Outdoor Learning Leadership Conference 2026: Full Schedule

Welcome to the 2026 Outdoor Learning Leadership Conference

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7:30am MDT

Breakfast (included with registration)

Saturday October 31, 2026 7:30am - 8:30am MDT

Vistas Dining Room

Saturday October 31, 2026 7:30am - 8:30am MDT
Vistas Dining Room

Meal

8:30am MDT

Accommodation Check-out

Saturday October 31, 2026 8:30am - 9:30am MDT

9:30am MDT

Morning Welcome

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:30am - 9:45am MDT

Main Plenary Room

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:30am - 9:45am MDT
Main Plenary Room

Plenary Session

9:45am MDT

Professional Learning Session D

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

9:45am MDT

Thriving and walking together through climate uncertainty

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

How might schools begin the inspiring (and challenging) work of preparing young children for an uncertain future? What skills, knowledges, and practices will they need? During this workshop, we will work collaboratively with educational leaders in an emergent and responsive way to think concretely about uncertainty. We believe nourishing educational leaders with space to think in this way will help K-12 learners thrive in the already-unfolding future. Our session will include a story walk, a collaborative mind map, and a culminating discussion. This is inspired by two workshops we co-facilitated with BC educators in 2024, which you can read about here: https://accelerating-cce.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Climate-Change-Education-Otherwise.pdf

Speakers

Aleks Waliszewska

Sessional Instructor, University of Victoria

Aleks Waliszewska (she/her) is an educator, parent and graduate student at the University of Victoria in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction. Her MA thesis focused on more-than-human literacies in an elementary outdoor program exploring how children make meaning with the land... Read More →

Dr. Meredith Lemon

Sessional Instructor, University of Victoria

Meredith Lemon graduated with her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Victoria. Her dissertation focused on identifying taken-for-granted, unsustainable, Western cultural teachings embedded in both the BC curriculum-as-plan as well as educators’ practice (herself... Read More →

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Environmental & Climate Education Workshop

9:45am MDT

Honouring the Heart of Indigenous Teachings - Learning from the land through joyful and playful experiences

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

The work in Indigenous Education in Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division (SRPSD) is led by our Elders Advisory Council. SRPSD serves a diverse student population in Prince Albert and surrounding area, located on Treaty 6 Territory in North Central Saskatchewan. With 59% of students self-identifying as Indigenous, SRPSD is deeply committed to integrating experiential, play-based and land-based learning into its education approach. In recent years, SRPSD has developed an Experiential Play-Based and Land-Based Learning Models to ensure systematized approach to this pedagogy. Rooted in Indigenous Worldview with the voice of our Elders, this work fosters meaningful, hands-on learning experiences for all students that connect learners to their environment and culture. This aligns to our school division strategic plan. We will share our school division's story highlighting the impact of these transformative teaching and learning practices.

Speakers

Theresa Thorsen

Elder Bente Huntley

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Indigenous Knowledge Workshop

9:45am MDT

Leading the Shift: Building a Culture of Sustainability and Well-being

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

How do system leaders move outdoor learning from a "token field trip" into the institutional DNA of a school? This interactive workshop delivers the blueprint. Drawing from a 33-year career and the empirical validation of the "Limehouse Model" (a five-year consecutive EcoSchools Platinum site), this session tackles the specific challenges school leaders face: navigating bureaucracy, managing risk anxiety, and shifting staff mindsets.

Participants will discover how to dismantle systemic barriers to outdoor education by centering student and staff mental health, LSF goals, and Indigenous ways of knowing. We will explore how land-based learning naturally drives high academic achievement, proving that standardized testing metrics shouldn't compromise the human spirit. Leaders will leave with actionable strategies to mentor their own teams, protect staff well-being, and turn holistic sustainability into a living reality.

Speakers

Douglas Jones

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Leadership & System Implementation Workshop

9:45am MDT

Made in Manitoba: Homegrown Climate Leadership for K-12 Education

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

This interactive workshop brings together four leaders from Manitoba working across K-12 education, pre-service teacher education, and academia who are advancing climate action and sustainability within and across systems through collaboration. These leaders will share their unique experiences and perspectives, drawing upon work in K-12 and beyond, emphasizing a grassroots approach to climate change education and policy. They will speak on their current practice and future directions for holistic systems transformation across domains, with a focus on braiding together Western educational systems and Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing. Attendees will engage with guiding questions in breakout groups designed to surface strategic opportunities and meaningful pathways for action. Participants will have the opportunity to share their experiences and perspectives with peers and identify concrete next steps to advance climate-responsive leadership within their own contexts.

