Into The Wild With Moby

Last spring we announced the purchase of a new 10-passenger van for school use. The van has been designated as WSD’s mobile classroom to take small groups of students in upper grades on off-campus excursions. The possibilities are many, but the goals of the program center around building community among our students as well as increasing student and teacher engagement in the wider community.

The Mobile Classroom, nicknamed “Moby,” has already taken several groups of students off campus and “into the wild.” This term, students are focusing on westward movement and the pursuit of dreams. They hiked on the Oregon / California trail and made the connection between finding one’s ideal community and choosing to go to a school that becomes your ideal community. Then they took time to write and reflect on who they are and who they want to be within that community. Students also spent time with maps and map skills, talked about how one should prepare to experience the outdoors, identified local plants and landmarks from a variety of guidebooks, and had a very good time!

“This is the best day of my life,” announced one student, who before the excursion had expressed trepidation about being outdoors all afternoon. Time spent on the trail, in the woods, knee-deep in water, and with newfound friends made all reluctance melt away.