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Welcome Center
A Welcome Message For You
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0-1: Welcome! Please Introduce Yourself 30 minLecture1.1
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0-2: A Note from Victoria 30 minLecture1.2
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0-3: Share a goal or intention for this class 30 minLecture1.3
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Module One: Strengthen Your Professional Identity as a Natural Teacher
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1-1: Create Goals and Intentions 30 minLecture2.1
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1-2: Five Steps to Prepare your Foundation for the Best Year Yet 30 minLecture2.2
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1-3: Get Curious with Montessori, Waldorf & Reggio 30 minLecture2.3
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1-4: Use Nature as a Guide: Wonder Based Teaching 30 minLecture2.4
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Module Two: Create Your Map of Intention
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2-1: Five Stages to Intentional Teaching Outdoors 30 minLecture3.1
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2-2: Five Tracks for Your Road Trip to Become a Natural Teacher 30 minLecture3.2
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2-3: Learn from our National Parks: America’s Largest Outdoor Classroom 30 minLecture3.3
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2-4: Harvest Your Manifesto & Create a Vision Board 30 minLecture3.4
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2-5: Workshop #1: RecordingLecture3.5
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Module Three: Nurture A Garden Practice: The Transformation
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3-1: Growth through Gardening with Bobbie Mabe 30 minLecture4.1
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3-2: Ten Life Lessons for Outdoor Classrooms 30 minLecture4.2
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3-3: Become an Advocate of Nature-Based Teaching 30 minLecture4.3
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3-4: I Wonder Why: Claire Warden Keynote at Wow Conference 30 minLecture4.4
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Module 4: Behind the Scenes
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4-1: Live Workshop #2: Closing Circle 30 minLecture5.1
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4-2: Behind the Scenes with Jessica Kagle from Kestrel Educational Adventures 30 minLecture5.2
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4-3: Behind the Scenes with Lara Lepionka from Backyard Growers 30 minLecture5.3
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4-4: Put it all Together: What next? 30 minLecture5.4
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4-5: Workshop #2: RecordingLecture5.5
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50 Comments
At the very start of my career in an early childhood setting I was constantly micro managed by people higher then me hinting that “Curriculum driven planning” and Documentation was more important then spending time with my children. I am no longer at this service and now I focus on being in the moment and not letting that moment be lost, (which I absolutely love) and get so much more out of! I loved when Claire said “there should be days when there is no documentation” it was music to my ears. I also loved her comments about “the fish faces of the world”. it made me chuckle.
Letting the children take a lead on their own learning was a very powerful message for me.
oh my goodness…..I am so glad you are not in a setting where people are micro-managing you and not allowing your creative spirit to grow. Yea you for seeing this. Love your deep reflections. 🙂
I loved her humour! What a great speaker. I do believe it is our job as educators to expose children to nature and to respect it. If we can show them how nature and people work together and rely on each other maybe the children of the future will respect nature, engage in nature and in turn teach the younger generation to love and appreciate nature too.
I really like the idea, to teach our children about natural; how to take care of our environment!
We are part of the word!
Yes!
I agree that in order to have the best learning for the children, you have to follow them and their interests. In my current center, we use the project approach where we follow the children’s interest and investigate topics that are important to the children. The story of the child who was investigating what happened when they dropped the sand into the grate was a perfect example. His parent wanted him to experience nature the way she thought it should be experienced, yet his own experience was valid and worthwhile to him. Too often children are directed how to explore the world around them without any input from them.
I also liked when she talked about how the space we have doesn’t matter, one is not better than the other. We can teach nature and experience life and growth in a window box if that is all that is available to us. It will just be a different experience than someone else might have in a different setting, but will still be valid.
Great reflections!
Claire Warden and her ideas on nature pedagogy are powerful for me. She knows that children really enjoy learning in environments which are centered in the natural world “inside, outside, and beyond”. Her thoughts about “participatory planning” are aligned with what I would like to see in the U.S. The children are participants in planning what they want to learn. It is the children who are the starting point, not the teacher. One year, when I experimented with an emergent curriculum, I found that the children were much more engaged in their activities because they chose (through discussions and observations with and by the teachers) what they wanted to learn. There was no pre-determined curriculum.
Ms. Warden has some wonderful insights in her keynote address. Too many times we are encouraged to “get children ready” for the next step. How many times are we told to prepare 4-YEAR OLDS for kindergarten? As Erin mentioned in her comments below, we are dictated by standards so much so, that we lose sight of what is really important. Creativity, unfortunately, tends to go out the window and we stop living the “moments of fascination”, we stop “engaging in the moment” as Ms. Warden states. And as she points out, the “emotional resonance” is missed when in the process of documenting children. I notice myself, that in writing down everything a child does, I miss the subtle moments. Isn’t it time to simply be wholly present?
