Earth Skills Instructor Training Level Two:

Creating Your Instructor Toolkit

Spring, 2018 Dates TBA

(Monday 9:00 am to Friday 5:00 pm)

Location:   Hawk Circle Wilderness Education, Cherry Valley, NY

Cost:  $600

 

For Students Ages 16 and up. 

Enrollment is limited to 10 participants.

 

Once you have a strong foundation of teaching and mentoring skills, your next step is to practice your wilderness or nature connection, and build a 'tool-kit' that will help you teach and connect people to nature.

 

This means creating a rawhide parfleche or ash splint basket, to carry your teaching materials, as well as samples of cordage, fire-making tools, stone or bone knives, various craft samples like spear points, leather pouches, wooden bowls, hunting tools and more.

 

Each item will be something that you will learn to create from authentic materials made by hand, and you'll gain many techniques that will help you teach these same tools for your own students too.   We will continue to learn more storytelling, group dynamics, program planning and other skills that will help you deliver amazing programs in a very skilled and efficient way.

 

Each student will work with wood and natural fibers, stone, hides and bone, and your teaching supplies will grow quickly!   

 

Creating soft buckskin from deerhides will also be covered.

 

This class is an intensive study of crafts, skills and tool use, and students should come prepared to be very active all week in the creative process.  

 

Ash Splint Basketry

Rawhide Containers

Brain Tanned Buckskin

Leather and Buckskin Pouches and Sewing

Natural Cordage from Plant and Tree Fibers

Stone Tools

Bone Tools

Hunting Tools

Program Safety & Hazards

Program Development and Planning

Group Dynamics & Leadership

Storytelling for Craft Programs

Camp or Workshop Preparation

Bark Containers

Early Spring Tree Identification

and more!

 

This class is critical to a successful wilderness or earth skills instructor because it provides an opportunity to avoid using cardboard boxes or plastic buckets or containers in your programs, adding a more authentic and dynamic experience to your students and workshop clients.   It's also an intensive study of the philosophy behind many of these crafts, that teach us about perfection, about materials selection, focus, creativity and active meditation.  It's about the Zen of Native Crafts, if you will.

 

Please Note:   You may still take this program even if you are not planning on being a wilderness skills instructor!   We welcome anyone who wants to learn to join us for a fun week making beautiful things!

 

Once you register, you'll be given an equipment list and other course details and information!    Or email us if you have any questions.