COEO NEWS
Annual Fall Conference 2025 – A Great BIG Thank you!
What an awesome conference weekend, and the weather couldn’t have turned out better! Thank you to everyone who took time out of their lives to join us at Camp Couchiching for COEO’s Annual Fall Conference: {Re}Generating our Natural Intelligence. Your creativity, enthusiasm, openness, energy and generosity made the weekend very special.
We would really appreciate it if you could give another 5 minutes of your time to let us know your thoughts on the conference. Here is a survey.
This conference would not have happened without the work of SO many people who volunteered their time and energy.
Huy ch q\’u and thank you to Rosanne Irving for sharing her opening, closing and workshop teachings and wisdom with us. We are grateful for her words about the importance of connecting all humans to the earth and each other.
Thank you to all of the presenters who shared their expertise and experience with other COEO members. For many of you, this was your first time at a COEO conference. Thank you to new and returning presenters for taking the leap of faith and making the conference the rich experience that it was.
Thank you to our keynote presenters Dr. Lydia Cao and Dr. Jack Reed. Their time, preparation, sharing of their knowledge and research work was very much appreciated. Jack’s recorded Keynote Presentation can be viewed on COEO’s Youtube channel.
A big thank you also needs to go out Walt Sepic for an incredible night of clear skies and astronomy, and in leading us through square dancing, as well as thanks to DJ Lisa for an amazing dance party Saturday night! Thank you to Adam from Big Dumb Face Trivia for hosting a very fun and interactive Trivia Contest on Friday evening. Special mention to Hardwood Ski and Bike, and the Outdoor Learning Store for their generous prize donations! Also thanks to Angel and Ben for leading the campfire sing-a-long on Saturday night.
A big thanks to Claire and Natalie Kemp for taking on the organization of both the live & silent auction. And as always COEO appreciates the knowledge and expertise of Brian Lisson, Chair of the 2025 COEO Annual General Meeting:)
Congratulations again to our very deserving annual awards recipients. Photos from the award ceremony will appear in the October COEO eNewsletter and are already up on COEO’s social media pages!
Also, a big thanks to the Camp Couchiching staff for being our helpful and generous hosts!
Thank you to our Membership Secretary Lee McArthur and our registration lead volunteer Rayanna Santiago who got everyone organized when they arrived.
And finally, thanks to the 2025 Conference Organizing Committee: Rayanna Santiago, Devin Mutic, Angel Suarez Esquivel, Erin Farrow, Madeleine Bray, M Nowick, Ben Blakey, Claire Kemp, Natalie Kemp, and Kim Squires. The Co-Chairs Liz Kirk, Kyle Clarke and Peggy Cheng had a much easier job because of all the time and effort you put in as a team to make this conference happen!
Please be sure to visit COEO’s Facebook and Instagram pages today and comment, like/love, and post your conference photos and videos. https://www.facebook.com/coeo.org/ and COEO Outdoors Instagram @coeooutdoors
***SOME IMPORTANT NOTES:
Planning for this January’s Make Peace with Winter Conference is underway (it’s taking place January 23-25, 2026 at Camp Kawartha!!). If you’d like to be part of this conference organizing committee, then please forward a note of interest to conference@coeo.org. Our co-chairs are excited to work with you!
Also, next fall’s conference is only a year away! Would you like to be part of organizing this event? If you’d like to suggest a conference theme or something else, again please submit an email conference@coeo.org with your suggestions or request to be involved.
RECEIPTS: If you require an OFFICIAL CONFERENCE RECEIPT, please email conference@coeo.org and request a receipt. We will try our best to send these out to people right away.
CERTIFICATE OF PARTICIPATION: If you require an OFFICIAL CERTIFICATE OF PARTICIPATION, please also email conference@coeo.org to request one.
Thank you all and hope everyone has a vibrant and wonderful fall,
Liz Kirk, Kyle Clarke and Peggy Cheng
2025 COEO Annual Fall Conference Co-Chairs
Make Peace with Winter 2026
What role is education called upon to play in this time of accelerating ecological catastrophe driven, in no small part, by a deep disconnection of kinship between humans and the rest of the natural world? It is, we propose, nothing less than to find ways to enact the profound re-creation of our society; to establish a different set of values and ways of living toward them. Each one of us, as educators (of which we all are, in myriad capacities), is thus called upon to rebel – to refuse the systems and practices which have brought us to the brink and to seek different (sometimes new, sometimes old) ways instead. An act of radical hope, the question is not what is possible, but rather what is worth doing, even if we fail? It is a fundamentally educational act: the planting of a tree on the last day of the world.
A bold, provocative, far-reaching theme. Let’s break it down.
-Transforming: changing fundamentally, in an active and ongoing way (hence the suffix ‘ing’), the base-level. A radical process of questioning and re-orienting.
