What is the Place-Based Educator Institute?

The Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative (GLSI) designed the Place-Based Educator Institute to benefit PK-12 teachers who are just getting started or need new approaches in place-based teaching and student learning. This isn’t your typical professional development. You’ll be part of a cohort of passionate educators from throughout Michigan, exploring how to use the places you live and teach to spark inquiry, amplify student voice, and build authentic connections between curriculum and community. You’ll also be connected to a community of hundreds of educators throughout the Great Lakes Basin who are dedicated to using PBE. Regardless of past experience, this program will prepare you to take the next step in your school and community. 

The Details

Who Should Participate?

• Great Lakes Region K-12 school-based educators across subject areas
• Educators new to place-based teaching or building early-stage projects
• Anyone looking to make learning more authentic, community-connected, and student-centered

What You’ll Learn 

Through a series of asynchronous instructional videos and live, interactive Zoom sessions, you’ll explore:

• The foundations of GLSI’s Place-Based Stewardship Education (PBSE) model, as well as high quality place-based teaching pedagogy that can be adapted across grade levels and subjects, and integrated into existing curriculum
• How to identify and build on local community assets to design relevant, engaging real-world learning
• How to center student voice, interest, and agency through inquiry-based approaches to learning
• How to move from idea to implementation during the school year with a realistic plan and the tools to support it

What You’ll Experience 

Asynchronous Instructional Videos 
Each week of the 7-week institute, you’ll watch short instructional videos (at your convenience) that introduce place-based education concepts/theory, teaching strategies, and models of success.  This will give you the opportunity to watch, absorb, and consider how you’d implement in your teaching practice and local setting, preparing you to go deeper with facilitators and peers during live sessions. 

Live, Interactive Zoom Sessions
Held weekly during the 7-week institute, each session blends foundational learning, collaborative discussions, and time to apply what you’ve learned to your own context with the guidance of program facilitators.

Project Planning with Support
Work through your own PBSE idea (or adapt a GLSI First Place Project) using tools and protocols aligned with the Elements and Principles. You’ll consider student voice, community connections, curriculum alignment, and real-world impact, guided by small group collaboration and 1:1 planning support with GLSI staff.

Ready-to-Use Resources
Each session includes practical tools, as part of GLSI’s Teacher Toolkit, that you can use right away, whether you’re looking to launch a small-scale classroom project or build toward a larger initiative in your school or community. 

1:1 Next Steps Support
Leverage up to 4 hours of personalized project planning, community partnership building, fund-seeking, and/or implementation support throughout the 2026-27 school year from GLSI’s PBSE Specialists (former classroom teachers and school principals).

Sustained Collaborative Peer Learning
Through structured collaboration and reflection with peer educators, you’ll build confidence, develop your ideas, and learn from the experiences of others. Beyond the weekly institute, participants will have monthly opportunities throughout subsequent school year to connect with a community of hundreds of peer educators across the Great Lakes region, engage with guest presenters and special topics, and access additional resources to support your professional learning.

Scholarship Support
You’ll receive either a partial or full (dependent on available funding) scholarship and priority registration access to attend GLSI’s 2027 National Place-Based Education Conference, scheduled for Fall 2027 in Southeast Michigan!

What You’ll Gain:

• $200 stipend to honor your time and commitment

• Certificate of completion (and any additional documentation needed for state recertification credit)
• 16 SCECH credits for Michigan teachers
• One-on-one and small group support throughout the school year to advance your place-based teaching and student project design and implementation throughout the school year
• Access to a network of hundreds of peer teachers from across the Great Lakes region who’ve also completed the institute and are implementing place-based teaching and student learning 

What is Required of Participants?

• Fall 2026 Institute Schedule 

  • Complete weekly instructional video modules that introduce PBSE concepts and strategies (20-30 min/week)
  • Attend weekly 1-hour live sessions (4:30–5:30pm ET) in the late afternoon to reflect on asynchronous learning and explore implementation strategies with your cohort on the following dates:
  • October 7
  • October 14
  • October 21
  • October 28
  • November 4
  • November 11
  • November 18
• Monthly Wednesday Zoom Meetings
• Connect with the larger community of place-based educators in the Great Lakes region, workshop your PBSE ideas and projects, and receive support from GLSI program leaders
• January 13, February 10, March 10 
• Educator Showcase via Zoom: April 21 (all participants will briefly present on the steps they’ve taken toward place-based teaching and student learning during the school year)

• Post-Institute Place-Based Teaching Implementation:  
• Develop a Place Based Stewardship Education project (adapting a GLSI First Place Project model or developing your own). Full project implementation in year one is not required, though encouraged!
• Move student learning beyond the classroom to take a first step toward place-based teaching in the schoolyard or local community setting

Why Attend the Institute?

Institute participants say it best!

How to Apply

Limited participation slots available for the Fall  2026 cohort. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until the cohort is filled.

Funding support for the PBE Institutes is provided through grants to GLSI from both the Great Lakes Fishery Trust and from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program.