A Summary of Our Day

Our day begins with an opportunity to become acquainted with one another, set the stage and tone of our work together, and gain a clear idea of where we'll be headed and what we intend to accomplish. Following a brief introduction aimed at providing background information on the “Circle of Courage” we’ll use one of our pre-workshop exercises to engage in a carefully structured, small and large group activity, designed to deepen our personal and collective understanding of the basic human needs that motivate behavior as expressed by the “Circle of Courage”.

After our break the above context will help us examine the basic needs of belonging and mastery in greater depth (including the opportunity to become familiar with generic and specific strategies for using these concepts in our schools and classrooms). This will lead to selecting one of four, small group activities, which focus on practicing and applying what we’ve learned about belonging and mastery. These activity choices include role-plays or discussions of sample case-study scenarios.

When we return from lunch we’ll continue our work by examining the basic needs of independence and generosity in greater depth. Here again we’ll have the opportunity to become familiar with generic and specific strategies for using these concepts in our schools and classrooms. All of the above will enable us to apply what we’ve learned by engaging in an activity that makes use of our second pre-workshop exercise. This will involve small group work that pertains to one or more participants’ case-studies regarding an individual student or focuses on strengthening school climate.

We will then end our day by debriefing the above activity and processing and assessing our time together.