This is the story of two elementary school teachers who have sworn to always captivate their students. Their conception of teaching is simple: a teacher has no right to be boring. They take their students into the woods, do not give homework, their classes have neither desks nor notebooks. Children can sit on the floor. They learn math by playing Minecraft on an iPad.
But beware: this does not mean that students can succeed without effort. They have to work hard. They must learn the same concepts as all other students in Quebec. Except that it is done as much as possible in joy.
“When I was young, I always had in mind that school was boring. I myself dropped out at the end of my secondary school. I arrived in education with the idea of changing everything. I want to change education and I want to change the world,” says Mélanie Rousseau as she welcomes us to the small Saint-Hugues school in Montérégie.
We are in a municipality in the heart of the most beautiful agricultural land in Quebec. Heritage homes, a post office and a grocery store line Main Street. The children play in the play module erected next to the school.
Mélanie Rousseau and her colleague Martine Charbonneau form an inseparable duo in their little school. They are co-teaching: the two teachers together supervise two groups of fifth and sixth year students, who form a combined class of 41 children. The teachers each have their own room, but the students attend both classes.
“Mélanie and I fell in love with our professionals. We work well together, we complement each other,” says Martine Charbonneau.
The two colleagues are about the same age (early 40s) and share the same teaching philosophy: they use their professional autonomy, supported by their director, to implement original teaching methods. “We are in competition with the screens. Young people have less attention span than before. We have to adapt our teaching,” says Mélanie Rousseau.
Change the world
That morning, half of the group took reading and writing lessons in Ms. Mélanie’s “chalet class”. The other half learn mathematics in Madame Martine’s “forest class”. The two rooms have one thing in common: there are no desks, but tables where four students can sit together. Children can also sit on cushions on the floor.
A large library occupies the back wall of the chalet classroom. Sofa, imitation wood stove, the reading corner is warm. While children are immersed in their books, others write an opinion piece on laptops arranged on tables in a semicircle.
“For us, reading is the basis of everything. Our students read a lot. It helps them in all subjects,” explains Mélanie Rousseau.
We exchange, in the class of Martine and Mélanie. We talk. We feel listened to. The ambiance is good. The students follow the instructions. However, this group is a reflection of Quebec public schools: 15 of the 41 students have an intervention plan for “special needs” such as autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, behavioral difficulties or other disabilities.
While Mélanie teaches the group, Martine can focus on students who need more attention. Or the opposite. Co-teaching makes it possible to compensate for the scarcity of professionals (remedial teachers, speech therapists, psychoeducators, etc.), they explain.
Everybody out
The other secret of Martine and Mélanie’s class is outdoor education. They take their students to the municipal park, set up in the forest behind the school, two or three times a week. A path leads to a clearing where the students “pull a log”, literally, to listen to their teachers. Others climb trees.
That morning, the mission is to build a shelter using a tarp, ropes and branches. Then to manufacture land art », works improvised using materials found in the forest.
“You shouldn’t be afraid of getting dirty or hurting yourself,” explains Charles-Émile, proudly showing his backpack which contains a ” set of survival”. Like all the children in Martine and Mélanie’s group, the boy loves to play outside. The teachers are right: these students are never bored.
“We can teach all subjects outdoors. It is stimulating to read, write and learn in the forest. And after an hour outside, the students are more focused when they come back to school,” says Mélanie Rousseau. The positive effects are even greater for students who are “different” or who have learning difficulties, notes the prof.
Sure, kids like to have fun, but will they be shocked by going back to a regular class or by jumping to high school? “We prepare them for secondary school, answers Mélanie Rousseau. Yes, we have fun, but we also give a traditional teaching with paper and pencils. They are taught to be independent. »
Change of direction
Outdoor education has grown in Quebec since the start of the pandemic, underlines Jean-Philippe Ayotte-Beaudet, professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Sherbrooke. The benefits of outdoor classrooms go far beyond the fresh air that protects against COVID-19: outdoor school motivates young people, facilitates learning and improves their physical and mental health.
“We are witnessing a paradigm shift which consists in taking the school out of the school. Teachers who do outdoor education realize the magnitude of the benefits for their students and for themselves,” says the professor, who holds a new research chair in outdoor education.
He and his team conducted a survey of 1,008 primary and secondary school teachers. More than six in ten teachers say they have done some form of outdoor teaching in 2019 and 2020.
Physical education is the discipline most often taught outside, but all subjects lend themselves to it, underlines Jean-Philippe Ayotte-Beaudet. Outings in the open air, even in town, can serve as a pretext for courses in arts, French, mathematics, social sciences, history or geography, for example. For example, you can calculate the area of a soccer field, discover the history of a neighborhood through its heritage buildings, make works of art using pots, pebbles and tree trunks, identify trees and flowers…
Either way, expect ooh! and to aaah!