By Michelle Kulmatycky
On October 1st I attended the “Engaging Students in the Outdoors” one-day conference at Fish Creek Environmental Learning Centre in Calgary. What a beautiful location! Three mule deer, happily munching on some leaves welcomed me as I drove in. As I left my car one decided to give me a personal greeting and came quite close! What a wonderful way to start off a day of environmental learning!
This was the perfect event to officially launch the ConocoPhillips Canada Professional Development in Environmental Education initiative. The event was filled with individuals who are passionate about the environment. Attendees ranged from pre-service education students, veteran teachers, through to environmental organization personnel. The keynote speaker, star of Fearless Planet Will Gadd, filled the participants with enthusiasm about the outdoors and left everyone feeling excited to get outside! Great reviews were heard from all of the workshops, which ranged from sessions on garden boxes to field studies. Visit the GEOEC website to see some of the resources from the sessions.
The one-day conference prompted me to assess the extent to which I am leading the children I currently work with towards environmental experiences. I have found in the past that professional growth plans (PGP) can be very beneficial in recognizing my teaching goals and setting a clear path to how I plan to achieve them. So, although I am not currently obligated to do so, I have decided to create a PGP goal on environmental education that will help keep me on track towards achieving my objectives. By sharing this goal, hopefully I will encourage others to create a PGP goal on environmental education! Check out my goal and let me know if you have any suggestions or have done something similar.
Michelle Kulmatycky is leading the ConocoPhil
lips Professional Development in Environmental Education for Teachers initiative as a part-time contractor for ACEE. For the past four years Michelle has been living and teaching in Fort McMurray. This year she made the big step of moving south! “I now find myself living in the Bow Valley, surrounded by the most beautiful natural scenery in Canada, possibly even in the world in my opinion! Living here now only strengthens my belief that engaging today’s youth to become environmental stewards should be a priority for all of us…”
