Learning doesn’t stop at the classroom door.
All across California, State Parks interpreters, educators, artists and community leaders are inspiring people to discover new places and deepen their connection to the world around them. Sometimes that spark comes through art, sometimes under the open sky and sometimes it starts in a classroom.
On World Teachers’ Day, we celebrate the people who make these moments possible and the many ways they share knowledge, curiosity and a lifelong love of learning with the next generation.
Passing a love of the arts forward
Artists have a special way of teaching. They share not just their creative practice, but also the stories, traditions and wisdom that shape how they see and care for the world.
Through Arts in California Parks, Balanced Rock Foundation’s Art, Nature and Wellness program brings young adults, regional artists and community members together in the Sierra foothills. Their program combines creative practice, connection to nature and wellness, offering public workshops led by local artists.
Participants learn about Indigenous and place-based practices through activities like basket weaving, nature journaling and visual storytelling. Young adults help lead public workshops, creating space for knowledge-sharing across generations and communities.
Arts in California Parks also welcomes more traditional education offices. The San Joaquin County Office of Education leads the Durham Art and Heritage Festival, where artists and community members gather at the Durham Ferry Outdoor Education Center for a three-part celebration of environmental restoration, community arts and cultural traditions. Artist-led workshops and hands-on participation in a living sculpture invite everyone to learn, create and care for the landscape we share.
Together, these projects show that arts education can happen anywhere, and that sharing what we know can inspire someone else to discover their own passion for nature and creativity.
Bringing the classroom into California’s parks
When students get to experience California’s incredible places firsthand, education can really come alive.
Through Route to Parks, organizations work alongside California State Parks to open up new opportunities for students to learn beyond the classroom. Camp Phoenix’s Connecting Oakland Youth to California’s Inland Waters and Public Lands program brings 150 Oakland middle schoolers into a yearlong adventure of outdoor learning across California’s state parks.
The program blends outdoor education, mentorship and culturally rooted exploration. Students take part in experiences from journaling and stream studies to camping and exploring California’s waterways. Trained staff, many of them program alumni, mentor and help young people build lasting connections with public lands.
For students, these experiences can turn a park from something they learn about into a place they know through experience.
Helping teachers bring parks into the classroom
Sometimes, the park comes right to the students.
Through California State Parks’ Parks Online Resources for Teachers and Students, or PORTS, K-12 classrooms can connect with California’s state parks using technology. Thanks to a longstanding partnership with Zoom, PORTS brings free virtual field trips into classrooms, where students ask park experts questions in real time. Teachers can keep the lesson going with recorded programs and virtual tours found on the PORTS website.
For some students, a virtual visit to the redwoods or desert is their first look at a California state park. For others, it may be their only chance to see it. California’s geographical size means that in-person field trips aren’t always possible, but technology can help bridge that gap.
California State Parks, Parks California and the California Association for Leading Innovation in Education, or CALIE, work together to pair virtual visits with real ones. The passPORTS model blends digital learning with in-person experiences so that a field trip is more than a single day. Students connect with park staff virtually, explore stories in the classroom, visit in person and keep learning when they are back in class.
Through CALIE’s Effective Technology Guidelines, educators use technology to strengthen learning and expand access. Here, technology isn’t the destination. It’s the way in.
That first visit can start a lifelong connection with California’s parks. Parks California works alongside California State Parks, CALIE and our partners to help more students get that start.
Showing support to our state’s educators
California’s parks and public lands are classrooms without walls, and educators are the guides who invite students to explore new worlds. Whether through art, science, storytelling or exploration, these leaders spark curiosity and build connections that can last a lifetime.
On World Teachers’ Day, we celebrate the people who help us see these parks, and ourselves, in new ways. Their work shapes the next generation of stewards, creators and community builders across the state. Learn how to support Parks California and California State Parks programs that continue to empower our educators.