This 6-hour workshop dives into the North American Association for Environmental Education's (NAAEE) Guidelines for Excellence: Professional Development of Environmental Educators on which the core competencies for the Virginia Environmental Education Certification Program are based. Focusing on the preparation and continuing education of environmental educators, this workshop is packed with interactive sessions that allow you to explore the Guidelines with other professionals.

Candidates may attend the Professional Development workshop any time after beginning Criteria 1. We strongly encourage candidates to complete Criteria 1 before attending this workshop.

This workshop is a prerequisite to the Methods of Teaching Environmental Education workshop.

This multi-day workshop focuses on the skills and planning required to lead high-quality environmental education programming. Areas of focus include: group management, inclusive learning environments, age-appropriate concepts, inquiry-based lesson planning, program correlation to the Virginia Standards of Learning and more. Explore and develop these concepts with your colleagues in the environmental education field.

Candidates will meet for two virtual sessions and one in-person session. Pre-work and In-between work will be assigned to fill out this course.

Criteria 1 and Criteria 2.1, Professional Development Workshop, are prerequisites for this workshop.

This 8-week course addresses concepts that are just some of the building blocks of an environmentally literate person. According to the National Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), an environmentally literate person

...is someone who, both individually and together with others, makes informed decisions concerning the environment; is willing to act on these decisions to improve the well-being of other individuals, societies, and the global environment; and participates in civic life.

To that end, this course is comprised of two halves. The first half focuses on Earth's physical and living systems while the second half dives into our interactions with our environment.

Candidates will attend three real-time, virtual class meetings and complete work on their own (expect at least three hours of asynchronous work each week).