Dwayne Hodgson

A Portfolio

The work and adventures of Dwayne Hodgson,
+ Learning Designer & Facilitator at learningcycle.ca
+ Storyteller & Photographer @ thataway.ca

Filtering by Tag: road scholars

Lessons Learned on the Road - Episode 3

May 09, 2015  /  Dwayne Hodgson

As we've written before (Episode 1 & Episode 2), Zoe and Isaac have been  "Road Scholars" this year.  This has included:

  • tonnes of independent reading -- Isaac has really hit his stride on this trip;

  • some math practice using Jumpmath and IXL (" 'cause it's good for ya! that's why!");

  • journal and blog post writing, as well as some practice with cursive and printing; 

  • some other online learning (big shout out to Crash Course educational videos!); and

Our recent visits to Morocco and the United Kingdom have also included  a heap of "world-class," experiential learning in history, geography, social studies, ecology, and cross-cultural communication. Here are some highlights: 

Zoe at the Jardin Marjorelle, Marrakesh

Zoe at the Jardin Marjorelle, Marrakesh

Morocco

  • the Old Medina in Fez, a 30-square-kilometre, largely covered, medieval market-place -- the largest car-free space in the world -- although there are plenty of donkeys; 
  • Volubulis, the best-preserved, ancient Roman city in North Africa;
  • the Islamic pilgrimmage site at Moulay Idriss, where Muslims who can't afford to make the Haj to Mecca can apparently visit five times instead;
  • the Bab Mansour gate and the nearby Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail in Meknes
  • Tromping around the town of Chefchaouen, with its very walkable and very blue medina, from which we did a couple of great day hikes; 
  • La Maison de la Photographie in Marrakesh -- a great collection of large-format black and white photos from historic Morocco;
  • Jamaa el-Fnaa, the main square of Marrakesh, where we saw snake charmers, drummers and vendors
  • the Saadian Tombs,  Marrakesh;
  • hiking in the Atlas Mountains (near Imlil) to mountain passes covered in snow.
  • zip-lining and high ropes near Marrakech; 
  • Jardin Majorelle, a botanical garden / art museum in Marrakesh; 
  • a trek on dromedaries into the Sahara Desert, where we slept overnight at a Berber camp;
  • a walk by the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca -- unfortunately, we missed the visiting hours, but the outside sure was impressive; one of the largest mosques in the world, Isaac tells me.

 

Zoe and Isaac put their money down on Canada -- Trafalgar Square

Zoe and Isaac put their money down on Canada -- Trafalgar Square

United Kingdom

We're looking forward to learning more in the next legs of our trip. Stay tuned. 

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categories / uk
tags / road scholars, england, morocco

Lessons Learned on the Road - Episode 2

March 09, 2015  /  Dwayne Hodgson

"Please, let this be a normal field trip!"

With these kids....? No way!

As "road scholars", we're trying to learn from the environment, cultures and sites all around us by mixing the good-old-fashioned 3R's (reading, writing and 'rithmetic) with the experiential learning 3R's of research, reconnaissance and reflection. 

As I listen to Trish and Isaac practice Arabic greetings in preparation for our travels in Morocco, I thought it might be interesting to list all of the "educational" field trips that we've gone on since we left Ottawa last year.

It is turning out to be a long, and admittedly eclectic list that has the kids (and us!) majoring in geography, social studies, languages, history, archaeology, ecology and the occasional experiments in physics (if you count roller-coasters and hot-air balloon rides).   It has also been fun to note where the different cultures and empires that we've seen -- Greek, Roman, Ottoman, Spanish, Swahili -- have intersected and influenced each other. 

Here is a partial list of the museums, national parks, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and experiences that were just-too-cool-for-school. 

Canada

As I wrote back in July, we started our road schooling as "Tourists in Our Own Town" by taking advantage of some of Ottawa's world-class museums. But we continued learning as we hit the road in Southern Ontario and Quebec. 

 

Checking out the Aya Sofia with the book and an audio guide

Turkey

Turkey is deeply-steeped in history -- archaeologists have found signs of human habitation as far back as 12,000 years -- and everywhere you go you are standing on one or more levels of Hittite, Lycian, Greek, Roman, Seljuk, Ottoman, or Turkish ruins and architecture. There are a gazilliion museums and historical sites, of which we visited the following: 

Isaac Wind, Road Scholar, channelling Indiana Jones at Ephesus.

