COEO NEWS
COEO Annual Fall Conference Announcement and Call for Presenters!
{RE}GENERATING OUR NATURAL INTELLIGENCE
The Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario is excited to invite you to attend our Annual Fall Conference to be held at Camp Couchiching, from September 19 – 21, 2025.
The 2025 COEO conference organizing committee has been hard at work and plans are well underway for this year’s annual fall conference. This year’s conference theme, “{Re}Generating our Natural Intelligence”, is an opportunity for educators to rethink and reimagine the role of outdoor learning and experiential education at a time when digital technologies, virtual learning environments, simulated instruction and artificial intelligence are transforming educational practices, policies and places.
Plan to join us as we learn, share and laugh with kindred spirits from across the province and beyond. We’ll enjoy great food all weekend and enjoy an evening social program filled with fun, dancing and live music. You will leave this professional development experience feeling rejuvenated and with many new ideas and resources in hand.
Natural intelligence is the ability to flexibly adapt and achieve goals in a variety of environments based on our experiences in the natural world. It is these lived experiences, that take place within the complexity of life’s natural systems, which provide an essential literacy and resistance training for our minds (bodies and spirits). By redressing and rekindling natural intelligence, we will be able to prepare students for the real problems of today and ready them with resilience to face the future challenges of tomorrow.
How can we as Outdoor and Experiential Educators best connect children and youth to natural places, community spaces and each other? What learning activities and techniques are we using to foster empathy and understanding, critical thinking, creativity, self-awareness, goal-directedness, adaptability and the application of knowledge? What critical roles are we playing to ensure the facilitation of high-quality outdoor learning opportunities throughout the province? How can we best utilize concepts like systems thinking, ecological literacy, deep ecology, and ecopedagogy to transform the work we do?
We welcome all submissions, but are looking specially for workshops and presentations which support the conference theme, but are not limited to, the following suggested topic areas:
-Making time to think and feel – pause, quiet time and reflection in OEE
-Meaning making and knowledge sharing
-Nature knowledge – the shifting role of the Naturalist during a time of climate change
-Wilderness leadership IQ – essential skills, knowledge, judgement and decision making.
-Experiential brain teasers, puzzles, problems
-Supporting group synergy and emergent behaviour
-Multiple intelligences, various learning styles, differing environments
-Multiple ways of knowing, multiple ways of showing
-Putting it down on paper – journaling and nature writing
-Mindfulness and meditation
-Celebration and ceremony
-Exploring forms of inter and intraspecies communication
-Nature’s signs and signals – deep/close observation, tracking, reading the landscape
***CLICK HERE to access the conference presentation proposal submission form.
The deadline for submission is June 30th. We will do our best to contact all applicants before July 10th, 2025.
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION WILL OPEN SHORTLY
Early Bird registration will open in mid-June along with the conference bursary application portal. COEO members will receive an email once conference registration begins. Please note that we will once again be offering a Saturday day-only conference registration rate for those COEO members who are unable to attend the full weekend – details and pricing to follow.
Future of COEO Survey
We want to make sure that COEO grows and changes with the needs of the outdoor education community. Please share this anonymous survey with anyone you know who works in outdoor education. We want to hear from both COEO members and folks who aren’t members so that our growth and change can better support people in outdoor education. Thank you for supporting COEO to grow and evolve. Link to the survey: https://forms.gle/rrEuXhQPPjrKzcgs5
2025/2026 Nominating Committee
A volunteer opportunity with COEO! Elections nominations committee! Please join us as we plan for upcoming COEO elections! COEO is seeking volunteers to be on the 2025/2026 Board of Directors Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee is responsible for collecting nominations and sharing the slate of candidates for COEO’s annual election of board members with the membership before our Annual General Meeting at our Fall Annual Conference. This committee will meet virtually over Zoom approximately once a month between June and September. No previous committee experience is required. Skills that would be an asset (but are not required) are understanding how to use platforms like Word, Canva, Acrobat Adobe or other similar platforms. If you are interested in joining this committee, please email info@coeo.org before May 20th, 2025.
The first meeting for this committee will be in early June.
COEO Town Hall
A lot of buzz and excitement revolves around COEO conferences but what happens within our organization beyond the conference? We wanted an opportunity to connect, communicate, and collaborate with the outdoor education community, hence a town hall event was born. We shared updates on advocacy, awards, upcoming events, and ways to get involved. We had fun nature trivia and gave away prizes. We chatted about how to make COEO better. Ultimately, we connected like-minded people that want to see outdoor education thrive in schools and beyond.
Thank you to those who were able to join us! If you missed our town hall but are interested in learning what was shared, you can access the slide presentation and contribute to our conversations by adding to the padlet. Our hope is to host more town halls in the future to continue this dialogue within our community.
COEO Advocacy for OEE
One of COEO’s five goals is to “promote the multiple values of outdoor education, both within and beyond our profession.” In the past, we tended to gloss over earnest advocacy to external stakeholders. We seemed to operate on an unspoken assumption that others would just “get it” when it comes to the great and lasting benefits of OEE, but multiple closures and withdrawals of funding have shown otherwise.
For the last twenty years or so, COEO has periodically hired the services of Sussex Strategy Group, a well-established and respected public affairs firm that supports businesses and associations in navigating and shaping public opinion, influencing government policy, and advocating on our behalf. Their support has yielded multiple tangible benefits, including the designation of specific funding for OEE by the Ontario Liberal government when Kathleen Wynne was our Minister of Education.
