In Bloom Early Childhood Education Conference

Antioch University New England hosting early childhood and early elementary teachers to learn about and engage in nature-based education. These conferences can accommodate 100-125 folks and focus on pre-school, kindergarten and the early elementary years (first-third grade). There will be workshops in the morning and afternoon that address what we’ve learned about outdoor learning during the pandemic. Three In Bloom conferences are scheduled this spring in the eastern United States in Delaware, Massachusetts, and Maine.

The In Bloom Boston Conference is being held at Wright-Locke Farm in Winchester, Massachusetts on May 6, 2023 from 9am-4pm. 

Wright-Locke Farm in is just 10 miles from downtown Boston. Wright-Locke Farm is an astonishing 383 years old and is being reborn as a community farm for people of all ages. The farm offers certified-organic produce through CSAs and online ordering, educational programs for children and adults, Forest Friends–a nature preschool, hiking trails that lead to conservation land, and special events for the community. Morning and afternoon keynotes will take place in the beautiful new All Seasons Barn. The workshops will take place in the thoughtfully preserved farm buildings, gardens, and woods of the farm. There will be simple morning refreshments and a healthy lunch as part of the registration fee.

Shelburne Farms at In Bloom

One of our VEEN member organizations, Shelburne Farms, will be represented by Aimee Arandia Østensen, Professional Learning Facilitator in Education for Sustainability at Shelburne Farms, and Adjunct Faculty, Antioch University New England.

Amy will be offering a morning workshop called "Showing Up with Reverence" and is the afternoon Keynote Speaker. Her Keynote is called "Unsettling our Relationship to Land." 

Unsettling our Relationship to Land: What does it mean for non-Indigenous educators to responsibly embrace indigenous teachings on relationship to land? As a settler and educator, I’ve been exploring this question in partnership with Winooski, VT Abenaki educator Judy Dow and K-12 teachers across the Northeast. What we’ve learned is transforming my relationship to place. While we nature-based educators readily see the benefits for both learners and teachers, we often neglect to consider the other Who in this dynamic–the Land. What might it look like to center the relationship to the land in our teaching? In this talk, I will highlight stories from the field that emphasize relationship, respect, responsibility, reverence, and reciprocity as ways of being in nature for the benefit of the land, community, and learner.

In Bloom in Boston is organized by the Education Department at Antioch University New England in collaboration with the Boston Outdoors Preschool Network and Wright-Locke Farm.

Learn more and register here!