Isaac Wind, Road Scholar, channelling Indiana Jones at Ephesus.

Zoe and Isaac at the Sultanahmet Mosque

Zoe and Isaac at the Sultanahmet Mosque

 

Tanzania

Because the people of Tanzania tended to build with biodegradable materials (e.g. wood, mud, thatch), there is comparatively less "built-history" to see. As well, post-independence Tanzania has not had the resources to document its history and culture to the extent that you see other places. But still, it was very interesting to learn more about the culture, development issues and of course, the ecology of the area: 


Zoe outside the Museum of Design in Barcelona with the Torre Agbar in the background. 

Zoe outside the Museum of Design in Barcelona with the Torre Agbar in the background. 

Spain

Okay, it's imperial and largely built with stolen loot from the New World, but during our brief visit to two cities in Spain, we saw a fascinating mix of Moorish, Andalusian, Spanish and modern architecture and history. Barcelona also seems to have a museum on every block, and i hope that we can return there to see a few more. But so far, we've seen: 

 

To Be Continued

So, that's a summary of some of what we saw and did during our first seven months of this year-long trip.  And best of all, we've still got five more months to see some more cool places in Morocco, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France and Spain. So please be sure to check back in a few months for Episode 3.... 

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categories / learn, morocco
tags / road scholars

Lessons Learned on the Road - Episode 1

October 29, 2014  /  Dwayne Hodgson

History / photography / zoology class in Izmir, Turkey

History / photography / zoology class in Izmir, Turkey

As we were planning to take this year off, the second question that everyone asked was  “So…uh….what will the kids do for school while travelling?”

Given that Zoe and Isaac are 11 and 8 respectively, we figured that it would be enough for the children to focus on their 3R’s: -- Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic – with the rest of the time spent travelling internationally they’d naturally be immersed in geography, history, social studies, archaeology, phys-ed and ecology. We also wanted Zoe to keep up her French so that she can rejoin the Grade 7 immersion program, so we're planning to spend some time in France and Morocco.

To make sure that we were on track, we met with both kids’ teachers last spring to get their advice. Both of them said they were excited that the kids had an opportunity to travel, and they were both surprisingly chill about how much we “covered the curriculum”.  “Just make sure that they don’t get too far ahead,” one quipped. They also pointed us towards the provincial curriculum objectives, and also suggested a few online resources that we could incorporate (e.g. IXL Math, Duolingo, Khan Academy, Brainpop).

We also checked in with Tricia’s sister, Heather, and her cousin, Sandra, who have both home-schooled kids up through high school. “Don’t worry too much about structure,” Sandra said. “They’ll be fine.”

But as someone who is never one to worry about things – especially structure! – I did a bit more research on how to “road school” kids. It seems that most vagabond families either:

  1. Enrol their kids in a local or international school (not practical given that we’re moving a lot);
  2. Sign up for more structured correspondence or online courses – again a bit tricky given that our access to internet will vary dramatically this year
  3. Pack text books and workbooks – a bit heavy given that we’re trying to carry everything in 4 rolling bags, but we did purchase the JumpMath curriculum that a friend recommended;
  4. Take the “unschooling” approach and just let the kids learn wherever they go from whatever’s around them,

So far, we’ve used a mixture of 3 & 4, designing topical learning task designs as we go, and drawing upon the “teachers,” we meet and the “generative themes” from where we travel. For example:

Turkish history is on a roll....

Turkish history is on a roll....

  • When we were visiting my parents in Durham, Ontario, my mother taught them how to bake butter-tarts, and the kids wrote out the recipe and took photos of each step. Zoe and I then did a rough French translation of the recipe and added in the photos.
  • At my brother’s place, they appreciated the art all around them by critiquing three pictures – including some original paintings by their artistic aunt, Suzette Terry – and by counting all of the pictures on the walls – 308 by their census count, (+/- 5 pictures, 19 times out of 20).
  • To help us dig through the different layers of Turkish history, we’ve mapped its empires and events along a very high-tech, historical timeline: a toilet roll in which each square equals 100 years.  (This will work well unless we run out of toilet paper… then our timeline will be history).
  • On another day Zoe did some research on the landscape of Turkey and some of the local environmental issues we’ve been learning about.
  • Recently, the kids are drawing maps of their “dream hotels” and I’ve asked them to create a video commercial for each of them. Not surprisingly, Isaac’s is in Barcelona and has a football (soccer) theme. Zoe will then need to do some basic calculations of the area of the hotel, and to name some ways that it can be eco-friendly.
  • In the spirit of their Hallow'een costumes, we're planning on a knock down game of Greek Gods & Goddesses Charades later this week. 

