Recently I was asked by a Kindergarten teacher who works and teaches in India to give a talk to her class about plants. I decided to bring them on a virtual nature walk using Zoom. How did I do it? I went to a local park near where I stay and took a close walk... Continue Reading →
Outdoor Education Cookbook: A school community is more than people (Identifying ALL LIFE on campus)
Recently someone reached out to me and asked me for ideas on how they could connect outdoor learning with a community-based unit of inquiry. Many schools start year off by working towards building community within a class of school. Across early years and through elementary and even older grades, there are fairly standard activities teachers... Continue Reading →
Outdoor Education Cookbook: Empathy Towards Wildlife (Early Years Lesson – Cleaning Animals)
Earlier this year, when schools closed across the globe and many went to online learning, our Pre-Kindergarten year-level team wanted to focus on some causes of what would eventually become a pandemic. At the time, it was coming out in the news that the source of the virus was a wild animal market. Many questions... Continue Reading →
Making Better Teachers Podcast 27: Living a Life of Science with Tia Luker-Putra
How do you shake up a school's science curriculum and make it more meaningful and fun? How do you get more girls involved in STEM and STEAM? How do you help other educators become more skilled in teaching science? How do you make real-world and hands-on science connections? This week we chat with international educator... Continue Reading →
Making Better Teachers Podcast 22: Teaching Science and Bugs & Stuff
What's it like to teach science and conservation to both adults and children? This week we chat with Cari Ritzenthaler, co-host of the Bugs & Stuff podcast. She is a scientist, adjunct instructor and works in an elementary school in the United States. Cari also co-hosts the Bugs & Stuff Podcast, a show all about... Continue Reading →
Outdoor Learning: The World Under a Rock
Often people lament that they are unable to connect with nature because it may be too far away. In a way, I understand their thinking. I grew up in rural Eastern Canada and the forests and shorelines of Nova Scotia were my playgrounds. I was extremely close to nature as a child and young adult.... Continue Reading →
Outdoor Learning: Preparing Kids for Adventure
You’ve now made the decision to help get your children or students more connected to nature. It’s time to get them outside and let them explore and inquire. Kids can of course simply do this using their own senses and that is a theme that will appear throughout this series, but there are some basic... Continue Reading →
Citizen Scientist Students: iNaturalist
About a year ago I decided to check out a Birding Beijing social event here in Beijing, China. I do a great deal of work within my school with regards to environmental and nature education, but I wanted to meet people from outside the international school world who like-minded. It was a fantastic event and... Continue Reading →
Teacher Wellness: Decompressing and Relaxing
Teaching can be a very rewarding and stressful job. Those who have not walked a mile in a teacher’s shoes would simply never understand the 900 plus decisions we must make in the run of an average day. You have reports to write, assessments to do, a class to teach, social skills to teach, relationships... Continue Reading →
Reimagining What’s Possible: Urban Outdoor Learning Spaces
This has been an exciting week for me as an educator. It’s nearing Halloween (one of my favorite celebrations of the year) and I am on my way back from Shenzhen, China. What was I doing there? I was presenting at the ACAMIS ECE Conference. ACAMIS is a group of almost eighty international schools in... Continue Reading →