"is it possible to take heart once more, so that we can continue to do what good teachers always do - which is to give heart to our students?"

GINTD 6044: Courage to Teach Institute: Sustaining Ourselves in Challenging Times

This intensive course is for teachers, educational leaders, and other professionals interested in connecting who we are with what we do. This course focuses on the formative practices of Courage to Teach, a program that supports educators to explore and reclaim their vocational passion. Activities will include journaling, small and large group conversation, and reflection on the nature of teaching and ourselves as educators. We will explore the principles and social contexts of our efforts, and invite participants to identify implications for their own work.

Course Outline

The course will meet from 9-5 each day.

Day One: Context for Courage to Teach
Topics:
Contemplative Practices in Education
Relationship of Individual Integrity and Educational Reform
Courage to Teach Guidelines and Overview
Small and large group discussion

Day Two: Key Courage to Teach Practices I
Topics:
CTT makes use of several concepts in particular ways. We will explore what is meant by "Living on the Mobius Strip" and "using third things." Participants will identify and define the use of silence, open, honest questions, and seasonal metaphors. We will assess the way in which paradox becomes a key component of learning through this practice.

Day Three: Key Practices of CTT, II
Topics:
Participants will take part in a Clearness Committee, a process that offers clarity about a personal or professional issue, through a discipline of listening and asking open, honest questions. Students will be introduced to this process, practice and debrief their experience.
Video: Interviews with educators re: CTT

Day Four: Implications for Practice
Topics:
Reviewing guidelines
Identify areas for final projects; peer research support process
Discussion of assessment
Research Report: the impact of CTT in changing the culture of schools; the adult community in schools.

Day Five: Nurturing our Journey
Topics:
Identifying what nurtures their current journey
Developing a Personal Statement / Establishing an action plan
Course Evaluations
Closing Circle

Faculty

Pamela Seigle is Executive Director of Courage & Renewal Northeast, and a senior Courage to Teach facilitator. She is the founder of the Open Circle Program, a social and emotional learning program based at the Wellesley Center for Women. Her experience as a classroom teacher and a school psychologist and interest in primary prevention led to the development of the Understanding Disabilities Project.

Sharlene Voogd Cochrane is Professor and Director of the Dean of Faculty. Her current research and writing focus is cultural identity, and the intersection of race, religion, and gender. She is a facilitator for a variety of Courage to Teach/Courage to Lead retreats.

Carole Brandon directs the Field Placement Office in the undergraduate Education Division at Lesley. She teaches courses that have a field-based component. Her areas of interest include: the process of supervision with student teachers, peer mentoring and the mentoring process, and conflict resolution.

For more information, please contact
Sharlene Cochrane at 617-349-8477