Come one, Come all! We need you!
It’s been two years since ONbECE has formalized into a leadership team and, as we laid out in our initial organization, that means it’s time to welcome new people to the group!
Join the ONbECE Leadership Team!!!!
If you are passionate about promoting nature-based learning in the field of early childhood education and share the vision to build a sustainable network of relationships among professionals who share the belief that children thrive in the outdoors with authentic play experiences, then this is the opportunity you’ve been looking for! Our team meets every other month by Zoom at a time designated by participants and shares its work on a blog and the Facebook group. We also participate in partnership with Natural Start, Inside Outside, EECO, and the No Child Left Inside initiatives.
Leaders typically serve 2 year terms, meet every other month, and agree to community agreements.
Please email ohionaturebasedece@gmail.com with: your name, role in NbECE, and something about yourself. Interested parties will be invited to the July zoom meeting to find out more.
Congrats to the NE Ohio folks for a wonderful meetup in April!
Fireside Circle for Nature-Based Educators & Pals
Hosted by Ohio Naturally June 23rd at Brukner Nature Center in Troy. Please register here!
NAEYC/DAP issues in Alabama
There is a new NAEYC/DAP issues in Alabama that warrants your attention. Developmentally Appropriate Practice, defined here, supports all kinds of families and has been targeted as too “Woke” by the Alabama governor. We copy here, Nature-Based leader Rachel Larimore’s email to her Samara Early Learning audience. Should you feel so moved, there is a call to action included.
On April 21, 2023 “Alabama Governor Kay Ivey forced Secretary of Early Childhood Education Dr. Barbara Cooper to resign over the use of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)’s book Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP), 4th edition. A book which is foundational to our work in early childhood education!
The Alabama Reflector reported that the Governor’s office “received a complaint about the book teaching white privilege, structural racism and messaging promoting ‘equality, dignity and worth’ around LGBTQIA+ identities.” (Here is another report from the PBS News Hour.)
Thankfully, NAEYC responded to the events in Alabama with a statement including:
"DAP reinforces the power of relationships and underscores that every child has the right to equitable learning opportunities – in centers, family child care homes, or schools – that fully support their optimal development and learning across all domains and content areas."
I encourage you to share your support for DAP and young children by adding your name to the statement. NAEYC is accepting both individual and organizational support.”
Congrats to the NE Ohio folks for a wonderful meetup in April!
Save the Date
Ohio Voices for Learning: A Reggio Inspired Forum Fall Inspired Teachers' Institute: Working with children in our current complex context
Date: September 23, 2023
Location: Stingley Elementary, 95 Linden Dr., Centerville OH, 45459
Keynote speakers: Katie Thornton and Justin Moorman
Keynote title: The Road Back to Reggio: How Trauma Informed Care Leads Us Back to the Foundational Principles of Reggio Emilia in Response to Current Educational Culture
STEM in the PlayScape Learning Modules. CEU credits: free, for Ohio Approved Hours contact Rachel Konerman (rachel.konerman@uc.edu)
Congrats to the NE Ohio folks for a wonderful meetup in April!
Summer annual meeting for all members that will be on Zoom!
Keep an eye out for an announcement, we are finalizing dates now
Accomplishments, Operations, and Goals
As the Ohio Nature-Based Early Childhood Education Collaborative shifts into a time of welcoming new members to the leadership team, we analyzed our original brainstormed list of work from YOU, our members. We are proud of our accomplishments and newly operationalized tasks and look forward to working with new folks on our future goals!
Accomplishments 2021-2023
Established Mission, Vision, and organizing norms for the group, matriarchal structure
Formalized operations and roles for the leadership team.
Gained clarity about what the group is and is not.
Have a national presence in conversations and movements
Support meetups and networking opportunities including one annual zoom meeting.
Moved into Operations
Sharing the workload across people
Elevating priorities and voices of practitioners
Create and Share professional development opportunities with our members
collective voice of nature-based ECE to promote, support and lead in areas of increasing access to safe places to learn in/with natural spaces and materials
Every other month newsletter/blog
Future Goals
Work to adopt a definition to define our field. Think about whether we host groups like camps or services, vendors, etc.
Legitimize to stakeholders around the state the quality and JOY in NbECE (OAEYC, ODJFS, ODE).
Increase the capacity of nature-based education.
Support capacity building in NbECE programs that accept children who qualify for publicly funded childcare
child-led in all settings.
Increase access to nature, even if not nature immersed (ex increasing bringing nature in to the classroom, field trips to nature)
connections with Ohio Department of Health, metro parks, and Soil Water Conservation Districts, and Friends of Old Woman Creek State NERR, NB Teacher training and certification at EHOVE (CTC) and Firelands BGSU, college pre-service teachers.(supporting NB programs in hosting student teachers) , CDA programs
Identifying and executing ways to diversify our workforce.
Advocate for Increased wages in NbECE to align with other public institutions.
Do you have any job openings to announce? We have a few inquiries every month and get traffic on this page. If you would like to share, please email us at ohionaturebasedece@gmail.com!
Congrats to the NE Ohio folks for a wonderful meetup in April!