Outdoor Learning Goals: A Collaborative Discussion with Carly and April

Teach Outdoors

Today we have two guests with us today to talk about how this past school year went, what did they learn, and what are the goals that we are looking forward to tackling next year.

Carly Eirikson is a VP at Ecole Herbert Spencer Elementary, In New Westminster, she has her Masters of Education in Special Education and spent 4 years of her career as an educational consultant for POPARD supporting students with autism all over British Columbia.

Twitter: @ceirikson

Instagram: all_of_us_outside

What worked well?
Seeing students’ creativity go in unique directions when learning outdoors. Carly also incorporated technology skills when learning in nature.

What are your goals next year?

Focus on the connection to self, others and place.

Story Workshop in connection with the ADST curriculum, especially the design aspect (e.g., Nature Design)

What resources will you use to support those goals?

Outdoor Learning Store (link here) has so many resources!
Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities by David Sobel.
Natural Curiosity by Doug Anderson.
Engaging Imagination in Ecological Education by Gillian Judson.
Adrienne Gear’s Building a Sense of Connection to self, others, community, place through indigenous stories.

April Pikkarainen is a VP at Gilmore elementary in Richmond, she has a Masters of Education in Self-Regulated Learning. Her passion is in early learning and nature immersion.

Twitter: @april_pikk

Instagram: aprilpikkarainen

What worked well?

Helping kids understand what they need in order to move their learning forward. April uses the framework: what is my job, what are the steps to get my job done, what do I need to do next? She also noticed a deeper connection between learners and the land after visiting the same places repeatedly over the course of the year.

What are your goals next year?

Nurturing and deepening the learners’ connection to land and re-creating our narrative with our relationship to the land.

Professional goal is to focus on having a lens of diversity, equity and inclusion through outdoor learning.

What resources will you use to support those goals?

Using Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature by Jon Young

Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs by Tristan Gooley

One Story One Song by Richard Wagamese

The Goodness of Rain by Ann Pelo