Ever-Evolving School Programs How a Gulch trek changed a teacher’s approach to education… and her professional life

By: NaiNa PaNthaki

When I first attended a trek with Cottonwood Gulch, as a teacher at a local middle school, my partner teacher made the arrangements and I had reluctantly agreed to attend, having no experience in outdoor education and no idea what to expect. Even at that point, I knew that if I could connect these grand experiences to the in-class learning students were doing, it would mean all the more. This was my first taste of experiential learning. As a classroom teacher, the best part of my year was when I was able to organize a Gulch excursion. Sitting in the passenger seat of a 15-passenger van, driving away from the school, I knew my students and I were about to experience something together that none of us would ever forget and I took my first real deep breath of the year.

outdoor field experiences. While COVID threw a big wrench in the outdoor portion of Gulch programming, SIWI educators persisted, and the classroom lessons continued. One of the silver linings of this global pandemic was the lightbulb moment for the decision makers of the education world recognizing the benefits of outdoor learning.

Now, as the Director of Education at the Gulch, my job is to create those same meaningful experiences I had as a teacher. In this role, I’ve asked myself regularly: What is programming? How do we connect learning to classrooms and the school kids we serve at Cottonwood Gulch? As we build our school programs, do they add value to the teachers and schools signing up? Over the last decade our school programs have become a more and more deeply rooted part of what we do at the Gulch, especially as the “Students In Wilderness Initiative” (SIWI) grant grew to cover 4 of our full time positions. As we grow our capacity with vastly skilled and experienced project-minded educators populating our full-time team, we have started the development of school programs tied into our mission, the skills of our educators, and the interest of trekkers (both teacher and student). The school program options for next year will take the best lessons learned from two years of working weekly with high school students, five years of SIWI programming, and almost twenty years of build-your-own style school treks.

Teaching in a classroom setting has never been an easy task. Teaching in a classroom post-COVID was an ever changing landscape of bureaucracy. Each day teachers are asked to accomplish new goals, new standards, new job descriptions, and new levels of connection with students. The school treks with Cottonwood Gulch have always been deeply meaningful in helping to accomplish deeper connections with students in an environment full of challenges for all of us and in bringing a broader perspective as my students saw places they never knew existed. I worked, as I know many teachers do, to continue to deepen the connection of these trips to my goals and standards. If they didn’t fit in with my lessons and those of my peers, there was no way my administration would see these as a learning opportunity, instead viewing them as frivolous “loss of seat time.” The SIWI program was the first time I had Gulch educators in my classroom, connecting those in-field discoveries to a more typical classroom lesson experience. I was beyond grateful for the way Monica Stert presented information about public lands to my students and began to tie that into the

While we have a strong cohort of partner schools, we welcome conversations with new schools. Are you a teacher (or do you know teachers) who would be excited about creating a lifechanging outdoor expedition for their students? If so, I would love to speak with you. You can email me (naina.panthaki@cottonwoodgulch.org) or call me at the office (505-)248-0563. We look forward to collaborating!