Can you see it? No, no, over there. Look closely, can you see it now?  

It’s a classroom.  

Well, yes, you’re right it’s ALSO a trail, a nature reserve, a land trust, a provincial park. No doubt this classroom is also those things too. First and foremost, it’s a classroom.  

And the best part is this classroom doesn’t need anything else to become a learning experience. It’s an all-inclusive optimal learning space primed for learning adventures.  

When students at Pakenham PS arrived at High Lonesome Nature Reserve they were naturally filled with questions. Just as it has for millennia, nature sparked an unquelled thirst for wonder in the students who found themselves surrounded by it one day in the Fall of 2022.  

What followed was the magic of real-world learning: begin outside the walls of school, begin with fascinations that unveil themselves as students wonder, and the learning takes care of itself – or at least the adventure does. All of the sudden the curriculum, contextualized, holds purpose. If I am full of questions, and you can help me grow into new ideas, you’re the kind of teacher I am looking for. And the amazing thing is, our communities are full of teachers, they are everywhere. 

When Jaime Hewitt began the adventure, she began with the same first steps as her students. The hike that followed was a career altering experience. In this episode, the first of our second season, you’ll hear what real-world learning looks like in the classroom that is our planet.  

Now can you see it? If you’re looking out a window you can see just what I mean. Nature is an edifice unto itself. It just needs you, calls your students, to know it more intimately. Into the wild we go.