Educator Retreat Faqs
1) What is the Field Academy?
The Field Academy is a traveling high school program that focuses on creating transformative, field-based, community-driven educational experiences for students and educators across the United States. We bring together diverse cohorts of students and teachers to learn from the people, places, and communities that comprise the United States. You can learn more about our mission, values, and programs here.
2) What exactly will we be doing at the Educator Retreat?
Our experiential workshops offer the participant the opportunity to dive into field-based experiences as a student and then to step back out and reflect on them as educators. Each session will move between experiences, skill-building, and practice towards designing and implementing field-based curriculum. This will be interspersed with opportunities to reflect on the skills and practice themselves or issues raised, as well as to apply and generalize out of the workshop space into participants’ home context. We will have time built in throughout the workshop for participants to work on their own lesson planning and curriculum design with a combination of peer and facilitator coaching to support it. We teach about frameworks and practical skills for designing and implementing place-based, community-driven [lessons], and spend afternoons working on lesson planning and curriculum design. There will be opportunities to explore the area, and each evening, we will have a final session and a closing reflection circle to wrap up our day.
3) What content is typically included in Field Academy Educator Retreat workshops?
Each Retreat has a somewhat different focus, so our programs vary. Here are some examples of workshops we offer are:
4) How does the Field Academy define field-based education?
Imagine studying tectonic movement from the Southern Rim of the Grand Canyon, or learning about the history of coal mining underground in a demonstration mine in West Virginia. Imagine a social studies class on the settlement history of Maine where your teachers include the members of a multi-generational lobstering family, a local historian, and an elder from the native Penobscot community. And imagine a school where the social reality and power dynamics of the students and teachers is actually a part of the curriculum – where students learn to mediate conflict, articulate their own values and expectations as learners, and consider the tension between their own individual needs and those of their community.
For us, field-based education necessarily means that students explore first themselves and their own identities and then the group they are traveling with and its cultures, norms, and values. The experience of working with group dynamics in their diverse cohort develops empathy and understanding as students learn from individuals and communities that they meet. This means that our students’ academic pursuits are never isolated from the greater social context in which we live. We explore not just what’s written in textbooks, but also whose voices we hear and whose voices we’re missing, what the implications and impact of our studies are, and how we can be a part of creating healthy and just communities.
5) Can you tell me more about where the Educator Retreat will be held?
Educator Retreats are hosted at organizations and institutions around the country whose missions and values align with ours. See specific Retreats for more information about the venues.
6) Can you tell me about the sleeping arrangements?
We partner with host facilities that typically house us in dorm rooms.
7) Who else will be attending the Educator Retreat?
Educators from across the United States and potentially a couple of educators from abroad who are interested in designing and implementing place-based, community-driven education in their schools, organizations, and communities. Participants come from public and private schools, out-of-school educational environments, higher education, and home-schooling networks.
8) Is the Educator Retreat only for people who teach high school?
The Field Academy works predominantly with high school aged students. Our Educator Retreat will be instructed using examples from that framework, but is intended for anyone who seeks to design field-based, community-driven educational experiences. If you have specific questions about this, please let us know and we can help you think through whether or not the program will be useful for you specifically.
9) Can I be granted credit for participating in the Educator Retreat?
Yes. We have a partnership with Marlboro College and are able to offer anyone interested in academic credit two graduate level credits for our retreats for an additional fee. Please let us know if you are interested in receiving credit.
We also offer all participants our own certificates of completion for our programs.
10) How is the pricing structure determined?
The cost per person to run a 4-day educator workshop is around $650 and includes food and lodging, over 30 hours of instruction, as well as individualized and group coaching and support for curriculum design. We intend to bring educators together from a wide range of contexts for these programs, acknowledging that individual and organizational financial situations are extremely varied. To do this we use a sliding scale tuition model: we ask that participants consider their own income as well as their employer’s ability to contribute when determining where on the sliding scale they fall. If you have questions about the sliding scale please contact us!
In addition, the Field Academy can work with you to put together work trades, group rates, and payment plans. We encourage you to seek sponsorship from your organization, to launch your own crowd-funding campaign, and to consider other fundraising options.
College students are offered a reduced rate for participation. We are happy to discount the minimum cost by $250, making the Retreats even more affordable to those who are currently enrolled in undergraduate or graduate programs.
11) Can I attend only part of the Educator Retreat?
Applicants are required to be able to attend the full duration of the program. Our time together will be brief and full and we will unfortunately not be able to accommodate individuals who can only attend part of the program.
12) What if I desperately want to attend a program, but can’t make it to any this coming year?
We hope to offer more of these programs in regions across the United States during the school year and upcoming summers. If you’d be interested in attending an upcoming program and/or helping to host one in your region, definitely let us know!
Do you have other questions? Please contact Annie Moore at annie@fieldacademy.org.
The Field Academy is a traveling high school program that focuses on creating transformative, field-based, community-driven educational experiences for students and educators across the United States. We bring together diverse cohorts of students and teachers to learn from the people, places, and communities that comprise the United States. You can learn more about our mission, values, and programs here.
