A while ago, my colleagues and I invited the people in our training to imagine they were someone they were not. For a while they had to “be” this person and experience the joys and challenges of this role. They had to put themselves in someone else’s shoes and look from a different perspective.
By Jane Vella with Valerie Uccellani On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity & Getting Old by Parker Palmer, 2019 From Jane I found this a delightful, informative, funny, inspiring and honest book. Parker is a contemporary of mine (I’m his older sister!)...
There are countless helpful ways to engage learners during a workshop or meeting. I get great joy designing ways to ensure purposeful and productive uses of solo and group activity.
Chatterbox is what teachers dubbed me from a young age. During class and on progress reports, I’d often be called out for jabbering to my comrades out of turn. In fact, for whispering while the directions were being given for a standardized test in 6th grade, I served...
In Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, Henri Nouwen states, “Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space...
Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners works to create change in the financial lives of New York City residents. They believe strongly in the need to break people out of inertia and support them to take actions – even small actions – to improve their money management skills and build a healthy personal balance sheet.
Participating in a Dialogue Education course has been a game-changer for me. For more than a decade I’ve done presentations, designed curriculum, taught workshops, etc, and I was pretty sure that I was good at what I did! I prided myself on being an engaging...
On a recent Sunday morning, I was up early and listened to On Being with Krista Tippett. This morning’s broadcast guest was Pádraig Ó Tuama, who is a poet, theologian, and extraordinary healer in our fractured world. He leads the Corrymeela community of Northern...
I know the power of the open questions. I design with them, facilitate with them, and evaluate with them. But, are they enough? I often feel that some people are good at giving me just what they think I want. I ask a question and they give me an answer with just...
These days, there are many opportunities to not just visit another country for pleasure, but spend time getting to know a community and a culture. College education-abroad programs, faith-based experiences, international culture exchanges, and “voluntourism”...
In the International Budget Partnership (IBP), we have been working hard to embrace the principles and practice of Dialogue Education in all our meetings and learning events. Recently though, we have had to think about teambuilding or creating a network-dynamic...
What do you do when you have 50 minutes to teach a topic and your only access to the learners is a chat box? Before you press send on your slide deck, check out this quick checklist that might spark a little extra engagement for the participants of your next webinar....