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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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56 Comments
Jessica is a very inspiring person. What a life she has created for herself. I can relate in regards to starting a business that I am passionate about and not making a cent for many years. I love her idea about challenging the children’s thought about certain things, for example the snake and how it actually felt. It takes a strong individual to sleep outside for a month just to learn more about their surroundings. I love that she wasn’t exposed to nature from a young age, and that her passion grew as she grew. I loved her determination to learn by finding books and resources and diving in with her whole self to learn and grow her passion. I love that she supplies all her participants with boots! LOL. I myself love to get messy with children and I know from experience some parents cringe at pick up time seeing their child covered in mud. What an inspirational woman. It is true, if you are passionate about something, you must be the driving force to learn and grow. I would love to have the grit to go camping once a month rain, snow, hail or shine. Wonderful conversation to watch.
Thrilled you enjoyed this as much as I did. 🙂
Some of my take away food for thought –
1. Wow she is so brave spending a month in the woods just to “listen” and “Be” in nature
2. Her dedication to creating her organisation and not making money until.
3. It doesn’t matter where you are in life or how old you are when you have passion you can do anything!
4. “Learners construct their own ideas from what starts in their brain” I have always felt that this is also apart of my own personal philosophy and I can really relate to this statement.
5.Challenging children`s presumptions when exploring nature.
FANTASTIC REFLECTIONS!!! Just love it!
Jessica’s story reminded was how your connection to the natural world can continue to deepen over time. Jessica loved being outdoors, but it wasn’t until her mid-twenties that she realized that nature is more than something you go out into. She realized that she wanted to learn more about the different species and how they are interconnected. I relate to this as a teacher and gardener because the longer I garden the more I understand that my garden exists as a small ecosystem, of which I am a part of. Bunnies that build burrows, blue jays building nests, robins eating worms out of the soil, and tiny insects living in the leaves I leave for them are only a few of the animals that live there. Her story of taking her love of the outdoors and nature to children in schools is inspiring! Her idea of using connections to the outdoors to build a community and helping people develop personal growth is interesting.
Well said! Beautiful!
I found it super interesting that she had her first nature adventure at 16 and it inspired her. I think the reason why a lot of people don’t have the love for nature is because they haven’t experienced a nature experience that allows them to appreciate what nature is all about and how soothing and beautiful it can be.
As a child myself, my family and I would always go on camping trips ever summer since I was very young and I feel like that’s how my love for nature grew because it was around me and I saw how beautiful and fun it could be.
As she mentions, nature isn’t only about the nature and planting and gardening, but it is also about the wild life and all the animals out in the nature you can study and understand how they live in that environment.
Also, I think allowing children to experience the nature, get dirty, get muddy, get wet is such fun experience.
It is also very important to share experience with others because it inspires people to do what you do and experience the beauty of life as well.
So true. Great reflections.
Some takeaways are:
-It’s never too late to change your mindset or our outlook. There is nothing that should prevent us from trying new things.
-The importance of how hands on experiences can change your life.
-I took courage from how she viewed the challenging task of trying to convince schools, teachers, and others that this is important and called it the most enjoyable. This is often a challenge for people and it was a great way to look at it.
-To have a plan, but not a template because this will allow you to capitalize on the strengths and characteristics of the space and participants.
-I too have thought about how much easier it would be to more outside if we (as teachers and schools) if we can provide the necessary tools and clothing so everyone has what they need to engage.
I love the shift in your mindset!!
I enjoyed learning that you can learn about nature and learn to love nature at any point in ones life. Jessica was very inspiring and kept the optimism flowing and letting us know that while we are learning this we should also be learning from our student too. It was also a great reminder that we always need to keep our students engaged in what we are doing!
So insightful!
I loved her story of camping and how it jump started her love of outdoors. Even if she did not spend too much time outside as a small child, you can change your life at any time, and it’s never too late to start discovering new passions!
I also liked how she talked about observing the children while they observe nature and how important shared experiences are.
And also… her time living in the woods by the swamp all summer, listening to nature rhythms and reading 30 books sounds like a dream right now…
Awesome stories inspire.
I did not love camping before I meet my husband, he made experience so natural and fun! so I thing it is important to expose children into the natural word as simple as we can.
I love Jessica video, was very power full.
Thank you
Great!
