Our one-day workshops help integrate field trip topics with classroom work. They are open to all educators and can be most helpful to home-schooling parents, farmers hosting schools on their farms, and those wanting to learn more about a specific topic. You’ll interact with experts in the field to increase your subject knowledge, observe and model appropriate teachings methods, and begin to develop assessment techniques. You do not need to be attending a field trip to attend one of these workshops.

Life Cycles on the Farm
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Get an early start on spring at Shelburne Farms! It’s almost time for plants, animals, and people to emerge from the snow. Join Shelburne Farms staff as we investigate a variety of plant and animal life cycles. Participants will discover how different organisms grow, engage in some of our favorite activities, and share some of our resources.

Soil Saturation
Friday, April 4, 2008
What better time to explore what happens when water and soil mix than Mud Season? Put on your boots and dig into soil composition, percolation and temperature. Meet our market gardener, some soil makers, and compost creators, then perfect your own soil recipe. The hands-on workshop will offer you activities, resources and children’s literature to help connect your classroom to the world.

Vermont Geology Rocks!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Join a hands-on exploration of rocks and minerals with a state geologist, Marjorie Gale, as she explains the geologic history of Vermont. An indoor presentation will be complimented by an outside exploration along the shores of Lake Champlain. We will discover the dramatic ways the landscape has changed over time.

Animals in Winter
Friday, January 16, 2009
What strategies do Vermont animals use to survive winter? We will examine their methods and hone our tracking skills as we hike through fields and forests searching for signs of animals that are active in winter. Come network with other teachers, experience our favorite activities and resources, and share some of your own.

Project Seasons Farmer Workshops
TIME: 9 am – 3 pm
FEE: $200 includes all materials & meals. Limited accommodations available for additional fee (scholarships available).
INFORMATION: Erica Curry, 802-985-0325, ecurry@shelburnefarms.org

ABC’s of Farm Education
Sunday & Monday, OCTOBER 19 & 20, 2008
Are you just staring to explore the possibilities of opening your farm for education? Come discover exciting, hands-on ways to develop agricultural education programs for school groups with kid-tested, easy-to-use activities from PROJECT SEASONS, a printed collection of seasonal, multi-age activities and teaching ideas developed by teachers and agriculture educators over the past 20 years. If you are just starting to explore the possibilities of opening your farm for education, this is the workshop for you. Shelburne Farms’ farmyard, meadows, woodlots, pastures and gardens will be your campus. Vermont Farms! will lend their expertise in marketing and biosecurity.

Principles and Promising Practices of
Place-Based Education
June 22-24, 2008 • Sunday - Tuesday
LOCATION:Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont
FEE: $389. One graduate credit available for additional $109.
INSTRUCTORS: Delia Clark, Center for Place-based Learning and Community Engagement (a project of Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park and Shelburne Farms)
INFORMATION: Erica Curry, 802-985-0325, ecurry@shelburnefarms.org

Use your local community and environment as an integrating context for your teaching. Take your students’ place-based learning about the cultural and natural history of their town to another level, as
you discover ways to translate that knowledge into service-learning projects and activities that can enhance your community’s understanding of place. Acquire practical teaching strategies to nurture a student’s sense of place, commitment to practicing stewardship and enthusiasm for school-community relationships. Discover outstanding case studies and methods for accessing local resources. An optional work afternoon will include curriculum development training and time to synthesize your program learning into your own work plan, as well as consultation with resource specialists in hands-on habitat explorations, community-based service-learning projects, mapping skills, questing, or other topics participants indicate in advance. We recommend you apply with one or more colleagues from your community or school.

The Institute provides K-16 teachers, community educators, and administrators with training, models, strategies, and resources for developing service-learning and sustainability as an integrated feature of curriculum with clear links to standards. It will emphasize the use of service-learning best practices. Interactive training will include opportunities for dialogue with experienced practitioners, and structured planning and reflection time for individual and group work. Our multistate team of guest faculty will share tools and exemplars and be available for direct support to participants throughout the week. Each participant will develop an integrated service-learning instructional or site plan that meets his or her own unique school or program needs. Opportunities for post-Institute support available.

