Lake View Elementary School will host over 100 local educators, childcare professionals, parents, and state, regional and local organizations at the Madison Area Green & Healthy Schools Summit on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Featured speakers will include Dexter Patterson, co-founder of BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin and a teacher at UW-Madison, and Nou Vang-Vue, principal of Lake View Elementary School on Madison’s North Side.
“Birding has always been a source of joy and inspiration for me. I am excited to share my love for birds with my fellow educators at the Madison Area Green & Healthy Schools Summit,” Patterson tells Madison365. “I am incredibly grateful to the organizers for this opportunity and their vital work in bringing nature into the classroom.”
Patterson will lead a bird walk and give the morning keynote, titled “Bird Joy for All,” to inspire educators to create spaces of belonging and incorporate more science, nature and birds into their teaching by sharing the physical and mental health benefits of birdwatching.
“Madison Area Green & Healthy Schools Summit’s mission to connect educators with nature and promote outdoor learning for all aligns perfectly with our goals at the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin,” Patterson says. “We strive to create an inclusive and equitable birding community for people of color and allies across the state. I can’t wait to share some Bird Joy with everyone.”
The Madison Area Green & Healthy Schools Summit will feature over 20 sessions on nature connection, pedagogy and current science that reflect the theme, “Embracing Nature Connection & Outdoor Learning for ALL,” according to a press release from organizers, and participants will enjoy learning about outdoor lessons, logistics, advocacy and justice, as well as have opportunities to connect with each other and community organizations.
Principal Vang-Vue will welcome attendees to the event, give a land acknowledgment and share the afternoon keynote titled “Cultivating Learners and Leaders in the Outdoors.” Vang-Vue’s Lake View Elementary School serves a diverse multicultural student population on Madison’s North Side and has the only Hmong heritage bilingual program in the Madison Metropolitan School District and in the state of Wisconsin.
Other workshop and session presenters will include artists, recreation specialists, occupational therapists, environmental nonprofit leaders, nature mentors, storytelling naturalists, librarians, and educators who focus on topics such as community gardens, farms, wild food, water, forestry, energy, Leave No Trace principles, reading and language.
Summit sessions will be located inside and outside throughout the school garden, school forest and outdoor classroom.
The 2nd Annual Madison Area Green & Healthy Schools Summit is sponsored in part by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Green & Healthy Schools Wisconsin, Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education, Madison Gas & Electric, Willy Street Co-op, Outdoors We Learn, and Victoria Rydberg-Nania and Jeff Nania with Feet Wet Writing.
To register for the Madison Area Green & Healthy Schools Summit, click here.
