some biology concepts.  The student then uses some media literacy to present his ideas in a clear format to an intended audience.

The presentation tool is also straightforward:

Adobe Spark is a device-agnostic and user-friendly application.  I’ve used the program with students as young as grade 2.  It’s a great tool that promotes reflection through voice overs and captions. Projects created using Spark can be embedded easily into web pages, MyBlueprint profiles, blogs, digital portfolios etc.  It truly is an opportunity to Show and to Share.

There’s a throw away line in an Ontario Ministry of Education Monograph on Culturally Responsive Pedagogy that I think really needs to underpin a lot of the work that we do in classrooms.  It appears in a margin on the seventh page of the document:

I remember how hard the idea of asset-based teaching hit me the first time that I really thought about it.  Teachers often refer the learning process as arising out of prior knowledge: ideas build upon ideas.  For us to really do our job right, we need to invest in finding out what our students CAN do.  

In general, our assessment and evaluation strategies focus on what’s left to learn.  That becomes problematic when we try to grow learning.  If we can only identify what’s missing, then growing minds becomes a guessing game.  However, if a teacher can identify even the smallest nugget of knowledge, then that same teacher has found something to grow in a student.

Last week, this idea jumped out at me again while I read Bridging Cultures: Indigenous and Scientific Ways Of Knowing Nature:

“When teachers assume the role of student, they demonstrate a passion for learning and they model skills such as carefully observing, actively asking questions, and immersing themselves in local cultural activities.

When a teacher learns Indigenous knowledge from students who bring it from home, the classroom environment changes positively and pervasively, creating a new shared responsibility for learning.”

I love the connections that Glen Aikenhead and Herman Michelle draw between Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and reciprocal teaching.  Not only is taking time to understand our students a sound teaching strategy for identifying growable assets, but it’s also an opportunity for students and teachers to learn from each other… and that idea has some seriously researched backing:

It appears over and over again in John Hattie’s meta research. It’s also a strategy that gets used in many classrooms.  I can’t think of the amount of times that I’ve said, “If you really understand a concept, you should be able to teach it to another person.”

Reciprocal teaching is a way to 1) grow assets in our students 2) add value to everyone’s ideas 3) infuse more Culturally Responsive Pedagogy into our classrooms.  

What should come first?  Theory or practice? Arithmetic or problem solving? Spelling or writing?

I’m currently reading Bridging Cultures: Indigenous Ways of Knowing Nature and a particular passage stuck out:

“Led by William Whewell, an Anglican Priest and natural philosopher of mineralogy at Trinity College Cambridge, natural philosophers attempted to revise their public image by portraying technologists, such as James Watt of steam engine fame, as people whose success depended on the application of the abstract knowledge of natural philosophy.  However, as in the case of the steam engine, the opposite actually happened. Technologist James Watt completed his invention long before scientists proposed the laws of thermodynamics that describe in abstract generalizations how the engine works.”

In schools we paint a very linear picture of what “good learning” looks like.  We’ve designed  curricula that create learning trajectories and outline logical means with which we grow minds and share knowledge.  

Most of the time it works, but what about tinkering?  What about building something then inquiring deeply into why it works?

All in the same week…

I got engaged.

I moved into my new home.

I started a new job.

… And I lived to tell the tale.

When my schedule gets full I always make lists.  Lists help me to download the responsibility of remembering onto a piece of paper.  They let me to focus more of my energy on being present and doing a good job.  They relieve a little bit of cognitive loading by letting me focus on one thing at a time.

But I have a problem with paper lists.  When I get tired (a hazard of doing too many things), I tend to lose little bits of paper.  This is where Google Keep comes to save the day.

Once I’ve written a note using Keep, it’s available on any device that I’ve logged into using GSuite.  Unlike a little piece of paper, this list can’t be lost.

When tasks are completed I get that oh-so-gratifying strikethrough line.

I can add photos to notes; I can tag notes; I can colour code notes.

I can move items up and down on a list to dynamically prioritize (and re-prioritize) my time.  I can also pin notes to the top of my board (I usually pin notes that need to get accomplished “today”).

Most importantly, however, is the speed at which I can add to a note.  When I’m in the middle of something, and an idea jumps into my head, I can jot it down and remain focused on the task at hand.  With that in mind, Keep might also help to preserve the brain’s energy:

“Asking the brain to shift attention from one activity to another causes the prefrontal cortex and striatum to burn up oxygenated glucose, the same fuel they need to stay on task. And the kind of rapid, continual shifting we do with multitasking causes the brain to burn through fuel so quickly that we feel exhausted and disoriented after even a short time.”

By quickly jotting down new ideas, I honour those ideas while preserving the task at hand.

It feels like whenever someone says the words “Experiential Learning” at our board office, they turn their heads and lock eyes with me.  It might be a little bit of impostor syndrome kicking in, but it also might be that these words are very open to interpretation.

In order to clarify what we will be calling Experiential Learning In the context of our board, our TCDSB EL Committee gathered last week to tighten up our working definition of these words in the context of our school board.  First, I cowdsourced some ideas from the team using this very short Google Form:

I took all of the team’s ideas and pasted their words into  this word cloud generator to reveal common themes emerging in their ideas.

We then compared those ideas to the Ontario Ministry of Education’s Characteristics Of Effective Experiential Learning:

Both anchors led us to a vibrant conversation that ended up with the following characteristics for the kind of EL we’d like to see in our board:

1) Experiential Learning must both represent and, in some way, grow a community.

2) All parts of the Experiential Learning Cycle must be present.  Students must participate in their learning experience. They must reflect upon their learning experience. They must apply learning from that experience to another part of their lives. Community partners must also be involved in all parts of the Experiential Learning cycle.

3) A plan with specific outcomes in mind must be at the core of the work.  The plan must be connected to relevant curriculum and sound pedagogy.

4) Experiential Learning opportunities must be inclusive and equitable.