A Watershed for Every Classroom
for educators in the Lake Champlain Basin
Wed.–Friday, June 25–27, 2008
Mon. & Tues., June 30 & July 1
Fall & winter dates TBD
INFORMATION: Johanna Liskowsky-Doak, jliskowskydoak@shelburnefarms.org,
802-985-0327

A Watershed for Every Classroom is a year-long professional
development program for educators who would like to focus on place- based education. Educators develop curricula that use the Lake Champlain Basin as an integrating concept to teach science, math, history, art, geology, language arts, etc. Presented by Partners of the Champlain Basin Education Initiative.

Education for Sustainability (EFS) Institute
EFS Strategies, Stories, & Successes
July 31 & August 1, 2008,  Thursday & Friday
FEE:  $389 includes materials, lunches & snacks, excludes lodging; scholarships available. One graduate credit optional for additional $175.
Presented by: Shelburne Farms’ Sustainable Schools Project
INFORMATION: Jen Cirillo, 802-985-0331, jcirillo@shelburnefarms.org

What is EFS? Education for Sustainability calls on us to help students understand the connection between the environmental integrity, economic vitality, and social well-being of the planet now and into the future. Join educators from all disciplines and levels to delve into EFS topics, issues, and concepts, using the lens of sustainability to investigate local human and natural communities. Uncover various strategies, themes, and techniques to provide students with place-based, standards-based, meaningful experiences that engage them as decision-makers creating sustainable communities. Learn from and share with EFS practitioners who have successfully incorporated sustainability into their curriculum, school, and communities. Participants will develop an integrated EFS unit or project using the big ideas of sustainability and their local community.

VT FEED: Food Education Every Day
The Vermont FEED project is a professional development program to help schools build connections between their classrooms, cafeterias, school gardens, local farms, and their greater community. Through standards-based curriculum development about food, farms, and nutrition, teachers create local, food-based units that integrate into their existing curriculum while using their cafeteria and local community as classrooms. Vermont FEED partners: Food Works, Northeast Organic Farming Association, and Shelburne Farms.

For more information: Erica Curry, 802-985-0325 or www.vtfeed.org

Sustainable Schools Project 
The Sustainable Schools Project is a dynamic new model for school improvement and civic engagement. The program is designed to help schools use sustainability as an integrating context for curriculum, community partnerships, and campus practices.

For more information: Jen Cirillo, Coordinator, at 802-985-0331, or jcirillo@shelburnefarms.org, or visit: www.sustainableschoolsproject.org

A Forest for Every Classroom: 
Learning to make choices for the future
Next session: MAY 2009
A Forest for Every Classroom (FFEC) is a year-long professional development program for educators focused on place-based education. Teachers who participate in FFEC develop curricula that foster student understanding of and appreciation for the public lands in their communities. The teacher-developed curricula integrate hands-on, natural and cultural explorations that address concepts in ecology, sense of place, stewardship, and civics. At the heart of the FFEC program is the belief that students who are immersed in the interdisciplinary study of “place” are more eager to learn and be involved in the stewardship of their communities and public lands.

A Forest for Every Classroom partners: Green Mountain National Forest, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, Nationa Park Service Conservation Study Institute, Northeast Natural Resource Center of the National Wildlife Federation, Northern Forest Center, and Shelburne Farms. 2006 Regional Partner: Synergy Learning.

Download A Forest for Every Classroom Workshop Series 2007
For more information: Pat Straughan, 802-985-0343, or pstraughan@shelburnefarms.org, or visit the FFEC web site:
www.nps.gov/mabi/mabi/education/forest.htm

INFORMATION: Erica Curry, 802-985-0325, ecurry@shelburnefarms.org, or visit www.uvm.edu/place.