Professional Development

In the ever-changing world and field of environmental education, we understand how valuable continuing education is to our members. This is why PAEE is excited and proud to announce our newly formed Professional Development Committee. This committee is devoted to bringing PAEE members meaningful, engaging and relevant monthly professional development sessions at no cost to PAEE members. Topics will vary by month and will be aligned to the NAAEE Guidelines for Excellence for Professional Development of Environmental Educators.

The PAEE Professional Development Annual Themes are: Best Practices in Teaching, Assessment and Evaluation, Promoting Inclusivity, Research in an Evolving EE Field, and Best Business Practices. They are an adaptation of the NAAEE professional development framework themes for environmental educators and were chosen to collectively represent significant realms of environmental education.

We hope this Committee’s work helps you to expand your knowledge, make connections and reflect and assess your practices. Check this page for updates as information on speakers and registration becomes available.

Upcoming Opportunities

Integrating Climate Awareness into K-5 classrooms with “The Energy Detectives”

Monday, December 9 from 5:30 - 6:30 PM

The Energy Detectives is an innovative program that offers a series of FREE children’s books and FREE, standards-aligned curriculum designed by teachers to support educators and their students to connect climate solutions to classroom learning. This workshop will prepare you to teach your students about energy conservation using a series of free children’s books and accompanying standards-aligned, hands-on curriculum for grades K-5. Not only are the lessons free to use and designed to be flexible to fit your time and instructional needs, but also the program provides FREE books to educators and ALL their students! Over 150,000 books have been shipped to schools so far! Order your free books and learn more at https://energydetectives.org/

Speaker Bios:

Rachel is an environmental social scientist and environmental educator who has been facilitating climate learning in and out of the classroom for over 15 years. She has a PhD in Environmental Conservation and Policy from UMass-Amherst and is the Director at the Energy Detectives Book Program at Cooler Communities.

Steve has been bringing students into the natural environment or bringing environmental education to students one way or another his whole adult life. It’s all he really cares about. Steve is the Environmental Education Specialist at the Energy Detectives Book Program at Cooler Communities.

Free for PAEE Members, $5 for nonmembers

Walking Softer Education: Empower Youth, Activate Change

Wednesday, January 15 from noon - 1:00 PM

Walking Softer Education teaches high school-aged youth about environmental solutions, and empowers them to implement community-based environmental projects with up to $2,000 of funding. Educators who take their students through the program will receive a $1,000 teacher stipend, and participating juniors and seniors can apply for a scholarship of up to $20,000 to support further education. In this webinar, we will walk through everything you need to know about signing up, participating in the program, and helping your students through their sustainability journey!

Free for PAEE Members, $5 for nonmembers