What do you do to inspire your family to join in with your nature journaling? How do you help make it theirs? And how can you adjust if they’re not having it today? Join John Muir Laws and the Nature Journal Educator’s Forum as we explore this topic, inspired by Jack’s recent trip to Ecuador Read More
Category: Nature Education
Teaching techniques that are useful for outdoor educators and parents exposing children to nature.
NJEF Astronomy Journals
How can we use our nature journals to teach about astronomy – both to record our observations and to visualize ideas and/or our place in the universe? The Nature Journal Educators Forum gathers to discuss. Read More
Online Hospitality Study with Catherine Sky
Have you ever wondered about what makes our nature journaling Zoom sessions so engaging and enjoyable? Last Spring, Catherine Sky, a graduate student in the School of Education at Sonoma State University conducted a study on online teaching and learning practices in the nature journaling community. She will present her findings on online hospitality within Read More
Thinking Like a Scientist workshop
Enjoy this workshop from the 2021 Charlotte Masson Global Conference. The Charlotte Mason System is a rich homeschooling program that integrates journaling as part of a student’s broad education. Click here to watch the workshop on Vimeo. Read More
NJEF How to Start a Nature Journal Club
Nature Journal Clubs are great ways to build community and skills. You do not need to be an experienced journaler or artist to start one. John Muir Laws will share his thoughts and ideas, and we will crowdsource the educator community for more ideas on starting and sustaining a nature journal club in your area. Read More
NJEF Scientific Visualization and the Moon
In this session of the Nature Journal Educators Forum, we look at visualization as a tool for understanding natural phenomena, using the phases of the moon as a jumping off point. During this session, John Muir Laws mentions a previous class taught by Amy Schleser, called “Doodling Diagrams”. To see a recording of that class, Read More
DIY Nature Journal Bags for Families and Classrooms
Gena Richman is one of those teachers you wish you had when you were a kid. She taught generations of students at Mary Collins School at Cherry Valley. Nature Journaling was a part of every student’s ongoing education. Her classes went on regular field trips to nearby Magnolia Park (walking distance) where she progressively built Read More
NJEF When We’re Hard on Ourselves as Teachers
Join the Nature Journal Educators Forum as we look again at what to do when lesson plans go wrong – and specifically, when we question ourselves as educators and parents. We look a little closer about being too invested in the outcome of a particular nature lesson or experience and find ways to step back Read More
NJEF When Lesson Plans Go Wrong
Have you ever taught nature journaling with a specific lesson plan, only to have it go awry? Join John Muir Laws and the Nature Journal Educators Forum as we brainstorm ways of problem-solving in the field when the lesson isn’t going as planned. Among other strategies, we explore being flexible with our lesson plans, as Read More
NJEF International Baccalaureate Key Concepts
Join the Nature Journal Educators Forum as we explore the International Baccalaureate key concepts and how we can help students use them as lenses for their inquiries, using their nature journaling as a tool. Read More