-Education: strip away the blackboards and chalk, the desks and assignments, the canoes and paddles. What is left? Kneel close, peer behind the bushes, and you will discover that most wonderful of things. A process and a practice, a theory and an action. A foundationally hopeful attempt to discover good ways of being human in this world, and a desire to share in those ways with others.
-Eco-Centric: moving toward a renewed kinship with the natural world wherein the flourishing of all living and natural beings and, crucially, the relationships between them, is the driver of human action.
-Change: an active process aimed toward re-thinking not only what we might start doing more of, but also what we might start doing less of, or stop doing altogether.
More than a conference theme, Transforming Education for Eco-Centric Change is a long-term philosophical project – a process and an aim – toward which we hope this year’s Make Peace with Winter can make a substantial contribution. To this end, we are opening our conference to two types of workshop proposals, both of which will be intermingled during the various workshop blocks and available for anyone to sign-up and attend.
Types of Proposals:
1) Practical workshops: the first are those practitioner workshops, grown from hard-earned insights from years in the field, on the front lines of transforming education toward an eco-centric world.
2) Research and/or theory: the second are more novel to COEO, aimed explicitly at bringing theoretical insight to the table and merging it with pedagogy and practice. We invite any students (at the undergraduate, masters, or PhD level), professors, practitioners, Indigenous knowledge keepers, and anyone else with ideas to share to submit papers which fit under the general theme of the conference. These could be essays written for classes, previously published ideas re-worked to fit the conference theme, or new papers written explicitly for this conference. If selected, these papers will be published in a special issue of COEO’s academic journal Pathways: The Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education, as well as having the author present a workshop at the conference.
Unlike most academic conferences and paper submissions, COEO is a unique opportunity for academics to present their ideas to an explicitly practitioner audience of people who work in the diverse field of education day-in and day-out. For this reason, while the papers themselves should be academic in nature, the workshop about the paper should focus on the dissemination of knowledge and putting theory into practice. Workshop proposals should outline how the paper and its ideas will be presented in this way. Get creative, as COEO is a community-based organization and the conference theme values being radical. Usual formal rules of academic presentation do not apply here. We also invite the submission of papers for which the author wants to contribute to the Pathways special issue but either cannot attend the conference or does not want to present.
We especially urge students to submit papers, as this is a wonderful opportunity to gain experience in academic publishing, presenting, and, uniquely, disseminating knowledge outside the academic world. All with the aim of making real, profound cultural changes on what is certainly the overriding issue of not only our time, but any time in our species’ history.
Soar high, dive deep, go bold, and be radical. Our conferences are nothing without their presenters, and we cannot wait to see what you submit in response to the urgent need of Transforming Education for Eco-Centric Change. You have much to offer.
Those interesting in submitting a paper and/or presenting a workshop may apply using the following link: https://tally.so/r/3jOKPE
The deadline for submission is December 10, 2025. We will do our best to contact all applicants before December 15, 2025.
If you’re at all thinking about submitting a proposal, but aren’t sure how it might fit with the conference, we welcome you to contact the conference co-chairs anytime at: conference@coeo.org
We look forward to seeing you in joyous, cozy, conspiring communion at Camp Kawartha from January 23rd – 25th for COEO’s annual Make Peace with Winter 2026.
In hope and wonder,
Devin Mutić, Rayanna Santiago, and Lee McArthur, conference Co-Chairs
Introducing the 2025/26 Board of Directors
Every year our fall conference culminates with our Annual General Meeting where we vote in the upcoming Board of Directors. This year, our board is filled with diverse backgrounds and expertise to help steer our organization and serve our membership community.
Meet our 2025/26 Board of Directors –
President: Peggy Cheng
Vice-President: Ben Blakey
Past President: Hilary Coburn
Secretary: Kim Squires
Treasurer: Valerie Freemantle
Volunteer Coordinator: Devin Mutic
Membership Secretary: Lee McArthur
Directors at Large:
Angel Suarez Esquivel
Rayanna Santiago
Julie Read
Lilla Scott
You can read their bios at https://www.coeo.org/who-we-are/. We look forward to meeting you at a future COEO event!
Past Perspectives Project
For the past 5 years, the Board of Directors has been cultivating a database of audio interviews with COEO members who were active in the 70s and 80s, appropriately named the Past Perspectives Project. We developed a semi-structured interview protocol, designed similarly to a qualitative research project, though meant to be more informal. Together with the assistance of a number of board members including Ben Blakey, Liz Jankowski, Barb Sheridan, Deb Diebel, Bill Elgie and Devin Mutic, we’ve now collected 14 such interviews, and hope to continue to find time for more. While part of the project remains to simply record these interviews for preservation, we also hope to find ways to share meaningful quotes and insights, beginning with an upcoming Pathways article. We’d love to hear about members’ interest in the project, and continue interviews with anyone from the earlier days of COEO that we haven’t spoken to yet. We’d also love to hear from any individuals with audio/visual expertise who’d be willing to help us create something to share more broadly. If this applies to you, please reach out to info@coeo.org. We’d love to hear from you!
