If you start your course in person, you will spend the 10-11 months that follow engaged in self-directed learning. There are many resources we recommend in the course binder, and you will use them to complete the 6 course assignments required for certification. The assignments will prompt you to go deeper with themes introduced during your in person, and to develop the documentation you will need to safely start and run a high-quality Forest/Nature School program. You will be encouraged to complete your assignments in whatever way feels most meaningful to you. That may mean that some assignments are written, while others are more audio/visual. It will be up to you! Whatever form the assignments take, you will share them with your mentors and peers on our online pedagogical documentation platform, Storypark.
If you start your course online, you will engage in online video conference sessions facilitated by two mentors. Before each session, they will invite you to deepen your connection with the Land through various prompts and practices, and they will send you several resources to read or watch before the video discussion. After each video session, facilitators will invite you to participate in various practices that we hope will deepen your relationship with the Land, and prompt questions and reflection that can then be shared with fellow practitioners in reflection pieces that will be created and uploaded toStorypark.
Following the in-person dates, practitioners will have the opportunity to complete the remainder of the assignments.