Experience, Facilitation & Leadership

1. Experience, Facilitation & Leadership • UWGB: June 24-27, 2012

3. Day 1: Foundations • IntroductionCommunity protocols and normsopening activities • Experiential Learning & Experiential EducationConstructivismExperiential Learning Model • Creating a sense of communityWhat & WhyContainer ConceptIntentionalityConditions

4. Best Workshop EverFacilitator • Clear and understood directions • Stay • Prepared • Interested and engaged • Present

5. Best Workshop EverEverybody • Building and inclusive community • Respect time • Attentive listening • Be supportive • Respectful open dialogue • Engaged and participate • Right to choose • Be aware of our humor

8. QUESTIONS/WONDERINGS • I wonder what I need to know… • I wonder how to bring this back to a larger group. • How do you maintain the position of directing without presenting yourself as an authority? • Why it works or doesn’t – how to be intentional with learning community. • Buy in?

9. QUESTIONS/WONDERINGS • How to get the group tasks/experiential learning to be the picture and not the scatter, disconnected stuff. • How to be/promote structure and purpose without creating or allowing complacency. • How can we bring experiential learning into our Native American 4th grade curriculum? • What does experiential learning entail?

10. Constructivism Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us generates our own “rules” and “mental models,” which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences. From: http://www.funderstanding.com/content/constructivism. Retrieved 6/3/09.

11. Experiential Education

12. Experimented • Explored • Learned from someone else’s example • Put yourself in the place of someone or something (empathy) • It was a process • Safe place to take risks • It was challenging or a “stretch” • Reflected or thought about what you were learning • Related to your life experiences and/or interests • You were ready to learn it • Knew it was Important to learn

13. EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING… • Happens all the time • Is a natural way to learn • Experimentation • Exploration • Example • Empathy INFORMAL

14. EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION • Harnesses the natural power of EL • Is a formal way to support learning • Shared philosophy, different methodologies FORMAL

15. Experiential Education Expeditionary Learning Wilderness Education Experience Based Training and Development Simulations Inquiry Adventure Based Counseling Internships Environmental Education Service Learning Art, Play, Music, Drama Therapies Adventure/Challenge Education And more…

16. Commonalities • Process-based • Safe environment that supports risk taking • Student/learner centered • Experiential Learning Model

17. PRESENTATION & FEEDBACK FRONTLOADING MAKING KNOWLEDGE VISIBLE ASKING QUESTIONS GATHERING INFORMATION & CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE

18. Creating a Sense of Community

19. From Group to Community “In genuine community there are no sides. It is not always easy but by the time they reach community the members have learned how to give up cliques and factions. They have learned how to listen to each other and how not to reject each other. Sometimes consensus in community is reached with miraculous rapidity. But at other times it is arrived at only after lengthy struggle. Just because it is a safe place does not mean community is a place without conflict. It is, however, a place where conflict can be resolved without physical or emotional bloodshed and with wisdom as well as grace. A community is a group that can fight gracefully.” M. Scott Peck M.D. The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace

20. Thomas Sergiovannistates that “the need for community is universal. A sense of belonging, of continuity, of being connected to others and to ideas and values that make our lives meaningful and significant -- these needs are shared by all of us.”

21. Sergiovanni goes on to say: “… Communities are collections of individuals who are bonded together by natural will and who are together binded to a set of shared ideas and ideals. This bonding and binding is tight enough to transform them from a collection of “I’s” into a collective “we.” As a “we,” members are part of a tightly knit web of meaningful relationships. This “we” usually shares a common place and over time comes to share common sentiments and traditions that are sustaining. When describing community it is helpful to speak of community kinship, of mind, of place, and of memory.”

22. “The people in one’s life are like the pillars on one’s porch you see life through. And sometimes they hold you up. And sometimes they lean on you, and sometimes it’s just enough to know they’re standing by.” • Anonymous

23. Community is consciousness of connection, combining and comprising: Courtesy, communication, collaboration, cooperation, consideration, caring, compassion, curiosity, commonalities, common goals, confidence, creativity, courage, challenge, camaraderie, and conceivably chocolate. CTC Group, 2004

24. A “sense” of community: An intangible place where one feels safe -- shared experience, goals, and feelings, interests in an open minded manner. Space where honesty and authenticity are honored which provides opportunity for reflection and growth. A sense of community is present when balance is fostered at the individual and group level with an effort toward (a) shared vision(s)

25. VISION • RESOURCEFUL • RESPECT • RESPONSIBLE     • SELF RESPECT     • SELF SUFFICIENT • SENSE OF HUMOR • SUCCESSFUL • WELL-INFORMED • AT PEACE • CARING • COMPASSIONATE • CONFIDENT     • CONTRIBUTER • CREATIVE • CRITICAL THINKER • EMPATHETIC     • EMPLOYED • FORGIVING • GET ALONG W/ OTHERS • GOOD COMMUNICATOR • GOOD PARENTS • GOOD SELF ESTEEM • HAPPY • HEALTHY • HONEST     • INDEPENDENT • INTEGRITY • LITERATE     • LOYAL • MOTIVATED • PATIENT • PERSEVERENCE • POSITIVE ATTITUDE • PROBLEM SOLVERS • PRODUCTIVE CITIZENS • RELIABLE • RESILIENT

