COEO NEWS
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 in**@**eo.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
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
Canadian Environmental Educators Use of Humour Survey
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 ou*********@***hr.ca. Also, please follow us on Instagram @playoutsideubc for regular updates and give our posts a thumbs up!
OEE P.D. OPPORTUNITIES
Featured Fall Resources, Tools & Kits, Outdoor Learning Store
Intro Language Course and 4 Seasons of Indigenous Learning, Natural Curiosity
Learn Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) & Support Language Revitalization
After so much positive feedback from the course we offered in the spring, we are offering another Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) course this Fall!
Course Details:
📅 Tuesday evenings, 5:00pm-6:30pm Eastern Time: October 14, 21, 28 / November 4, 11, 18, 25 / December 2
💻 Virtual sessions + recordings for 3 months
👩🏫 Instructor: Sarah Wood (Anishinaabemowin educator, member of Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation)
Your Contribution Supports:
- Fair compensation for Indigenous instructors
- Free access for Indigenous learners
- Ongoing language revitalization efforts
Pricing:
- Non-Indigenous: $160 (until Sept. 30th)
- Indigenous learners: Free
- Groups: 20% off for groups of more than 5 (code: XKJS3VJC)
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
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
Outdoor Learning Leadership Conference, Oct 16-18, 2025 in Banff, AB
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:
Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/coeo.org
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 ne********@**eo.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 ne********@**eo.org and ask to be unsubscribed.