Speech is central to all teaching. It is part of every interaction we have, even if we are silent. Looking at the ancient oral traditions and at great speeches, poetry and drama throughout history, we see that speech can be a powerful, creative force. However, the great majority of speech today is superficial, dishonest and all too often destructive. We hear of "mixed messages" or "speaking with forked tongue" and turn to a person's body language to know what he is really  saying. This course will work with awareness of speech- sound, tone, rhythm, and silence. Working with movement, gesture and imagery, we will learn how to speak in an integrated and genuine manner. This will help us to talk with the children, not at them. 

Participants will learn to use the elements of speech to bring new life to storytelling. Storytelling lies at the core of Enki Education. Through story we are able to create an experience that the children can enter through their imaginations. They are no longer just learning about places and ideas, they are living them. The many academic, skill building, and artistic experiences that fill each day are brought out of these stories. This way all aspects of the work will become a cohesive, living experience for the students. 

In this course all participants will both explore and practice the principles and techniques of storytelling. They will learn to create their own mirror stories and to tell other stories they have learned. They will also learn the place of story in the curriculum and what makes particular stories appropriate for different ages.

PAINTING I

When we want to convey mood or feeling our language often turns to color; we say that we are "feeling blue", "coloring the facts" or "green with envy". In this wet on wet painting course, color will bring us deeply into mood rather than form or symbol. Working with individual colors and their interplay we will experience how color creates mood and see how this can give birth to form. For example, different blues covering a page might spark a sense of mystery and give rise to a curled figure by the seashore or a silhouetted mountain under the moon. This basic experience of the language of color helps participants to develop confidence and joy in painting. 

In addition to being a study in its own right, painting can deepen conceptual understanding by bringing an artistic/feeling component into any subject. Therefore, participants will be introduced to the ways painting is used in nursery through eighth grade.

Through exercises in learning to draw using movement, sound, and imagery we will experience different functions of the brain. Presentations on brain function will broaden our understanding and experience of how different teaching methods trigger different brain activity. This will then deepen understanding of effective discipline and of the ways an integrated curriculum nourishes and educates the student throughout his school years.

Using these exercises in drawing, participants will begin to learn how to "see" without visual prejudice or concept. They will learn how to use this skill to draw. This work will be directly applicable to teaching drawing and science in the middle school years and indirectly applicable to all subjects throughout the early grades.

As we watch the changing seasons, the rising and setting of the sun and the swell and fall of the tides, we can plainly see that rhythm weaves its way through all of nature. This workshop will begin by exploring our own natural rhythms of the breath and heartbeat. Here we will discover the three-part nature of rhythm: in-breath, out-breath and the moment of grace or fertile stillness that lies between. 

An understanding of these rhythms, which underlie our learning and living, makes it possible to work with the child. Then his natural expansion, contraction and stillness give strength to all that is undertaken. If we ignore these rhythms we find ourselves pulling against the child - hauling stones uphill. Conscious use of natural rhythm, the inborn impulses of the child and the natural world, gives the teacher great support as she leads the child to learn. 

With this understanding as our base, we will work specifically with life-long, seasonal, monthly and daily rhythms. During the weekend, participants will lead "mini seasonal festivals" they have developed. Coupled with study of the human passages throughout life, these festivals will help participants understand how rhythms connect us as a society. We will then look at some of the ways curriculum content and timing can unfold in the course of a day, week, month or year to support the child's natural rhythms. 

                                                                            Next>>