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- Are you an educator wanting to take your learners outside, but aren’t sure where to start?
- Do you have a sense that your students learn best beyond the walls of a classroom, but are worried about classroom management when those walls disappear?
- Are you eager to guide curious young minds in meaningful nature experiences, but feel lost with authentic assessment associated with place-based pedagogy?
- Or perhaps you feel the benefits of outdoor learning deep in your bones, but don’t feel you know the research well enough to stand up to those who don’t see the value of it?
If these sound familiar, you’re invited to take a seat – in fact, take a sit spot – because Sitting With Nature: An Educator’s Guide to Sit Spots was made with you in mind.
Review from a Grade 2/3 Teacher
Review from a Kindergarten Teacher
Support from Dr. Gillian Judson, author of A Walking Curriculum
I was delighted and honoured when Lauren asked me to write the Foreword for this book. Sit Spot pedagogy represents the kind of learning practices we need more of for children everywhere. Based on my own work on imaginative ecological pedagogies, I can attest to the value of Sit Spots for learning with the natural world.
By affording younger and older learners the opportunity to emotionally and imaginatively connect with the world around them through Sit Spots, educators can help their students to know and love the Earth more deeply. Learners can begin to understand themselves in relation to particular aspects of the natural world. Over time and consistent practice, Sit Spot learning may support an ecological, relational, and emotional understanding of the world.
Through the personal and wonder-full engagement that Sit Spot pedagogy provides, learners can begin to experience the nuanced beauty and incomprehensible complexity of the natural world. This book offers an incredibly valuable guide for any educator interested in doing Sit Spot pedagogy.
Whether taking learning outside for the first time, or expanding their outdoor learning practices, this resource is chock full of practical and ready-to-use ideas that will be immensely valuable to any educator.
The work reveals Lauren’s rich experience as an educator in and outdoors; she deeply understands the pressures and challenges teachers face. Her words reveal her own emotional and imaginative engagement with nature. I encourage all educators to use this guide to plant within their students the seeds of a lifelong love and connection with the more-than-human world.
