Time: 9:00 am - 3:30 pm
Format and Length: In person, 6.5 hours
Audience: Geared toward formal 3rd - 6th grade educators, including 5th & 6th grade educators working with students who attend outdoor school, but all grade levels of formal and non-formal educators are welcome.
Description: Bring the power of Nature Journaling to your schoolyard and classroom! Join us to experience and explore nature journaling, a flexible, engaging, and adaptable teaching tool.
Nature Journaling builds teacher and student comfort with outdoor learning, and helps students contextualize their academic learning in the real world. Adaptable to the indoors, Nature Journaling activities keep students engaged and connected to nature even when the weather limits going outside.
In this workshop, we will practice close observation, inquiry, and connection-building through nature journaling activities which all work in classrooms, outdoors on a school campus, and in the Outdoor School settings. Educators will explore how these strategies can enhance student engagement during Outdoor School and sustain that curiosity once students return to school.
We will identify connections to Next Generation Science Standards, Common Core English Language Arts (ELA) and Math, and Oregon’s new Transformative and Emotional Learning (TSEL) standards as we go.
As a group, we’ll practice giving feedback on journal entries to promote a growth mindset, we’ll model journaling facilitation strategies, and we’ll discuss how to incorporate nature journaling in any learning context.
At the close of the program, you’ll walk away with a plan to bring greater wonder and curiosity to your classroom curriculum this spring.
Stipend: A $100 stipend is available from OSU Extension Service Outdoor School to support the attendance of eligible outdoor school educators who are not being compensated by their employer for the time they attend the workshop. Please contact lauren.rodgers@oregonstate.edu with questions about stipend eligibility. Contact ONREP@oregonstate.edu for all other inquiries about this workshop.
Considerations: This workshop includes brief periods of time outside during varying weather conditions.
Brought to you by: OSU Extension Outdoor School, Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, Medford District BLM and Oregon Natural Resources Education Program (ONREP)
Registration required. Offered at no cost to Oregon educators. PDUs available. Substitute reimbursement available on teacher work days.