Enjoy all our latest education news and stories
At Natural Pod™, our purpose is to ensure every learner and educator has a practical, healthy, sustainable environment in which to learn and be inspired, enabling them to reach their full potential. You can find all our news and stories here, where we share ideas and thinking that inspire our work to help inspire yours.
Educators need support and appreciation every week of the year
In the United States, there is a group of seven days a year acknowledged in the month of May, which we call 'Teacher Appreciation Week'. But anyone connected to children or education (which is nearly everyone in some way) knows that to truly honor the dedication...
Imagine That: Envisioning the Future with SchoolsNEXT
Our very own Michelle Carpenter, Chief Strategy Officer of Natural Pod, is A4LE SchoolsNEXT Southeast Chair, National Co-Chair, and committed to the future of the SchoolsNEXT student design competition. Last year she documented her participation experience in the...
Play Lofts: Putting some play in your day!
Natural Pod™ Play lofts were designed very much with the needs of early learners in mind. The intention was to create spaces that were all their own, where their imaginations could transform the space into any environment they wished, whether a fort, a castle, an...
Natural Pod™ LIVE – Episode 11 – Making sustainable choices for an impact that matters
Welcome back, Natural Pod™ LIVE, Episode Eleven is available to watch! About This Episode Each choice we make leads to an outcome, whether intended or not. That statement was the catalyst for this episode’s discussion: how we can make sustainable choices now, that...
Part 2: Q&A with a Green Schools National Network Partner: Building Meaningful Family and Community Relationships at Pine Jog Elementary School
This is the second part in a series from Green Schools National Network (GSNN) that features GSNN partners describing best practices and lessons learned, on topics tied to each of the impact systems in the GreenPrint, starting with Leadership. The GSNN GreenPrint™...
Part 1: Q&A with a Green Schools National Network Partner: An Ecosystem Approach Facilitates Visionary, Shared Leadership at New Roots Charter School
This is the first part in a series from Green Schools National Network (GSNN) that features GSNN partners describing best practices and lessons learned, on topics tied to each of the impact systems in the GreenPrint, starting with Leadership. The GSNN GreenPrint™...
Natural Pod™ LIVE – Episode 10 – Creating cultural change through student co-authorship of their learning environments
Welcome back, Natural Pod™ LIVE, Episode ten is available to watch! About this Episode: Since the beginning days of the industrial model, learning environments have been anchored to direct instruction and information-giving models. A place where students, or pupils,...
Being recognized as a New Innovator + Environmental Leader
Our work is not only to create high-quality, functional, beautiful and non-toxic learning furniture. But also to innovate within this space. To create new paradigms for how educational environments and experiences are thought about, and how those are tied to ethical...
Creating cultural change through student co-authorship of their learning environments
Since the beginning days of the industrial model, learning environments have been anchored to direct instruction and information-giving models. A place where students, or pupils, show up to a building to learn because that location was the only place for it to occur....
Children of Color in Nature-Based Classrooms
A traditional education is not suitable for every student. Malcolm Drips, a precocious nine-year-old of mixed racial heritage, is one of those students. At 18 months of age, he was diagnosed with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). For him, the...
Natural Pod™ LIVE – Episode 09 – Becoming a trailblazer for whole school transformation
Welcome back, Natural Pod™ LIVE Episode Nine is available to watch! About This Episode Educating for a sustainable future is no longer an option; it’s a necessity. In this episode, our host, Bridgitte Alomes, CEO of Natural Pod is in discussion with Jennifer Seydel,...
A New Path Forward: Transforming Schools with equityXdesign
As schools reopen amidst COVID-19 and the chronic pandemic of white supremacy, the need to do so with equity at the forefront is greater now than ever before. The student–teacher relationship has transformed over the past year as educators upskilled to teach virtually...
Highlights of 2021 to inspire you in the New Year
The Natural Pod team has recently been gathering together online with the intention of reflecting on this past year. (We are an almost fully remote team so that's our normal regardless of the current state of the world). We've also been looking ahead to the next one...
The best of Natural Pod™ LIVE to inspire you in 2022
Although it's been a challenging year in multiple ways, the Natural Pod team has been constantly uplifted by the inspiring work and perseverance of our community. Earlier this year to amplify the voices of those committed to creating better learning environments,...
The GreenPrint™ – Discover a framework for whole school transformation
The Green Schools National Network (GSNN) has been doing tremendous work since 2007 in furthering the Green Schools movement. They have created a broad and energetic network of PreK-12 teachers, leaders, and professionals who learn from each other with the common goal...
We’re an Interior Design Best of Year Awards Finalist!
Woo hoo! We're delighted that our Christene Play Loft is an Interior Design Best of Year Awards Finalist! It's wonderful to be recognized for our sustainable play and learning furniture, and especially for our most unique and popular Play Loft, the Christene! Named in...
Natural Pod™ LIVE – Episode 08 – Pursuing passion to make an impact on learning
Welcome back, Natural Pod™ LIVE Episode Eight is available to watch! About This Episode In this uplifting edition of Natural Pod LIVE, our CEO, Bridgitte Alomes, chats with the wonderful Jerzell Pierre-Louis. Jerzell, the Owner and Founder of Sprout and Bloom Early...
Make sustainable and values-led decisions all year long
It's hard not to be aware of the selling and buying messages flying around at this time of year. They're a good reminder to try and make sustainable and values-led buying choices whenever possible, as the decisions we make today can impact ourselves, each other and...
Why Movement And Breathing Breaks Are Great For Learning
Now the new school year is in full swing, the comparative freedom of the summer may be a distance memory. A time when the majority of children probably weren't in the same place each day, hopefully they were outside more, naturally moving daily in a way that’s not...
