Final Blog Entry

1. What I remember the best from Outdoor Ed from this past year would probably have to be the full day of canoeing down the little Saskatchewan river. Though the trip went way longer than we all thought that it would be, I still had fun along the way! 
2. What challenged me the most from this past year in Outdoor Ed would have to be the importance wetlands PowerPoint that we had to do that had to be at least 15 slides long. Some of the things were very hard to find and I felt like everyone had most of the same things on each of their PowerPoints. 
3. What I found interesting to do in Outdoor Ed this year was when Barret Miller came to our school and helped us out with our interpretative skills. It was so cool to see how much of a natural he was at interpreting and I found that he helped us out a lot. 
4. I would have liked to have more group work activities because its always a lot easier to do something when I have someone to do it with. I liked it when we worked on projects together like the natural leader posters, the wetlands ecosystems booklet, the frostbite games, and when the different schools came down to our wetlands. 
5. The skills that I developed in this class that will be useful for me into the future would be having and knowing how to handle kids in certain situations whether they are fooling around or not paying attention. I also learned some really cool tips for how to build a ‘quinsy’ (I’m not sure how to spell it) if you were stuck outside and need a place to stay for the night. 
6. I would suggest a little less repetitive work and projects on wetlands and more fun activities such as canoeing, camping and fishing. It feels like everything that we did on wetlands was just being repeated over and over again so I was really happy when we did something different like going canoeing down the river. 
7. I would not be interested in paying for some more unique experiences such as going camping, hiking, fishing, and traveling to different places. I don’t like to spend my money on things such as camping or canoeing at different places when I am missing all of my other classes, because when we start to spend days out of school my projects start to pile up. 
8. I thought that there was a good balance between outdoor activity and the outdoor theory in this course because it was good to watch videos on paddling strokes and what to do when something happens, and trying it out for yourself in real life. I feel like there is a little bit more of a connection between what you learned and what you just did when you are inside and out. 
9. I would do less of learning about wetlands, and more of things such as surviving in the wilderness. Things like learning how to pack smartly before going on a hike or long trip, and survival skills like catching your own food or building a shelter in any season of the year. 
10. I think that we should be doing more of the concepts/skill development activities because it is a chance to really put yourself to the test and learn how to live and survive on your own. It can help if for example you were stranded and you don’t know how long you were going to be alone for. 

Whole Day Canoe Trip

A) What did I do well? — I did well at paddling my canoe with my partner and being positive more towards the middle/end of the trip. At times we were very good at communicating what was going on, where we needed to go and what to avoid. I also thought that I did very well at staying behind the canoe and pushing it towards a sand bar when the canoe tipped over. My partner and I really worked together and pulled through when we had to empty out our canoe that was full of water. 

B) What do I need to improve? — I need to improve my skills on working with a partner, when we were paddling and steering and trying to communicate when we weren’t doing what we wanted to. At times I started to get upset with my partner and we had some discussion and misunderstandings on what was going on. 

C) What did I really enjoy? — I really enjoyed the view and being able to have the experience of canoeing and just being out on the water. I found it to be relaxing during parts of the trip and how much fun we had during it all. I really enjoyed it when another group in front of us said that there was a problem ahead, and it was a bunch of cows crossing the river right in front of us. 

D) What did I find difficult? Why? — What I found difficult was trying to stay positive towards the end of the trip when we thought that the bridge was coming up but it really wasn’t. My partner and I started to pretend that the bridge was right around the corner but it really wasn’t. Also, when we got into more of an open area the wind really picked up which made it really hard to paddle and keep going in a straight line. 

E) Would I recommend canoe excursions in the future? Why? Why not? — Yes, I would definitely recommend a canoe trip for others in the future because it is a great experience for kids to get outdoors and try new things. The one thing that I would recommend for people to do and prepare for before getting out on the water is it is hard to paddle at some times, and you will get tired. 

Wetland Interpretation Day

1. What worked at my station? - What worked at my station was when we got the kids to put the animals and plants on the poster and the way we managed our time better the second day and held the kids attention for a longer time. 
2. What didn’t work at my station? - What didn’t work at my station was some students weren’t listening as well as the others, and the younger kids had a harder time remembering what organisms went in what column during the review questions. 
3. What was a difficulty I didn’t expect? - The difficulty that I did not expect was how wild the kids were after lunch. It got to be difficult with the older kids because the started to ignore us and some were making the other kids get distracted. 
4. Were there outstanding students at my station? - Yes, we had some outstanding students at my station. They were very interested in what we were telling them and answered a lot of the questions correctly that we had to ask. 
5. What could we do better? - We could have split up the work a little bit better because I felt like some people in my group did less work while others did more. 
6. My comments. -Overall, the kids were great and I think that a lot of them had tons of fun at all of the stations they went around to. I hope that they will tell other how much fun they had and will encourage others to want to enjoy the same experience. Maybe they will want to do the same thing when they are in grade 10!

Canoe Gear List

Gear list for canoeing on June 8th
- sunglasses
- extra pair of clothes (pants, socks, shirts, sweaters, etc.) (fast drying: not jeans)
- sunscreen
- rain jacket/windbreaker jacket
- good shoes (able to get wet)
- food/snacks
- water
- hat (optional)
- bug spray
- whistle
- rope
- bail bucket
- towel
- garbage bags