Sense of Place Training for Educators
Professional development seminars and retreats that help educators bring story, place, creativity, and inquiry into their teaching.
Recharge your Curriculum— and Yourself
In a time when educators are asked to meet more demands than ever, these sessions offer a practical way to gain tools and skills while also restoring connection, creativity, and meaning within the work of teaching.
This immersive professional development training offers opportunities for educators to explore their own sense of place and then translate that experience into richer learning opportunities for students.
Drawing on decades of experience offering place-centered programs, interpretive training, creative mentoring, and the performing arts, Erica creates training that is practical, restorative, creative, and deeply engaging.
“Erica’s session was extremely relevant, easily adaptable, and usable.”
—Approaching Walden Participant
Suitable for educators across subjects, grade levels, and locations, including:
K–12 teachers
Graduate students in education programs
Environmental, literature, and history educators
Museum and park educators
Independent and informal educators.
Seminar & Training Goals
Restoring Personal Connections
Participants begin by reconnecting with their own stories and sense of place, then explore how those experiences shape meaning, curiosity, and learning.
Lesson Development
From personal experience and renewal, the focus
shifts toward translation and the development of lesson ideas that carry those insights into the classroom.
Inspiration That Lasts
Educators leave with a fresh perspective, renewed energy, and practical tools for designing learning experiences that feel relevant, memorable, and alive
Seminar Example: Approaching Walden
Since 2006, Erica has frequently led a core teaching segment of Approaching Walden, a professional development program for educators at Walden Pond.
She invites participants to experience Thoreau not as a distant literary figure, but as an entry point into personal connection, reflection, and meaning. Her seminar begins where meaningful learning often starts: with lived experience and personal connection to place.
1. Understand a Sense of Place Approach to Learning
Different from “place-based” learning, Erica’s approach offers unique tools and insights for developing relationships with places.
2. Uncover Personal Connections
Through guided reflective writing invites educators to reconnect with their own place experiences.
2. Experience Walden Through New Eyes
See the surroundings through sensory experience and story, modeling how place itself can become a teacher.
3. Bring History and Nature to Life
Educators explore reflective activities they can bring to the classroom, including Erica’s Finding the Thoreau in You worksheet for exploring personal place connections through Thoreau’s writing and themes.
4. Apply Ideas into Program Design
Educators choose the tools that can inform their own curriculum design and classroom practice, then shape lesson ideas sparked by the training.
Spark Curriculum Ideas Through Applied Learning
This experience helps educators craft lessons resonate with students and align with learning standards, including:
Storytelling & Narrative-Based Teaching
Weaving personal, historical, and community stories into lessons to make learning more relatable and memorable.
Creative Expression as a Learning Tool
Using story, music, art, writing, and reflection to deepen understanding and connection.
21st-Century Skills Through Sense of Place Learning
Helping students engage creatively and critically with history, culture, nature, community, and lived experience.
Inquiry-Based Learning Strategies
Encouraging students to ask questions, observe closely, investigate, and make meaning through guided exploration.
Building Confidence, Belonging, and Well-Being
Supporting students as they explore personal connections to place, identity, history, and community.
Interested inWorking Together?
If you’re planning a professional development day, educator retreat, or conference and would like to explore working together, the next best step is an inquiry email or short conversation.
Start an Inquiry →
Have questions or ready to talk through ideas? Schedule a no-pressure conversation to learn more, explore formats and possible fit.
FEEDBACK
“Place-based educator and author David Orr often writes that the ecological crisis is not a technical crisis, but a spiritual crisis. Erica helps bridge the space between head and heart—encouraging learners to reconnect with place not just as a resource, but as a pathway for understanding life and meaning.”
— Torrey McMillan, Center for Sustainability, Hathaway Brown School, Shaker Heights, OH
"With its emphasis on integrating writing, music, and a sense of place, Erica's workshop was incredibly inspiring... [She] gave us all an invaluable opportunity to reflect on our connections to the land, our personal history, and our best selves." — Faculty Director, University of Vermont, VT
"Using Erica Wheeler's ideas, I developed writing prompts incorporating nature. These were some of the best writing prompts I have ever used. The students were excited, had vast amounts to write about, freely expressed their thoughts without fear of right or wrong, and made a connection to nature/place and themselves." — Saratoga Elementary School, Saratoga, WY
Prior Engagements Include:
Events & Training
Approaching Walden
Georgia Environmental Educators Conference
Massachusetts Environmental Education Society
New England Environmental Education Alliance
The Murie Center
Teton Science School
Youth Leadership
Trustees of Reservations
World Wide Walden Youth Summit
Wyoming Youth Congress on Children and Nature
Young Writers and Artists Festival, Hathaway Brown School
Youth Conservation Corps
Youth Leadership Academy, New Bedford Whaling
National Historic Park
Academic: Undergraduate & Graduate
Antioch New England Graduate School, NH (Seminar)
Mount Holyoke College Center for the Environment
Paul Smiths College
Sterling College
Teton Science School
Washington University
K- 12
All Saints' Episcopal Day School
Four Rivers Charter School
Journeys School
Sterling Community School