EarthGuides: Outdoor Educator Training

Stone Soup

1/23

Areas of Focus

Pending grant approval, we plan to offer Outdoor Educator Training

starting Fall 2025 - Spring 2026. This program is designed to offer training in the

skills needed to serve as an outdoor educator and mentor for children of all ages.

The program will include 3 hours of classroom/hands-on skills practice

with experienced ReTribe educators as well as other presenters in the field.

Part of the program is also apprenticing with Forest School

mentors and students one day per week.

Dates:

September 8 - December 19, 2025

March 2 - May 29, 2026

(No training during Spring Break)

Times (subject to change):

Mondays: 10:30am - 2:30pm

Class time with presenters and ReTribe Staff

+ 1 day of Forest School per week

Wed, Thu, or Fri 8:30am - 3:30pm

Practice mentorship skills in the field by supporting experienced ReTribe Mentors and learning from them at Forest School. There will be time to reflect and check-in, learn through experience, and practice techniques learned during your class time.

There is also the potential option of paid work for our Afterschool Program

Mondays and/or Thursdays 2:45pm - 5:45pm

Cost: Free!

This program will funded by a grant pending approval. A $300 deposit is required but it will be returned upon completion of the course. We ask for a 1 year commitment to participate.

Apply Here

Program Facilitators

Julia Hunt
Julia co-founded, and has been directing programs and running ReTribe for the past 10 years. She graduated from the University of Vermont in 2009 with a degree in Sociology and Music, with a focus on intentional community living. She is very passionate about helping children and teens to heal, grow, and transform, has a deep connection with nature, imagination, and magic and hopes to help facilitate youth to foster these connections, which already exist so powerfully within them.

John Hunt
John is a native of the green mountains of Vermont and a citizen of the Nulhegan band of Coosuk Abenaki. He has studied with expert survivalists and trackers including Tom Brown and Susan Morse and has also done extensive research on his own through books and direct exploration. John has been mentoring youth of all ages starting in 2007 in a wide variety of settings including summer camps, afterschool programs, and earth knowledge schools. He co-founded ReTribe in 2009 from the great desire to bring more harmony into the human family. John is a poet and drummer, has a strong meditation practice, and because of his deep love of Gaia, he has a passion for, and understanding of, sustainability issues on both a worldwide and individual scale. He is certified in Integral Breath Therapy, Energy Medicine and Wilderness First Aid (SOLO), and was trained through The Mindfulness in Education Teacher Training from Daniel Rechtschaffen at the Omega Institute. He loves working with youth and helping them discover their unique and beautiful power.

Jane Martin

Jane is a Licensed Professional Counselor in NJ and a Master's Level Breath Therapist on the faculty of Integration Concepts. She has been in private practice since 2002. Jane specializes in Child Psychology and Transpersonal Psychology. Her book on the psychology of discipline - Kids: An Owners Manual - can be purchased on Amazon. She is a certified Imago Couples Therapist as well as a trainer in Social Harmony, a bullying prevention program for schools. She has been practicing meditation for 45 years. She has three wonderful grown children and two very cute grandchildren. Jane has a private practice at NorthernShire here in Underhill, working with children, adolescents and their parents.

Jane co-runs ReTribe's Shift Happens workshops for adults and the teen retreats. For additional info about Jane, click here to visit her personal website.

Other hired experts in their fields

Curriculum

First Aid/CPR
Participation in Chloe Valdary's DEI Training and discussion.
Intro to the 8 shields model
Intro to John Young’s Coyote Mentoring
Classroom management skills
Nonviolent Communication and Conflict resolution techniques for individuals and large groups.
Trauma informed care and support for underserved populations
Support for LGBTQ
Abenaki History and Culture and how to teach about it respectfully
Teaching techniques for cooperative play and icebreakers as well as nature related woodland games.
The Art of Storytelling
Techniques for teaching music. Song leading.
Intro to Holacracy
Teaching Techniques for Improv theater/Imaginative play.
Introductory and advanced Fire Skills including wood gathering and processing, fire building, 1 match fires, friction fire, tinder bundles,
Knots and Tarps, setting up simple structures
Shelter and Fort building.
Fireside Cooking techniques
Fiber arts (cordage, wool, yarn crafts)
Bead making and jewelry making with children.
Pine Bark crafting baskets and rattles
Coal Burning and Carving skills
Tracking
Plant/Tree ID, Wild edibles and medicinals
Natural Dyeing with plants