Educator’s Gathering

August 11-15, 2025

A 5-day immersion experience to support and serve classroom and community educators

Designed and offered by these collaborating partners:

Cobscook Institute

University of Maine Rural THRIVE

The Washington County Consortium

IAED: International Academy for Education and Democracy

About The Educator’s Gathering:

The call to work in education comes from the heart. This retreat for educators is designed for you, the teachers, administrators, specialists, support staff, and community educators who work day in and day out during intense change in politics, policy, technology, economies, and ecologies. Within our work, we are constantly called to gather those best practices that we can apply to the art of teaching and creating the most positive and effectively engaging learning environment and experience we can for our students and ourselves. This five-day, immersive retreat is designed to support you in developing and/or refining some of those essential tools and understandings for effective, dynamic teaching and learning.

This is an invitation to foster knowledge and skills in: 

• Centering student/learner voice

• Creating healing environments

• Acknowledging, honoring, addressing, and serving Indigenous culture, history, and ways of knowing/being

• School/community partnerships

• Rural educators as guides for personal and community resilience

• Creating positive change in the local community

Register for up to two of these four, twelve-hour courses.

• Experiential Education & Community-Based Learning with Kara McCrimmon, Cobscook Experiential Programs Director & Cobscook Co-Executive Director

• Strengthening Our Community: Educators and the Path to Local Resilience with Jakob Erle, President of the International Academy of Education for Democracy, and Alan Furth, Co-Founder/Founding Executive Director, Cobscook Institute

• Indigenous Language, Culture, History & Education with Cyrilla Francis, MSW, Language and Culture Advisor, Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness, Sipayik Tribal Council Member, and Newell Lewey, MS Linguistics, Culture and Language Manager, Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness, Chair - Maine Indian Tribal State Commission

• Trauma Responsive Education with Cat Biddle, Director, School of Educational Leadership, Higher Education and Human Development; Director, Center for Applied Research on Education and Schools; Associate Professor of Educational Leadership, and Maria Frankland, National Board Certified Maine School Counselor

This immersive retreat also includes a slate of “Integrating Sessions” Monday - Thursday evenings after dinner. These are designed for all participants and will integrate the themes from all of the sessions, and provide shared learning opportunities and space for connection and relationship building for all participants.

Schedule

Monday:

9:00 Arrive and opening circle

12:00 Lunch

1:30 Afternoon sessions (Sessions 1 & 2)

5:30 Dinner

7:00 Integrating Session (Presentation/Panel Discussion/Share & Reflection Circle)

Tuesday-Thursday:

8:00 Breakfast

9:00 Morning sessions (Sessions 3 & 4)

12:00 Lunch

1:30 Afternoon sessions (Sessions 1 & 2)

5:30 Dinner

7:00 Integrating Session (Presentation/Panel Discussion/Share & Reflection Circle)

Friday:

8:00 Breakfast

9:00   Morning sessions (Sessions 3 & 4)

11:45 Group Picture

12:00 Lunch

1:30 Closing circle and departure

Tuition Support for People Working in Rural Schools: Retreat partner, UMaine’s New England Rural Education Hub, can offer scholarships for up to the full registration cost of this workshop ($725 for people working in or with Maine’s rural schools through a grant called Rural THRIVE). Note: Scholarship funding is not available to cover lodging. It does cover all meals and course fees. If you work in or with a rural school in Maine, you may apply for scholarship support in the registration form.

Contact Hours: 36 Total: 

• 12-hour morning course; 

• 12-hour afternoon course; 

• 12 hours, evening workshops plus introduction and conclusion sessions across five days, from  August 11 - 15

  Duration: 12 hours (4 days, 3 hours per session)

2025 Conference Rates

Conference: $725
• Conference sessions
• Meals: Monday lunch and dinner; Tuesday through Thursday breakfast, lunch,
dinner; Friday breakfast and lunch.

Campus Lodging

Heartwood Lodge is a beautiful & comfortable home during the conference. Different room types are available to meet your needs, with full-size beds and single bunk beds. Each room has a private bathroom and is available with single or double occupancy. The Lodge has a quiet library, a communal kitchen with dining room, and laundry facilities.

Single/Double/Quad in Heartwood Lodge: $100/$75/$50 per night respectively
• 4-5 nights: check-in Sunday or Monday, checkout Friday
• Single or shared room with attached bathroom

RV Camping: $25/night
• 4-5 nights: check-in Sunday or Monday, checkout Friday
• Plug in and access shared bathrooms with showers & common space

Camping: $10/night
• 4-5 nights: check-in Sunday or Monday, checkout Friday
• Bring your own tent and access shared bathrooms with showers & common space