The Classroom Beyond: Informal Education Podcast
Every week, I have conversations with naturalists, coaches, docents, museum guides, music teachers -- anyone who educates outside a traditional classroom. We share ideas about what works best and what we can learn from one another. Our goal is to support developing communities of practice among all informal educators. Come join us -- in The Classroom Beyond!
Episodes
On this week’s podcast episode, I have a conversation with two Explainer-Facilitators from the Exploratorium, San Francisco’s storied palace of science, art, and perception. Gwen Payne and Gianna Calamar both participate in the Exploratorium’s diversity and inclusion efforts, and we talk a lot today about how including everyone improves the visitor experience and, of course, increases learning.
On this week’s podcast, I talk with Elise McFarland, an Interpretation and Education Manager for the California State Park system. In her far-ranging job, she’s responsible for several parks’ cultural resources and, of course, many levels and modes of interpretation.
Like many informal educators – especially outdoor educators in regional parks – Elise calls herself an interpreter. Since Freeman Tilden published Interpreting Our He...
On this week’s podcast, I talk with science educator Brittany Sabol. She’s the training director at Environmental Volunteers, an organization that turns everyday folks into extraordinary informal educators who go into classrooms to provide science enrichments.
On the blog, I have a post about volunteer training, often a bi...
On this week’s podcast, I talk with Minnesota naturalist Claire Dobie. Nature-based education is popular – who doesn’t like a field trip? But we don’t talk as much about how learning while immersed in the outdoors, in nature, can impact student behavior and outcomes.
Claire and I discuss the profession of naturalist and the...
On this week’s podcast, I talk with piano teacher Jim Cornfoot from Memphis, Tennessee. We talk about the kinds of connections non-classroom teachers make with their students. For some informal educators like piano teachers, those connections can last for years.
There’s a huge body of research around affective connection and how it impacts l...
On this week’s podcast, I talk with Eileen Garcia-Sanchez of the San Antonio Zoo in Texas. It’s a fully-accredited preschool that takes a lot of its inspiration from the world of outdoor education.
At the school, children spend a majority of their time outdoors, on both the school’s outdoor campus and in the zoo itself. Eileen and I talk abo...
This week, I talk with Jim DePompei of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in Los Angeles. We talk about visitor engagement during the pandemic and, of course, doing the grunion dance. Grunion are small fish and pretty unremarkable except for this one thing: they dance.
Grunion visit wide, sandy beaches in Southern California and u...
Coming soon: The Classroom Beyond, the podcast for informal educators! We'll be chatting with naturalists, coaches, music teachers, museum guides, and docents -- all of us who teach outside of the classroom! We're dropping our first episode on November 29th. Here's a little taste of what's to come -- subscribe now and stay tuned!
Episode: http://theclassroombeyond.com/podcasts/s01/episode-00-teaser/
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An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
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