Outdoor Learning Conference 2025: Full Schedule

Welcome to the 2025 Outdoor Learning Conference

11:00am MDT

Our Stories, Our Land: Connecting Personal Narratives to the Land LIMITED

Friday May 9, 2025 11:00am - 12:15pm MDT

This interactive workshop delves into the profound link between our personal narratives and our connection to the land, offering insights from two individuals with unique perspectives on land and identity. Through storytelling and shared experiences, participants will explore how connecting our stories to land can foster land stewardship, respect for diversity, and a deeper sense of belonging. The workshop will emphasize how these connections can enrich student engagement with curricula, enhance well-being, and support environmental education. Attendees will leave with practical strategies for integrating personal and community stories into learning, creating meaningful connections to the land that strengthen both educational outcomes and environmental consciousness.

Speakers

Allyson Fedak

Winnipeg School Division

Allyson (Ally) is an educator with 15+ years of experience in community organizations and education, focused on creating anti-oppressive spaces for young people, families, and community groups, particularly through decolonizing education. She is currently the Anti-Racism and Climate... Read More →

Mohammed Razi

Winnipeg School Division

Mohammad was born in northwest Iran to a family of five in a region called Balouve, meaning "land above water." At twenty, he fled to Turkey, becoming a refugee for two years before arriving in Canada as a landed immigrant in October 1988. Mohammad enrolled in English classes at Isaac... Read More →

Friday May 9, 2025 11:00am - 12:15pm MDT
Squirrel

Health and Wellbeing Workshop

2:00pm MDT

Deepening the Connection to Nature Through Music and the Arts (English) LIMITED

Friday May 9, 2025 2:00pm - 3:15pm MDT

Squirrel

Music and the arts have a way of sharing from deep within; a wonderful way to create rich engagement to helping the earth. Using music, dance, drama, art and language arts, participants will learn about ways to inspire students to feel a deeper relationship with natural spaces in their school yards and community. Participates will engage in arts experiences that help to develop empathy and care of the land around them through creative movement, role playing, sound experiences and more.

If you attended in 2024 this workshop will be introducing new activities that expand on the 2024 session.
This session will also be offered in French in Session Block E.

Speakers

Jennifer Engbrecht

Music Teacher, Louis Riel School Division

Jennifer Engbrecht was thrilled to have the opportunity to present about learning in nature through music and the arts in 2024, and is so happy to return this year in 2025. Jennifer has been infusing various subject areas into music classes for many years - especially the environment... Read More →

Friday May 9, 2025 2:00pm - 3:15pm MDT
Squirrel

Health and Wellbeing Workshop

2:00pm MDT

When ¢ik̓ku (robin) connects you to Land: How to use your experience and weave Indigenous knowledge "in a good way" (Marshall and Zimanyi, 2024). LIMITED

Friday May 9, 2025 2:00pm - 3:15pm MDT

Squirrel

As Dr. Albert Marshall and Louise Zimanyi remind, in “Walking together,” that our doings as we go about learning and connecting with Land must be done “in a good way.” Embedding Indigenous perspectives in what we do as educators therefore calls on us to be good in the way we develop “content” and/or embed Indigenous perspectives. Through the listening experiences of ¢ik̓ku (robin) the session proposes to go through the process of embedding Indigenous knowledge in lessons aimed for outdoor learning. This will be achieved by creating hands-on activities and using them on the spot! Participants will leave with ready-to-use strategies, ideas from colleagues, and stories that stem from local places. They will also experience being, knowing, and doing. Working in a good way is a process that can be learned from a familiar more-than-human named ¢ik̓ku!

Speakers

Faye O'Neil

School District #5

"Faye O’Neil was born on her homelands of Ktunaxa ʔamaʔkis at the beginning of the headwaters of the miȼ̓qaqas akinmituk (Chickadee River/Columbia River) where she played in the water and on the land. She shares Ktunaxa and European ancestry, is a community member of the ʔaq̓am... Read More →

Dr. Sylvie de Grandpré

Conseil Scolaire Francophone (SD#93)

Sylvie has been an energetic K-9 educator for 34 years. She is the principal of a new school where gardening, outdoor/environmental education, and Indigenous perspectives drive learning. She spends a lot of time outdoors with more-than-humans, whether deep in a forest or while strolling... Read More →

Friday May 9, 2025 2:00pm - 3:15pm MDT
Squirrel

Indigenous Ways of Knowing Workshop

Outdoor Learning Conference 2025