Redesigning schools…

Creating Community

The objectives of this workshop are to help participants establish a set of shared values and goals for their school or organization, and practice the tools necessary to grow and maintain a learning community. Participants examine and share their mental models and assumptions about young people, education, and the future. They also practice basic communication skills, reflect on their hopes and challenges, and learn a set of protocols for sharing ideas and plans in a collaborative environment. This workshop helps new organizations operationalize their vision and begin the work of creating new systems of teaching, learning, and student success.

Project Based Learning

Using design principles I outlined in the Handbook for Standards-Based Project Based Learning, a top-selling book published for secondary teachers by the Buck Institute for Education, participants learn how to design, implement, and manage community-oriented projects in secondary schools. This workshop has been completed by over one thousand educators and can range from a one-day overview of project based learning to a full three days of project planning and collaboration for teams of teachers. Longer workshops include more information on how the school culture, context, and community can be used to support and enhance project based work in the classroom. Appropriate for up to 20 participants.

Beyond the Classroom Walls: Integrating the Community into your school...

Given the opportunities created by global technologies, as well as the shift to a learner-centered society worldwide, education can no longer be confined to the classroom. All secondary students should participate in internships, learn through authentic projects centered on community and workforce issues, and interact with successful adults in their community. In this workshop, teachers and educational leaders learn specific methods for incorporating parents, business, non-profit organizations, and non-governmental organizations into standards focused classroom projects.

21st Century Skills: Communication, Collaboration and Self-Management

The world has identified three categories of core skills—communication, collaboration, and self-management—necessary for adults to succeed in today’s entrepreneurial, personalized world. Students are rarely taught these skills through intentional methods that incorporate practice, feedback, and mastery. In this workshop, educators learn how to integrate the teaching of these key skills into their academic curriculum. This workshop can be expanded to include teaching educators a specific, highly-effective program for training students in public speaking and communication in the classroom.

Youth Development and the New Language of Education

Traditionally, youth development is regarded as an afterthought or after-school activity that complements education. But education can no longer be separated from developing human potential. In this workshop, participants learn how to integrate the new language of small, personalized schools with the principles of youth development. The workshop guides educators in developing appropriate inquiry-based projects that integrate youth development—in the form of resiliency, character education, citizenship, and habits of mind—with rigorous, accountable education.

Changing the Way We Teach…

Problem Solving and Creativity: Activating the Heart-Mind

Working in the context of the heart-mind, the unified system of heart and brain that regulates physiology and cortical functions, participants examine the nature of creativity and mechanisms for problem solving that integrate emotions and analysis. This workshop helps participants replace a brain-based view of critical thinking with a deeper, more holistic view that better represents how people solve problems and discover creative solutions.

Replacing Stress with Peak Performance

Using the techniques developed by the Institute of HeartMath in the United States, participants learn to how to use positive emotions to manage stress and maintain optimal functioning of both body and brain. Participants leave with a set of basic skills for emotional self-management that can become lifetime tools for peak performance. This workshop may be adapted for an audience of teachers who wish to improve their stress management capabilities or avoid burn-out in stressful school situations.

Partnering with Youth

Building upon skills developed in the peak performance and stress management workshop, participants identify how these skills can be used by students and teachers in schools. Topics vary with needs of the participants, and may include student-teacher relationships, student-student relationships, collaboration and communication skill building, and advisory programs.

The Heart, Intuition, and Change Management

Designed primarily for leaders in education and youth development, this workshop uses the science of the heart to focus on enhancing intuition and visioning programs and solutions for youth. Participants learn the basic techniques of emotional self-management, but also focus on the electromagnetic properties of the heart and its ability to ‘read the future’.

The Resilient Educator™

Developed by the Institute for HeartMath, this workshop helps educators boost performance, improve school relationships, and strengthen resiliency. The workshop offers proven skills and strategies that can transform an educator’s productivity and energy levels. Based on HeartMath’s fifteen years of scientific research and successful interventions with corporations, hospitals, government agencies, and schools. I offer this workshop as a Qualified Instructor for HeartMath Resilient Educator programs.