What is EL Education Anyway?

First thing is first... I love teaching at an EL school! Back in the day I went to a job fair and learned about Expeditionary Learning. I fell in love with their model, and I am lucky enough to work at a fantastic EL charter school. You can look up the legit EL model on their website, but I'm going to give you my version! 

The kids are exploring our continent boxes for our
"Around the World" expedition. 

The model focuses on teaching curriculum, character and a love for nature-YAS-! So let me break it down:

I teach curriculum on a two-year rotation because I keep my firsties as second graders (BTW I also love that I get my kids for 2 years to create amazing bonds with them). We take the core and develop 4 expeditions and multiple intensives. Each learning expedition is full of hands-on learning, authentic fieldwork (fieldtrips) and experts that teach us about our topic, and crafted projects that the students present at their Student Led Conferences. The kids are engaged and involved in their learning, while I get to help guide them along the way. We use “protocols” to teach a lot of the time. A protocol is like a Jigsaw, where all the students take part in learning and working collaboratively. It is extra planning, but it is sooo much better than doing worksheets all the time!

Moving on to character! Hopefully all teachers are helping mold our students into productive people of the world (even though it is clearly not stated in the core or in our college courses). But really, we want good people on this planet. Every month we focus on building Habits of Character and Habits of Work. We read stories and quotes, have discussions, give kudos to those who exemplify those qualities and more. At the end of each term my kids rate themselves…some a little too harshly…on their own habits. They make their own goals based on their ratings and come up with steps to achieve their goals. You can get a free copy of this rating tracker on TPT! Each expedition also has an aspect of service learning so that we can pass those warm fuzzy feelings around, and actually benefit our community!

Last, but not least, a love for nature! Our planet is fantastic, and we want to keep it that way for as long as possible. I teach the kids about the amazing places around the world, but also the nature found right outside of our school. We pick up litter and talk about how to treat mother earth. Every year I teach the kids sustainable practices, and how they can each make a difference. We go outside to collect seeds from plants, look for frogs, plant our garden and learn in our outdoor learning center. We have Adventure PE and go for hikes in the local mountains. The older kids get to take camp trips all over where they learn and use different skills, but our littles still need their mommys and daddys at night.

EL really is an amazing way to teach and learn! There is so much more, but that is my version. Feel free to email me if you want to know more!