Maximizing Learning through Experiential Education in the Field
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DATES: July 5-11, 2015
LOCATION: Knoll Farm in Waitsfield, VT Deadline for Applications Extended through June 8. Apply here. WHO: Educators and aspiring educators who are interested in doing place- or travel-based education with young people. WHAT: A dynamic and empowering 5.5 day residential workshop (with a summer camp feel) that combines in-the-field experiences with concrete frameworks, skill-building, personal reflection, and peer coaching. TUITION: $750 for full-time employed attendees. $500 for college or graduate students. (Group rates apply. Financial aid is available.) CREDIT: If you are interested in receiving two graduate level credits for an additional $360, please contact us. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
How do we ensure our students get the most out of an experiential curriculum? What is the role of education in social and environmental change-making? How do we teach about critical issues in a way that opens students up rather than shuts them down? This workshop offers a variety of concrete tools and applicable frameworks for designing and implementing experiential and field-based* learning opportunities to maximize student learning. Spend a week living at a beautiful farm in rural Vermont with other inspiring educators from around the country who are passionate about teaching and learning from the relevant experiences in the world around them. Move between experiencing tools and activities in the role of a student, and stepping back to reflect, debrief, and consider the role of facilitator and educator. Engage with critical issues that are alive in rural Vermont and your home community, and gain tools for encouraging students to seek multiple perspectives on critical issues impacting them. We’ll build skills for engaging students on the personal, interpersonal, and systemic levels through field-based education, by reflecting on our own educational experiences and backgrounds, and questions of social and economic justice as they relate to education. Other topics will include engaging student partnership; identity, accountability, and privilege; and tools for partnership-building with diverse people and communities. Throughout the workshop participants will work to craft a field-based approach to a topic of interest, receiving peer coaching as well as one-on-one mentoring from Field Academy facilitators. *The Field Academy uses the term “field-based” to encompass the practice of engaging students "in the field” through an exploration of the individual, the group, and the larger systemic context. Educational terms like experiential, expeditionary, place-based, adventure education, and critical pedagogy, while not interchangeable, are all relevant. |
ABOUT OUR HOST: KNOLL FARM
Knoll Farm is a 400-acre family farm specializing in purebred Icelandic Sheep and Organic pick-your-own Blueberries, in the heart of Vermont's Green Mountains. As the founding home of the Center for Whole Communities, it is well-known for its long-standing history of nurturing and inspiring leaders from the social justice and environmental movements. Residents stay on a beautiful hillside overlooking the mountains, in small yurts or tent cabins. The retreat center also includes meeting spaces in an historic timber frame barn and a spacious mountain yurt, extensive hiking trails, and places for yoga, meditation and story circles. Knoll Farm is conserved by the Vermont Land Trust and is on the Register of Historic Places. Learn more here. (Photo Credit: Peter Forbes)
Just being able to spend so much time learning from both the facilitators and a diverse group of wonderful, kind, and caring educators was not only educational, but meaningful and fun. The environment at Knoll Farm — physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual — was highly conducive to deep personal reflection and open sharing. |
