Outdoor Learning in Cold Weather
with Anne Stires & Amy Butler
This 60 min. webinar was presented on December 8, 2020.
We’ve got this!
Teaching and learning outdoors in colder climate winters requires resilience, good humor, grit, training, and the right clothing. In this webinar, Amy Butler and Anne Stires, will lead participants through preparation, routines, schedules, and activities to help educators continue to teach and learn with students outdoors this winter and beyond.
Meet the presenters:
Anne Stires
Anne Stires teaches the Risk Management for Early Childhood, Teaching in Winter, and Business courses in the NbEC Certificate program at Antioch New England. She is the founder and former director of the unique Juniper Hill School for Place-based Education, in Alna, Maine. Anne has a bachelor’s degree in Biology and English from Hamilton College in New York and a master’s degree in Education from Antioch University New England. While pursuing her education, she worked at several local marine and environmental stewardship programs, local public schools, and private childcare centers. She also directed a professional development program for Maine educators through the Quebec-Labrador Foundation's Marine Program. Anne is one of the contributing authors to Nature Preschools and Forest Kindergartens: The Handbook for Outdoor Learning by David Sobel. In addition to speaking at workshops and conferences dedicated to outdoor learning, Anne is now Juniper Hill School's Director of Development, Outreach, and Advocacy, so she teaches and consults with schools across the country.
Amy Butler
Amy Butler is the teaching assistant for the Risk Management for Early Childhood in the NbEC Certificate program at Antioch New England. She is the Director of Education at North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, VT and has been connecting adults and children with the natural world for more than 20 years. She founded Vermont’s first forest preschool and has nurtured its growth to serve the needs of local children and their families. In 2010, Amy founded ECO (Educating Children Outdoors), a standards-based nature immersion program that serves nine public schools in the central Vermont area. Each week Amy and her team facilitate outdoor learning with students and support teachers in extending their classrooms into the outdoors.
