Teachable Moment

Yesterday one of the local trappers walked into my classroom before school and asked how old my students are. It seemed that he was looking for a class to invite to watch him set traps for a beaver that has set up house down at the lake in front of the school.

"Ooh, can we, can we?" was my typical response.

He graciously extended the invitation to my class and we planned to head out after morning recess today.

We walked down to the lake and, somewhat reluctantly, out on the ice. The reluctantly was because the ice is only about a week old and not very thick. But we figured that since the skidoos are on it, that we probably won't fall through. Although as a precaution we were warned not to walk all in a group, but to spread out.

So, we stood in a great big, spread-out circle around the pile of sticks sticking out of the ice that showed where the food pile was and watched as our trapper guide walked us through the process of finding the entrances, clearing out sticks and brush, setting the traps, and placing them ever-so-carefully into the water.

All the while he patiently answered a list of questions the length of both my arms.

It was wonderful to be able to sit back and learn myself, rather than be in charge of the learning for a short hour. My students were able to appreciate a member of the community for his knowledge. I was amazed at his patience and sharing of information. It was also delightful to see his gentle sense of humour!

So, as lunchtime approached and the students started to shiver, the last trap of the morning was set. We trudged back to school after asking to be able to come back tomorrow morning to help check the traps.

Now this afternoon I have tossed my lesson plans and we are going to research more about beavers so that we are better prepared to understand what we see and do tomorrow. Plus, it will be a sneaky way of getting some reading and writing practice in.

Another reason why I love my job; teachable moments for me and for my students!