Spring has Sprung

It's been a while since I wrote anything on here. I should probably come up with an excuse, but I don't think I'll bother.

So, what have been the highlights of the last two months?

Alan and Emma visit:
Lots of fun was had, plenty of coffee and pie was consumed, the city was extensively toured and (of course!) waffles were eaten. My favourite part was the Great Toronto Scavenger hunt with a group of Megan's Post-Doc friends. Three teams were set loose around Toronto trying to collect and document a set of increasingly bizarre challenges. The whole list can be seen below, but personal favourites included; finding a man named John, sitting down for a meal with a family of strangers (well done to Emma for managing both of those in one sitting), staging a Kung-Fu fight, shaking hands with a hipster, a photo of the team in mid-air, and slipping on a banana peel. After 4 hours of frantically rushing around the city, all the teams met up in the pub to share all their photos and objects. It was a really good fun, I can't believe I've never done it before!

Sitting down for lunch with some strangers. I think the husband was quite scared when Emma asked if his name was John and it turned out it was. For some reason our sign which read "Is your name John" didn't elicit any response on the subway.

Megan is glad that one of the challenges was to find Poutine!

Thank goodness Emma wasn't shy about approaching strangers on the street! Shake hands with a  hipster? Check!

POW!

Two rival teams made it to the clock at 16:27 precisely.

You can tell he's a drama teacher can't you. Look at that emoting!

We also visited Niagara Falls. I had been to see the falls before, but this time we traveled by bus and had to walk through the town. The town is split into two; one half is deserted - like a zombie apocalypse has recently passed through, and the other half is what Blackpool would be like if it were still popular - full of theme park attractions and theme restaurants. A weird experience.

The school hydroponics and organic farm project:

One of my favourite parts about working in a Montessori school is that there is so much freedom to take on other projects and learn through experience. Traditionally, it is expected that Montessori students spend a significant amount of time working on a farm. The aim is to provide an opportunity to work on the land and to gain an experience of hard, physical work, which is often repetitive, boring, sometimes menial, but, non the less, important work. In an urban setting, this isn't quite as easy. We therefore decided that we would visit an organic farm for a short period and set up a hydroponics system at the school to provide a longer term engagement.

I have never been much of a gardener. In fact, it would be fair to say that I'm rubbish at it. The pupils at the school are very independent and are used to doing projects with minimum input from the teachers; it was however still necessary for me to do a lot of research into hydroponics so that I was able to guide them in the right direction. I'm really very impressed how well the kids have set up their systems. We had two groups; each one had to do all their own research, visit experts, purchase all the equipment, construct their systems, choose their plants, maintain optimal conditions and monitor the pH, nutrient levels, light levels etc.

We recently harvested our lettuce and in a few weeks we should have our first peppers ready for tasting.

Last week, we took the class to work at Plan B Organic farm in southern Ontario. We camped out in tents and spent the days helping the farm's owners in everything from seeding new plants in the greenhouses, planting seedlings in the fields, harvesting and preparing veg, and making up boxes of fresh produce for sale to customers. The owners were incredibly knowledgeable, passionate and generous with their time and home, which they opened up to 13 adolescents. I certainly wouldn't have done the same.

I think it was a fantastic opportunity for the kids, I wish I had had the chance to do something similar at their age. As well as learning the value of hard work, which incidentally they all enjoyed, they were also able to learn about so many different things. They had lectures on botanical pharmacology, organic pest control, genetic engineering, plant biology, economics, global consumerism, environmental impact and agricultural history. Whilst the information wasn't always presented in an entirely impartial way, the obvious passion and intelligence of the farmers really impressed the pupils and raised enough issues and concepts that I could easily plan an entire terms worth of lessons based on what we talked about over three days on the farm. The whole experience really impressed on me the opportunities available on such a residential visit. Almost all curriculum areas could be taught through the prism of the farm visit, not only providing context for academic pursuits, but also providing a concrete outcome for hands-on practical work. If young adolescents are given responsibility and an opportunity to contribute to something real, I think there is a very real chance that their engagement in school can be increased. Maybe.