Teaching Off Trail: My Classroom's Nature Transformation through Play
Teaching Off Trail describes the transformation of Peter Dargatz, a national board-certified teacher, and public school coordinator, from an anxious assessor to a fair and fun facilitator of learning. It shares his personal professional journey detailing his evolution as an educator while simultaneously offering strategies for readers to implement Peter's unique teaching philosophy to increase opportunities for play, creative expression, and personalization in both the indoor and outdoor classroom. In his own classroom, Peter brought learning outside by creating a nature kindergarten program that emphasizes community partnerships, service learning, and meaningful and memorable experiences in the outdoors. 

Teaching Off Trail aims to inspire educators, administrators, and parents across all levels to turn their outrage for today’s educational system into outreach that promotes passionate and purposeful problem-solving. He incorporates techniques often seen in private educational settings like Reggio and Montessori—student-centered, self-directed experiential approaches to learning) and shows how they work within a public school system.

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Teaching Off Trail: My Classroom's Nature Transformation through Play
Teaching Off Trail describes the transformation of Peter Dargatz, a national board-certified teacher, and public school coordinator, from an anxious assessor to a fair and fun facilitator of learning. It shares his personal professional journey detailing his evolution as an educator while simultaneously offering strategies for readers to implement Peter's unique teaching philosophy to increase opportunities for play, creative expression, and personalization in both the indoor and outdoor classroom. In his own classroom, Peter brought learning outside by creating a nature kindergarten program that emphasizes community partnerships, service learning, and meaningful and memorable experiences in the outdoors. 

Teaching Off Trail aims to inspire educators, administrators, and parents across all levels to turn their outrage for today’s educational system into outreach that promotes passionate and purposeful problem-solving. He incorporates techniques often seen in private educational settings like Reggio and Montessori—student-centered, self-directed experiential approaches to learning) and shows how they work within a public school system.

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Teaching Off Trail: My Classroom's Nature Transformation through Play

Teaching Off Trail: My Classroom's Nature Transformation through Play

by Peter Dargatz
Teaching Off Trail: My Classroom's Nature Transformation through Play

Teaching Off Trail: My Classroom's Nature Transformation through Play

by Peter Dargatz

Paperback

$24.95 
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Overview

Teaching Off Trail describes the transformation of Peter Dargatz, a national board-certified teacher, and public school coordinator, from an anxious assessor to a fair and fun facilitator of learning. It shares his personal professional journey detailing his evolution as an educator while simultaneously offering strategies for readers to implement Peter's unique teaching philosophy to increase opportunities for play, creative expression, and personalization in both the indoor and outdoor classroom. In his own classroom, Peter brought learning outside by creating a nature kindergarten program that emphasizes community partnerships, service learning, and meaningful and memorable experiences in the outdoors. 

Teaching Off Trail aims to inspire educators, administrators, and parents across all levels to turn their outrage for today’s educational system into outreach that promotes passionate and purposeful problem-solving. He incorporates techniques often seen in private educational settings like Reggio and Montessori—student-centered, self-directed experiential approaches to learning) and shows how they work within a public school system.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781605547503
Publisher: Redleaf Press
Publication date: 12/14/2021
Pages: 184
Product dimensions: 7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Peter Dargatz has been an educator for fourteen years and held various leadership roles for his school and district. Besides starting a nature kindergarten classroom in his school, he coordinates a schoolwide nature center collaboration and a district-wide family nature club. He has presented about his classroom at play and nature-based conferences across the country, and he is a founding member of the Wisconsin Nature-Based Early Childhood Association (WiNBECA) and a co-author of the Nature-Based Preschool Professional Practice Guidebook, a project of the North American Association for Environmental Education’s (NAAEE) Natural Start Alliance. He was selected as the 2020 Formal Educator of the Year by the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education. Peter resides in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction xix

Chapter 1 Education Evolution 1

On the Wrong Path

Rock Bottom

Organized Chaos

Fingerpaints and Nap No More

Chapter 2 Radical Redesign 13

Tables and Chairs

Colors and Space

Toys and Tools

Chapter 3 The Power and Possibility of Play 21

Producing Production

The Kindergarten Paradox

The Purpose of Play

What Is Play?

Make the Minutes Matter

Fun Is Not Extinct

Chapter 4 Power of Perception 41

What I'm About

But Will She Read?

Chapter 5 Take It Outside 53

The Article (and Two Women) That Changed It All-Again

Twists and Turns

Chapter 6 Destroying the Box 69

The First Year Outside

Filling My Plate

Assess This!

Chapter 7 Outdoor Life 85

"Nature's Dozen"

Trudging Along

Chapter 8 The Four P's 97

Play-Based

Place-Based

Project-Based

Personalized

Chapter 9 Time to Grow Up 119

Inexperienced Expert

Clearing Hurdles

Broadening Our Horizons

Chapter 10 Onward and Upward 127

All Aboard

Pumpkins for a Purpose

Full Circle

Chapter 11 The Future Is Ours 135

Slow Down to Catch Up

Flip the But…

Plea for Passion

Outrage into Opportunity

Afterword - Tales from the Trail 149

My Favorite Child and Family Quotes

Be a Flower

Chipmunk Prognostication

"Hey, Little Buddy"

Skulls, Skulls Everywhere

Walk with a Hawk

You Don't Have to Take My Word for It

References 159

Index 161

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