Summer is often a time of renewal, reflection, and relaxation for teachers and we hope you have made time for that. At the WCEE, summer is a time of deep discovery for what is growing and changing in our backyard and natural communities. It is a time of learning from each other sharing garden tips or identifying the many green plants growing around us. It is also a time of sharing great sites, secret swimming holes, or hiking spots. As a basis for our summer workshop professional development (PD) series for teachers, we took a different approach this year. We unleashed our passion for the environment and let it guide our workshops. Using the staffs' interests, skills, and excitement for the natural world, an engaging workshop series for teachers was created. The series was designed to spark the interest of learning in nature, by nature, and through nature's teachings.
Rachel Carson left these words in her book A Sense of Wonder (1956):
If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.
If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy,
excitement and mystery of the world we live in.
Research continues to alarm us of the
increasingly disconnection we have to our natural world. Richard Louv's 2005 book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, provided a call to action to get kids outdoors and into nature. Over 10 years later, we, as a society, struggle to find time to disconnect from the
day-to-day, and engage in the natural world supporting our existence. Natural communities are becoming foreign worlds, filled with unknowns. It becomes challenging to use the environment as a context for student
learning, when we do not have strong knowledge of or comfort teaching in natural communities.
That is where the WCEE comes in: to guide educators to use the natural environment as a way to create "joy, excitement, and mystery" in their teachings. That became the basis of our summer workshop series for educators. In June, a new PD model was launched based on staff passions, skills, and excitement. When taught by an instructor who is passionate and excited about what they are teaching, the enthusiasm is contagious. With that zeal, we designed an environmental education PD model with the purpose of igniting educators' excitement for the environment; arming them with skills and tools to implement lessons learned in their curriculum; and, overall, increasing their environmental literacy.
This summer 38 educators increased their knowledge and skills to help release a sense of wonder in children to discover the many mysteries of our natural world and engage in learning using a place just a step outdoors. Hear what people are saying about these workshops:
"I was impressed with the experience and knowledge of our presenters. I left with numerous lessons that I am planning on using in my classroom and also in my personal life."
"I took the bird class and sustainability class. Both were a lot of fun and gave me a ton of ideas for incorporating ideas into some of the
programming I do. We also got a huge supply of resources." (
As we continue to move into the fall, the WCEE is committed to providing opportunities for educators to tap our natural world for learning opportunities across all disciplines including English language arts, social studies, science, technology, and agriculture education. To learn more about the upcoming offerings this fall and into next summer, please visit our
professional development page.