Step 1: Buy and read Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature. This will become your go-to guide for all things outdoor education. 

Step 2: Identify an outdoor classroom site (yard, garden, park, forest, etc.) and find a regular time in your weekly schedule to visit the site.

Step 3: Write your yearlong scope & sequence and align it to your school or district’s standards and benchmarks. Feeling extra ambitious? Crank out a few lesson plans too. 

Step 4: Prepare your proposal for your school’s administration.

a. Compile relevant research supporting the benefits of outdoor edcuation programs.

b. Conduct a benefit-risk analysis.

c. Anticipate questions & concerns regarding safety, adult supervision, loss of academic classroom time, scheduling constraints, etc. Be prepared with thorough, data-driven responses to all these questions.

d. Practice your spiel until you feel super confident and ready to be firm but polite (and not take no for an answer!). 

Step 5: Request a meeting with your school’s administration and then blow their socks off with your awesome, data-rich presentation! Who can say no to some hard facts and figures? 

Step 6: Educate and notify parents and guardians. Get permission slips/releases signed as necessary. While you’re at it, ask them to volunteer as a chaperone on your first outing.

Step 7: Schedule your first forest lesson.

Step 8: Gather materials for your first lesson (Remember, safety first: First Aid Kit, any student medications, emergency forms, cell phones or walkie talkies, etc.).

Step 9: Explain your outdoor education program to your students. Establish ground rules/guidelines/expectations with them.

Step 10: Go outside!