Outdoor Learning for Trail Guides, Educators, and Nature Enthusiasts

I have been attending online classes through The Outdoor Learning Store located in Canada. I was going to review the courses after I completed the series 
 
 However, they are so good and engaging I do not want to wait that long. I want others to know about their offerings. The classes are excellent for Master Naturalists, home school parents, teachers, trail guides, youth troop leaders and outdoor enthusiasts. The Outdoor Learning Store is a charitable non-profit organization. They provide books, material, and classes for over 70 outdoor organizations across Turtle Island. Their resources are designed to engage young learners, to excite them about learning about nature while in nature. They are inclusive and recognize that for many young people nature is found in urban settings. The Outdoor Learning Store provides free classes, podcasts, workshops, and trainings designed for individual organizations.  
 
I have been attending the free one-hour training sessions. They are scheduled for Tuesday evenings at 7 PM EST. Attendees are in the hundreds and are from around the world. However, most attendees are from Turtle Island, from Canada and the United States. Each session has a specific focus, and the teachers are experts who have written about their topics as well as taught their activities out of doors.  
 
I missed the first session, School Gardening: Teaching Tools and Resources. However, that is not a concern. Each session is recorded so I can get back to it. 
 
I attended: Resources for Earth Month, Taking a Closer Look: Investigations into Nature, Nature Activities for Year-around Learning, Resources for World Oceans Day, and Race and Nature for Educators. 
 
I am not waiting to share my enthusiasm for these courses because they have three remaining courses for this season that might be of interest to our readers.  The remaining classes are: 
 
May 31, How to Teach Nature Journaling: Curiosity, Wonder, Attention. The class is led by John Muir Laws. 

June 06, Walking Together: Reconnecting to Nature Through Two-Eyed Seeing. The teachers include Elder Albert D. Marshall and Louise Zimanyi. 

June 13, Animating Outdoor Learning: Using Finger Puppets. These class focuses on animal facts and outdoor learning using Indigenous finger puppets. 
 
I enjoyed each of the classes. To be sure some are too ambitious. They would be more relaxed if they were broken into multiple classes. The Year-round learning could easily be broken into a class for each season. I found the class on Race and Nature to be particularly useful. As we struggle to address climate change it is clear healing will take all of us. Therefore, it is vital to make outdoor learning available to all. It is important to recognize that for many young people their involvement with nature happens in urban settings and making that accessible and meaningful is important. Being aware of our own assumptions, bias, and limitations is equally important. 
 
Each class has lively introductions, land acknowledgements, polls, and useful lists of resources. Once the course is completed, attendees may access a very color certificate of attendance. So, if you are looking to make your trail hikes more engaging, your nature classes exciting, or wanting to integrate indigenous learning into your classes the Outdoor Learning Store is an easy and useful way to make that happen.