Best Practice Page

BP 3.3 Teacher Training (in development)

Best Practice: 3.3 Teacher Training: Environmental education training is offered to teachers.

This best practice is in process of development during the pilot. But you can still include teacher training actions in your project story and get credit for them. Contact GreenStep Schools to discuss how to document your accomplishments.

Meanwhile, please make use of our MN GreenStep Schools Advisor and resources.

Interested in contributing to this Best Practice or being a Reviewer? Contact Jonee Kulman Brigham

Take Action

Implement Best Practice Actions in a Project

While the organization of Best Practice Actions is underway, consider these ideas to build teaching capacity for environmental education, and support teachers in sustaining Environmental Education initiatives

Provide funding for teachers to attend trainings
Fund or Incentivize advanced certificates and degrees
Bring in training programs for in-house training
Provide recognition for teachers who advance their learning and practice
Support teacher’s initiatives, like applying for outdoor education grants or schoolyard improvements
Include a maintenance cost plan, so that ongoing operation of gardens, equipment, or programs doesn’t fall on teachers and volunteers to provide without anticipating that. If a program will rely on volunteers and donations after initiation, make that clear and estimate the value of that time and materials.
Plan for how programs will be sustained after the champions who initiated and operated those programs leave.

Share your Story

Document Project in a Project Story

Document the best practice actions you took in a project story which also describes the team, partners, and process. See the projects page.

You can submit one story per best practice action, or combine several actions into a single story. For example, a waste reduction project might include multiple best practice actions across different categories such as a waste audit, a reuse and donation program, and educational resources. If you conceived of these in an integrated project, you can document them that way. For each action included in a project story, attach the data sheet (future) for that action.

Submit Annual Review

The annual review for this best practice includes

Confirming that Best Practice Actions are still active. (Eg. are programs still in operation and working? Are event or time based actions repeated each year?)
Amending the documentation with any changes
Adding any lessons learned from the prior year to share with others.

To submit the annual review, send in the datasheet (future) for this best practice with updated calendar year in the update column to reflect which BPAs are still active.

Resources

GreenStep Advisor

Contact Jonee Kulman Brigham for assistance

GreenStep Resource Organizations

Explore GreenStep Resource Organizations for this best practice based on types of assistance they offer. As more resource organizations join, there will be more offerings and an ability to sort by type and topic of support. In particular:

For a comprehensive resource, see the Minnesota Association for Environmental Education, which hosts a searchable database of resources called the EE Portal to support environmental education, including outdoor learning.

Also see:

MN GIS Education Hub (offers teacher support and educational opportunities for training in GIS tools and apps free to K-12 schools)
U.S. Green Building Council - Minnesota Center for Green Schools has a library of resources
- The Green Classroom Professional certificate program "provides pre-K-12 educators and school staff with the knowledge to identify what supports or impedes healthy, resource efficient and environmentally sustainable learning spaces. Earn the certificate by participating in a two hour course and a 30 question concluding exam, both accessible online." This knowledge also provides a good foundation for teachers toward integrating the physical school environment with environmental education.

Online Resources:

Other online resources include:

University of Minnesota Duluth, Center for Environmental Education
Hamline University Center for Global Environmental Education - Professional Development and Graduate Programs
Climate Generation Teach Climate Network and Summer Institute
NAAEE Professional Development of Environmental Educators: Guidelines for Excellence

Resources Consulted

This Best Practice Section was informed by a number of resources listed below in the drop down.

In progress

Works Cited

Open the drop down menu to see the works cited.