Teaching elementary-aged children is a rewarding experience, but as educators and parents, finding the time and resources to create engaging lessons can be a challenge. That's where this podcast comes in. Welcome to Naturally Teaching Elementary.

I'm Victoria Zablocki, a certified elementary teacher turned outdoor educator. With over a decade of experience coaching teachers on effective teaching methods, I'm passionate about teaching the whole child with authentic and place-based experiences in school and home settings. Join me as we explore strategies for teaching with practical teaching tips, insightful interviews, picture book reviews, and more.

So let's grow together. Welcome back to the Naturally Teaching Elementary Podcast. My name is Victoria Zablocki and I'm your host.

I'm excited to share some strategies for classroom management today, specifically when it comes to classroom management for outdoor education. One thing that I've heard over and over and over again is that teachers feel like they can't take students outside because it's too distracting. There are birds and flowers and mushrooms.

There's just so much that can keep children from paying attention to the pre-planned lesson. I personally like to refer to these moments as nature moments, and nature moments can create a sense of awe, they can sometimes be surprising, and they can often be very interesting. They're valuable when building and maintaining your classroom community. And by embracing nature moments that interest your students, you're showing them that you see them and that you value them and their interests. In this episode, I'm going to share five strategies for classroom management and how they can help you seize those valuable nature moments.

[1:33]

The first of the five strategies for classroom management I want to chat about today is preparing for the nature moment before it even happens. If you know you're going into a really engaging and interesting patch of nature, move into the space with the understanding that your students are going to need some time to explore and engage with those exciting elements.

Plan it into your lesson for both you and for them. This will set everyone up for success. It's hard for children to control their impulses on the daily, let alone when they're thrust into a new space with a lot of interesting things.

So plan some time into the forefront of your lesson to allow them to engage and embrace that excitement. Share the space with them by walking around the boundaries that you'd like them to explore and remind them of your attention getter that they should be listening for as the signal that exploration is over. Then give them 5 to 10 minutes to move through the new space.

This will allow them a chance to get their jitters out as well as find some new and interesting things. It's also hard as a teacher to put together a lesson and then have the space overshadow anything that you have to offer. By letting your students explore the new space, they'll be more likely to listen and engage with you and the lesson because the space is less unknown and their curiosities have been addressed.

[2:46]

The second of the five strategies for classroom management I want to chat about today is engaging with the nature moment. What I mean by this is encouraging your students to look at the things that draw their attention instead of trying to pull them away to get to the pre-planned lesson. A benefit to engaging with the moment is that your students get the chance to develop scientific skills naturally.

Developing scientific skills like observing when they're interested will help motivate your students to refine those skills. When children are interested, they're more likely to engage. This is a very straightforward benefit to engaging with those nature moments.

Like the previous point, engaging with the nature moment doesn't have to take up the time you had put aside for your lesson. You can give your students 5-10 minutes to engage with the space and observe something interesting at the forefront of your lesson, and then spend time doing your pre-planned lesson afterward. This may even be a great way to start each of your outdoor lessons.

If your students get into the routine of taking 5 minutes to observe nature, they know what to expect, can last 5 minutes or only take 5 minutes, and can potentially create some great science notebooking prompts.

[3:47]

The third of the five strategies for classroom management I'm going to chat about today is feeding the nature moment. So kind of linked to the previous point, your students are going to be more engaged when they're interested in something.

If you have the flexibility in your curriculum, you could use what interests your students in your green space to help drive your curriculum. So for example, if you're working on a food chain unit, you could have your students look through your nature space for examples of producers, consumers and decomposers in your school's nature. Then your students could do research on your actual local species and become experts on organisms close by.

By following their interests, you're feeding their desire to learn, giving them a greater sense of place, and giving them the opportunity to be the experts on their community.

[4:28]

The fourth of the five strategies for classroom management I wanted to chat about today is letting your students shine. So going back to one of the hesitations I hear teachers say regularly about learning outside, many teachers are afraid that nature can be too distracting.

They want to make sure that their students are listening to them. Otherwise, how will they learn? Here's my take.

If you have students that hear what you're trying to help them learn, they can shine as they explain it to a student that missed the information. If your student can explain what they heard from you in their own words, it means they understand it at a level that they can teach others. They're going to remember the information better, and there's a chance that they could explain the information in a more understandable way than you did as the adult.

This is actually serving both of your students better than just requiring all of your students to listen to you all the time.

[5:15]

And then the fifth of the five strategies for classroom management I wanted to chat about today is simply letting the moment happen. So sometimes you just need to stop and smell the roses.

Really take in those awe moments. Fostering a sense of wonder and awe is just as important as the lesson you plan to do that day. If you remember back to “Episode 18: Nature-based Preschools and Elementary Classrooms: Talking Teacher Roles with Dr. Rachel Larimore”, she mentioned a book called Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life by Dacher Keltner.

It's a great opportunity to remind yourself the value in awe moments and how they can be life-altering. And I'll make sure to put a link for that book in the show notes. Finding awe in your everyday can really change your outlook for the positive.

Give that gift to your students by letting them get inspired by the nature around them. Also, fighting the moment could take more of your time and energy than just letting the moment happen. And then, you have to try to regain the attention of the group, which also takes a ton of energy.

I encourage you to give it your students some time to enjoy that nature moment and then call everyone back to you once the moment has passed.

[6:16]

So, in a nutshell, we talked about five strategies for classroom management. These strategies were:

1. Preparing for the nature moment before it happens.
2. Engaging with the nature moment to encourage scientific skills naturally.
3. Feeding the nature moment to cultivate your students' interests.
4. Letting your students shine.
5. Letting the moment happen.

Hopefully, one of these strategies for classroom management helps you feel better about nature moments when they pop up. I know that there have been several moments that have bettered my students, and if I had shut them down, the magic would have been lost.

So, I want to thank you for taking time to listen today. I know you're busy, and I truly appreciate the time you take to tune in. If you have any questions, wonderings, or strategies for classroom management that you use, get a hold of me on Instagram at naturally.teaching, or you can email me at victoria@naturallyteaching.com.

And don't forget to check out the show notes for all the links that I've mentioned at naturallyteaching.com/episode53. Thanks again for joining me today, and until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep naturally teaching. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of the Naturally Teaching Elementary Podcast.

I hope you found it informative, inspiring, and full of actionable insights to enhance your teaching journey. Connect with me on social media for more updates, science tidbits, and additional resources. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at Naturally.Teaching.

Let's continue the conversation and share our passion for teaching elementary age children together. Don't forget to visit my website at naturallyteaching.com for all the show notes from today's episode. If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Your feedback helps me improve and reach more educators like you. Thank you again for listening, and until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep Naturally Teaching.