Here in Vermont December is the darkest and quietest time of the year. The days are short but the long evenings are beautifully lit with the peaceful ambiance of candles, holiday lights and snow.  The shorter days bring me into the house earlier. There is more time to sit in front of the fire [...]

In my August post I compared the art of group facilitation and teaching to cooking and promised more articles on the key ingredients that make group work and learning successful.   As with cooking, facilitation is an art that involves a combination of practice, observation, knowledge of theory and creativity. Effective facilitators act as a [...]

A Taoist Perspective on Facilitation and Leadership To continue with this month’s theme around the qualities that make a great leader or group facilitator we are offering this excerpt from Steven Simpson’s book The Leader Who is Hardly Known. Being Hardly Known In experiential education, I do not know of anyone who does not enjoy [...]

“A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary” – Thomas Curruthers When I work with educators from all backgrounds I often find myself encouraging them to reflect on the idea of  a “student centered ” or  “participant centered” approach to teaching and group facilitation.  In this approach an educator thinks of themselves as a [...]

There are still a few weeks of summer left- and time to relax, read and gather new ideas and perspectives to enhance your practice as an educator and leader. In my last post I shared a number of books useful to educators wishing to explore information about the brain and learning. Here are two intriguing [...]