Resources to support outdoor learning
With my upcoming webinar exploring a case study around indoor/outdoor learning studios, along with the increase in questions around the benefits of outdoor learning, I thought I'd collect some resources that may be of value to others looking into this subject. If you...
Learn how to gain stakeholder buy-in for new learning space projects
Our upcoming webinar 'Case Study: How Indoor/Outdoor Classrooms Deepen Students Learning' is sharing the key lessons learned from a unique middle school project based in California. Repurposed shipping containers were innovatively used to create indoor/outdoor...
Learn key outcomes from this unique indoor/outdoor campus project
We're delighted to be participating and bringing you this webinar after its previous re-scheduling. The webinar, ’How Indoor/Outdoor Classrooms Deepen Students’ Learning’, is taking place on Wednesday 8th December at 3-4pm ET / 12-1pm PT. It's being brought to you in...
Sustainability, inclusive excellence, and our shared future
On one level, the "Spidey Senser" project is about engaging the public in science. Community members, young and old, seek out, monitor, and then harvest the filter-like webs of funnel weaver spiders, bagging and labeling them before sending them off to be analyzed in...
Designing for integrated and whole school sustainability
Whole school sustainability has a range of meanings. As a designer or planner of built educational environments how does one deliver a successful project when creating a sustainable school or learning environment? As the Founder and CEO of Natural Pod this has been my...
Key takeaways and outcomes from A4LE LearningSCAPES 2021
Although the majority of my working time is as chief strategy officer at Natural Pod, I thoroughly enjoy wearing other hats within education as well; I sit on the board of Green Schools National Network and I’m also the national co-chair and southeast chair of...
Book review: Healthy Buildings – How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity
We highly recommend Healthy Buildings - How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity, by Joseph G. Allen and John D. Macomber, for those who care about the health of our children, oneself, and the communities we belong to. This book couldn't be more timely, as...
Learn more about students own vision for sustainable and resilient learning spaces
Our very own Michelle Carpenter, Chief Strategy Officer of Natural Pod, will be sharing the outcomes of her work as Southeast Chair of SchoolsNEXT at LearningScapes 2021 taking place on October 14-17th. The in-person session, Student Voice Informs Equitable Learning...
Help us win Interior Design’s ‘Best of Year’ for our innovative educational furniture
Interior Design's Best of Year is the design industry's premiere design awards program, honoring the most significant work of the year as well as recognizing designers, architects and manufacturers from around the globe. This year, you can help the Natural Pod team...
Take the pledge with us for California Clean Air Day
The recent forest fires throughout this country and others have illustrated many things - one of which being that a problem in one area can greatly affect another, as smoke drifted some 3000 miles away from the central location of the California fires. California...
Time to be intentional – The Design for Early Learning Symposium
Recently, on September 13th and 15th, I was able to participate in the Design for Early Learning Symposium, organized by Alissa Rupp, FAIA, LEED BD+C, Principal, FRAME | Integrative Design Strategies and Diane Kroll, Founder of Imag(e)ine Collaborative, an excellent...
Natural Pod™ LIVE – Episode 07 – Creating a Culture of Care + Connection
Natural Pod™ LIVE Episode Seven is available to watch! The idea of a Culture of Care + Connection is ever evolving, but at the core it’s simple: to care for ourselves and those around us, by connecting with our communities and the natural environment. Verena Gibbs,...
Natural Pod furniture takes a different approach to learning
Thank you to InHabitat, a green lifestyle and design media outlet, for this great story, titled 'Natural Pod takes a different approach to learning.' It takes a look at how we do indeed take a different approach and why. The article also introduces our most recent...
Let’s Not Lose Sight Of Wellness In The Name Of Safety
With a return to school, or if not school certainly a return to learning – we know it will look very different for everyone, especially with discussions around where learning is even taking place for some. Understandably concerns around safety are front and center....
Design for Early Learning – Join the Symposium
Even before the dramatic and transformative events of 2020, we recognized the need to strengthen a specific set of connections: those between design professionals and early childhood education professionals. All children who spend time in early learning spaces, such...
Book review: Leadership for Green Schools; Sustainability for Our Children, Our Communities, and Our Planet
Leadership for Green Schools: Sustainability for Our Children, Our Communities, and Our Planet - This is a wonderfully rich book that uncovers the many facets of what it means to be a green school, and the leadership tools needed to embrace whole school...
Are you working with companies that are aligned with your values?
If you’re here, you may already know Natural Pod creates high-quality, non-toxic wood furniture for early learning and K-12 learning spaces with an emphasis on beauty, functionality, and environmental awareness. I’d like to expand on those last three points and what...
Including student voice in learning space creation
Can you hear them? Were they listening? As I enter any learning space, these questions are often in the forefront of my thinking. Through this lens, it becomes clear whether the design of the space is soaked in the ideas and needs of students or whether the design was...
If you want your school to be environmentally sustainable and healthy, look for the crosswalks
We spend ninety percent of our lives indoors in environments where we live, learn, and work. In some countries, that number is even higher due to extreme climate and outdoor pollution. If we spend ninety percent of our time indoors, that means that by the time our...
Book review: ‘Schools That Heal: Design with Mental Health in Mind’
It’s not often that books in the field of education and design crossover in such an accessible way, and that speak directly to the truth and the times we find ourselves in. 'Schools That Heal: Design with Mental Health in Mind' by Claire Latané is one of those...






