In Memory of Linda “Lecko” Leckie
Linda “Lecko” Leckie was a truly inspiring, caring and deeply knowledgeable outdoor educator that shaped the minds and hearts of so many students and educators. The COEO community is deeply saddened to learn of her passing, as she was a COEO long time member. Her ripples will continue to positively affect all those that she came in contact with. Next fall conference we will plant a tree in her name.
OTHER OEE & RELATED NEWS
Calling all Queen’s University OEE Grads!
Founded in 1968 by Bob Pieh, the Queen’s OEE program has been an icon for outdoor experiential education throughout the country. With Zabe McEachren’s retirement last June, the program has been officially suspended for the current school year. Its future is yet to be determined.
IF YOU ARE A QUEEN’S U OEE GRAD OR YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS, WE NEED YOUR HELP IN ANSWERING TWO KEY QUESTIONS:
1. How has this program influenced your career?
2. How has this program influenced you personally?
Please send your responses to longtime COEO member Grant Linney: climategrant@gmail.com as soon as possible and no later than November 30, 2025. Your answers will be compiled and sent to the new Dean of the Queen’s Faculty of Education.
Please forward this message to any other graduates of the Queen’s OEE program that you know.
Thanks!
Research Survey: Impacts of climate change and ways of adapting physical education teaching in pre-school, school (primary, secondary), college (or high school) and university environments.
Dear colleagues,
We would like to invite you to participate in a study on the “Impacts of climate change and ways of adapting the teaching of physical education in pre-school, school (primary, secondary), college (or high school) and university settings”.
This project is being carried out in collaboration with a team of researchers from Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC) in Canada and Universités de Rennes, de Lyon 1 in France.
You’ll be asked to answer a questionnaire on a number of themes related to physical education (PE) and health and/or sport and climate change (e.g., your sensitivity to the environment, your behaviors in relation to the environment, your experiences with events such as floods, heat waves, ice storms, etc.) as well as to participate (if you wish, by leaving your email contact at the end) in a focus group and/or individual interview to delve deeper into several themes around your PE experience in relation to climate change.
We would therefore like to invite you to complete and/or relay the following questionnaire to your colleagues, teachers of physical education.
Link to the questionnaire: https://sondage.uqam.ca/255825?lang=en
On behalf of the entire research team, we thank you for your participation and help with dissemination.
Tegwen, Matthieu, Paquito and Brice
New OUTSIDEPLAY Tool for Elementary School Teachers!
OUTSIDEPLAY is excited to announce the launch of a new free educational tool made by teachers for teachers who want to take their classrooms outdoors! Find it at: https://teacher.outsideplay.org
This tool is the newest addition to our OUTSIDEPLAY.org suite, joining existing parent and early childhood educator tools. It is the result of years of practical hands-on experience and the PhD thesis work of Megan Zeni, a teacher who teaches exclusively outdoors. She worked with teachers across BC and Canada to develop the material. The development of the Teacher.OutsidePlay.org tool was funded by the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation.
The 16 modules cover topics that teachers most want to know about, ranging from the basics of outdoor play and learning in schools to practical tips on getting started. We’ll continue to build out the tool with additional resources. We’re planning a speaker weries to dive deeper into the concepts introduced in each module.
For any questions or more information, reach out to our team at outsideplay@bcchr.ca. Also, please follow us on Instagram @playoutsideubc for regular updates and give our posts a thumbs up!
OEE P.D. OPPORTUNITIES
Wilderness First Responder Course and Recertification, Brock University
Wilderness First Responder Course and Recertification at Brock University
The Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at Brock University is hosting a hybrid Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course (February 16-20, 2026) and hybrid WFR recertification course (February 21-22, 2026). WFR is the definitive course in medical training for outdoor educators, guides, and others who work or play in remote areas. The curriculum is comprehensive and practical, including essential principles and skills required to assess and manage medical problems in isolated and extreme environments.
For more information and the link to register, please visit https://brocku.ca/applied-health-sciences/recreation-leisure/wilderness-first-responder/
Featured Fall Resources, Tools & Kits, Outdoor Learning Store
November 30, 2025 – May 31, 2026
4 Seasons of Indigenous Learning
Online Learning
Beginning in the Fall and running until the Spring each year, this course serves to support participants in deepening their understanding of Indigenous knowledge and perspectives while strengthening connections with the local Land and supporting more respectful, reciprocal relationships. Learn more & register.
