The Equine Experiential Education Association Certification Program to be Offered in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom/February 06, 2018/Source: http://www.sfgate.com

The US-based Equine Experiential Education Association (E3A) will hold its first international certification in the United Kingdom this summer. Practitioners who attend will learn the process of facilitating experiential learning programs that partner with horses to teach leadership skills, life skills, team building and personal development.

The certification will take place in South West England June 5th through the 11th, 2018 at the scenic Cherry Orchard Farm, a Bed and Breakfast owned and operated by Rosie Tomkins of Natural Capital, Ltd. It is open to interested practitioners located throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and from other international destinations.

“There is a huge need in both the UK and Europe for certification programs that give practitioners the skills for facilitating experiential learning with horses that emphasize the difference between learning and development and the therapeutic applications of this work, like therapeutic riding, or equine assisted psychotherapy,» said Tomkins. “My corporate clients are very goal and results oriented. If they leave their offices to do a workshop, they want to walk away with new skillsets, awareness and actions steps that improve their performance.»

“The E3A curriculum is based on adult experiential learning theory and has been compared to taking graduate level classes in facilitating transformational change,» says Lissa Pohl, Vice President and Master Trainer for E3A. “We are very excited to bring our model of facilitating transformational learning experiences with horses to the United Kingdom.»

Source:

http://www.sfgate.com/business/press-releases/article/The-Equine-Experiential-Education-Association-12550000.php

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Estados Unidos: New School expands outdoor education program

Watsonville / 01 de noviembre de 2017 / Fuente: https://register-pajaronian.com

During the last school year, 15 students from New School Community Day School participated in the school’s first Outdoor Science and Character Development program.

The four-day program was so successful that the school expanded it this year to include all the school’s high schoolers and to run seven days.

The Environmental Outdoor Science and Character Development Program was created as a way to offer outdoor education to the students, but also to offer team-building and self-confidence-building activities.

It includes partners from the Watsonville Environmental Science Workshop and Growing Up Wild Adventure Camp, the City of Watsonville Public Works & Utilities Department and Watsonville Wetlands Watch.

It was funded by a Watsonville Rotary Community Grant.

The curriculum allows the teachers to apply Next Generation Science Standards to community projects, such as adopting Watsonville Slough.

“Today, I learned about trust,” said senior Sandy Aguado. “And we had a lot of fun.”

New School Intervention Teacher and 13-year Pajaro Valley Unified School District veteran Emily Halbig said that the program is ideal for students who rarely get to experience the natural areas that surround them.

“One student mentioned to me at the end of the day that his anxiety level had lowered and he was feeling much calmer and happier,” Halbig said.

“Today may have been my best day as a teacher,” she said of this year’s program.

Scheduled activities for the coming weeks include hiking above Eureka Canyon, scientific illustration, water testing, restoration and cleanup of Watsonville Slough, interpreting collected data and presentations of student findings.

The final day of the program will include the Cliffhanger High Ropes Course.

The program, which runs once a week, was created by teacher Bryan Love, along with Growing Up Wild, a Watsonville organization that connects young people to nature.

“The importance of our Outdoor Science & Character Development program is that it engages our student population with Next Generation Science Standards and pro-social skills practice through experiential learning activities,” Love said. “Now with our partnership with the City of Watsonville Public Works and Utilities, our students are able to directly apply the environmental awareness they gain through the program to our adoption practices in Watsonville Slough.”

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Fuente noticia: https://register-pajaronian.com/article/new-school-expands-outdoor-education-program

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Special Education meeting held

By Ka’ssee Burchfield

Not all children learn at the same pace, or even through the same methods. Because of this, educators- especially those working in special education — must be ready to work with each child’s individual learning behaviors. The Bell County Board of Education hosted a Southeast/South-Central Educational Cooperative (SESC) training on Friday for upcoming special education teachers in the region to learn how to do just that.

The individualized training program (IEP) brought in several new special education teachers from all across the area, many of whom just recently completed college. However, the meeting also consisted of several who have taught for years, but have decided to redirect their career towards a new path, as teaching those with special needs often provides teachers with a completely different component.

“When the opportunity arose for me to switch to special education I decided I would like to try it,” said former Knox County science teacher, April Helton. “What I love about teaching special education is the relationships you get to build with individual students. They trust you and you are the person they feel they can depend on.”

The session was led by Jim Feger, an educational consultant at SESC, who says the main purpose of the training is to help better prepare teachers with ways to provide consistency and clarity to children with special needs. Special education teachers are brought in and shown various ways to properly identify with and remediate children by developing general education plans.

“I look at this job as a privilege. I get to take my years of experience working with kids with special needs, and then be able to promote those practices to increase the quality of special designed instruction for kids within our region,” said Feger.

Educators left the session raving over the significant knowledge they were able to obtain in only one day, with several claiming to be in awe with just how much they learned from the SESC’s program.

“The program was excellent and the facilitator was exceptional. I feel I gained a lot of needed information that will help me for years to come,” said Helton.

SESC is a non-profit service agency which provides professional learning and support services to 27 different public school districts throughout the Appalachian region. Although beginning as a part of Eastern Kentucky University’s Community Outreach Program in 1991, SESC was — after many years of success — recognized as an independent entity in 2013. The agency’s slogan — “serving others as you serve them” — appears to be quite appropriate considering the various ongoing opportunities being offered to educators through the agency.

SESC hopes to be recognized as Kentucky’s leading educational cooperative by the year 2020 by continuing to provide services that are data-driven, evidence/research-based, and customer-focused. The agency also plans to soon incorporate various delivery methods for such services, including face-to-face and technologically-based delivery.

As the session came to an end, educators were given a short assessment in order to evaluate what they each learned during the program, as well as the opportunity to evaluate Feger and the way he handled operating the session. Then, they were each awarded with a certificate of completion, proving that they attended the program and now have the knowledge to provide specialized teaching methods to special needs students.

Due to the always ongoing growth and change in the education field, educators should be provided with up-to-date ways to stay in touch with those changes. In order to provide this, Feger has made plans to continue ongoing support for the new special educators of the region via Skype sessions.

While details have yet to be revealed, Dr. Mitch Bailey of the Bell County Board of Education also plans to contribute to the growth of special educators in the area. He is currently working on providing a Progress Monitoring Training for special education teachers within the school district in early to mid-October.

Source:

Special Education meeting held

 

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