What I found so inspiring about Jessica is that a lot of her learning is self taught. She is a self taught naturalist, and most of her business and managerial skills were learned through her work with teachers. What a wonderful message for those of us who feel that if we are not experts in a specific field, we can’t make things work. Instead of the creation of a curriculum she has chosen the constructivist approach and designed a teaching model that begins and ends with student stories. In between are the questions, observations, and the creation of original work. She has no template! Finally, the challenge many of us have: satisfying the parent’s need to receive clean children at the end of the day. I wish we didn’t have to be concerned with that. But at least investing in a system that satisfies this need (many pairs of boots) is the way to go. Now to convince the directors of our programs to make this investment!
Great takea-aways!
I enjoyed how Jessica talked about starting with student stories, I’m interested in learning how I can incorporate that with my class as they are only toddlers. I also enjoyed how she talked about asking children questions that we don’t have answers to, I think that really plays into actually experiencing WITH the children. Something Jessica talked about that I am excited to try with my class is spending each day living as a different animal, finding their food, building their habitats. I think this will be a great activity for my age group
Fantastic take-aways!
I love that Jessica went on a camping adventure when she was 16 and that’s what got her into nature way more. I love that she talks about how she wasn’t really into nature in her early childhood time. It just shows that love for nature can happen at any time. I love that after college Jessica wanted to make a career in taking people outdoors. Jessica seemed really awesome. I just like the fact that she didn’t do an interview about how she was into nature since the day she was born, she was real about it and basically told us that nature wasn’t a big thing for her until high school. I really enjoyed this interview.
Great reflections!!
I really enjoyed this interviewed. I was really taken by how she found her call following her own journey, or experience, which build into something bigger. I think that it is important what she is trying to bring to her community, for example: “engaging people with nature”. I also like her method, which is that of being inquisitive to children as a way of learning rather than imposing onto children. I really like their teaching model, which is knowing your children first and following their lead rather than our agenda. I will definitely be researching more about the ‘constructivist teaching model’.
Great reflections!
I liked that the curriculum was inspired by the children’s and may not repeat. Making it custom and directed toward each individual. It would be great to inspire more minds at a younger age and provide them the opportunity to do so.
Beautiful!
Loved hearing how her career developed. Most of my post is on the next page. There is a lot of value in getting schools to participate during the school day. Being outside and learning about the natural world is so important to children and adults.
Love this video too. 🙂
I’ve never been camping but after this I definitely want to. When my program opens back up I cant wait to observe my kids learning from nature, and see what i learn myself
🙂
1. Jessica is super brave for pretty much transplanting herself to the outdoors for a month, but what a blessing that came out of that move! It opened up a whole new world to her that she can now share with so many others.
2. I love the idea about challenging a child’s or person’s initial perceptive when having experiences with nature, and then using the new perception to guide where the “curriculum” goes. I love when someone or something can stimulate my brain.
3. I would also like to see school systems put as much energy in sciences that they put in English and math because it is just as important if not more.
YES!!! I’m dancing up and down! You’ve got it!!! So glad you are inspired! Now see how many you can inspire.
The first thing that really inspired me was that she developed as a natural teacher at an older age and not from childhood. I myself did not do much in the outdoors as a young child but through my travels and excursions with my husband and son have come to really appreciate the natural environment.
I love her teaching model and the idea of being a “mentor”. At one point, she mentioned the idea of mentoring to inquiry. Fantastic! I believe this is even possible with my preschoolers and it excites me when they ask very deep and profound questions.
And finally, I absolutely subscribe to her philosophy in wanting to see a change/paradigm shift in how children are taught science. Teaching them to design their own questions and methods of investigation will serve them well in these current times. Love! Again, I believe this can start at the younger ages. Children are so naturally curious and innovative–they don’t subject their ideas to boundaries–they dream.
Wonderful reflections!! Great job!
Camping gives you the change to reconnect with nature, its a good way for the children to observe nature and explain to you what they see in nature or what they hear.
Yes! May be camping in our backyards now.
“Don’t be afraid to ask questions you dont know the answer to”. We are always asking open-ended questions, helping the children to think and express their ideas. It is so much more fun when we can explore and find those answers together,especially when there in nature.
Jessica has a great way of teaching
Science/Nature. Being an interprettivr outdoor educator showing ways we can learn to appreciate, enjoy,understand and connect emotionally and physically. What’s a better away to exploring science, then while holding it. As Jessica mentioned. Hands on. That’s the way I enjoy it too.
Making sure to explore nature getting out once a month, try something new. A new outdoor place. Having a meaningful practice.
