Chris teaching in 2006.

Course Goals & Skills Covered:

The goal of this camp session is to prepare participants as eventual oudoor educators. For this course, you will receive an expanded version of the Wolf Journey Handbook for Students & Teachers which has been called the "teaching bible" for outdoor programs by some of our more subjective (but successful) adult students. Designed to be used as a model for professional standards in the field of earth skills education, the handbook serves as the Wolf Camp policy manual and the author (and lead course instructor Chris Chisholm) hopes that it will also be used to help students later create safe and successful programs elsewhere, like our first 2001 apprentice Kate Hedges did with her Blue Skies program in Scotland, and our 2005 apprentice Chris "Huck" Anderson, EMT, did with his program Lost & Found Adventures based in Pheonix, AZ.

Apprentices practicing a Wilderness First Aid scenario in 2006. Glen (posing as injured) and Patrick (on right) are campers-turned-instructors.

Camp Schedule & Activities:

On Sunday, June 17, 2012, we'll meet at 4:00 to set up at the Wolf Campus in Puyallup. You should bring a pot luck dish to share as we enact the regular camp schedule that will take place over the course of each week this summer. We'll have dinner and then look over resources in the library, and you'll learn about related outdoor adventure and other environmental educational programs, indigenous teachers and anthropologists, herbalists of the Wise Woman tradition, founders of the permaculture movement, as well as those who followed in the footsteps of "primitive" skills specialists, making the evening a great exploration of similar but sometimes competing philosophies, and include an introduction to the kinds of preventable (and sometimes unavoidable) accidents which have occured in the outdoor educational field over the past generations. We will lay a foundation for why it is important to undertake certain risks in the field for their educational benefit, though learning to stand up and say "stop" when it looks like a risk is not going to be managed or mitigated properly to avoid injury. The last hour of the evening will include a discussion of what it means to be a naturalist mentor, and a mentor to young people in general. Finally, we will look at the "medicine wheel" philosophy of personal health and project organization before creating a lesson plan for the kids day camp that is running tomorrow.

On Monday, we'll start the morning with a nature walk and exercises which is key to keeping any teacher healthy. Then we'll have breakfast and review our lesson plans for today's day camp that starts at 9:30. Everyone will observe lead instructor Chris Chisholm as he guides campers and workshop participants over the course of the morning, and we expect that you will also learn a good deal about Nature Awareness and aidless navigation along with the camp participants. This will be your example for creating a lesson that you will help teach later in the week.. Chris will oversee the afternoon and we will discuss teaching lessons as they come up in this live experimental classroom. After the camp kids and workshop participants leave at 3:30, we will return to our campsite for a late afternoon session on what to teach children at various ages. This is key, and the crux of your learning today, including when didactic, kinesthetic, experiential, and "coyote" methods of teaching are appropriate. In the evening, you'll design your personal "medicine wheel" of health which is an excellent tool to help you create balance of mind, body, emotion and spirit, leading to more harmonious social relationships, both professionally and personally. Then, you will work with a partner create a balanced lesson plan to teach during a morning or afternoon session of the kids day camp that is running this week. you'll receive some time-tested tricks-of-the-trade which make your teaching days more successful. Finally, we'll begin learning Wilderness First Aid in advance of practicing moch medical emergency scenarios later in the week.

On Tuesday, we'll start the morning with our healthy routine, and add another layer to prepping lessons: risk management models. Then we'll observe the first volunteers as they teach the kids at day camp which focuses on the Language of the Birds. We'll even videotape some of the lessons so that as we give them feedback in the evening, they can observe their own teaching style to asses what they might like to change in the future. Videotaping is optional, but it helps you notice your body language, lexicon, deadwood speech, etc. to become more effective in teaching the age group(s) you want to focus on. We will also take time to review and evaluate (nicely) your performance, and help everyone assimulate the take-home message(s) of the experience. In the late afternoon, we will review risk management, and then set up an open-water lifeguarding site before learning to rescue swimmers in trouble. We'll also give you an overview of the latest CPR protocol in case of near-drowning, and show a you-tube video of an actual well-done rescue that was caught on video in Australia. However, please note that there is no way to adequately train anyone to respond perfectly to wilderness emergencies, so this will just be a training on Wolf Camp protocol, and you can use it to assess your own protocol wherever you teach. We recommend that if you are serious about outdoor leadership, that you either attend, at a minimum, a 24 class-our Wilderness First Aid training at the start of every season you lead outdoor programs, or a 72 hour Wilderness First Responder course at the start of every year you lead outdoor programs, or the 200+ hour Wilderenss EMT training if you really want to know what you are doing. Your evening assignment will be to re-design your lesson plan to address the standards required by risk management. We'll also begin to go over a guide to effective facilitation skills so that your future meetings will be as short and productive as possible, and discuss creating healthy professional relationships in the close (and sometimes uncomfortable) 24/7 outdoor settings in which most of us work seasonally.

