“The Teacher’s Way Cohort helped me to center myself back to who I was, what I stand for, what is important to me, and how to align that with the work that I do as an Early Childhood Educator. These skills have been valuable and useful in my work as I also do Parent Education. I have been able to apply what I have learned with my parenting group and so far it has been a huge hit! One core element in what I strive to do is to help parents destress and now that I have been applying art in what we do I have seen tremendous results. Parents seem calmer and much more present, ready to learn!’Maria Eugenia Perdomo / Ready, Set, Go Senior Program Manager
What can you expect from a Teacher’s Way workshop?
- A workshop that provides the space, time and safety to take care of yourself, physically, emotionally and mentally
- A supportive and collaborative environment where shared & common interests provide a variety of perspectives about well-being and professional growth
- A creative, effective and fun approach to personal & professional growth
- A workshop that helps you reconnect with your motivation, and feel inspired to return to your teaching role
Workshop Overview
Title of workshop: The Teacher’s Way™
Primary Intention: To provide professional development training that supports making meaningful connections between teaching, education and the wider social context.
Secondary Intention: To provide arts-based research methods that help all teachers balance professional and personal growth. Participants will develop, practice, test and re-access the impact of self-care in both their personal and professional environment. Participants will develop personal strategies for self-care and leadership mentoring.
What: A series of five intensive workshops steeped in active learning (experiential) that incorporate the creative arts as an approach to personalized learning and discovery. Expressive arts-based practices (writing, drawing, moving) are suitable for all learning styles (visual, auditory, kinetic), and combines verbal and non-verbal activities.
Who: Educators who are working with children and their families.
Why: It is imperative for us, as teachers in collaboration with other people, to encourage one another to reflect on important and sometimes difficult inquires, such as:
- Why do we reflect in this way, and why do we respond in certain ways?
- Where does my personal and professional practice intersect?
- How is my self-care reflected in the way I work?
- What do we know and not know about life-long learning processes?
- Are my communication skills effective?
- How do I observe others?
- Can I track myself; how can I be reflexive?
- How do I listen and reflect back to others?
- What do I know about boundaries, personally, collectively and culturally?
These are questions that can be overlooked because we may lack the tools, skills and time to research them. More importantly, we need supportive and safe ground to stand on so that we can approach the uncomfortable and difficult task of self-reflection.
Expressive arts activities used in the workshops
We approach the arts with a low skill, high sensitivity approach, equally the same when we use the arts as a therapeutic intervention. For adults this approach can take time to cultivate, however the results are always immediate.
- Drawing with pastels, paint, chalk on many forms of paper can help us image new ways of learning – understand and communicating. We begin from beginning all the time. For example, without line there is no shape. When we begin to formulate lines into shapes we are working towards solutions, healing and helping ourselves and others.
- Drama unfolds when we engage with mask-making. A wonderful way to help us understand the “roles” we play. Creating the mask helps us to mobilize and express important themes in our life. Working “behind” the mask offers a deeper insight into our behaviors and helps us practice new ways of communicating and being in the world.
- Collage, sculpting with clay, water color, found objects in nature, mixed-media are used in various ways to help us with experimenting and brainstorming, thinking out of the box is not just a term, it’s a doing thing, it’s a mixing it up thing! Working with lots of variety gives us confidence to think on our feet and to be resourceful when scarcity threatens our lives.
- Music making is wonderful tool that can help us learn how to listen for patterns and rhythms. This practice translates into a knowledge of how to listen and track the nuances of what others are sharing with us. Music making and sound help us understand prosody. When a participant discovers the experiential connection of playing with sound, hearing themselves and listening to others, they respond with a resonant voice…… EUREKA!
- Movement expression is another form of finding your “true north”. Understanding the compass of your body will help you resource your strength and reserve. Simple movement explorations that are fun and easy will teach you how to regulate, rest and energize yourself. The body is a storage house and everything we feel, see, touch and experience lives in our body.
The Teacher’s Way™ workshops provide a Certificate of Completion.
The Teacher’s Way™ 5-part series covers Oregon Registry Set-Two Standards in the Core Body of Knowledge category for Personal, Professional & Leadership Development.
The Teacher’s Way™ 5-part series offers 30 PDU’s and includes:
Part I – Implementing strategies for self-care in professional development
Part II – Theory and practice of self-care in professional development
Part III – Creating a professional and personal development portfolio
Part IV – Skills for applying self-care practice in leadership
Part V – Mentoring and facilitating development of colleagues
See what teacher’s are up to in our Teacher’s Way classrooms:
Teacher’s Way Cohort “I’m Not Just a Teacher”
Teacher’s Way Cohort “We are open and here, helping each other to remember ourselves”
