Personalized Professional Development

Personalized Professional Development

Changing The World 

One Classroom, One Teacher, One Heart At A Time

I'm so delighted to let you know that I am unleashing 

a professional development revolution for teachers.

See a timely sample of the weekly newsletter to see the format HERE.

If this sounds like something your school would be interested in subscribing or you want to know more,  contact me.

What is Brave Teachers Personalized Professional Development?

It is a content driven delivery method of professional development that is created by an elementary school teacher for other elementary school teachers to make teaching a richer more effective experience.  

Each week teachers receive an electronic newsletter that is packed with resources related to a timely topic or theme.  The information is provided in the form of articles, videos, printables, podcasts, photographs, and resource lists.

• It is creative and innovative, real and fun.  
• School administrators can be confident as they choose or ask their teachers to choose a path that this will be a valuable use of resources.
• It is flexible in its accessibility, application and accountability. 
• Selected modules will work seamlessly with school culture.
• It's a great way to boost morale and improve retention of your faculty.

Making Paper With Kids

I love to make recycled paper.  It's an earth friendly craft.  The new paper can be utilized many different and creative ways.  It's messy and fun!

I love to make paper with kids even more!  At this point I have made paper with way more than a thousand kids and a few dozen adults.

Papermaking is a great activity for close to the end of the school year.  You might even want to do it outside, as it involves lots of water and can be messy.

Here's what I use:  lots of used paper in various colors, a blender, water, dishpan, towel, drying paper or thin towels, sponge, mold and deckle--you can buy these at many craft stores or online.  That's the only special tool and the wooden ones last FOREVER!

Here's what I do:

1.  Tear paper to the size of postage stamps
2.  Add about a cup of paper to blender and fill with water.  Blend.  The more you blend the finer it becomes.  I like big bits of paper still showing.
3.  Pour the pulp from blender into the dishpan that is already 1/3 full of water.
{You may want to repeat 2 & 3 several times.}
4.  Place the mold and deckle in the water and pull it out with pulp on the screen.
5.  Turn this over on a paper and dab the back of the screen to get lots of water out.  You have gotten enough water out when you can lift the screen without tearing the sheet of pulp.
6.  Hang these to dry--a clothesline is great for this!
7.  Peel the recycled paper off the other paper.  (I use drying papers many times and then eventually recycle them!)

You can make many amazing projects with recycled paper.  I love to use the paper to make cards, journal covers, and collages.  The recycled paper is very absorbent so if you paint, don't use too much water, and I don't recommend markers but other pens work fine.

I hope you find some joy in papermaking or any artsy project.

Welcome To My Studio

Welcome to my studio!

At the beginning of April, I started moving into my own studio space.  {This is both very exciting and scary.}

The studio is inside ACoT--the Art Cent on Tusc--in downtown Barberton.  It's on a lovely block with a variety of amazing shops--totally worth the time to check it out.

You will usually find me on the floor with my computer and lots of papers planning my next creative revolution!  I am in on Sunday afternoons, 11 - 3.  This summer I'm planning to work Tuesday and Thursday during the day, too.

Summer of Inspiration

Summer is just around the corner, and I want to offer Brave Hearts everywhere a daily dose of inspiration this summer.  Five days a week I will be sending out a printable poster with an amazing quote and decorated with some of my creativity, heart, and passion.  Just opening these little gems may be all you need to keep your motivation and spirits soaring.

If you need some more inspiration you can print them out to hang on your fridge or bulletin board or wherever you look for some uplift.

Click here to receive an abundance of inspiration this summer!

Now you know I love Brave Teachers, but this summer I want to send the love and hope to everyone who can possibly use it.  

Can you do me a favor?

Can you forward this to anyone who came to mind when you started reading this?  Your sister, your boss, your best friend from college, your mother-in-law, and your coworker who is in a rough patch.  I want to touch as many hearts and lives as possible this summer!

HERE IS WHERE TO SIGN UP

And if you would like a little taste of inspiration before the official start, here is a poster I made a few years ago.  Enjoy!

Signs of Spring

The 6 year old I live with has totally enjoyed taking walks over the past month seeking signs of spring.



At first you have to look diligently to notice any change.




Then it becomes more noticeable.

Then we can see that the cycle of life is in full swing.

 Then one day we notice in almost a surprised way that there are real plants all around us.








That's how it works in the classroom, too.  We wonder if our students will learn anything this year.  And then we begin to notice hopeful signs of growth.  And then we see that there is growth and change and progress and maturity.  That is when we know that we have done our jobs.

{I don't know of any standardized test that is able to notice these subtle nuances.  That may be the greatest flaw in the current and pervasive thought in how to evaluate teachers.  Please let me know if you know of a test that notices the little signs of change that give us hope as teachers!}

Sacred Space

As the school year starts to wind down it becomes more and more important to practice self care.   It is not for the weak.  It is for the wise.  I am feeling really crabby and prickly today.  I know I need to practice self care.  I took myself out to breakfast, and I'm working on plans for my future.  For me that is part of self care.  So is sharing this blog with you.

In January I took myself on a little private retreat at True Nature in Millersburg, Ohio.  One of the things that came out for me in a little finger painting activity is the need for sacred space in my life.  In order to create and be and nourish other people I must leave some sacred space.

What is sacred space?  I think it is a place where we nourish the most sacred and true part of ourselves--our light.  The world is always pressing in on our sacred space.  When we cease to be vigilant it can totally disappear, and in a sense it takes the most amazing part of us with it.

Please take good care of yourself.  Don't let the urgent trump the important anymore than is absolutely essential.  You will slide into summer in a more beautiful space (and maybe not quite as exhausted!) if you honor your sacred space now.

A Book Is Growing

Don't we all just see books and say, "I could have written that."  But the truth is we don't take or make the time to do it.

I'm in the process of writing a book about some of the bits of teaching that are nearest and dearest to my heart and furthest away from standardized testing--social and emotional education.  I would love to teach and have all of my students learn that it feels good to be kind!  And so many other parts of navigating our interior world so that we can successfully navigate the social world around us.

And then I thought this:  What if I could inspire and empower many teachers to teach these life skills to many more amazing students?

And so I'm here writing a book filled with the why and how to teach so many essential skills to students everywhere.  This summer I will be offering an online course for teachers who want to prepare themselves to be Brave Teachers.  I am also offering house retreats where you can work with me to put together materials for the upcoming school year.  You can invite your teacher friends and I will come to you with this transformational process.  I will also offer at least one retreat at my house this summer.  Email me if you want to get more details and be the first in the know.

You can read the first snippet over at Brave Teachers.