Coyote Naturalist at Willow Wind Community Learning Center:
Willow Wind is a K-12 public alternative program sponsored by
the Ashland School District. The mission of the Willow Wind CLC
is to support the educational vision of families in a multi-age
environment. The program provides classes, tutorials,
curriculum resources and support designed to support the
diverse educational philosophies embraced by the families
enrolled, while supporting the state and federal education
standards. Class offerings are created each semester and may
cover subjects such as history, math, science, language arts,
music, drama, physical education, art, gardening and second
language.
Coyote Trails School of Nature lead instructor Eirik Moergen and instructor Michele Pavilonis have been leading
the Coyote Trails School of Nature curriculum at Willow Wind
since 2008. Students ages range from 9-12 years old. There is a
classroom component as well as our routine nature immersion.
The Coyote Naturalist curriculum cultivates our sense of place
and fosters awareness and relationship to ourselves, each other
and the outdoors through deep, experiential sensory exercises,
animal tracking, bird language and weather observation, plant
and tree study, seasonal mapping, fundamental survival skills
and lots of games, discoveries and adventure! The class wraps
up at the end of May and kicks off again this coming fall!