26. Creates a Safe Environment: It’s about Prevention “Recent research showed that teachers only intervened in four percent or one out of twenty- five bullying incidents, although teachers thought they’d intervened in 71%. Youth can be very good at hiding bullying behaviors from adults.” From: Sticks and Stones…: Changing the dynamics of bullying and youth violence (1999) by Katherine J. Kocs., MSW. Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Prevention Resource

27. Frees the Brain for Learning Brain-Compatible Elements for Learning • Absence of threat • Meaningful content • Choices • Adequate time • Enriched environment • Collaboration • Immediate feedback • Mastery (application) *From ITI: The Model, Integrated Thematic Instruction, by Susan Kovalik, 1994 Caine and Caine refer to “relaxed alertness” as when the brain is at it’s best for learning.

28. Supports Academic Learning •  Safe, caring, and orderly environments are conducive to learning. • Caring relations between teachers and students foster a desire to learn and a connection to school. • When students can self-manage their stress and motivations, and set goals and organize themselves, they do better. From: Zins, J.E., Weissberg, R.P., Wang, M.C., and Walberg, H.J, eds. (2004). Building Academic Success on Social and Emotional Learning: What does the research say? New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

29. Helps Youth Gain Assets & Life Skills • Protection from High-Risk Behaviors • Promotion of Positive Attitudes and Behaviors • The more assets, the better. From: The Search Institute: www.search-institute.org

30. CASEL Study* … four-year study confirming that school-based social and emotional learning programs that help students build positive relationships, develop empathy, and resolve conflicts respect-fully and cooperatively also have a positive effect on academic performance. (from article by International Institute for Restorative Practices:www.safersanerschools.org/library/caselstudy.html) http://www.casel.org/downloads/metaanalysissum.pdf * Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning

31. Supports Social Emotional Learning (SEL) See www.CASEL.org

32. How SEL Supports Good Outcomes for Young People Safe, Caring, Challenging, Well- Managed , Participatory Learning Environments Greater Attachment, Engagement & Commitment to School Better Academic Performance and Success in School and Life • Teach SEL • Competencies • Self-awareness • Social awareness • Self-management • Relationship skills • Responsible • decision making Less Risky Behavior, More Assets, More Positive Development http://www.casel.org/downloads/Safe%20and%20Sound/2B_Performance.pdf

33. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Retrieved from: http://two.not2.org/psychosynthesis/articles/maslow.gif

34. The Container Concept

35. Not all Containers are Alike

37. We Have Choices…We have Influence… What are the qualities of your container at work, school, home?

38. Conditions for Creating a Sense of Community • Safe and Trusting EnvironmentPhysical/Emotional Safety and Relational Trust • Balancing “Me” and “We”Empowerment and Social Commitment

39. The central message of the consumer culture in which we live is: You’re the most important thing on earth. You’re the heaviest object in the universe and everything orbits around you. And we’ve enshrined this idea as ‘human nature.’ Not remembering that most people in most places have had other things very near the center of their identity – the tribe, the community, their relationship with the natural world, or the Divine – something that gave them more of a sense of identity not obsessively rooted in themselves. Bill McKibbon (Interview aired on May 26, 2007)

43. Conditions for Creating a Sense of Community • PositivityPositivity ratio of 3:1Nurture the positive

44. Resiliency through Positivity • Joy • Gratitude • Serenity • Interest • Hope • Pride • Amusement • Inspiration • Awe • Love From: Fredrickson, B. (2009) Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive. New York, NY: Crown Archetype.

45. Positivity • Broadens our minds and our hearts • Transforms us for the better • Fuels Resilience • Asking questions and focusing outward (open to new ideas) • Connectivity and attunement of the team. More responsive to one another • Bouncing back from adversity rather than getting stuck in self-absorbed advocacy

46. Positivity RatioThe Tipping PointFlourishing = 3 to 1 “… only when positivity ratios are higher than 3 to 1 is positivity in sufficient supply to seed human flourishing.” (Fredrickson, 2009)

47. A Place for Negativity • Specific negative emotions help us focus and take action (such as in resolving or transforming conflict). Global and unfocused negative emotions overwhelm and poison us. • The difference between anger and contempt or guilt and shame

48. Conditions for Creating a Sense of Community • OwnershipFocus (goal setting) and the 3 R’s (Routines, rituals, responsibilities)

49. Ritual A routine is merely something we do, a ritual has emotional significance. “Rituals are powerful because they speak to a different part of the brain than we use for thinking,” says JoynBorysenko, Ph.D., author of Inner Peace for Busy People. That’s because rituals bypass words, connecting us to what matters through symbols or gestures.

50. Conditions for Creating a Sense of Community • Intentionality Being intentionally inviting and making Time for relationship building