Courage to Teach® Retreat at Tatamagouche Centre 2016
Educators at all levels (elementary, middle, high school, college and university) are experiencing a great deal of stress and pressure due to the increase of internal and external demands on the profession. Courage to Teach® provides educators an opportunity for rest, renewal, and re-engagement with their identity and integrity as teachers.
What to Expect
This introductory Courage to Teach® retreat offers educators opportunities to reflect on the inner dimension of teaching and leading and explore “the heart of a teacher.” At the retreat, 15-20 participants gather to engage in honest self-reflection and to explore questions about purpose, values, and commitment to our challenging work. In doing so, we increase our capacity to listen, to stay true to our mission, and to engage with the work of teaching wholeheartedly.
In large group, small group, and solitary settings, participants will make use of stories from our own journeys, reflections on classroom practice, and insights from poets, story-tellers, and diverse wisdom traditions. We are invited to speak earnestly about our lives and work, and to listen and respond to each other—and to ourselves—with encouragement and compassion.
Click to learn more about the Circle of Trust approach, developed by Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal.
Ontario Teachers speak of the benefits of Courage to Teach retreats:
source: Professional Speaking pg 36 Towards Wellness
A long-time participant in Courage to Teach retreats says the opportunity for structured self-reflection allowed her to put the multiple demands of school and home in perspective. “I am a better teacher for knowing myself.”
“Bringing my whole self to the classroom allowed my students to bring their whole selves too.”
Courage to Teach helps teachers deal with the burnout and stress brought on internally by cutbacks, layoffs, increased class sizes, decreased learning time, student behavioral issues and fewer resources as well as external pressures caused by increased poverty, high unemployment and rising expectations among parents.
The Benefits
This unique professional development retreat can help you develop:
- A stronger sense of purpose, renewed commitment & increased satisfaction with your work.
- A heightened sense of personal and professional renewal, readiness to return to work refreshed and energized.
- An increased capacity to be fully present in your work by providing a reprieve from the hectic bustle of teaching.
- A deepened capacity to tune in to the individual needs and gifts of students and colleagues.
- Expanded capacity to be resilient and purposeful in your work as an educator.
Experiences in these supportive circles have been effective in helping teachers create safer spaces and trusting relationships in their schools, with their students and colleagues, and within their communities. Past participants consistently rate the experience very highly.
Also check out these important findings on other key benefits, drawn from research and evaluation on Courage to Teach®.
The retreats provided guided opportunities and time to be able to reflect deeply on the guiding principles and values for myself as an educator, when neither the time nor context is as available in the school or home settings.”
I feel a clearer sense of satisfaction and purpose. Each activity helped me to know myself better. It cleared the pathway to be more engaged with students and colleagues.”
I learned to allow heart into everything I do. To embrace each of my students’ perspectives, lives, hopes, and interests.”
Meet Your Facilitators
Brian Braganza is a certified Courage & Renewal® Facilitator. He works as an experiential educator specializing in personal development, youth engagement, boys and men’s programs, community resiliency and sustainability. Brian is a trained adult educator and has a long history with the HeartWood Centre for Community Youth Development, the Tatamagouche Centre and has facilitated a Sustainability Leadership Certificate program for Dalhousie University’s College of Sustainability. Most recently Brian has been developing and facilitating health curriculum to groups of male identified students in classrooms in Lunenburg County, NS, and supporting teachers to lead similar programming.
Becky McKenna, BEd, PhD is a Courage & Renewal® Facilitator with both local and international facilitation experience. She has spent many years as an educator from elementary school to university settings, and is an experienced retreat director. She takes great delight in the process by which people discover inner wisdom and strive to live authentically.
Program Cost: $490 includes single occupancy lodging, meals, and materials.
DEADLINE: Please register no later than October 26, 2016
Upon registration and deposit, participants will receive an email with detailed information, including directions and preparatory materials.
Questions about Courage to Teach?
Rebecca McKenna [email protected]
Brian Braganza [email protected]