More webinars to be announced soon!

“Mapping Your Community”
Tuesday, September 25 , 2012, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
Presenter: Bob Coulter
Please register by clicking here

We live in an increasingly global community, but there are powerful learning opportunities right in your own neighborhood. In this webinar see how your core learning goals can be met through focused, community-based investigations. Geography, math, science, and history all come to life as your students investigate and take action in the place they know best. Get inspired by projects done with real kids, and learn about tools ranging from "easy to use...I can do this tomorrow…" to more advanced tools that support in-depth projects.  Learn how 5th graders added new dimensions to their water quality project by mapping land use and 4th graders introduce geocachers to their local parks and promote native plants. What can your students do?

Suitability: All formal youth educators, and school administrators

Bob Coulter is director of the Litzsinger Road Ecology Center, managed by the Missouri Botanical Garden. As part of that work he has gained more than a decade of experience using a variety of geospatial tools including GIS, GPS, and handheld augmented reality games that engage teachers and kids with their local community. In an earlier life he was an award-winning elementary grade math and science teacher. 

“Design and Implement Effective EE Programs”
Thursday, September 27, 2012, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
Presenter: Bora Simmons
Please register by clicking here

Are you looking for resources that will help you design and implement effective environmental education programs? Join us on for a webinar introduction to NAAEE’s National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education (See www.naaee.net for more details.) Learn about the Guidelines for Excellence, how they were developed, how they are being used, and how you can access them for free.

Suitability: All formal and non-formal youth educators and school administrators

Bora Simmons is the founding director of the National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education. The Project was initiated in 1993 by the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) to help educators develop and deliver effective environmental education programs. After twenty years as a professor of environmental education at Northern Illinois University, Bora retired in 2007 and moved the Project to the Institute for a Sustainable Environment at the University of Oregon. Bora has been actively involved in environmental education research, evaluation, and professional development for over thirty years. She served on the NAAEE board of directors and as its president. She currently serves on numerous steering committees and boards of directors, including the National Project Learning Tree Education Operating Committee and Environmental Education and Conservation Global.

“Sustainability as a Context for Literacy Skills and Social Studies Content”
Thursday, October 4 , 2012, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
Presenter: Dave Wilton
Please register by clicking here

Learn how educators are preparing students for the literacy demands of the 21st century and making language learning purposeful while teaching social studies content and language arts skills. We'll share content-oriented learning and strategies you can use to promote student engagement and academic achievement, while inspiring students to contribute to community sustainability.

Suitability: All formal youth educators, and school administrators

Dave Wilton is the Assistant Outreach Director for Facing the Future, in Seattle, Washington. Dave develops and conducts educator workshops & webinars, oversees the organization’s Peer Educator network, and supports its educator, community, and service learning outreach programs. He has presented over 100 workshops at conferences, schools, universities, zoos, and community events to students, pre-service and in-service teachers, and non-formal and community educators. Before joining Facing the Future, Dave worked as a classroom teacher, a county land-use planner, and bike mechanic and volunteered as a small claims court mediator.

“Creative Nature Connection: A Nature-based Art Practice”
Wednesday, October 24, 2012, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
Presenter: Lisa Lipsett
Please register by clicking here

In nature education programming, one sometimes finds a scientific bias that leaves out our most powerful human capacities. If we hope to transform our relationship to nature, we need to open our senses, access our feelings and develop our intuition in addition to carefully observing and asking questions. Ongoing engagement is a practice, a life habit, something we come back to again and again over long periods of time. To meet the need for simple yet powerful educational solutions I have developed Creative Nature Connection- a nature based art practice that harnesses the power of drawing and painting to move us toward full engagement with the living world. This practice draws us in to nature's beauty in fresh ways that create lasting impressions. This webinar will begin with a brief introduction to the concepts underlying nature based art practices, a description of Creative Nature Connection and include a short experiential activity together (have blank paper and pen ready!). An article with resources and references will be available for download. By way of background, visit www.creativenatureconnection.com to read my article “Transformation is in Our Hands” from Green Teacher’s Winter 2011 edition.

Suitability: All formal and non formal youth educators, especially those working with kids of elementary and middle school age.

Lisa Lipsett is an artist, educator, author and founder of the Creative by Nature Center- a workshop space and art showcase dedicated to strengthening human-nature relationships through the arts. Her book Beauty Muse: Painting in Communion with Nature invites readers to awaken to nature through their own creativity. A former Toronto elementary school environmental educator, Dr. Lipsett now lives on Salt Spring Island, BC. For more information and videos of Lisa's work, visit www.creativenatureconnection.com.

Congratulations to the following people who attended our recent webinars, and won a free one year digital subscription to Green Teacher magazine! You can be entered in a draw for one of two free subscriptions by attending an upcoming webinar and completing a short evaluation afterwards.

Made possible with the support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation.