2 Being resourceful

Many of you may work in challenging situations where you have very little equipment or resources within the school, so extending your activities beyond the classroom will help you to be more dynamic in your teaching. Read Resource 1, ‘Using local resources’, before you read the next case study and do Activity 3.

In the next case study, a school with only six teachers, the staff worked together as a group to explore what they could do to be more resourceful in using the local environment.

Case Study 2: A resourceful school

One of the teachers, Mrs Nagaraju, explains what happened and how she felt about the process, and the difference it has made for her as a teacher. She decided to plan for her class to undertake an outdoor activity where, working in groups, the students would begin to identify habitats in their immediate surroundings. She had read Resource 2, ‘Using groupwork’, before she did her planning to help her organise the activity better.

Our Principal is a very good teacher and he uses the local environment often when he teaches his classes. As part of our weekly meeting, one day he asked us as a group to think how we could use the local environment more. As we talked, he listed our ideas and this exchange of ideas stimulated more and more suggestions of how to use the local area. We had ideas such as:

  • taking students out to explore such things as the flora and fauna
  • mapping the area
  • measuring the school buildings and site for different purposes
  • gathering resources from the environment to use in the classroom
  • developing trails to investigate different things
  • looking at habitats
  • studying shadows and the sun, etc.
  • using local experts to speak to students at school or in their settings/work
  • looking at local conservation issues
  • collecting and recycling materials to supplement our lack of paper, such as using card from the boxes and saving and reusing envelopes.

I had not thought about such possibilities before and I was quite excited at the list and the prospect of doing some of these ideas. Our next task was to look at how and when we could use these.

First, we agreed to encourage the students to help us gather some materials from the local area and we put up a list of things for them to search for over the next few weeks.

Second, as I was about to start looking at deforestation with my Class VII, I asked the Principal’s permission to invite the local forest manager to come in and talk to my students about the problems he faced.

I went home to plan my lesson and to think how I would need to brief the forest manager about my learning intentions for my class if he agreed to come.

Pause for thought

  • How does your list from Activity 1 match with the list in the case study above?
  • Did the case study suggest other opportunities that you can add to your list? If so, add them now.
  • How could you develop a resource base in your class, or the school, for collecting materials that could be used to help your teaching and that of your colleagues?
  • In what other ways could you be more resourceful? For example, have you thought of inviting people into the school to talk to your students?

It is good to stop and take stock of the resources that you do or do not have in school and think about how you could extend what you have. Not only does this help you get to know what is available to support your teaching, it also encourages you to think more imaginatively about the resources you could use and the potential in the local area. Talking with other staff will help you to think more deeply about ways in which to resource a planned activity. The impact on your students of working in more active ways will be easy to see.

1 Using the local area as a resource

3 Benefits of using the outside environment