Speakers

Whitney Crooks

Heather Eckton

Will Burton

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Leadership & System Implementation Workshop

9:45am MDT

PINE – Principals in Nature Education “We wish that we knew what we know now…”

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Four principals from British Columbia’s public education system come together to share hard-earned learning from their journeys toward nature-based education. This panel brings grounded, practical expertise from schools at very different stages: some still imagining what’s possible and laying essential groundwork, some newly immersed in full-school transitions, and others with more than a decade of lived experience in this work. Together, we’ll reflect honestly on what we wish we’d known at the beginning—offering concrete strategies for staff motivation, professional learning, safety practices, community buy-in and navigating systems in education. This session is designed to be practical, collegial, and hopeful. Come with your questions, curiosities, and challenges; leave with insights you can use right away and a growing network of support to carry your own work forward.

Speakers

Nicole McKenzie

Principal, Ci:tməxw Environmental Community

Nicole McKenzie is the principal of Ci:tməxw Environmental Community in Maple Ridge, where she has led for the past three years. With a Master’s degree in Nature-Based and Place-Conscious Learning, Nicole is passionate about creating a learning environment that connects students... Read More →

Sandra Major

Jenny Groves

Principal, SD46

Help Wanted: I've just freshly started a network/club for Administrators who are working at nature/land-based learning schools in public education. Care to join? Let's chat.

Dr. Michael Datura

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Leadership & System Implementation Workshop

9:45am MDT

Setting educators up for success in outdoor learning experiences: A leadership collaborative

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Based on my interview findings through my doctoral research paired with discussion results from teacher participants at the Outdoor Learning Conference in May of 2026, this session will highlight and problem solve collaboratively around issues being faced in outdoor learning. As leaders, we will identify common issues (such as resources, knowledge, mindset, regulation, building relationships...). These will be aligned with my research findings around elements for success in outdoor experiential learning. As a group, we will seek and analyze potential ways forward through challenges. Together we will collaborate to create a bank of approaches in order to best support educators to take learning outside applicable to our specific contexts.

Speakers

Dr. Fiona Watkins

Sessional Instructor, University of Calgary

Fiona has over 30 years of experience in the education field, as a PE specialist, primary classroom teacher, and administrator. She has worked in both public and private schools in both BC and Alberta throughout her career. Fiona currently is the district Learning Services Coordinator... Read More →

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Leadership & System Implementation Workshop

9:45am MDT

Where Learning Happens: Reimagining schools as embedded in systems of reciprocity with social and environmental communities

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

This workshop invites administrators, and leaders to consider the questions: “Where does learning happen?” and why this question in not a more prominent inquiry for K-12 schools. Where learning happens is extremely important for all teachers in their day-to-day professional judgement (does the lesson happen at desks? in the library? online?), yet discussions about where learning happens in educational contexts are uncommon. Discussions about land-based, outdoor and place-based learning, for example, are essentially where conversations. Learning out of the school, in nature and community, so that the world might be part of the human community. Educational leaders very-well know that where is a significant dimension to pedagogy yet struggle to make where more central to school discourse and practice. In re-positioning where as a pedagogical area on equal footing with curriculum (the what) and pedagogy (the who/how).

Speakers

Glen Thielmann

Dr. Hartley Banack

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Leadership & System Implementation Workshop

9:45am MDT

Pin to Pine: Bringing Structured Literacy Instruction Outside K-3

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

In this session, we’ll examine current literacy research through an outdoor lens, focusing on how foundational word recognition skills, including phonemic awareness and phonics, and language comprehension can be intentionally strengthened through outdoor learning experiences. You’ll have the opportunity to actively explore practical examples showing how to shift common instructional practices and activities outdoors and leverage the outdoor context for reading instruction. Leave this session with a deeper understanding of evidence-based literacy practices and practical ideas you can share with your teachers to shift reading instruction outdoors.

Speakers

Dr. Rachel Tidd

Assistant Professor and Executive Director, SUNY Empire State University, Wild Learning

Dr. Rachel Tidd is passionate about using outdoor and place-based learning to enrich literacy and math instruction. She is the author of the book Wild Learning: Practical Ideas for Bringing Teaching Outdoors and the creator of the Wild Math® and Wild Reading® curricular resources... Read More →

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Literacy & Numeracy Workshop

9:45am MDT

Panel Discussion: Formal & Informal Partnerships

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Join us as we explore successful formal and informal partnerships.

