It has been three months since the several site visits our staff did to celebrate National Walking Day, which was on Wednesday, April 5, this year, yet somehow, we still have one ramble to recount! On April 12, The Walking Classroom’s Marketing Director Lori Leggatt took a trek to Rocky Mount. There she visited with Tokie Dawkins’ fifth grade class at Englewood Elementary.
Classroom Connections
The class had been busily preparing for STEAM Day and had been spending some time thinking about and discussing careers. Ms. Dawkins found a perfect podcast to pair with this topic, as the morning’s walk would have the students listening to Turning a Hobby into a Career (5-#92, Combined-#151).
The class prepared for the podcast by sharing their background knowledge. The students related their ideas about hobbies and careers. They talked about the definitions of the words career, hobby, and entrepreneur, and discussed the similarities and differences among the terms.
Heading Outside
The morning was beautiful—bright and sunny, with temperatures hovering around 70 degrees. What a perfect day for the scheduled 9:30 a.m. walk! The weather on this day was certainly much better than the prior week’s forecast of possible hail, tornadoes, and torrential rain which had been the reason behind the site visit’s delay.
Englewood Elementary is fortunate to have a walking track outside, which the students regularly enjoy. The class walked on the track for the duration of the podcast. As the students finished listening, Lori enjoyed walking alongside the numerous small groups and doing some eavesdropping. She heard some enlightening conversations about the “big ideas” contained within the podcast.
Dialogue and Discussion
As a follow-up, Ms. Dawkins, Lori, and the class headed indoors for some additional discussion. Lori asked the students about their own hobbies, and they openly shared. There was also some discussion about how these current interests might one day evolve into a career.
A number of students mentioned that they enjoyed drawing or creating art using various mediums. One student in particular shared that he loves drawing cars and that he carves out time as often as he can to pursue his passion. Another talked about his interest in pursuing a career in business. He envisions doing this through his love of music and hopes to one day build his own music empire!
The School’s Story
One of the sixteen elementary schools in the Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools, Englewood Elementary serves nearly 500 students in third through fifth grade. The school received its Walking Classroom materials as part of a grant from The Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust. The grant provided class sets to ten fourth and fifth grade teachers at Englewood, with Ms. Dawkins being one of two teachers who piloted the program in the 2015-2016 school year. She is currently in her second year using The Walking Classroom.
. . . and Happy Trails!
Lori ended her Englewood visit with some group photos of Ms. Dawkins and her students. Then, it was “Happy Trails” for her!
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