CFE workshop

Three weeks have flown by and sadly our CFE is complete. Our final workshop went smoother than any of us had hoped for, and we had the chance to celebrate our success and experiences with some of our peers. Everyone who arrived had some connection to education, and all were happy to leave with their own new plant to care for. It was a bittersweet conclusion; we're happy to have succeeded and had such a great learning experience in the garden, yet sad to leave our outdoor offices behind.

We wrote short stories, drew soundscapes, created crops and budgeted stocks; we covered the curriculum from Art to Mathematics. We leave as we came, inexperienced yet inspired, educated yet hungry for knowledge, and tired yet excited for the future that lies before us. Some of us know where we'll be teaching ext year, and others haven't the faintest idea, but we leave having experienced first-hand the value and joy of the incorporation of outdoor education. We already came with the desire to incorporate it into our pedagogy and thanks to the orchard garden, now we have the vision too.

It has been a lovely three weeks and a wonderful community field experience, and I hope that everyone involved has a future career ahead of them as bright and beautiful as the past three weeks have been. Some days it may rain, but so long as the light within each of us shines through it's enough to keep the spirits up.

Happy trails ahead!

Brendan

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was teh age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Ligh, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was te winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only"

Our CFE has come to an end.

The workshop on Saturday was a good end cap for the three weeks that we have spent together. We were able to come together one last time, in both the garden and the classroom settings, and express ourselves. Through the creating and presenting of the workshop we were able to delve into different subject areas, granted it was not a spurlunking but a mere surface skimming. We were also able to come together as friends one last time. It was exciting to be able to witness the creativity of nine different minds melding together to form 1 four hour workshop.

To draw another comparison, it was like Christmas with the family. The food, the surroundings and the people all serve as both comfort and entertainment.

It was also exciting to see that there were other people willing to venture into our presentation, they appeared to have fun and enjoy themselves, I know that my sister came away with some fond memories.

Thank you all again for the laughs and the learning!!

Sasha