Educator Course

Overview

Across the nation, educators and administrators are recognizing that traditional education does not entirely meet all the needs of today's students. Traditional high school curricula often lack challenge and relevance to life experience and career goals. Educators have begun to look elsewhere for relevant, engaging approaches to teaching and learning. Outward Bound offers an effective combination of experiential education and educational methodology currently used in classrooms thorughout the country.

Methods

Teachers, administrators, counselors, coaches and youth workers come together to wrestle with difficult questions facing educators today. Through on-site initiatives, ropse courses and workshops, they discover how experiential education can invgiorate classroom learning. Participants gain a deepened educational practice, an enhanced set of skills for the classroom and an ability to better support and inspire their students' academic aspirations. The course consists of:

• Assessment session
• Ropes course
• Two follow-through sessions

Objectives & Outcomes

Personal Development

When faced with challenges, participants discover and develop their potential to care for themselves, others and the world around them.

Inspiration to Educate

Educators reignite their passion for teaching by collaborating with peers, thinking in new ways and problem solving.

Professional Development

Using Outward Bound's methodology for teaching styles and student learning, educators develop strategies to integrate this new knowledge into their own practice. This methodology is rooted in experiential education, student-led learning and a "community" in a classroom.

Support for Students

Through teamwork, skill development and overcoming challenges, participants foster compassion for what it means to be in a student role and reevaluate how they approach students' needs. They also learn how to support students who are attending Outward Bound courses and how to help them transfer the course experience to their daily lives.

Educators Initiative

Overview

This year-long program is designed to help educators develop specific classroom practices based on the philosophies of experiential education. Experiential education, rather than focusing on the transmission of knowledge, encourages individuals to reflect on their experiences with a view to expresing problems in their lives and in the wider world.

Methodology

The methodology is simply described as a cycle of action and reflection, in which individuals act upon their world, then critically reflect on the new learning, ready to reform future actions.

The role of the educator in experiential learning is that of facilitator, offering students appropriate, challenging experiences and a process of reflection in which all participants draw lessons. Eventually, students should be able to facilitate their own learning and growth in order to make positive change in their world.

The program design follows recognized best practices for teacher professional development, "helping teachers not only learn new skills but also develop new insights into pedgogy and their own practice, and explore new or advanced understanding of content and resources" (Troen & Boles, 2003, p. 53).

The program is based on inquiry by the teachers; instead of outside experts providing instruction by "telling," teachers in this program do the talking, thinking and learning. Through "criticaland thoughtful conversations, teachers develop and refine ways to study teaching and learning" (Feiman-Nemser, 2001, p. 1042).

Components include:

• Pre-wilderness course preparation
• Training meetings with teacher self-assessment and goal setting
• Eight-day wilderness course with curriculum developed specifically for educators
• Ongoing mentoring and coaching calls, crew meetings, portfolio reflections
• Monthly readings to support ongoing skill-building and confidence
• Two retreats

Goals

Goals of the program include:

• Providing resources and training for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of experiential education methodology
• Immersing teachers in transformational experiences that positively affect teaching practices
• Increasing teachers' skill-based knowledge of experiential education pedagogy in order to affect student learning and increase teacher satisfaction and retention