Coyote Mentoring

“The Coyote Mentoring course is one of the best ways you can invest in your mentors. This course will define and demonstrate the purpose of [a mentors’] role, while filling their toolbox to the brim with exciting ideas. All through the eyes of the coyote.”

– Amanda Caloia, EverWild LA

“After attending this weekend, I left with a new rejuvenation for life: interaction with nature, my career/calling, my personal life/goals. There are many practical take-aways for anyone and everyone who attends. We can all use a little bit more connection with the outdoors.”

Jason, 2022 Participant

The Coyote Mentoring Weekend is a fantastic introduction to the basic principles of our nature-based educational approach. It is designed for educators, parents, and anyone interested in significantly expanding their teaching repertoire and mentoring skills. This course provides the foundational tools for crafting powerful learning experiences and deep connections with the natural world for your students, family, employees, or even yourself. We invite you to join us as we re-discover the sense of wonder for nature’s mysteries that all children share.

What’s Covered?

Through a combination of engaging lectures, storytelling, discussions, group activities, and peer teaching sessions, you will learn:

• The importance of heightened awareness in students and how it relates to critical thinking and problem-solving.
• How to use symbols and metaphors to create a powerful educational environment.
• The role of brain patterning and the natural flow of the human learning process.
• How stories, songs, and other artistic expressions open a doorway to authentic student growth.
• Essential routines found throughout the world that ground students in their senses and expand awareness.

Learning Outcomes

As a result of taking this course, participants will:

• Experience for themselves how powerful the “cultural context” is in education.
• Take home powerful images and metaphors to cultivate a supportive learning environment in their classrooms.
• Acquire concepts to facilitate the development of their students’ full potential.
• Learn how to use stories and storytelling as an educational tool.
• Understand the primary teaching styles of the Coyote Mentoring approach and how to appropriately utilize them when working with students.

For Educators

Many educators are overwhelmed with large class sizes and increasing lists of information that must be covered. Frustrations abound from not being able to devote the attention or energy to the holistic development of their students. This leaves students less open to receiving information and less engaged with the learning process. Coyote Mentoring is a unique and highly effective educational approach fostered at Wilderness Awareness School over the past 40 years that uses an individual’s innate enthusiasm for the natural world as a context to actively engage them in the learning process. This approach develops the capacities of students for learning, problem solving, and full expression, and re-awakens their natural sense of wonder. While the Coyote Mentoring approach is appropriate for all educators, it is especially helpful for teachers and outdoor educators with a large amount of student contact time.

Program Details

This program will run from 6pm on Friday, March 28th through 4pm on Sunday, March 30th. We encourage participants to camp with us Friday and Saturday night, and food will be provided. For more Program Details, click here.

Meet Your Lead Instructor

Jesse Phillips

Over the last ten years Jesse Phillips has co-designed and directed a summer day camp for at-risk youth; completed an environmental writing degree with honors; run a small farm business; tutored at colleges; and played and learned with kids aged 4-60 in classrooms, gyms, gardens, on farms, and in forests.

Jesse came to Duvall in 2013 to complete a year at The Immersion and a second year apprenticeship in Nature Instructor Training. He is passionate about creating well-crafted programs that empower people from all walks of life to come alive and claim their powerful, positive selves. He loves to sing, climb trees, wander the landscape, listen to birds, study plants, and play the ukulele. He also delights in sports and games of all kinds.

Testimonials

“The coyote mentoring program is a experience I will never forget, from the songs and the games to the community building skills, connection back with nature, and all the laughter! It helped bring out my inner child again and helped me grow within my self so much. All of these things over a short weekend were beyond powerful and exceeded my expectations! “- Jenny Rizzuti, nature school instructor

“This program reminded me how to be joyful, and how important it is to sing, laugh and play with others in nature. I’m heading home with a renewed connection with nature and myself. I also have a much clearer understanding of how to structure a nature education program, as well as a new repertoire of games, songs and activities! “- Jess B., parent

“Connecting to self and nature as a practice with an intentional process is key in holistic health and education. This program is the closest I’ve experienced to connection with this Source. There will be aspects of this program that I will utilize as a teacher, mom, and human. I am so grateful for this experience for myself and the next generations.” – Sam, program participant