Vaskebjorn: 4th Annual Forest School Congress of the Midwest

Vaskebjorn is the ultimate gathering of educators: a place for sharing innovative approaches and ideas to enhance place-based learning in wild spaces. The first Vaskebjorn was held in 2016 at Raintree School in St. Louis and many educators have enjoyed an intimate, dynamic experience at their beautiful Reggio-inspired school over the past three years. As Vaskebjorn begins to travel the Midwest, it finds its home for 2019 at Prairie School of DuPage in Wheaton, Illinois, just 30 miles west of Chicago.

Participants will enjoy a relaxing weekend, with optional overnight camping on-site, to connect with fellow educators, deepen their understanding of place-based education, and hone outdoor education and forest school practice through hands-on sessions. Sessions include, but are not limited to: art, music, traditional skills, forest school administration, tool safety, and campfire cooking! You will be able to view options, and choose sessions, during the registration process.

ALL MEALS ARE INCLUDED - look forward to pizza from a brick oven, gourmet s'mores, delicious hearty salads, robust soups and more!

The keynote address: Place Identities, Self-Identities: How Place-Based Education Can Help Students Negotiate a Sense of Self in an Interconnected World, will be presented by Emilian Geczi. Emilian is Director of the Natural Start Alliance, a project of the North American Association for Environmental Education dedicated to driving excellence and leadership in the early childhood environmental education field, bringing quality environmental education programs to more young children, and promoting messages, policies, and research that support nature-based early childhood education.

Whether you are an experienced outdoor educator, new to education, homeschooling, teach in a public school setting or non-school setting such as a forest preserve or nature center, this conference is for YOU!

Vaskebjorn is a Gateways to Opportunity Registry-Verified Conference- registry members can earn up to 9 training hours.