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Panel Discussion

9:45am MDT

Panel Discussion: International Outdoor Learning

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Join us as we explore the question: Internationally, how are education systems creating the conditions for students to thrive through Outdoor Learning?

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Panel Discussion

9:45am MDT

Building a Culture of “Yes" - Risk, Responsibility, and Relational Accountability in Land-based Learning

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Within many education systems, outdoor learning is frequently constrained by risk-averse policies and operational practices that limit opportunities for meaningful engagement with the land. While these approaches are often grounded in concerns for student safety, they can inadvertently create systemic barriers that restrict access to experiential and land-based learning. This session examines how a shift toward a “culture of yes” requires a reorientation of how risk, responsibility, and accountability are understood at a system level. Drawing on the work of the Indigenous Land-Based Education (ILBE) Learning Table, this workshop explores how Indigenous perspectives can inform more relational and balanced approaches to decision-making. In this context, responsibility is understood as a shared and relational practice among educators, school leaders, divisional administrators, communities, and a relationship with the land itself.

Speakers

Shirley Thompson

Charles Ettawacappo

Shea Henderson

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Policy & Operations & Risk Management Workshop

9:45am MDT

From Approval to Adventure: Shared Risk Management for Outdoor Learning

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Taking learning outdoors begins with one essential priority: safety. Creating a culture of safe and meaningful outdoor learning requires more than enthusiastic teachers—it depends on strong collaboration between educators and administrators. This session explores how school leaders can support outdoor learning by developing clear risk management processes, fostering shared responsibility, and building staff confidence to take learning beyond the classroom walls.

Drawing on industry practices from the Outdoor Council of Canada and the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG), participants will examine tried-and-true approaches to trip planning, documentation, communication, and decision-making that strengthen safety while reducing unnecessary barriers to outdoor learning.

Takeaways from this session include:

An introduction to risk management terminology for outdoor learning

Pre-trip conversation starters for outdoor school teams

Exploration of technology that can streamline pre-trip planning and communication

Ready-to-use templates for field excursions, from local outdoor learning experiences to more remote and wilderness-based adventures

By the end of the session, school leaders will leave with practical strategies and tools to create a shared community of practice with supportive systems that enable staff to confidently and safely provide meaningful outdoor learning opportunities for students.

Speakers

Leith Monaghan

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Policy & Operations & Risk Management Workshop

9:45am MDT

Understanding how outdoor learning influences the physical and mental health and wellbeing of the school community

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

There is a growing body of evidence that supports what many people already feel, time in nature and outdoor spaces supports physical, social, cognitive, and emotional health. As little as 2 hours per week outdoors in a natural environment can have significant benefits for health and wellbeing. Childhood exposure to green spaces may track into more positive mental health outcomes in adulthood. Despite this, time in outdoor spaces is not equitably accessed. Schools allow for an equitable approach to ensuring all children spend time outdoors during the week. Outdoor learning provides a unique opportunity to support the health and wellbeing of all students, and school staff that is low to no cost. In this workshop we will break down the benefits of outdoor learning, while exploring the challenges and opportunities schools face in implementing regular outdoor learning. Leaders will leave with an understanding of why outdoor learning is more than a nice to have, but a need to have.

Speakers

Dr. Jean Buckler

Saturday October 31, 2026 9:45am - 11:00am MDT

Student & Staff Health & Wellbeing Workshop

11:00am MDT

Break

Saturday October 31, 2026 11:00am - 11:15am MDT

Break

12:00pm MDT

Conference Closing Remarks

Saturday October 31, 2026 12:00pm - 12:30pm MDT

Main Plenary Room

Saturday October 31, 2026 12:00pm - 12:30pm MDT
Main Plenary Room

Plenary Session

7:30am MDT

8:30am MDT

9:30am MDT

9:45am MDT

9:45am MDT

9:45am MDT

9:45am MDT

9:45am MDT

9:45am MDT

9:45am MDT

9:45am MDT

9:45am MDT

9:45am MDT

9:45am MDT

9:45am MDT

9:45am MDT

9:45am MDT

11:00am MDT

12:00pm MDT

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