I also liked her image of how humans have placed themselves at the top of the world, instead of thinking of ourselves as part of a circle, working in synergy with the natural world.
Beautiful reflections and well said! Bravo! Keep up the great work.
I found this video immensely intriguing. My co teacher and I have found that the curriculum driven planning we have often hinders our creative sides because we get so caught up in meeting our curriculum needs or our state requirements that we almost forgot to focus on how to get the children engaged. I think the idea of engaging with children so that they can lead is so important and we try as much as possible to listen to our class and their interests and try to incorporate them as much as we can. I thought the point she made about how we place ourselves as humans on top and that we behave as if we have dominance over the natural work is extremely interesting. I believe that it’s actually quite the opposite. I believe nature absolutely has dominance over us as a species. I also enjoyed the story of the boy at the zoo playing with dirt while his mom pulled him away to “see nature”. I think it’s important for us to try to think like the children, try to see things from their perspective so that we don’t take them away from a situation of interest like playing with a pile of dirt.
Wonderful reflections!
Three of my takeaways from the talk are:
The idea that we have to “act in synergy with the natural world.” We shouldn’t view cold, or rain as obstacles but as opportunities! The fall brings leaves falling, birds to observe migrating, and plants to harvest. Winter brings snow to play in! Spring is a time for planting, and for playing in the rain! We communicate with families in my classroom about the importance of dressing the children for the weather–we let them know that we go out in the cold and the rain and that they should send appropriate gear. My school population is a very wealthy demographic and therefore can buy appropriate gear. As teachers advocating nature-based play we should consider the obstacles families may have to providing appropriate clothes–maybe they don’t have a washer in the home, so would prefer not to have their children’s clothes get muddy or maybe they can’t afford to buy snow pants, etc. Her next point I thought was important and connects to this was that we shouldn’t “colonize” the world with our ideas about nature play. We have to be culturally responsive to the families in our classroom when we plan curriculum and communicate with them about nature based play. I also appreciated her point about the “interwoven nature of us on the planet.” One of my main goals as a natural teacher is to connect children to nature and help them to develop a love of nature because they are the future stewards of the earth.
So true! Fantastic reflections and take aways.
This video was very interesting. I was really taken by her view on how school buildings affect children’s relation to their environment. For example, the Newton Highschool in Massachusetts, was designed by an architect who also designed jails. To me, this is a call to rethink our school environments, for this, I think it is important to take a step back, and take in consideration the height of the children as it is mentioned in the video in order to get the children’s perspective.
I also thought it was very important that one model does not apply to all, as she emphasizes in the video. I think that is important to take inconsideration where you are and the resources one has. For example, as it was discussed earlier, with the three different teaching approaches: Montessori, Reggio Emilia and the Waldorf Approach. All have different ways to embrace same goals: sensory, relationship with natural materials, sense of community, etc.
I thought it was very important how we view curriculum, and how it is beneficial when we let the children guides as first instead, of planning for them ahead. I think that this is an easy way to start when thinking about going by children’s interest versus teacher’s agenda. I like the idea of “not documenting” for at least a day, I think that it is important to stay in the present, and portray that to the children.
Fantastic reflections! Great takeaways and incredibly thoughtful.
A lot of people refrain now a days from going outside because they either don’t want to get too cold, or wet, or get sweaty. Unfortunately it takes away from children having the opportunities to go outside. From what I have witnessed, children want to go outside either way. But as adults, teachers or parents, we make the decision to keep them inside. It’s hard when you work with a group of teachers and one teacher wants to go out and the other wants to stay in and it puts you in a hard position. Being able to go out, no matter what the temperature outside is a great learning opportunity for children to understand what kind of activities you can do during certain seasons and what you can’t do. It is also very healthy for them to get fresh air and run around instead of being stuck at home or in a in door classroom all day.
YES!!!!
I appreciated many aspects of the Keynote address. I have always incorporated nature in my curriculum. At one of my centers we had such a rich area to explore, we had a wonderful college greenhouse and a long trail that led down a path by the mill river. We addressed the beauty and had some difficult conversations about lifes challenges for animals. Once we saw a family of ducks sheltering themselves from a hawk that was sitting in a tree fixed on the babies. The father mallard was several feet out in the water swimming back and forth, quacking, appearing to try and distract the hawk. We watched quietly as the situation unfolded. The hawk moved around from branch to branch, then finally left with empty talons. This led to multiple conversations, as the children were aware that the hawk was a bird of prey, and as one child stated, ” I’m glad the hawk went somewhere else for lunch!” We had so many opportunities to let things unfold. Flexibility in curriculum is so valuable. In an outdoor classroom there is both predictability and the magic of spontaneous events.