On Wednesday, we'll start with our healthy routine, and you'll assess with a critical eye how Chris facilitates tha morning session in order to observe how the principles you learned yesterday about facilitation can be applied. The topic will be helping those who will practice teaching today refine their lesson plans, including reviewing our list of tips for teaching various age groups, plus memorizing the list of risk management factors to consider when teaching various activities. The topic for today's day camp is wildlife tracking. Student teachers with previous experience with this subject will lead the day. In the late afternoon, we'll review an aspect of wilderness first aid, our emergency response protocol, CPR and risk-managing water sites before you'll be asked how to respond to a moch scenario. In the evening, you'll receive lists of how to guide outdoor education leadership programs, and you'll also receive essays the more advanced experiences which are key to mentoring students through outdoor programs, including various rites of passage like survival treks, sweats, and solo quests. We'll also look at the ethical issues facing outdoor educators, including cultural appropriation. In fact, we will create some scenarios which you and your fellow students will have to act out as a consensus decision-making staff to solve, including how to deal with "dual" or double-relationships, defined as two (or more) people having more than one kind of relationship with one another, aka, office romances, friends as business partners, family members together in a learning environment, or helping young adult camp counselors supervise older teen campers with appropriate boundaries, etc.

Thursday we'll start with our healthy routine, and you will have time to further refine you lesson plans. The theme for today is on the Critical Order of Survival, practicing emergency response scenarios, building warm shelter, and making safe fires with all natural materials. After today, the day campers will have actual wilderness survival training, and so will you! In the afternoon, we will review more wilderness first aid information, practice water risk managment, lifeguarding and CPR as well as a new moch emergency scenario to practice your skills. In the evening, we will review facilitation skills, and take turns facilitating discussions so that you have actual practice. Again, you can choose to have your discussion videotaped in order to help assess your choice of words, body language, timing, etc. Topics of discussion will include a variety of issues that teachers face in the outdoors, including ethics, health, conflict, isms, and other things that this group finds important.

On Friday, we'll start with our healthy routine, finish left-over topics from the week, and meet the day campers to focus on Wild Foods & Medicines. This afternoon will be your last opportunity to practice teaching while being observed by course instructors. The late afternoon and evening will correspond to how our summer camp weeks normally end, namely, that we'll return to our rendezvous point, prepare a dish to share between 5:00-6:00 before enjoying presentations from 6:00-7:00, which in our case will be summaries and evaluations of the week. This training week officially ends at 7:00 p.m. although students may stay overnight if they are part of a summer apprenticeship program, or need to catch a flight the following day.

Wolf Journey Voluem VI - Trail of the Environmental Educator will be our main resource this week.

Course Books, AV & Other Resources:

Books, AV & Other Resources this week include various hand-outs, and if you would like to prepare in advance, please consider studying the following resources we will be referencing:

Building United Judgement, and A Manual for Group Facilitators, (The Fellowship for Intentional Community) by the Center for Conflict Resolution
Lighting the 7th Fire (documentary from Upstream Productions) by Sandra Osawa.
Rediscovery - Ancient Pathways - New Directions by Thom Henley
Order from Paul Nicolazzo at www.wildmedcenter.com:
Art & Technique of Wilderness Medicine
Wilderness Medicine Handbook
Case Studies in Wilderness Medicine
Weatherproof Patient SOAP Notes
Effective Outdoor Program Design & Management
Site Management Handbook
Lifeguard Training by the American Camping Association
How to Sh.. in the Woods (Ten Speed Press) by Kathleen Meyer
Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature and Survival for Children (Berkley)
Wildlife & Tracking in the Pacific Northwest: Mammals, Birds, Reptile, Amphibians & InvertebratesPlants of the Pacific Northwest Coast (Lone Pine) or Plants of the British Columbia Interior (Lone Pine)
Botany in a Day: Tomas J. Elpel's Herbal Field Guide to Plant Families (HOPS Press)
Drawing from the Book of Nature (Rudolf Steiner College Press)
The Stars by H.E. Rey, or (Peterson’s) Skies, or A New Way To See Stars
The Great Floods (documentary in cooperation with Coulee Dam National Rec Area Nat'l Park Service) produced by Washington State University.
Three Days at the River documentary by Thomas J. Elpel available from www.hollowtop.com
Waterlily (University of Nebraska Press) by Ella Cara Deloria.
Watch for Me on the Mountain (historical fiction about Geronimo) by Forrest Carter.
The Song of Hiawatha by by Henry Wadsworth Longellow (version by Bounty is beautiful).
The Peacemaker's Journey (cassette from wildernessawareness.org/tapeindex.html) with Jake Swamp.
Nanook of the North (documentary now produced by Reel Enterprises) directed by Robert Flaherty.
The Great Dance: A Hunter's Story (an Aardvark / Earthrise / Liquid Pictures / Off the Fence film co-produced with KirchMedia, e.tv, and Primedia Pictures in association with WIMSA) directed by Craig Foster and Damon Foster, produced by Ellen Windemuth and James Hersov, featuring !Nqate Xqamxebe, Karaho "Pro" Langwane, XlhoaseXlhokhne, The !Xo, Xwikwe and Nharo people, edited by Damon Foster, written by Jeremy Evans, music by Barry Donnelly.
Rabbit-Proof Fence (movie by Miramax Films about Molly Craig and her family) based on the book by Doris Pilkington Garimara.
I Heard the Owl Call My Name (movie by Tomorrow Entertainment) based on the book by Margaret Craven.
Outdoor Survival Skills by Larry Dean Olsen
Three Among the Wolves (Sasquatch Books) by Helen Thayer
Indian Fishing: Early Methods on the Northwest Coast by Hilary Stewart, and her book Cedar
Scout Handbook by Baden Powell
Primitive Technology – A Book of Earth Skills (Gibbs Smith, Publisher) ed. David Wescott

Patrick will facilitate new staff this year.

Camp Instructors & History:

• This session's lead instructor will be Chris Chisholm.
• This course is celebrating its 10th Year!