Skip to main content
"Contemplative Teacher"  summer class- This summer I took a "Contemplative Teacher Workshop"  led by Missy Johnson at Nova Classical Academy in St. Paul. Missy is a Latin teacher at Nova, and finished her Master's degree in Contemplative Education from Naropa University in  Colorado. This was the "level" 2 class, building on concepts and skills we worked on last summer. It was a wonderful chance to connect with other teachers in the area, and do some sharing and  reflection. We also ended each session with some mindful sitting and walking practice. "Contemplative Education" is a growing field within education that highlights the inner world of students and teachers, through practices like meditation, writing, communication, theater, and the arts.  I highly recommend this workshop to any teacher interested in the areas of mindfulness  or contemplative education.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Playing Around

Photo by Matheo JBT on Unsplash In March I offered an e nso workshop for art teachers in my district. We had a great time that included discussion, mindful breathing,  lots of painting and generally making a mess of things. We talked about how enso painting fits into a Japanese aesthetic context, and how it is also relates to the "action painters" of abstract expressionism . Especially relevant is  the notion of   wabi-sabi ,  the embracing of change and imperfection.  We began the practice part of our workshop with some focused, mindful breathing, to help us become fully present. The silence was refreshing  after a very busy school day. I then demonstrated the traditional enso, where the artist completes a circle in  one focused movement. I also showed examples of ensos that I had done in other media, or combinations of media, to illustrate creative options for elaboration. After some practice on newsprint, my colleagues immediately began playing w...
Post a Comment
Read more
I recently published my first book on Amazon, "Advice for Every Hour." It's available in both ebook and paperback. It has many of the essays on this blog, as well as additional content. It chronicles my adventures applying mindfulness and other strategies in my life, and classroom. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Exploration Day: Art from Within

                                                                                                                                                                        On Friday of this week, our entire school took a break from our normal schedule, and instituted a day of "exploration." Teachers were asked to prepare lessons outside of their normal curriculum, and we offered everything from mask-making  to "reading cafe," cooking, "Shrinky Dinks," one-act plays, thoughtful movie watching, and even a trip to the local police station (and much more). Although it was a ...
3 comments
Read more