Now that we've been in Turkey for just over six weeks, we’re finding that 2-3 hours of “road schooling” per day is about what we can manage and realistically, probably all that they need. Without taking time to get the bus to school, line up at the bell, take off and put on layers of clothes (Oh, Canada!), wait for teachers or on other kids, etc. they can get a lot school work done in a short time.

Other days, the program is much less structured, either because we're travelling, or because there are things to do that are just too cool for “school”. In the past few weeks, they have:

  • toured the Ancient cities of Ephesus, Xanthos, Letoon, Knidos, Smyrna and Patara;
  • sailed on two boats in the Aegean – including steering our friend’s catamaran --
  • visited several museums of archaeology to view their collections of Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and/or Ottoman artifacts; 
  • learned some basic Turkish phrases;
  • taken a guided tour of the Gallipoli Peninsula, site of the infamous WW I battle;
  • sea-kayaked on the Aegean Sea;
  • visited the abandoned village of Kayakoy, a town whose Christian population was "exchanged" to Greece after the war of Turkish independence. 

Some days it feels like we’re in an episode of the Magic School Bus…

Of course, the kids are picking up some informal skills too, like how to improvise as the days unfold, how to buy groceries in a foreign language, and that well, Mom and Dad don’t always know where they are, never mind how to get back to our current "home"…..

On the plus side, I love the challenge of designing lessons on the fly, and the creative challenge imposed by the constraints and unique opportunities of each place that we stay. And we’ve also appreciated that they kids, by and large, have played along, and taken these lessons in stride. 

However, we’ve also found that road-schooling requires a fair bit of time and planning (duh!), and that the kids pretty much need constant supervision lest they get distracted by the closest iThing. As well, on the days that we don’t have easy access to the Internet, it is harder to capitalize on those spontaneous learning moments and questions like “Is seawater more salty in bays? Who would be the Greek god for soccer” Finding enough English, children's books in Turkey has also been challenging, but thankfully we can usually download e-books from the public libraries when we have WIFI. 

It is also clear that Zoe and Isaac really miss the social side of learning with other kids. It might be the places that we're going, the time of year or the fact that Turkish kids tend to go to "cram schools" after their regular classes, but we've met very few children on our trip so far. Both kids have been real troopers so far, but we’re still hoping that we can check in periodically with their friends at school back in Ottawa. Stay tuned...

1 Comment
categories / learn, turkey
tags / road scholars

Tourists in Our Own Town

July 08, 2014  /  Dwayne Hodgson

 

We are lucky to live in Ottawa. It is a both a nice place to visit and you really want to live here!  

As the capital of Canada, it boasts the usual buildings-of-national-significance like the Parliament,  and the Supreme Court, many tasteful national monuments to dead white guys -- and one to dead white women -- and an array of world-class museums. In fact, when we hit the road in 24 days -- zoiks!!!!! -- it may come as a shock to our kids that not every city has a "Museum of..."

(BTW, in lieu of summer camps for July and to kick-start our "road-scholars" project for the kids, I picked up a Canada's Capital Museum Passport that let's us visit up to 8 of the above museums in 7 days. It's a great deal, even if you don't manage to see them all).

Connecting all of these sites is either the Rideau Canal -- a UNESCO World Heritage Site that we can  skate on during the winter -- or a network of green-space and bike paths run by the National Capital Commission. It is a great city to experience on a bike. 

Ottawa is also home to a staggering number of festivals for just about any topic that you can think of: music of all types, animation, films, buskers, poutine, children, winter, tulips!  Although perhaps not as edgy as Toronto or as hip as Montréal, Ottawa is far from being the "city that fun forgot", and there is a burgeoning independent, hipster scene. 

So even though our year-off adventures don't officially start until August, we don't have to go far to be tourists in our own town. Come on up and visit Ottawa soon. Here are a few recents snaps to hold you over until then....

 

 

3 Comments
categories / play, canada
tags / tourists, ottawa, local, road scholars