MA retreat opportunity for teachers

Subject: Courage to Teach Arts, Nature & Renewal Day for Educators at Walden Woods

Courage to Teach Arts, Nature & Renewal Days for Educators,
at Walden Woods, Lincoln, MA
Date: Saturday, December 6, 2008 and Saturday, June 6, 2009,
9:00am - 3:00pm
Location: The Thoreau Institute, Lincoln, MA www.walden.org
Contact: Lisa Sankowski, lsankows@wellesley.edu or 781-283-2861

We invite you to participate in a special Courage to Teach experience.Â
These one-day retreats, which can be enjoyed singly or together, are open
to all educators. They will combine a taste of Courage to Teach, based
on the work of Parker J. Palmer, with an opportunity to reflect on our
lives and teaching through an exploration of the arts and nature—all in
the lovely setting of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Woods. This event
is offered in collaboration with The Walden Woods Project.

We will come together to learn from and honor our unique qualities,
experiences, and gifts as educators, strengthening our commitment to
nurturing the hearts and minds of our students. These gatherings will
focus on “the person in the profession,” reconnecting who we are with
what we do. Please join us.

WHAT WILL THESE RETREATS BE LIKE?
In the morning, we will invite you into a quiet, focused, and disciplined
space—a circle of trust—in which the noise within us and around us can
subside and we can begin to hear our own inner voice. In large group,
small group, and solitary settings, we will explore the intersection of
our personal and professional lives, making use of stories from our own
journeys, the writings of Thoreau, and insights from other poets,
storytellers, and wisdom traditions.

In the afternoon, in a fun and supportive environment, we will explore and
enjoy a particular art form as a way of deepening our morning explorations
and of seeing ourselves, our work, and our world with fresh eyes.

We are offering two events:
• December 6th, 2008, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.—Winter Storytelling: Sharing
Tales by the Fire. Facilitators: Pamela Seigle, Executive Director,
Courage & Renewal Northeast & Margie Zohn, The Ariel Group
• June 6th, 2009, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.—Summer Seeing: Joys of a
Naturalist’s Journal. Facilitator: Lisa Sankowski, Associate Director,
Courage & Renewal Northeast & Susan Frey, Director of Education, Walden
Woods Project

COST
The cost for each retreat day, with breakfast treats, lunch, and all
materials, is $50.
If you sign up now for both retreat days, the combined cost is $90.Â
Certificates of Participation towards PDPs will be provided.

TO REGISTER
Please download attached registration materials.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lisa Sankowski
Associate Director

Courage & Renewal Northeast
Wellesley College, Billings Hall
106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481

email: lsankows@wellesley.edu
website: www.CourageNE.org
phone: 781-283-2861

Safe space for LGBTQ students

Creating Safe Spaces for LGBTQ Youth
Hardy Girls Healthy Women and Communities for Children and Youth are offering four regional trainings for adults working with youth. The trainings will help adults learn to create safe, supportive environments for lesbian and gay youth to grow. These trainings are free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided.

Creating Safe Spaces Training Dates and Locations:
November 12- Farmington, UMaine Farmington Campus, 10am-3pm
November 13- Portland, USM Glickman Library, University Events Room, 10am-3pm
November 18- Bangor, Sea Dog Brewing Company Conference Center, 10am-3pm
November 19- Belfast, UMaine Hutchison Center, 10am-3pm

For more information please email Hardy Girls Healthy Women or you can register online.

StoryWalk on Mackworth Island

The Friends School of Portland has brought a storywalk to Mackworth Island. Storywalks engage children in literacy by combining the text and pictures from children's books with activities to do as they walk through the story (a winding walk by large posters from the books.) The storywalk on Mackworth is of Cathryn Falwell's newest book Scoot. The walk will be up through October and is just along the trail -- come check it out. Friends is offering admissions events in November for those wanting more information about the school.


Admissions Events

Parent Information Session

Who: Prospective parents, friends and supporters. Adults only, please.

What: Meet administrators & current parents

Where: Friends School of Portland on Mackworth Island, Falmouth, Maine

When: 6:00 to 7:00 pm, Wednesday, November 12

Please call to let us know you are coming, but last minute drop-ins are welcome.

Family Open House

Who: Prospective families, friends and supporters. Children welcome!

What: Meet teachers, administrators, & current parents

Where: Friends School of Portland on Mackworth Island, Falmouth, Maine

When: 10 to 11:30 am, Saturday, November 15

Parent Class Visits

Who: Prospective parents, only.

Childhood Education International

The Association for Childhood Education International is an advocacy group that combines research and writing directly for educators with opportunities for global activism on behalf of all children. They advocate for the right to play for all children, but provide unique insight into the struggles to provide space to play in different regions and contexts.

Of special interest is a new publication, Children and Families of African Origin: A Guide for Educators and Service Providers, could be especially useful to Maine childcare providers and teachers who are integrating classrooms and creating welcoming spaces for immigrant children and families.

Children's Book Review / Find a Book Tool

Zuckerman's Barn is an incredibly cool interactive search tool for finding kids books about any possible topic. Children write reviews and share book titles, too.

Live Blogging About Poverty

Today, October 15, is Blog Action Day with a focus on poverty. Thousands of bloggers have shared information and views about global poverty.


Feministing called attention to the U.N. post about the relationship between gender and poverty.

Create Books for Children in Uganda

My dearest friend, Sara Shifrin, is spreading the word about this opportunity for U.S. children to create books for children in Uganda. The program is called Books of Hope. The program fee is $225 per group, so it is best to involve lots of classrooms or children in the project.

Mojo Mom

Amy Tiemann is part of my generation of highly educated mothers who've been "off-ramped" and yet still have professional ambitions. She combines her experience of mothering with a personal-is-political analysis. She has written a book, The Mojo Mom, has a podcast which is free on itunes, and offers resources on her web site. I like her approach because she focuses on the support that individual women need (although I thought this was overly stressed in her 1st book and hope that there is a more political tone in the new edition) but also pushes women to think about advocating for mothers and families more broadly through political change.

Her latest podcast introduced a project called the op-ed project, an organization that encourages women to bring our voices into the political mainstream through participation in editorial pages and other forms of public debate. I am going to try to pull some of the facts and figures about child poverty together into an op-ed, and hope others might think about doing the same !

Resources for Columbus Day

With Columbus Day around the corner, and my e-mailing of bits of info increasing, I decided I should try to resurrect this blog. I may not be able to keep it as updated as I'd hoped, but most of the links are still current.

Columbus Day can get all of us thinking about how to talk with kids -- and ourselves -- about the genocide committed against American Indians in a developmentally appropriate way. It doesn't help that so much of the media maintains an idealized and stereotypical perspective. And, it doesn't help me that I am missing huge chunks of knowledge -- so the first step is definitely for me to educate myself more and model that for and with my kids (I'm guessing Grace knows more than I do about a lot of pieces of history now).

Here is a general resource for thinking about teaching about Native American history, avoiding the "tourism" trap.

American Indians in Children's Literature offers many fabulous suggestions for books - I'm going to get the new Louise Erdrich book for Grace and myself to read.

For resources for learning about / teaching about Maine, check out the website that was developed to support LD291, a law to teach about Maine's Native Americans.