A professional development seminar for high school educators and graduate students
July 15-20, 2012

Overview
The Walden Woods Project will offer Approaching Walden for its 16th year. This is a six-day professional development seminar for high school educators and graduate students. The seminar provides teachers with the skills they need to lead their students in a study of their home community. This place-based interdisciplinary workshop uses Henry David Thoreau’s writings and philosophy as a model. Through Thoreau's example of living deliberately, we can learn how to do so in our own communitites and pass it along to the next generation.

Seminar Highlights
This annual seminar features a daily mix of lectures, field trips, readings, discussions and reflection time. The participants encounter speakers from different fields with expertise in the areas of natural history, writing, literary analysis, art, and the environment. Some seminar features include:

• lectures on Thoreau, Transcendentalism, and social reform by experts in their fields;
• workshops on historic land use, environmental issues in the classroom, and nature journaling; and
• trips to Walden Pond and historic Concord.

Who Participates: High school teachers of all disciplines and graduate students of education are welcome to apply.

How to Participate: Submit an online application . We start accepting applications on January 1, 2012.

Application Fee: $50 with application.

Stipends:  Depending on how far away from Walden Pond you live, we offer travel stipends:

• $600 for teachers living outside of New England;
• $300 for teachers living in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Massachusetts if you live at least 50 miles from Walden Pond;
• $100 for teachers living in Massachusetts if you live less than 50 miles from Walden Pond.

Graduate Credit and Professional Development Points:

• 36 Professional Development Points
• 3 graduate credits for an additional fee of $255

For more information:  Visit Approaching Walden FAQs or email education@walden.org.