Yea!!! Wonderful work.
I am happy that Jessica shared with us that her childhood was not filled with outdoor memories. So, my take away from that is that it is never too late. As a teacher, there is so much to learn about the outdoors. We can learn as we go. Prompting children to think about the natural world and ask questions; learning the answers to the questions and building a lesson plan from that is my plan.
Another take away is the idea about ecosystems. I loved that she had the children create a movie about what they learned. I feel I could use that as an end result of learning lesson in nature. Also having their peers critique their work, that would be a wonderful social skills activity.
The last take away was the muddy boots. Let the children get dirty. I may not be able to have the boots, but maybe encouraging shoes that we can take a walk in. We could have walking days that would suggest sneakers this day so we could go out into nature. To Jessica’s point, having a timeframe and sticking to it when creating lesson plans. You can get children out and back to do other scheduled activities.
I love that you picked up on the fact the she did not have childhood memories of bein outdoors. Great reflections. Keep up the great work.
I just loved the idea of sleeping outside one night a month, year round, for a year! I honestly think that I am going to set this goal for myself, starting this summer. She said even if it is just in your local woods or in your back yard. I would be excited to do this for myself! I love sleeping outside and roughing it in all types of weather.
She also mentioned being an interpretive educator while camping outside along a swamp in a park and sitting for hours listening to the rhythms of the frog songs and the bird songs. She used 30 or so different library books to help her identify the birds, the owls, and the calls of the different creatures.
I had to look up the definition of an ‘interpretive educator.’
“Educational and Interpretive Classifications. Interpretation is a special form of communication that helps people understand, appreciate, and emotionally connect with the rich natural and cultural heritage preserved in parks.” Amazing! I had no idea.
I also liked her advice of, “Don’t be afraid to ask questions that you don’t know the answers too.” It’s ok to discover the answers alongside or with the children or to let them ‘feel valued’ in teaching you something that you didn’t yet know.
Another life goal that I can take away from your interview with Jessica is to go on one new adventure a year, to a brand new place, for a week to learn a new ecosystem. There are soooo many places to explore. A whole lifetime full of them and more!
You have truly encapsulated this Master Class! Soaking up every word, trying them on, and digesting them into creating your own practice. Absolutely amazing work! I’m thrilled and so excited for you! It sounds like you are embarking on a new refreshed path. Keep up the great work and keep sharing your journey, as it is an exciting one.
She is looking for adventure and she sleeps outdoors great ways of inspiration. I like how she is able to work with little kids and then she pass to work with high school kids. It looks like a really organized program offering trainings and a great curriculum
Great reflections.
Camping ,explanation about the three that was moving and involving children in nature . And also allowing children makIng their observation.
Super!
1. Interact with nature directly. Get out of my comfort zone for having new experiences.
2. Have meaningful practices like sleeping once a month in the woods, on the beach, or in a garden. Also keeping a journal to write my observations, stop to admire the nature help me maintain that inspiration and energy as a teacher.
3. The curriculum must be flexible, innovative, inclusive and respectful . Develop activities that awaken this provocation to learn.
4. Don’t be afraid to give answers to all the children’s questions. Bring the question or challenge, expose them for the children respond to them through sensory and nature experiences that develop their skills.
5. Share my experiences, plans, doubts with colleagues and also with the community to create plans that have a more significant impact.
This is fantastic!!! Love your list!
How exciting to sleep outside for a day or so. She absorbed energy from the nature and passed it onto the students. She asks questions intentionally to the students and guide them with her knowledge and let them have the answer on their own. It’s important to engage with the students and be curious about the stuff you don’t know.
So fun!
It’s important to engage with students and show passion. You ask a question to students intentionally and guide them and let children to find an answer on their own. She absorbed energy and passion from the nature and she passes the love of nature onto children!
Wonderful!!
I thought it was pretty amazing how the job of Jessica’s dreams “fell into her lap” and made her realize the importance of this work. I like the idea of the teaching model and fitting learning to the place and culture. A few other take aways; authentic experiences from a new place, creating original work, shifts initial perceptions, a ton of compromises, engage deeply with place. AWESOME-donation of rain/mud boots and a boot washing station! One adventure to a brand new place every year-Love this!!
Wonderful!!!
1. The natural world has a rhythm if you take time to listen.
2. It is good to observe your students while they are observing nature.
3. Shared experiences are important.
Nice take-aways. 🙂