Great reflections. Keep up the great work.
Site or situation? It can be both. You can enjoy being in the site and absorb it in or you may have a situation and the site may give room for meditation. Allow kids to be curious and encourage. Continue to grow by exploring the beyond and sharing ideas.
Interesting!
I really liked how engaging was mentioned. We need to engage in nature and have the kids engage as well. I liked that we have to get passed the weather. I agree we need to plan with the weather. If it’s raining that’s great, plants need water, if it’s sunny that’s great, plants need sun. Weather will be weather, lets enjoy any type of weather. I like that she mentions how we all have a place. I totally agree. We have to open up and find our place. I loved Claire Warden, she was super funny too which made this an interesting watch!
She is an incredible leader in this movement.
Such an interesting presentation! So many things struck me as interesting but I really liked her point on how we need to get past the weather and plan/create outdoor experiences for children working in synergy with nature. Embrace what is offered.
I also liked her points on engagement/natural world stimuli based curriculum planning, I could not agree more with her.
Also, I liked how intentional the whole process she talks about is. How much thought goes into planning these experiences to make them the best possible, from architecture to landscaping and more.
Being in synergy with the natural world is something she emphasized throughout the presentation and I really liked that.
She is amazing!
I found multiple things interesting from this video the first would be the story about the ice skating rink that the kids made, it is such a great idea and a great way to incorporate nature during the winter months. The second thing that I found very interesting would have to be the pictures of the children touching nature…..just that connection that they were able to capture in that moment is amazing and for me it truly showed me how nature can change someone! i loved when she said “Nature on Natures terms” this was a very fascinating quote from her speech, also “see yourself to see others”….this quotes I will probably hold onto for every because they meaning behind them both is so true and light lifting! Thank you for sharing this video!
Love your reflections! Keep up the great work.
The way we see natural world is really important, how much we can teach children by creating a curriculum with a lot of nature in it, starting since infant to graduation years. Kids are really limited by the way we live, stress, electronics and much more that we are not allowing them to have spaces to enjoy nature.
Nice reflections.
Wow, that was a great keynote with so many great insights.
A few tidbits that hit me:
The Pedagogical Dance–I loved her insights on that ebb and flow between children, adults, and the environment when it comes to curriculum.
Days of No Documentation/No Camera–I loved this! My husband loves to take photos (and I’m grateful) but I’m more of an “enjoy the moment” person. I understand what she meant about disrupting the emotional resonance when you insert a camera. I love times of just marveling at the children engaged in their experiences without trying to get the perfect picture to document it.
Finally, I loved her point of how we all have a place. I have friends and colleagues who are blessed to have expansive and wonderful outdoor spaces. Our school is just a little stretch of land in the courtyard of a building on a busy urban street. But, we have a place! LOVE!
Love your last sentence about your place!!! Beautiful.
Having nature as our teacher and learning from it is a good way for us to be one with nature. We can learn a lot from the environment and how it helps us. I love working in the garden and the children enjoy working in the garden as well.
Beautiful.
1. Curriculum driven planning v. Participation planning: If we want children to get excited about the outdoor classroom they should be particpants in the planning. We need to look at what stimulates them in the natural world, what do they seem to be curious about? and use that to plan our curriculum for outdoors.
2. “Trace learning across three spaces. Inside, outside, and beyond” There is so much undiscovered territory in the world and some of it could be closer than you think. I walked to a nearby park a few days ago, that I have been to many times, and decided to go a little further past the trees and discovered a pond and a trail that was there all along and I didn’t even know about. Our outdoor space at the school is fenced in, but even if we go just outside the gate I’m sure we would find a bunch of new things to explore that we hadn’t before. However, it is very unfortunate that we have rules and regulations that inhibit such a learning experience.
3. “…what that means for children if all they see is perfection. What does that say to children about inclusivity?” We need to teach children to see people, nature, and everything else as beautiful the way they are. No one and nothing is perfect and if we never create the idea of what makes something or someone more preferable, then there would be less hatred in the world and more love four, ourselves, each other, nature, and the world we live in.
The three takeaways I got from this video
We need to look at nature at nature terms. We explore and learn so much just from what nature is at that defined time. Its changing constantly. There so much more, we can explore and learn with our senses. We touch, smell, taste, hear and see an abundance of what nature gives us.
Is it insite or is it situation? Getting the children involved, building what the children wanted. Making the peep hole for the ones not ready to go into the space they made. I really love that idea.
