Online Courses

Awareness of Body and Feelings in Educational Contexts

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:30:48 -0500

Teachers, school counselors, and educational administrators find themselves daily in busy, stressful situations. When we develop the capacity for mindfulness in the midst of these situations, we can notice that our body and feelings are continuously interacting. At that point, we can tune into the subtle messages that can be read at the body and feeling level, we gain valuable insight into how we can change ourselves and these situations.

In addition, we explore the domains of contact, perception and consciousness, and the ways in which experience informs our minds. The mind can be trained, and through mindfulness training undertaken in this course in the midst of our working lives, we see that we have choices that may not otherwise be obvious.

Previous experience with mindfulness meditation and/or an established meditation practice is quite helpful for this course.

Principles and Practices of Mindful Leadership

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:55:52 -0500

As a teacher, teacher educator, or administrator, it is important to develop internal skills (an inner-net) that translate into successful interpersonal skills on the job. Mindful leadership introduces a new approach to leadership development that focuses on the inner world of a leader and how a leader works in the moment. Through readings and presentations, this course presents ten core principles and three mindfulness practices that help leaders to directly connect with their inner life and to bring out the best in themselves and others.
Three strands of work form the basis of this course. First, we read and learn about ten core principles of mindful leadership: simplicity and poise, respect and courage, confidence and enthusiasm, patience and awareness, skillfulness and humility. Readings are based on material from the core text, The Mindful Leader by Michael Carroll. Supplemental materials consist of journal articles, website referrals, podcasts and videos. The second strand of work in the course is to undertake a daily mindfulness meditation practice. Guided instructions are provided, as well as the opportunity to ask questions about and discuss the meditation practice. For the third strand, participants are given weekly assignments that focus on the application of the principles and practices of mindful leadership in their work context as teachers, teacher educators or administrators.

Compassionate Action in Education

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:28:21 -0500

Compassion and compassionate action in education can be informed by a framework that points to a new and fresh understanding of the source of distress in oneself, one's students and one's colleagues. The framework is known as the eight worldly conditions and it posits a sequence of four opposite conditions that are ever changing and impersonal. These four opposites are: pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame, and fame and disrepute. Understanding distress from the perspective of this framework can help educators to recognize and to shape compassionate action as the most caring and useful response to distress. Through readings and presentations, this course presents the eight worldly conditions and three mindfulness-compassion practices that can help educators to directly connect with their own experience and to wise, compassionate action in the midst of their classrooms and educational contexts.

Readings are based on material from the core text, A Heart as Wide as the World by Sharon Salzberg. Supplemental materials consist of journal articles, website referrals, podcasts and videos. Guided instructions are provided in mindfulness and compassion meditation practices. Additionally, participants are given weekly assignments that focus on the application of the framework of the eight worldly conditions and of compassionate action in their work context as teachers, teacher educators or administrators.