Presentations
David presents seminars and workshops to a wide variety of audiences, from public school, college, and university classes to photography groups and civic organizations. An active leader in the Children & Nature movement, David regularly visits schools, teaching children about nature, writing, and photography.
In-Person Author Visits
Brochure PDF
David visits schools, helping connect children with nature through reading.
A life-long educator, David has taught in grades K-12.
David served as an Associate Professor of English and Language Arts Education at Ashland University for ten years. Today, as a freelance writer and photographer, he travels widely, sharing his passion for and knowledge of nature, photography, and writing.
David offers seminars to teachers on connecting children and their families with nature through reading.
Click here to view the full Author Visits PDF. Or Contact David to inquire about tailoring a one-day visit or a longer artist-in-residence visit to your school.
Virtual Visits
Brochure PDF
Sometimes an in-person visit won’t work out. So I’d love to visit your classroom via the internet. Sessions will be tailored to fit your school and classroom needs.
A life-long educator—having taught in elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as 10 years of experience as a university professor of language arts education—I am comfortable offering virtual visits to students of all ages. While I am most frequently asked to present to pre-K and K-6, I love sharing my work in photography, writing, natural history, and the business of publishing with older students.
Session Names & Lengths
Caterpillar 15-25 minutes
Treefrog 25-45 minutes
Cottontail 45-60 minutes
Session Topics
▪Critter Photography: Behind the Scenes
▪Drafting, Revising, and Publishing Books
▪Curious Critters – Amazing Animals!
▪Curious Critters – Dogs (New!)
▪Interactive Student Work Sharing (Interactive)
Topics per Session
Caterpillar: Choose 1 topic
Treefrog: Choose 2 topics
Cottontail: Choose 3 topics
Session Timing
→ 10 minutes before session starts: IT connection and testing
→ 10 to 15 minutes per topic (chosen from list above according to program length)
→ 5 minutes for closing and goodbyes
Pre-Session Book Sales
A dedicated sales sheet is prepared for your school. All books ordered are signed and dedicated as indicated on returned forms and shipped free of charge approximately two weeks before the session.
Post-Session Book Sales
A dedicated sales sheet is prepared for your school. All books ordered are signed and dedicated as indicated on returned order forms and shipped free of charge approximately one week after the session.
Keys to Successful Virtual Visits
A meaningful and rewarding virtual visit depends upon working IT, student engagement, and careful classroom management.
IT: Prior to the visit, I will communicate with your IT specialist to learn about your school’s remote learning platform and the best ways to interact and share content via your technology. A test session will assure that everything is working well before the session date. For each classroom session, please try to position the camera so that I can see most or all of the students. That way I can try to monitor student engagement.
Student Engagement: Connecting with students is the core of my work in the Children & Nature movement. We will work together to make our virtual visit similar to the energy of in-person sessions. One critical aspect of virtual visits, as with in-person events, is engaging students before the visit. This can be facilitated by reading books beforehand, discussing biographical info, asking age-appropriate open-ended questions (such as, “How do you think you would go about photographing a live frog, making sure not to hurt it?”), and developing student-centered maker projects.
Classroom Management: Virtual visits are different from in-person visits in that I can’t always monitor the student audience the way I would when in a physical classroom. In order for me to not move on when students need to be reminded to focus, please explain to your classes how the session will be conducted and the need for attention. And please ask me to pause if an interruption occurs and you need to step in. I will stop to allow wait time. When I am reading from a book, please hold up a copy open to the current page near the monitor.
Social Media: You are welcome to use screen grabs or photos of my presentation to share on social media. You may tag these with the following:
Website
https://www.curious-critters.com
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/FitzSimmonsDavid/
@FitzSimmonsDavid
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/davidfitzsimmons.photos/
@davidfitzsimmons.photos
Cost
Caterpillar 15-25 min. $175
Treefrog 25-45 min. $200
Cottontail 45-60 min. $225
Literacy Night (for Parents) 45-60 min. $225
* Fees are extra for international bookings outside US time zones due to early-morning programming. Please ask for details.
Same-Day Discounts
Sessions Discount Details
2 sessions – 10% discount (within 3 hour period)
3 sessions – 15% discount (within 4 hour period)
4 sessions – 25% discount (within 6 hour period)
* Discount taken from total. Literacy presentation may occur on another day.
Group Size: To encourage engagement and help with management, please limit class sizes to 50 students per session.
Interested in a Virtual Visit? Please email me to discuss your needs, select dates, and tailor sessions to your school and classroom needs. Contact David
