Eco-Photography for Teachers: A Fun & Meaningful PL Summer Experience
Do you love nature and want your students to connect more often with the natural world?
Do you see the power in digital storytelling and wonder how you can embed simple learning experiences into your everyday teaching? If you are a parent, do you wonder how to explore digital storytelling with your children, too?
This July, Inspire Citizens is offering an Eco-Photography camp for teachers, a month of fun and meaningful professional learning that will get you outside, viewing the world through a creative lens, and that will also equip you with skills to introduce your students to Eco-Photography.
Ivy Yan, an Inspire Citizens and Two Birds facilitator, and Steve Sostak (co-founder of Inspire Citizens) have teamed up to create a dynamic and engaging experience for educators.
“Summertime is the perfect time to take photos, and a way to enjoy your holiday in a meaningful way,” says Ivy. “Eco-Photography helps us be more mindful and grateful, to be able to see beauty everywhere. I have had students say, after taking an Eco-Photography workshop, that they never noticed beauty in simple things before.”
Ivy loves nature and believes that time in nature is key to understanding the deep ecologies of our lives (natural, social, relational) and to attaining a sense of true happiness. She studied innovation management in a masters program in London, and then dove into deep ecology at Schumacher College and concepts of Gross National Happiness while traveling in Bhutan. Art and design have played a key role in her personal and academic life. These themes connect, for Ivy, in our relationship with the world around us, natural and urban.
“I used to find it difficult to see beauty in my urban life with its shiny buildings, noise and the messiness that can happen sometimes in the compound,” reflects Ivy. “There’s a module in the Inspire Citizens Eco-Photography program about architecture and our built environments, and how we can see principles of harmony in our built environments. That really helped me interact with my urban setting in a different way. I can see beauty now in many things I used to dislike. It has helped me love the world more.”
An example of Ivy’s own Eco-Photography journey.
Ivy is a deeply spiritual person, drawing on wisdom traditions from around the world to explore what it means to be mindful, present and engaged with the social and ecological challenges of our time. She has married this sense of being with her work as an Inspire Citizens facilitator, and she launched a sister organization called Two Birds in early 2022.
“Two Birds was inspired by the Eco-Media work I was doing with Steve. I picture us, in this work, as two birds. I also see two birds as deep ecology and happiness, and the latest version of Two Birds is education of the heart, head and hands to achieve those two things. It’s about inter-being in action, and the evolution of our consciousness from ‘ego’ to ‘eco’. It’s based on questions like ‘how can we reconnect with ourselves and with other people to develop meaningful, non-violent, loving relationships?’ and ‘how can we develop ultimate reverence for our planet?’”
In the July summer camp for teachers, there will be 90-120 minutes of self-directed tasks each week involving photography and eco-mindsets. In addition, there will be a weekly Zoom seminar to connect with other teachers in the global cohort.
“This professional learning experience is designed to be fun and manageable during the summer,” says Ivy. “I’ve had some teachers tell me they are planning to do the activities with their own children, and bring Eco-Photography into their family experience during July, which is really exciting.”
Registration for Eco-Photography continues through the month of June, with the course running in July. More information about the course and registration can be found HERE. This Eco-Photography course as well as many of the upcoming Eco-Media experiences are being offered in partnership with the Digital Citizenship Institute.