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The Earth Mentoring Skills Intensive
March 16-21, 2008
Cost: $600, includes all lodging, instruction, craft and skills supplies.
(Please note that food is not included in the program fee but can be made and prepared in our farmhouse kitchen.)
Ricardo's Mentoring Story:
Teaching students involves many, many details, and most are completely hidden to the student. As a teacher, or mentor, we know that we can encounter all kinds of arrangements of student enthusiasm, apathy, fear, resistance and focus. Taking these ingredients, a mentor must get everyone "on the bus" and heading in the right direction. This is easier said than done!
When I first began to teach students about wilderness surivval, I noticed that the skills, crafts and adventures we shared created intense learning environments that, in some cases, was life affirming and even life changing. As I kept teaching, I saw that this didn't happen for students in other programs, in anywhere near the numbers or consistency that it did at Hawk Circle. I wondered why, and began to study what it was that I (we) did differently that was making such a difference.
My study started with looking at my time with Tom Brown, John Stokes, Sun Bear, Wallace Black Elk, Jake Swamp, and Frank & Karen Sherwood. In each case, I began to see a pattern emerging, that, while the skills were different, the way that they were taught, often had great similarities. There were stories shared, there was a rhythm to the experience, there was an element of respect, and many more key components that helped me stay focused on learning and gaining not only new skills but a whole brain experience that changed or enhanced the way I learned
As I turned my attention to my own programs, I saw that I had begun teaching in the same way that I had been mentored, and that these principles could be applied to almost any situation involving students, learning and growth. I was able to apply these principles across all of what we share here at Hawk Circle.
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Whether you are brand new to teaching, or have been working with students for years, this course can help you add greatly to your mentoring "bag of tricks". More importantly, you will learn how to read your students, respond appropriately and create powerful learning experiences, and you will know how and why it works, and why other programs don't.
This spring, we will gather to pass down the skills of mentoring, storytelling, teaching and connecting with students in any program. While these skills are woven into each program we run here at Hawk Circle, this course will take an intensive, focused look at how the mentoring process actually works. We will experience powerful techniques of building a mentoring relationship with both individual students and with a group. Understanding and working with group dynamics, establishing community frameworks for our activities as well as age appropriate stories, activities and situations will also be shared and explored. Inspiration, which is in most cases the root of all learning, will be discussed extensively, leading to new approaches to helping students learn infectiously! We will discuss the role of humor, of intensity, and many other tools in an instructors basket, and how to use them for maximum effect and impact.
The Hero's Journey, Archetypal Mythology, The Rites of Passage in the Wilderness, Themes of Healing, Connection to Nature and Self, Personal Vision, Wilderness Skills and Life Skills, and much more will be covered and studied intensely! This is your chance to work with an instructor who has been teaching and leading experiences for over 17 years, and ask all of the questions you might have, and get practical, down to earth answers!
If you are interested in this course, please fill out our general program application and feel free to call me if you have any questions or would just like to talk to me before the course.
Thanks for considering this course, and I promise you won't be disappointed!
-Ricardo Sierra
607-264-3396
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