67. Good Natured Learning with Becca Katz

We are talking with Becca Katz and highlighting her amazing journey that led her to co-found Good Natured Learning.

MEET BECCA:

Becca has been a nature-based educator for over two decades. She has worked as a classroom teacher, administrator, and wilderness expedition leader in private and public schools. Becca’s many classrooms have included a strip mall storefront, windowless modular units, the forests and schoolyards next to her schools, local public lands, open spaces, and parks, and Wilderness classrooms from the Canadian Arctic to the Bolivian Andes. 

When she discovered the research proving the benefits of apple-a-day nature connections for learners and educators, Becca co-founded Good Natured Learning to empower formal educators (in schools) to integrate nature-based learning into their routine teaching and classroom design practices. Good Natured Learning’s core program is a professional Fellowship for educators. They also run workshops and collaborate with partners to activate nature near schools for learning and grow the broader nature-connected learning movement. In addition to her work with Good Natured Learning, Becca writes about mainstreaming nature-based learning in formal education in her Substack newsletter, Learning, by Nature.

Becca holds a B.A. and M.S. from Stanford University. More important than any degree, Becca has learned from, with, and in nature over hundreds of days and nights spent camping and traveling in the Wilderness with students, friends, and family. 

GOOD NATURED LEARNING RESOURCES:

• Video: Nature-based Learning in the Words of a Teacher
• DONATE to Good Natured Learning
• Good Natured Learning; Follow @GoodNaturedLearning on: LinkedIn   |  Instagram |  Facebook 
• Outdoor Classrooms Should Outlast COVID article published Oct. 13, 2023, in Chalkbeat Colorado
• Learning, by Nature - Becca’s Substack newsletter where she writes about “why we MUST grow nature-connected schools EVERYWHERE and how we can do that through nature-based learning.” Follow Becca on: LinkedIn   |  Instagram |  Facebook 
• Becca’s most dog-eared resource: Do Experiences With Nature Promote Learning? Converging Evidence of a Cause-and-Effect Relationship

CONNECT WITH VICTORIA:

• WEBSITE: www.outdoor-classrooms.com
• EMAIL: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/outdoor_classrooms/
• Facebook: Facebook.com/OutdoorClassrooms1

OUTDOOR CLASSROOM RESOURCES:

• The Outdoor Classrooms CIRCLE Membership
• The Outdoor Teaching Bootcamp
• Seeds of Inspiration for Outdoor Learning Card Deck
• FREE PDF Library of Nature-Based Children's Book & Weekly Seedling News