In light of the current Ontario government’s removal of such funding, COEO has once again deemed it necessary to make use of Sussex Strategy, and will continue to work with them throughout the next year. We’re grateful to have the support of the board’s Advocacy subcommittee leading this work, including past Presidents Liz Kirk and Grant Linney, as well as current BOD members Hilary Coburn, Peggy Cheng, and Devin Mutic.
OTHER OEE & RELATED NEWS
Same old, Same old by Grant Linney
During the mid-1980’s, Cathy Beach (former COEO President) and John Aikman (former COEO Membership Secretary) warned the rest of us. Their boards in Peterborough and Hamilton respectively were among the first to close outdoor education programs and centres in the name of fiscal responsibility. Since then, we outdoor educators have endured repeated cuts to what proverbial bean counters refer to as “non-essential.” It seems to go in cycles. There are reprieves and relative calm. Then it starts all over again, including now. Good Grief!!
Outdoor educators (largely under the auspices of COEO) have fought back, each time learning to better articulate what Canadian author and former COEO member James Raffan refers to as a deep and enduring “knowledge of the heart.” We have taken great photos of kids engaged in all manner of outdoor experiential learning. We have written and published two comprehensive and compelling research summaries. We have written opinion pieces for The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star. We have done our very best to convey the powerful and lasting connections between outdoor learning and the following:
· mental and physical wellbeing in their multiple dimensions
· curriculum understanding and retention
· character and team building
· the environmental connections that we so desperately need to address the most pressing global issues of our time. It’s quite simple: if we don’t spend time outdoors, if we continue to allow the extinction of outdoor experiences, we will not care enough to act, and we ourselves will be doomed to extinction. Am I overstating our case? I believe that the answer is an unequivocal no.
Over the past seventeen years, OEE in Ontario has been riding a positive wave of support that is directly related to COEO’s advocacy efforts with then Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne. When she was a trustee for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), she was a vocal supporter of TOES, the Toronto Outdoor Education Schools. As provincial Minister of Education, she responded to our 2007 Research Summary as well as positive lobbying and translated this support into specific OEE funding for every public board in the province. Last fall, COEO was alarmed when the Progressive Conservative government rolled these monies into more general funding where the boards are obliged to pick and choose from
several competing priorities. And now, the other shoe has dropped. While the TDSB continues to value OEE, the Ford government has appointed a provincial investigator to review their books and, before the end of May, to make recommendations as to deep cuts that will cut the board’s significant deficit. This is on the heels of an already-completed Auditor General 18-month review of the TDSB which was tabled last fall. And, of course, additional provincial funding is not an option. The writing is on the wall, and it does not look at all good.
What COEO members can do:
· Regardless of your location in the province, you need to speak up for OEE and condemn our government’s deplorable removal of support for these vital and highly beneficial programs … this can be done with letters (better than emails) to your MPP as well as to media outlets
· If you do see news items re OEE, please write letters to the editor, e.g., COEO is hoping to get opinion pieces published both in The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail
· Use your social media to spread the word
· Stay tuned for more news and potential courses of action
Submitted by longtime COEO member and mad old fart, Grant Linney
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
Intro Language Course and 4 Seasons of Indigenous Learning, Natural Curiosity
Kanyen’keha (Mohawk) Introductory Language Course
Natural Curiosity, in partnership with the Outdoor Learning School, is hosting an online Mohawk language course this summer.
After some very positive feedback from our winter course, instructor Tahnee Bennet is back! Tahnee is Mohawk, Turtle Clan from Six Nations who is a 3-year Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa Mohawk Immersion graduate.
This learning is open to everyone – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners. Register today!
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SUPER early bird registration is NOW OPEN for the 4 Seasons of Indigenous Learning 2025-2026 Course! Register now and save 25% with code “4Seasons25%”!
Starting this Fall and running through Spring, join an inspiring group of Indigenous presenters and partners in Season 1: Foundations of Knowledge.
What’s included:
- 5 hours of self-paced online learning (certificate provided)
- 7 virtual presentations (60 mins each, once/month)
- Access to the presentation recordings until Sept 20, 2026
- $25 towards accessing Indigenous learning resources
This course serves to support participants in deepening your understanding of Indigenous knowledge and perspectives while strengthening connections with the local Land and supporting more respectful, reciprocal relationships.
Season 1 participants can now access Super Early Bird Registration for Season 2: Learning from the Land, created by Natural Curiosity in partnership with OLSS. If you’ve found this year of learning valuable, we invite you to join us for next year, starting in the fall of 2025.
30 Resources and Learning Opportunities, The Outdoor Learning School and Store
Webpage: https://outdoorlearning.com/new-releases/
Use/share this 5% resource coupon code: 5%partner
25% partner coupon code, and the link to share is here: https://outdoorlearning.com/4-seasons/
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
Summer Camp Bondar Challenge, The Roberta Bondar Foundation
UPCOMING CONFERENCES
Outdoor Learning Leadership Conference, Oct 16-18, 2025 in Banff, Alberta
JOB POSTINGS
Elementary School Teacher – Division 2 – Explore/Nature Based – Temporary Vacancy
Outdoor Education Instructor, Ganaraska Conservation
Ontario Urban Wild Casual Instructor, Outward Bound Canada
Ontario Urban Wild Casual Instructor, Outward Bound Canada
Fall Outdoor Instructors, ALIVE Outdoors
Volunteer Opportunity – Campfire Circle
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 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.