What: One of the biggest challenges teachers face is having enough staff to safely and comfortably take their class outside. A teacher could take class out alone, but if an issue arises such as a medical emergency or a student needs 1:1 assistance for some reason, being outside alone can be then become stressful and challenging. Having additional adults available can ease this stress and make teachers more comfortable taking a large group of children outdoors. If a class already has an assistant or a student has adult support, then the class comes with an extra adult. If the class does not have an extra adult, providing other options for extra adults is important. Extra adults could be parent volunteers, administrative staff, teaching assistants or roving subs who could go with a class for an outside activity.
How: Finding ways to make extra adults available can provide the needed support to encourage teachers to go outside with their classes more often. There are several options:
Parent Volunteers: There are many parents who are eager to volunteer. If a school has an outdoor space sign-up, parents could check the board or the online doc to see if any classes are going outside at times that work for them and then they can contact the teacher to volunteer to join them. For this to work well, parents need to be encouraged to help any and all classes and not just their own child’s class.
Teaching Assistants: There are teacher aids in a building that provide adult support to students for a certain number of hours a day. Sometimes the number of hours on an IEP is less than the hours in the school day. During the extra time, these adults could be made available to help classes going outside rather than just remaining in the classroom where the child they are assigned to is. In addition, teaching assistants may be willing to go outside with a class during their lunch or break. An effective incentive is to offer to pay teaching assistants for their time if they do choose to go outside with a class during their lunch or break. Compensating workers for their time is not just respectful but it also may encourage more folks to volunteer to do so.
Administrators: Administrators can provide support by making themselves available to classes who need an extra adult to go outside. Administrators often have the most flexible schedules of any school staff members and can step in more easily than others. This can also show how much the admin team prioritizes, is committed to, and believes in the benefits of outside time.
Collaborating: When classes combine efforts and go outside together, there are more kids, but also more adults. This support system can make going outside less daunting and guarantees more than one staff person will be present in case of an emergency.
Roving subs: Sometimes there are roving subs in the building to provide coverage for meetings. Administrators can bring in roving subs to provide support to classes when they go outside. A roving sub could be hired for the day and then could assist multiple classes outside.
When: Whenever a teacher requires additional adults to go outside. This will vary. Who: Parent volunteers, teaching assistants, roving subs, administrators.
Materials: Sign-up system, system for communicating staffing need and filling need
Why: If teachers who need support to take their class outside have access to it, they are more likely to utilize the support and take their students outdoors. This increases outdoor time for students but also builds the capacity of the teachers who eventually may feel comfortable taking a class outside on their own. Working with another adult while outside can expand a teachers own perspective on how to utilize a space or engage students with nature.
Barriers Addressed: Class Management; Behavior/Management; Getting There; Medical Concerns; Accessibility Considerations; Physical Location; Student/Staff Ratios