Somers teacher seeks Ravenwood experience for 6th graders

Growing up in the Flathead Valley affords area youth many opportunities that are inaccessible to children in other parts of the country.

Understanding that, and also realizing the correlation between experience-based learning and the retention of information, Flathead educators have long capitalized on their proximity to the some of the most valuable lesson material they could hope to utilize as a resource for teaching standards and improving learning in general.

And few people have a better grasp of the potential and effectiveness an outdoor classroom than Somers teacher and member of the Flathead Audubon Society, Ansley Ford, whose latest project is to raise the funds to take get her students to the Ravenwood Outdoor Learning Center, north of Bigfork.

It is a project that Ford says she excited about, because the Ravenwood mission so closely reflects her own mission and passion for outdoor learning.

"To me, it's the way kids learn best, doing things outside," Ford said. "I love watching their faces light up when they do things outdoors and make a connection with what they've learned, because I know that it will stay will them. The things that they remember are the things that they experience outdoors."

After graduating the University of Montana in Missoula, Ford returned to Anchorage, Alaska, where she grew up. There, she taught a course called "Science and Nature" to eight and nine-year-old children, for three years at the Campbell Creek Science Center, near the Chugach Mountains. She later earned her Master's degree in Ecological Teaching and Learning from Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., and began teaching for the Somers School District in 2001.

Since outdoor education remains near and dear to Ford's heart, both as a sixth-grade teacher and as an director of education for the Flathead Audubon Society, she seizes every opportunity that she can to incorporate the outdoors into her lessons, which has proven effective in all age groups. As part of her ongoing search for ways to make knowledge relevant, exciting and personal to her students, she attempts to balance her curriculum with interactive, project-based learning that establishes a firm relationship between the curriculum and the world her students call home.

Enter Ravenwood Outdoor Learning Center, whose focus is getting kids - and adults - outdoors for safe, learning adventures.

"When Ravenwood first opened a few years ago, they didn't really have anything for the younger grade levels, so when I started teaching sixth grade this year I thought it would be great if I could give the sixth grade students that experience. When I mentioned going to Ravenwood and that it's like Big Creek, they were really excited."

However, before she told the children that they were going to do it, she had to sell the district board of trustees on the idea. At first, she wasn't sure how they would respond, but she was pleasantly surprised at the enthusiasm with which they received the idea.

"I think everybody was in favor of it," board member Todd Ahern said. "I think it will be a great experience. Even those we live in this incredible place, a lot of kids don't get outside, and they need to. This is a great opportunity, and it will be a learning experience."

As it happens, the Ravenwood trip - planned much like the annual trip to Big Creek, to accommodate two separate groups of sixth graders, May 18-20 and May 20-22-will correspond with the sixth grade language arts unit on survival. While there, students will learn various wilderness survival skills, like shelter building.

The PTA provided a grant for $1,600, which will cover half of the cost and the students themselves raised an additional $500 selling concessions during the school carnival, in March.

That left $1,100 for the classes to raise. The students initially brainstormed and came up with a list of 50 fundraisers. Many of them wanted to do a village market, like the fourth graders do.

However, Ford had an idea, and that idea meant giving new life to an old fundraiser, which was recently abandoned by the PTA due to a lack of volunteers. She presented her idea to the students, combining the village market idea with the annual Swap-O-Rama, thus creating a kind of Earth Day exchange that would fit well with the theme of Ravenwood. This idea proved to be the overwhelming favorite.

"Giving used things a second life is a good way to help the earth," Ford said. "We wanted to make the theme "nature" because of Ravenwood, and the Earth Day Exchange idea kind of evolved out of that."

The fundraiser will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 25, and will include games, homemade art, crafts and baked goods and a virtual cornucopia of used treasures. Supporters and bargain hunters are encouraged to shop the outdoor vendors or name their price on a large selection of clothes, toys, games, books, movie and more!

Or bring "A Bag for a Bag." Bring a bag of donations and take home a bag full of other items that others have donated. The cost to participate is $5.

Lastly, vendors are encouraged to rent a space in the parking lot and sell their own goods! The cost is $15 to rent an 8' x 10' space, and the vendor keeps the profits.

For more information or to reserve a space, call 857-6788.

"The kids are excited, and I'm excited to be outside with the kids," Ford said. "I think this will be a really positive end to our school year, getting them all outside where they're at their best."