Training and Being the Best We Can Be

Hi Everyone!

At our recent staff retreat back in early January, the general feeling of all staff in attendance was that they wanted more information, training and ideas. With that in mind I asked Kris Henker, one of our key leadership staff, to take the most recent manual edition that was done back in 2006 and update it. This was recently completed and it fills in a lot of gaps, adds in some key background information, includes a ton of new activities and clarifies some that have become stock and trade for us here at Manito-wish.


With all of this in mind though, I thought it would be a good thing to talk some about what it does take to grow as an educator and facilitor based on my own experience. We have a lot of staff who come to Manito-wish hungry to find a niche in the outdoor ed. field. Unfortunately, many do not have a plan (or at least that is my observation). They have limited their scope in many ways and it sometimes appears that nobody has given them clear direction with regards to what to do. I think this is essential, since even with a degree, I really don't think that anyone gets work (or at least not a lot of work) in this field without that added something. Since we are supposedly, experiential educators, I think it's clear that the added something has to be...experience...all kinds of it. This is what worked for me anyway and I hear the same from lots of others. So...how do you do it?


My route into this industry has not been a straight one (there really wasn't an adventure/experiential ed. industry exactly when I started). I did start with a degree though (History/Natural Resources and later a history teaching certification). The degree started me on my path, sometimes by simply showing me what I didn't want to do. There were key things I did learn though:

1. I started to develop my own style and approach as a teacher and learned how to connect with lots of different people in different situations.
2. I learned the language of education. This is invaluable. If you want to talk to educators (and you will even if you are just out leading trips or leading the occasional nature hike), you need to learn the language and become well versed in things like "outcomes" and "lesson plans."
3. I had opportunities to apply one of the key 7-Qualities of a Manito-wish collaborative leader..."Try it, change it, and try again." I did some things that didn't work (like trying to lecture on a subject to a class of alternative ed. students). I needed to know this and I carry those failures with me every bit as much as the successes.

So...once I had the degree, the real education and work started for me. I tried some other careers and just kept coming back to education. Once I realized what I wanted to do I grabbed onto that and took every opportunity to teach. My first real teaching job, and one that really set the stage for me, was a job at a day care in Madison, WI working with 3-6 year olds. Key lesson #1: Trying to hold the attention of a room full of high school students in a history class is one thing, taking on a room full of 4 and 5 year olds is something else entirely. Plus, you develop a strong stomach...an important requirement for any educator. It was a starting point for me, plus I was also given a lot of latitude to try out things new approaches. Since my passion at the time was the outdoors, I took that and ran with it. We built fires and shelters, tracked animals, made things from plants, etc. The kids loved it and since I was passionate about it and motivated to teach, I know that made ALL the difference.

From that came my next big leap forward: I took what I knew and used it in as many ways as I could to teach as many things as I could. This was a critical lesson and, the more I learn about the history of our industry, the more it becomes clear that this has always been true. Today we climb trees, poles and rocks, hike into mountains, play silly games, etc. because it was what the early pioneers in this field knew. They tried it, changed it, tried it again and over time created a process that seemed to work. I had a passion...something I knew...and I ran with that, looking breathlessly for knew pieces to the puzzle.

With this in mind I set out to watch, learn and teach any opportunity I could. I volunteered to help with programs and was willing to do whatever needed to be done (even working in the kitchen if that was necessary), I took notes on good teaching techniques and asked people that I admired to help me (a critical thing). Over time I was given opportunities to teach myself and eventually opportunities to get paid doing it. That took a bit of persistence, however in time, these connections paid off, because shortly thereafter, the relationships and connections I had made spread and other connections happened.

One key connection came through an event that I have attended every year since those early days. The TEAM conference at Northeastern Illinois University has been my springboard in so many ways. It was here that I had opportunities to connect with noted early industry pioneers, sit in on conversations about education and life and the connections between the two and so much more. More then anything I was inspired and supported. I also developed critical relationships that set the stage for my professional development and employment.

So...from all of that, these are the things that have made all of the difference for me and I have heard similar stories from so many others. If you want to work and grow in this field:

1. Build a foundation. There is no substitute for the "piece of paper."
2. Be willing to do whatever is needed to build a resume and experience base. Day cares, after school programs, etc. are great places to start. Volunteer if you need to.
3. Develop relationships and connections wherever you can--espcially through conferences or anywhere else educators gather.
4. Search out mentors and advisors. Be persistent if necessary...ask for help. Nobody is successful in a vacuum.
5. Work with and developing the things you know, especially the things you are passionate about. Your unique passion could become the next great leap forward in the industry!
6. Share your passion. My greatest leaps forward often came when I made committments to present to my peers at conferences. There is no substitute!
7. Go with the flow. Work comes and doors open as we are out there doing our thing, seizing the opportunities and practicing our craft...whatever that is and wherever it is. If you aren't practicing, you aren't growing.
8. Repeat as needed. We should ALWAYS be learners. In nature the only thing that is in a steady state are things that are dead (and even those things are transforming)!

Coincidentally, coming up Feb. 13-14 at Northeastern Illionois University will be the 20th annual TEAM conference. For more information or to download a registration form to to:

http://neiu.edu/~team/

See you there!

Mark

Experiential Educators...Is that what we are?

Occasionally I am alerted to great ideas that impact on the work we do here at Manito-wish or, maybe more importantly, cause us to think deeper about why we do this work at all and what all means. I recently was told about a great little article by Manito-wish friend Tom Lindblade. Tom has been around this industry long enough to have heard it all--the good, the bad and the ugly. His blog entry Concious Use of Metaphor or Thinking Outside of the Experiential Box has some interesting perspectives and it does challenge some conventional thinking (something I think we need to do a lot).

Without going tremendously into detail, Tom asks a question I have heard for years: Why isn't experiential education accepted in the mainstream here in the US? Is it for lack of supporting research? Is it because of a resistant mainstream educational system? The answer he gives to both of these questions is a resounding no. Research is clear on the effectiveness of experience based, hands-on education and is also very clear that "conventional" teaching methods such as lecture have limited effectiveness for many (if not most) students. As an industry we have also put a lot of energy towards evaluation and research on the effectiveness of the tools and processes we use. My reading on this is that we may certainly need continue to make sure that we are always using the best, most effective practices, however there is ample evidence that good programming has positive impacts on participants. We all see it every day.

Tom also mentions the fact that there has been tremendous success in building support at all educational levels for service learning and international education and internships. He even sites the early success of the "No Child Left Inside/Children in Nature Network." Clearly direct experience in the world has value as an educational process and many people in education see this value.

Tom ends his entry with a challenge that maybe "Experiential Education" is a poor way of naming this industry. His analogy is that it is a poor metaphor that doesn't meet established industry standards for effective use of a metaphor. He suggests that "Leadership" and "Challenge" have much more impact.

I agree to some extent. These terms do have impact and it certainly brings clients to the Camp Manito-wish Leadership Program. On the other hand I do feel that "Leadership" is a greatly misunderstood term in itself (more on this to follow). I even occasionally joke that this word, along with ill defined terms like "teamwork" be struck from the English language. While this is certainly a stretch, there is a point here worth considering. Leadership is a buzzword and is defined in so many ways by so many people that the meaning may be lost. At Manito-wish we choose to focus on collaborative leadership and make a clear distinction between between the uses and application of collaboration verses other methods of decision making. There will certainly be more on this topic to follow as well.

For the complete article by Tom Lindblade, you can find it here:

http://www.outdoored.com/Community/blogs/ofa1/archive/2008/12/08/conscious-use-of-metaphor-or-thinking-outside-of-the-experiential-box.aspx

Mark Zanoni