Every program Ridgewalker creates is specifically designed and implemented to the needs of the population it is serving. Ridgewalker has over 20 years of working with Learning Institutions in several areas:

 

Service Learning

Experiential Learning

Wilderness Education

Classroom Dynamics Building

Physical Education Enhancement

Staff Growth and Development

Challenge Courses

 

Service Learning –

Ridgewalker has worked with classes and trained teachers on how to integrate their curriculum-based learning into a service providing project. We show teachers how to develop a Service Learning Project from classroom curriculum and how to work with the students to develop their own projects.  We will give you the tools and teach you the nuts and bolts on presenting, developing and sustaining a project, whether for a single day or an entire school year. One difference that makes our Service Learning Models stand out is that within the implementation of the project, we show you how to integrate experiential learning, adventure-based programs and activities.  This makes the project both exciting and physically challenging. The use of wilderness activities holds the student's attention throughout the process.  These models will give the students a multi-lateral education in a multitude of environments, create physical activities, provide a service for the community, design creative curriculum, as well as create life long memories.

 

 

Experiential Learning –

Ridgewalker is known for taking any subject or idea and turning it into an learning experience.  We will train your staff in an alternative way of approaching their teaching.  We know many students these days have a difficult time learning from a book, taking a test, then jumping right into learning something new and comprehending it.  We come to you with over twenty years experience in taking what is taught and then turning it into a hands-on experience which allows the student to fully understand and comprehend the information.  Our staff has been working in this field before the title “Experiential Learning” was coined.  Not only will the students have the hands-on experience, we will give you the tools to add Adventure Programming to the curriculum.  This will enhance the learning experience, while challenging the students physically and stimulating them mentally.

 

 

Wilderness Education -

In teaching wilderness conservation, appreciation, primitive living skills and a variety of wilderness activities, Ridgewalker will also show how to use the wilderness as your classroom.  The outdoors has such a therapeutic value which is recognized by practitioners all over the world. We will show you how to use the wilderness as a medium to take the students out of their elements and build them into a single working team with focus and purpose.  Then we show how to extract the multitude of metaphors from the wilderness experiences and bridge them over the classroom and to their everyday life.  We will give you the tools to use wilderness in any school-based curriculum to be used as learning aids, metaphors, projects and to integrate creative curriculum.

 

 

Classroom Dynamics Building –
Ridgewalker has been called in many times to work with teachers in their classrooms assisting them in gaining the trust and respect of their students. We understand the challenges posed by today’s student population which at times can be extremely difficult to work with. Without proper training in different methods and techniques in hooking the students in, even good teachers can get lost, frustrated and lose confidence in themselves. We work with the teacher and students together, in and out of the classroom, without the students ever knowing the purpose. The program works with the class once or twice a week. It takes only a few weeks to see important classroom dynamics as well as the trust and respect achieved. It is very important that the teacher participates in all activities fully with their students. For purposes of our approach, the distinction between teacher and student is less important then the idea of equal participation, the first step to achieving the desired outcome. Integrated in the program and with time, the teacher/student trust and respect begins to develop.

Physical Education Enhancement –

If you are looking for new, refreshing Physical Educational programs for your students, Ridgewalker has a bottomless bag of alternative physical education activities called Adventure Programs and Activities.  What distinguishes our Adventure Programs is that in addition to the conditioning and exercises offered by traditional activities, they promote problem-solving, team-building, trust and communication within each activity.  Our staff will not only train your instructors in these activities, our training also includes the proper methods and implementation techniques to facilitate rather than recreate them.  We will also show how to transform traditional activities into more productive Adventure Programs. Ridgewalker will show your staff exciting new skills and techniques.  These skills will not only stimulate student participation but, also assist them in lessons of leadership, trust, communication and team-building along the way.

 

 

Staff Growth and Development -

Ridgewalker also offers programs that address the needs of the teaching staff.  Ridgewalker can spend a day with your staff working on many problematic levels using our Adventure Program model.  Not only will your staff receive ideas to be used in their classrooms, they will benefit from the experience of participating in the activities.  Staff will participate as they would have their students participate.  By the end of the day, they will have learned how to facilitate the activities while personally benefiting from their therapeutic and quantitative outcomes.

 

Challenge Courses
If you are looking for a custom challenge course or climbing wall for your school, Ridgewalker can design and construct specifically what you are looking for.  Here are a few details outlining specifically what Ridgewalker can custom design for your organization.

• Fixed Challenge Courses - Ridgewalker can build your school a custom challenge course specifically for your needs, budget and space. We have built high and low element courses in the trees to low element courses in a orchard. A thirty five foot challenge tower in a back lot to a twenty element telephone pole course at a high school.  Ridgewalker has built over a dozen custom fixed challenge courses around the country.
• Portable Challenge Courses - If you do not have the space for a fixed challenge course, Ridgewalker can build you a custom portable course that encompasses many of the low and high elements that you would find on your fixed courses.  Our custom portable challenge courses are suitable for indoor or outdoor use. These portable kits come in handy when you have to do a presentation or work within a classroom when you cannot take the participants outdoors.  The portable Challenge Course is not like your props for initiative games, these are the same types of elements you would find on an actual challenge course.
• Rock Climbing Walls - If you are looking to build an indoor or outdoor rock climbing wall, but do not have the budget to build a pre-fabricated wall, Ridgewalker can build you a custom climbing/bouldering wall in any location. We have built walls inside of school gymnasiums, on the side of buildings, free-standing climbing walls in back lots and a 10,000 sq ft climbing gym. Whatever your needs, Ridgewalker will work with you to design a custom wall specifically for your needs and budget.