Last year my school district and a local non-profit organization started a group called the Outdoor Learning Network, for teachers who are interested in environmental education. They want to be a resource hub for all things outdoor ed, which is (1) amazing and (2) surprising that it didn’t exist already.
To get started, the group crowd-sourced ideas for what teachers want help with the most in making outdoor education feasible, and one popular topic was behavior management. I totally understand that. Getting outdoors with your class can be intimidating, and it’s hard to imagine how you can successfully teach when the wind is blowing, the bugs are distracting your kids, and you don’t have all of your materials at hand.
The network asked several teachers to speak at the first meeting about how to manage your students in the outdoors, so I put together a presentation with a few tips and tricks for how to build a routine of going outside with your class. Here is the hand-out that goes with it!