It’s taken time – you see I’m an extrovert – but I have learned to appreciate silence. Whether a learning event, meeting, working session, workshop or check in, I value time when no one is talking. I know it can feel uncomfortable for some and sometimes the seconds can feel like hours to others, but I have learned that this is time well spent.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has been a leader in the fight for TANF reform. Their leaders have presented at national congressional hearings related to the necessity to reform the welfare system, with emphasis on the TANF Program.
I have to confess that in a conference call meeting the other day I found myself multi-tasking instead of paying careful attention. I justified it to myself by only doing it during agenda items that didn’t completely involve me. Still, I was clearly distracted! After...
Respect. Safety. Engagement. Inclusion. Relevance. Immediacy. These six core principles drive our work at Global Learning Partners (GLP).
I am a visual learner so I tend to prioritize visual learning when designing learning experiences: showing what I mean using diagrams and pictures, drawing on visual metaphors to invite new connections, and calling on learners to draw tables, flow charts, and diagrams that demonstrate causal or relational links from one idea or action to the next.
"A circle of women is a nurturing and sustaining resource that can become a spiritual and psychological wellspring tapped into whenever the circle meets." ~ Jean Shinoda Bolen, Urgent Message from Mother A friend tells the story of a time when she was in college. Her...
At the beginning of summer I had the opportunity to take a course for professional development. It was a course offered by the Canadian School of Peacebuilding and the instructor was the author Rupert Ross The content of his book Returning to the Teachings:...
Participants relishing their productive silence at the October 2014 Foundations of Dialogue Education workshop in San Diego, CA With the speed of life and technology, it seems that many of us are managing our lives in 10-minute increments. Even that 10 minutes can be...
I cannot remember her name, but I will always remember our moment. I had just started a new training job, and was visiting my new colleagues, bringing with me a small collection of resources we had developed in my previous team—two books, a few manuals, a CD with...
“Dialogue Education sounds great, but what does it look like with children?”
A while ago I had the joy of reading a fascinating theological book called Copious Hosting: A Theology of Access for People with Disabilities. In that gentle and prophetic text, Catholic disability-advocate Jennie Weiss Block sets out to define disability and...
While facilitating a day-long or week-long learning event, setting aside some time for a “check-in” can give participants the pause they need to process and prepare for what’s next. It allows them to reflect, re-energize, and reconnect before jumping back into a...