Authentic Learning

When I was a kid I remember learning about stuff but never really connecting the learning to real life. Some of the topics we learned about didn't really seem real.
I must say that I work in an amazing school! We had decided to teach the children about their contributions to the world around them. So to teach the children about charity we had the Auckland rescue Helicopter fly into school, we will be having the flying simulator in at school so the children can learn how to fly, we will also be going to visit the helicopter hanger and that's all just this term.
I have never seen the children so excited and motivated to learn and so willing to put so much effort into helping others.
We are planning a big fundraising event for our charity of choice (Rescue Helicopter) and the ideas that the children are coming up with are fantastic. They have been writing about their experiences of seeing the helicopter fly into the school, they have been researching different items you can hire for fundraising, they have been enquiring about the costs, they have been reading about the Trust and they have been waving money collection buckets to raise funds for this charity.
This is real topic study! This has soaked through every subject area in our class and the learning that the children are gaining is phenomenal.