Rob
Ridley
Caledon, Ont.
Environmental education teacher since 1987. Coordinator, since 2003, of the Peel District School Board’s four field centres, which reach 25,000 students each year.
FROM THE NOMINATORS
Rob Ridley has been a much-admired WILD Education facilitator leading Project WILD and Below Zero workshops for more than 20 years. During that time, he has engaged countless K-12 teachers, non-formal educators and teachers-in-training across Ontario, providing them with tools to help them connect youth to nature and grow their conservation ethic, always with his remarkable enthusiasm and adaptability.
MOTIVATION
When I started, outdoor education was still very much seen as being about “the yearbook memories.” Today, a big part of the job we do in outdoor and experiential environmental education, I feel, is to answer the age-old question, “When am I ever going to use this?” Of course, we may see the kids one or two days of the year, but then they carry those experiences back into the classroom.
INSPIRATION
I call the campfire the perfect 21st-century learning tool. In fact, it has been throughout history — in Ancient Greece, in Indigenous cultures. It is a chance to sit in a circle, to reflect and to listen to an elder or a teacher or a peer. There is no real “leader.” You can be a lot more open and honest when everyone is staring into the flames of a campfire.
WILD Educator Award
Established in 2015, this award honours an exceptional WILD Education facilitator or instructor who has provided innovative and meaningful experiences for youth that focus on wildlife and the building of a conservation ethic.
- 0
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6