Intro Language Course and 4 Seasons of Indigenous Learning, Natural Curiosity
Get Kids Paddling – New Webinar Series in 2025!
Watch past recordings of all Get Kids Paddling webinars here: Webinars – Get Kids Paddling
Outdoor Learning Webinars, hosted by LSF
Some of the newest webinar offerings include:
A series of webinars designed specifically for and by secondary teachers
Tips for getting outside even in cold winter months!
Connecting primary and middle school math curriculum to the outdoors
For an up to date list of upcoming webinars, continue to check LSF’s R4R outdoor learning page
Check out the recorded webinar sessions for each grade group:
Kindergarten/Early Years: Webinar recording | Webinar slides
Grades K-6: Webinar recording | Webinar slides
Grades 4-10: Webinar recording | Webinar slides
Climate Action Photovoice, CAMH
Outfitted Hot Tent Winter Camping Experiences! Now offered by Lure of the North Outfitters and Headwaters Wilderness Program
Attention fellow all-season wilderness enthusiasts!
We are very excited to announce that Lure of the North Outfitters and Headwaters Wilderness Program are working together to offer a range of outfitted Hot Tent Winter Camping experiences to OE organizations, school groups, universities, outdoors clubs, scouting programs, and families across Ontario.
The outfitted hot tent camping program provides groups that want to get out of the classroom in the winter season with the opportunity to conduct their program in a warm and comfortable wilderness-living environment, within the natural beauty and solitude of Ontario’s winter wilderness landscape. A variety of camp locations are possible across central and southern Ontario, and logistical support and educator training can be customized to meet each program’s specific needs.
With Lure of the North Outfitters providing all the gear and logistical support, and Headwaters providing professional educator-guides as well as custom curriculum development, this program provides people of all ages an authentic, safe, warm, and truly unique winter camping experience.
Basic Winter Camping Packages include
• Snowtrekker canvas tent and wood stove
• Ground tarp and padded flooring
• Firewood, drinking water, and safety kit
• Trail toboggans and pulks
• Camp setup assistance and guidance
• Average cost of ~$70-$100/person/day (for outfitting only)
• Average cost of additional $100/person/day for Headwaters guiding and educational programming
Educator Training includes (but not limited to)
• Basic winter camp setup
• Safe stove operation
• Stovetop cooking
• Orienteering
• Forest activities
** Make it a season-long group crafting and adventure exercise! Make your own toboggans, snowshoes, anoraks, moccasins, or mittens from ready-made DIY-kits**
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Lure of the North Outfitters or Headwaters Wilderness Program with your questions, comments, or ideas.
Best wishes for all your wilderness adventures this season!
Learn more here: https://www.headwaterswildernessprogram.ca/winter-hot-tent-camping https://lotnoutfitters.com/pages/winter-camping-outfitting-program
UPCOMING CONFERENCES
North American Association for Environmental Education Conference, Nov 6-8, 2025, Online
Association for Experiential Education Conference, Nov 6-8, 2025 in Pittsburgh, PA
Association for Outdoor Recreation and Education Conference, Nov 4-8 in San Diego, CA
International Outdoor Education Research Conference, June 22-26 in Oslo, Norway
JOB POSTINGS
Forest School Supply Teacher, Cambridge Farm and Forest School
Program Facilitator (Part-Time), Trails Youth Initiative
Reporting to the Program Director, Facilitators work with youth aged 11-17 in an overnight setting. Facilitators provide 24-hour supervision to participants in addition to teaching principles of healthy living and seasonal outdoor activities such as canoeing, swimming, camping skills, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. During the summer, Facilitators are also responsible for leading camping trips at Trails Lakeside site in Stouffville (Years 1 and 2) and/or off-site canoe trips (Years 3, 4, 5) in Ontario’s backcountry (e.g. Algonquin Park, Temagami). https://trails.ca/about/work-at-trails/
Ontario Urban Wild Casual Instructor, Outward Bound Canada
Ontario Urban Wild Casual Instructor, Outward Bound Canada
Find us, friend us, like us, tag us or follow us online:
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Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/coeo.org
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/COEOoutdoors
Twitter https://twitter.com/COEOoutdoors @COEOoutdoors
ABOUT THIS ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
For consistency, the COEO electronic newsletter is now published on the first of each month. Anyone having an item of interest to outdoor & experiential educators and desiring publication in this newsletter needs to submit it to newsletter@coeo.org at least two days before the publication date.
The newsletter is generally organized according to the following headings: COEO News, Other OEE & Related News, P.D. Opportunities, Opportunities for Students, Resources, Job Postings. If your organization wishes to post information (e.g., notice of upcoming events, etc), it needs to be an organizational member of COEO.
If you would like to be removed from COEO’s eNewsletter mailing list, please send an email to newsletter@coeo.org and ask to be unsubscribed.