"Nature and Us" ESD Center
Early Childhood Education for Sustainable Development
Teacher training. Sessions, lectures, seminars and other events
Our training sessions and seminars are both serious and fun. Teachers and students play games and express themselves in acting. They remember what it's like to be a child. At the same time they learn new pedagogical concepts approaches and put them to practice. Training helps teachers to better their skills and to share their own practice with each other. Interactive training of teachers and students helps them to become more responsive to children.
The main aim of teacher training is to encourage them to make use of their creativity.
Seminars and other events are led by Prof. Natalia A. Ryzhova with the assistance of other teachers of the Center.
Themes for seminars and training sessions
Contact us for more details: nature@esd-children.org, our.home.nature@gmail.com
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Education for sustainable development (ESD) in early childhood: results, problems, development
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Program "Nature is Our Home": how to implement ESD ideas in educational institutions and families
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Learning environment for ESD
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Child researchers: how to enhance children's natural drive for research
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Family ESD: children together with parents and grandparents
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Nature as learning environment
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International ESD projects: think globally, act locally (case studies)
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How to support children's initiative and self-support
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How to write and use environmental fairy-tales
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Rational use of resources: what children and families can do
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Environmental games for children and adults
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Ecological trail in kindergarten or primary school: how to create and use it
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Sustainable kindergarten (school) what we can do for our environment
Learning like children
One of the tasks of ESD is to change educational style and relationships between teachers and children. Often teachers underestimate children's creative power. To understand children's potential one should go back to one's childhood: play and learn like children again.
Many natural phenomena become closer when they become part of a game. Teachers and students not only play, but also present and evaluate their own projects.
Together with children
Teachers are always eager to see how theory is put into practice. Many seminars were organized in kindergartens that follow the program "Our Home Is Nature". Experienced teachers demonstrated how ESD can be expressed through various children's activities: experimens, art, games, etc.
When it isn't possible to have a session in a kindergarten, teachers watch videos about real cases.
Theory and methods
At the sessions and seminars teachers and students learn about modern ESD concepts and about the author's program and methods.
More important, they learn how to put their new theoretical knowledge into practice.
Participants compare ESD practice in different countries to get new insights for their own work.
They take part in discussions, sharing their experience.
An important part of the sessions and seminars is outdoor activities.