Inside,outside and beyond. The beyond where it can be just a balcony a space to where children can observe nature. It doesn’t have to be an extravagant outing.
Great reflections!
I liked the idea of transitional spaces. “How do you want to come in (the garden)?” she asked the children and they replied with, ‘Not with my mom or dad.” Lol Ideas the children came up with were a gate, an arch, a bridge, and one child said, “I do not want to go in.” So they created a peep hole to look inside while remaining out of the space for the child who might need a bit more time to come into the garden. “I WONDER IF it is the site (like a beach or a forest) or the situation?” Clair stated. This idea makes me think more deeply about transitional spaces and their use. Like the breezeway between the outside play area and the classroom and how we use this area. Also thinking about the entryway from the outside playground into ‘the beyond’ (which is the wooded area just beyond the fenced in play area). I would like to create an entryway/gate for easier access into the woods, without needing to walk all the way around the fence to get there. and to make that entry/gateway more magical and appealing to the children by using an arch or a grape vine covered tunnel. Creating an “expectation of what’s to come”
I also LOVED the idea of having times or days where there is no documentation happening or when there is no camera used and you can just live in the moment with the children. I often find that we are constantly using the camera or grabbing a pen to write the child’s words or actions down and that definitely takes away from the magic of the moment or takes away from the experience. When you put the camera between you and the child or nature you take away from the experience. You lose the emotional residence. You lose that unseen, unobservable moment.
The third point that I really resonated with is looking at nature on natures terms! Embracing everything that the space offers in a way that is not canned or processed. What does it say to a child if you only point out the beautiful things in nature? Only the most pretty flowers but not the more average ones? Only the perfect stones but not the cracked ones? Or only the cute fluffy little baby chicks and not the deformed ones that had something go wrong in the hatching process? These are all opportunities in nature for children to see the diversity it has to offer. It is a valuable experience to look more closely at the diversity of the human species. What nature offers us in the moment is critical. It helps to form what children think about diversity and of all of natures creatures as well. We should use all that nature has to offer in order to show children expectance, compassion, and the importance of differences and uniqueness.
Fabulous connections and reflections. It actually got me thinking about my own backyard teaching garden. Claire Warden has such wonderful ideas and captures the essence of children learning outdoors.
Re- connection with nature and explore it with then children to receive the energy and source that provide us making and planning activities to involve the children to discovery the beauty and The atraction law of the nature is fantastic and admire the nature as well is so rewarding.
Yes…nature can be our teacher.
Three take always from this keynote speaker:
It is not realistic to implant another program into your space if they are not similar. Make your own space for what works for you. You can use others ideas but create them into your own.
When we are teaching about nature do not just teach about the beautiful things found in nature. Lessons could be missed if we do this type of practice. It is important to learn about all things. My train of thought went to the dirt. What nutrients need to be in the dirt to make things grow. Or a flower that did not get as much sun because of the planting placement. This is a teachable moment, do not waste it.
Our beyond does not have to look a certain way. We create our space. Ask the child what they want their space to look like. Give them a voice in your collective project.
Hit the nail on the head! Well done!
It sounds really fun to be in the forest in Scotland. Bottomless wonder!
I think when you follow the children’s interests in the nature, you can find 100 ways of their manifest. I can use those to create a fun outdoor curriculum for children. We try to go back to reconnect the nature in order to gain energy through the nature. She’d reminded me that I find the identity of myself and the children, then follow the children’s interest and learn from there with the children.
The picture of her child’s smile tells me everything, love, curiosity and wonder!!!
I love this!
This was very informative and interesting, honest and profound! Love the dance analogy and talking about difficult conversations. What an amazing perspective and the thought of instilling confidence and a sense of ownership in children is exciting and a goal for me!
Wonderful! I love how you are adding more and more to your toolbox.
The three significant ideas after watching the video about the Natural Schools:
1. Create self-confidence and significant learning in all types of children in the long or short term, even in those who have sensory difficulties when interacting with elements of nature.
2. The Natural World provides an infinite diversity of tools for the teacher (guide) and for the child that benefits both protagonists. Learning becomes real experiences
3. Social Constructivist Approach. The power of learning comes from the same child that by interacting with the natural world (place, geography, history, folklore …) his peers and adults build significant and transcendent learning in the process of child development. Learning becomes real experiences.
4. The curriculum is participatory and flexible. Children are active participants in planning their own learning. The teacher creates the objectives from the observations, questions, possible theories how the world works that are the starting point for the development of meaningful learning.
Fantastic! Your reflections continue to be profound. Keep up the great work.
We are all learning.
Our global environment affects what we can do.
We all need to he willing to learn and share.
Very rich in information. Lots to consider.