2) What exactly will we be doing at the Educator Retreat?
Our experiential workshops offer the participant the opportunity to dive into field-based experiences as a student and then to step back out and reflect on them as educators. Each session will move between experiences, skill-building, and practice towards designing and implementing field-based curriculum. This will be interspersed with opportunities to reflect on the skills and practice themselves or issues raised, as well as to apply and generalize out of the workshop space into participants’ home context. We will have time built in throughout the workshop for participants to work on their own lesson planning and curriculum design with a combination of peer and facilitator coaching to support it. We teach about frameworks and practical skills for designing and implementing place-based, community-driven [lessons], and spend afternoons working on lesson planning and curriculum design. There will be opportunities to explore the area, and each evening, we will have a final session and a closing reflection circle to wrap up our day.
3) What content is typically included in Field Academy Educator Retreat workshops?
Each Retreat has a somewhat different focus, so our programs vary. Here are some examples of workshops we offer are:
- Nuts and Bolts of Curriculum Design: Choosing locations, experiences, and methods for field-based learning.
- Navigating the System: How to work with your school or organization to implement experiential curricula.
- Identity, Accountability, and Power: Relationship-building in field-based education.
- Beyond Service Learning: A solidarity approach to education.
- Framing and Elicitive Questions: Using questions as critical tools for learning.
- Assessment for Field-Based Learning.
- Student Leadership: Engaging students as partners in experiential education.
4) How does the Field Academy define field-based education?
Imagine studying tectonic movement from the Southern Rim of the Grand Canyon, or learning about the history of coal mining underground in a demonstration mine in West Virginia. Imagine a social studies class on the settlement history of Maine where your teachers include the members of a multi-generational lobstering family, a local historian, and an elder from the native Penobscot community. And imagine a school where the social reality and power dynamics of the students and teachers is actually a part of the curriculum – where students learn to mediate conflict, articulate their own values and expectations as learners, and consider the tension between their own individual needs and those of their community.
For us, field-based education necessarily means that students explore first themselves and their own identities and then the group they are traveling with and its cultures, norms, and values. The experience of working with group dynamics in their diverse cohort develops empathy and understanding as students learn from individuals and communities that they meet. This means that our students’ academic pursuits are never isolated from the greater social context in which we live. We explore not just what’s written in textbooks, but also whose voices we hear and whose voices we’re missing, what the implications and impact of our studies are, and how we can be a part of creating healthy and just communities.
5) Can you tell me more about where the Educator Retreat will be held?
Educator Retreats are hosted at organizations and institutions around the country whose missions and values align with ours. See specific Retreats for more information about the venues.
6) Can you tell me about the sleeping arrangements?
We partner with host facilities that typically house us in dorm rooms.
7) Who else will be attending the Educator Retreat?
Educators from across the United States and potentially a couple of educators from abroad who are interested in designing and implementing place-based, community-driven education in their schools, organizations, and communities. Participants come from public and private schools, out-of-school educational environments, higher education, and home-schooling networks.
8) Is the Educator Retreat only for people who teach high school?
The Field Academy works predominantly with high school aged students. Our Educator Retreat will be instructed using examples from that framework, but is intended for anyone who seeks to design field-based, community-driven educational experiences. If you have specific questions about this, please let us know and we can help you think through whether or not the program will be useful for you specifically.
9) Can I be granted credit for participating in the Educator Retreat?
Yes. We have a partnership with Marlboro College and are able to offer anyone interested in academic credit two graduate level credits for our retreats for an additional fee. Please let us know if you are interested in receiving credit.
We also offer all participants our own certificates of completion for our programs.
10) How is the pricing structure determined?
The cost per person to run a 4-day educator workshop is around $650 and includes food and lodging, over 30 hours of instruction, as well as individualized and group coaching and support for curriculum design. We intend to bring educators together from a wide range of contexts for these programs, acknowledging that individual and organizational financial situations are extremely varied. To do this we use a sliding scale tuition model: we ask that participants consider their own income as well as their employer’s ability to contribute when determining where on the sliding scale they fall. If you have questions about the sliding scale please contact us!
In addition, the Field Academy can work with you to put together work trades, group rates, and payment plans. We encourage you to seek sponsorship from your organization, to launch your own crowd-funding campaign, and to consider other fundraising options.
College students are offered a reduced rate for participation. We are happy to discount the minimum cost by $250, making the Retreats even more affordable to those who are currently enrolled in undergraduate or graduate programs.
11) Can I attend only part of the Educator Retreat?
Applicants are required to be able to attend the full duration of the program. Our time together will be brief and full and we will unfortunately not be able to accommodate individuals who can only attend part of the program.
12) What if I desperately want to attend a program, but can’t make it to any this coming year?
We hope to offer more of these programs in regions across the United States during the school year and upcoming summers. If you’d be interested in attending an upcoming program and/or helping to host one in your region, definitely let us know!
Do you have other questions? Please contact Annie Moore at annie@fieldacademy.org.
