September
15, 2012 - The holistic art of role play - David Booth Room 5-210/220
The theme
of this workshop is the holistic art of role play: how exploring “other”
inside a role can increase and expand our understanding of “self”.
Using video clips from classroom role playing events over the years, David
Booth will discuss and demonstrate the powerful changes in self-understanding
that can occur when students and teachers are working collaboratively
in role.
David
Booth
is Professor Emeritus at the Ontario Institute for Studies in
Education at the University of Toronto. For more than 25 years he has worked
with teachers in creating, applying, and evaluating approaches to how children
learn to read and write. As a classroom teacher, consultant, speaker, and
writer he has delighted thousands with his energy, enthusiasm, and commitment.
He has given hundreds of speeches and workshops throughout North America,
Australia, and England and has appeared on dozens of television and radio
programs.
Catherine
Miller is a Master Certified Coach with the International Association
of Coaching and has been a more conscious practitioner of well being since
1994. She enjoys and appreciates the insights and new learning she
takes away from the Holistic Educators’ Saturday sessions she has attended
and the sessions she attended at the Holistic Educators Conference in 2009.
She presented Insights from Outdoors at that conference.
Her Master’s
degree thesis on Cultivating Leisure: Moving from arrest in habitual patterns
to participating in conscious choice, was a profound, transformative experience
from which she has gratefully continued to learn about ‘Being Human’, develop
her self-awareness and change unhelpful habitual ways of perceiving, reacting
and interacting into healthier and happier ones. She coaches, writes,
guides workshops and co-creates customized teaching with clients individually
and in groups, as they learn more about themselves, being human and develop
their own abilities to cultivate their inner well being.
Larry
Nusbaum
is a physician, psychotherapist, storyteller, and musician
who lives in Toronto. He designs inner guidance tools that help people
heal their lives and live well, and has been teaching these methods internationally
for 23 years. Larry loves to share what brings balance, joy, and hope into
his life and into the lives of others.
Katie
Doering: Exploring Difficult Topics – Talking to Children about Death
Through a
variety of different mediums, participants in this workshop will explore
their own understanding of death, the anxieties they have about talking
to children about death, and various death resources. Katie Doering
will guide this exploration by discussing experiences working in her own
classroom with children facing death themselves or dealing with the death
of a sibling.
Katie Doering (B.Ed., MA) runs RMH Toronto School, a private school located within Ronald McDonald House Toronto, dedicated to addressing the social, emotional and academic needs of seriously ill children and their siblings. She is also an instructor at Ryerson University in the Early Childhood Studies department. In 2011, Katie began pursuing a flex-time PhD at OISE/UT to further explore her research interests in special, holistic and teacher education.
Mark Bell: Starting a brand new school based in Holistic Education Principles – The TDSB Vocal Music Academy at Ryerson Community School
Jennifer
Motha: Your Presence is the Present
Through various
contemplative and mindful exercises we well attempt to explore what it
means to be present, aware and mindful. Activities will include some gentle
physical movement, breath watching as well as some visual and writing exercises.
The session will conclude with a group reflection.
Jennifer Motha is an elementary school teacher in the the inner city of Toronto as well as a pilates and yoga instructor. She is a doctoral candidate under the supervision of Jack Miller. Her academic interest is in the area of meditation, contemplation and teacher reflection as it informs the teachers's intuitive knowledge and personal teaching practices. Jennifer is also TA for the Introduction to Buddhist Psychology Theories and Applications course as well as Socially Engaged Buddhism at New College. During the course of the her doctoral studies has studied and practiced meditation and contemplation under the supervision of John Welwood, Gregory Kramer, Stephen and Martine Batchelor. She also served as a GA under the supervision of Jack Miller for the former Whole Child School now known as the Equinox School and a TEPA for the Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study. She has a long time interest in issues involving inclusion, equity and social justice in public education and continues to advocate for quality holistic public education to serve its diverse student population.
Anbananthan
Rathnam: Developing Awareness through Krishnamurti’s Three Stages
of Awareness
This workshop
intends to raise awareness among the participants the importance of meditation.
A meditative mind refers to a state of being calm and feeling whole. Wholeness
refers to our core characteristic that is whole and non-fragmented. It
is from this wholeness that we are able to approach life in a holistic
manner. Participants will experience the three stages of awareness that
is capable of addressing their psychological conditioning. Krishnamurti’s
three stages of awareness were modeled using an experiential metaphor called
The Flower Model.
Anbananthan Rathnam : Anba’s thesis is titled Whole Teachers: A Holistic Education Perspective on Krishnamurti’s Educational Philosophy. His deep interest in the works of Jiddu Krishnamurti brought him to the doctoral work at OISE. Anba intends to develop a one year teacher education/development program that will focus on assisting teachers to observe their own psychological conditioning and possibly experience the flow state as mentioned by Csikszentmihalyi in his book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.