Professional Development/

Courses and Training

Professional Learning Opportunities

Current listing of courses and training can be found below.

Maryland Green School objective 1.2.2 requires professional development for 10% of the teaching staff. Throughout the year, MAEOE and partner organizations offer courses and training to help meet this requirement. Click here for more information.

5-Part Training Series: Using the Outdoors as a Classroom

MAEOE has created this five-part series for any educator who'd like to learn more about taking learning outside and using the outdoors as a classroom.

Each 1.5-hour session is interactive and collaborative and you’ll leave with resources and tools that you can integrate into your planning. Click the link for each training to view recordings, presentations, and other resources used during the training.

To receive a Certificate of Completion that can be used towards the Maryland Green Schools Application Objective 1.2.2, complete this Google Form and we'll send the certificate to you.

MWEE 101 and 201

MWEE 101

This course is made up of three lessons: Why MWEEs, What Makes a MWEE, and Planning and Evaluating MWEEs. These lessons will introduce you to the MWEE, explore what MWEEs can look like, highlight the MWEE's components, and introduce the tools that support the development and implementation of MWEEs.

After completing all three lessons of this course, you will see instructions on how to receive your certificate of completion and credits for Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington D.C., Virginia, and West Virginia. Depending on your state and local guidelines, you may be able to use the certificate of completion to apply for credits in other states.

MWEE 201

This course is the second in a series. If you haven't already taken the MWEE 101 course. We recommend completing it, because it provides a foundational understanding of the Essential Elements, Supporting Practices, and tools associated with planning a MWEE. We will also refer to the work you completed in the MWEE 101 course.

The purpose of this course is to support school-based education providers (classroom teachers, support staff, and administrators) and field or site-based program providers (for example, non-formal education providers) as they develop a deep understanding of the goals, design, and implementation of the MWEE model for environmental education, student achievement, and stewardship.

This course is presented through a series of five parts that come together to answer the following Driving Questions:

How can the MWEE support environmental literacy, student achievement, and stewardship?
What resources and opportunities are available to support MWEE design and implementation?

Course Objectives:

Participants will explore ways to develop interdisciplinary approaches to using the environment as a context for learning in the field and in the classroom.
Participants will investigate issues and explore actions in the Chesapeake Bay watershed at the community, school, and individual levels.
Participants will design a new MWEE or update/edit an existing MWEE using resources and opportunities explored.

To get the most out of this course we recommend you download the Educator's Guide to the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience and the MWEE Toolkit. Both of these resources, along with other resources to help you plan and implement your MWEE can be found on Bay Backpack. We will reference these resources and fill them out throughout the course.

Please send any comments, feedback or questions about this course to Krysta Hougen at krysta.hougen@noaa.gov.

Estimated Time to Complete the Course (including the creation of an ELM): 15 hours

After completing this course, you will see instructions on how to receive your certificate of completion and credits for Maryland (1 CPD), Delaware, Washington D.C., Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania (6 ACT 48). Depending on your state and local guidelines, you may be able to use the certificate of completion to apply for credits in other states.

Please come back to this page in the future for updated sessions!