Shelburne Farms Institute for Sustainable Schools

February 2024 | Programs, resources & stories for educators

"This place is magical and restorative." Watch this video to hear from educators about their experiences in our programs, plus insights from professional learning facilitators Jen Cirillo and Aimee Arandia Østensen—and join us this year!

View all programs

A group of people sit on a rocky lakeshore listening to a man speaking

NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

A Watershed for Every Classroom Returns

Educators in the Lake Champlain Basin: Join us for a transformational program focusing on strategies to connect your students to their local waterways and build skills for a climate-resilient future. Begins July 16–19; apply by March 10.

20 adults smile for a group photo behind a sign that reads CT Farm to School Institute

STORY

Connecticut's Farm to School Institute

Our Farm to School Institute Adaptation Program supports leaders in bringing our model to their state to launch their own Institute programs, ensuring farm to school’s transformative benefits are realized in more communities across the country. Here, Connecticut's 2023–24 adaptation team reflects on their experience.

Read the story

A woman speaks in front of a projector screen displaying a Malcom X quote

RECIPE

Cheddar-Chive Scones

Try this savory recipe by Dylana DeGannes, a Brooklyn-based culinary arts instructor dedicated to empowering youth through cooking. She presented last summer at our Foundations in Education for Sustainability workshop.

Get the recipe

Upcoming Learning Opportunities

Education for Sustainability Graduate Certificate virtual information session, March 19 at 5:30pm
Foundations in Education for Sustainability, July 8–12
Watershed for Every Classroom, now accepting applications, year-long, begins July 16–19

See more on calendar

What We're Following

Our Climate Resiliency program is featured in the current issue of "Childhood Education Innovations." Read the story.

•

The Qualities of a Trusted Adult: Powerful Findings from Leland and Gray Union Middle and High School’s Restorative Practices Team. Via UP for Learning.

•

Make climate learning hands-on and accessible to all students with the VEEP/NHEEP Summer Institute, June 24–28. Educators from any state are welcome.

•

The State of Vermont is accepting applications for reimbursement grants to subsidize the cost of a CSA or farm share for early childhood and afterschool programs. Applications due March 8.

•

New York may soon join a growing number of states seeking to incorporate climate change into school lesson plans. Via The New York Times.

•

Tap into these strategies to teach K–12 students about the interconnected parts of complex systems like the human body, governments, and ecosystems. Via Edutopia.

Shelburne Farms is an education nonprofit on a mission to inspire and cultivate learning for a sustainable future.

The Shelburne Farms Institute for Sustainable Schools offers professional learning programs and resources for PreK-12 educators. All of our offerings prepare educators to facilitate learning experiences for students using a lens of sustainability. We believe in the power and potential of students to address the world's most pressing issues. We see schooling as a pathway to create healthy and just communities, successful lives, and a more livable world for all. In partnership with students and communities, educators are changemakers.