YMD Boon’s Post

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats This #WaterfordWisdomWednesday, let's ignite the fire of curiosity and lifelong learning with Waterford! ❤️🔥 As we navigate the changing seasons, both in nature and in education, the need for adaptability becomes clear. Embracing flexibility can build resilience in our learners. Let’s work together to adapt to the changing learning landscape and reach all children. Learn more by visiting our website, link in bio! #Curiosity #LifelongLearning #AdaptabilityInEducation

As we journey through the end times of the old cycle & move closer to Ostara, Spring Equinox - which marks the beginning of our next & the time to act & grow I'm remembering that at that time last year Dan & I were in Glastonbury - marking endings & beginnings together. We're back there this year in May - during the peak growing season - facilitating together in @glastonburygoddesstemple on Glastonbury High St. Embodied Education: Creating Safe Space for Learning, Facilitating and Sharing Monday 27th May 2024, 10am - 4pm Details below 👇 Join Kay and Dan Aldred to learn about their book Embodied Education: Creating Safe Space for Learning, Facilitating and Sharing (published by @girlgodbooks) and vision for a new educational paradigm based on wellbeing, co-regulation, and creativity, which advocates for body-first, relational and embodiment approaches in organisations and communities. Explore practical strategies for the creation of organisations and spaces which are trauma-informed and neurodivergent, sensory, and nervous system friendly, and which celebrate and encourage individuality, divergence, and innovation, alongside exploration, discovery, and imagination. Suitable anyone connected to schools, universities, youth work, teaching, home-schooling, unschooling, health and social care services, charities, social justice, parenting, holistic health and therapeutic settings, religious, and spiritual spaces. The workshop will cover the following topics: The nervous system, trauma, and stress Body first approaches Neurodiversity The concept of safety The design and infrastructure of buildings Embodied models of safe, accountable, and responsible space holding, teaching and leadership Methods of facilitation and pedagogy To book 👇 https://lnkd.in/e-gzgpnz #educateevolveembody #embodiededucation #education #spaceholding #facilitation #safespace #traumainformed #neurocinclusion #nervoussystemfriendly #sensoryfriendly #neurodiversity

For #WaterfordTestimonialTuesday, we celebrate transformation and triumph in learning. Today, a parent shares their child's success with Waterford's adaptive reading program: "I highly suggest this program. It teaches reading in steps that make sense to children. I could never have got him reading so well without it!" —Happy Parent Has Waterford impacted your journey at home or at school? Tell us your story and join the wave of success! 🌠#TransformingEducation #SuccessStories

The Inverted Pyramid: Listening Through the District, One School at a Time! Easley High School (Easley, SC)   Enjoyed meeting with teachers and the Easley High Admin Team!   Our meeting covered four topics: 1. Make It Better - recommendations for improving the district 2. The Strategic Plan - how to achieve our five goals 3. Innovation - what innovative ideas do you have for the school and district 4. The Framework – updates regarding progress on the five year plan for the foundational practices with MTSS/RTI at Work   Team 73! #EngagingToday #EmpoweringTomorrow

Every space matters, as every moment within it shapes experiences, fosters connections, and inspires learning while strengthening the bonds of community. In school refurbishing projects, we embrace the history and unique character of each building, transforming them with holistic solutions that honor tradition while introducing modern functionality. Take Riihenmäki School as an example: a place rich in history, now revitalized to support the needs of today’s students and educators. By preserving its essence while introducing inspiring, future-proof spaces, we’ve created an environment where learning flourishes, and the community’s heritage continues to thrive. https://lnkd.in/egPpxmGd With small improvements and smart ideas, we can blend the best of the past and the future to create spaces where students can achive their very best. Let’s reimagine schools together! #everyspacematters #joyoflearning #schoolsesign #learningenvironment #sustainabledesign #betterlearningspaces

Sometimes it is difficult to describe in words how you feel about something so impactful. I encourage you to watch this video, listen to the story, and feel the connection that is being described. So proud to have EAPC linked to this story and how our design plays a critical role in connecting the past to the future. #culturaldesign #EAPCdesign #K12designleader

Hey Camp Directors, your camp is really good! So what? As camp professionals, we spend a good deal of time thinking about how we can move from Good to Great. That’s a noble gesture and a good use of time. The problem with thinking about the movement of good to great is that we start to ignore the elephant in the room, which is, what’s wrong? Spending all of our time thinking about the good aspects of our camp and improving on them keeps us from thinking about the things that are wrong with our camp. Rather than spending all of our focus on the unique aspects of our camp and how we camp improve upon them. We should spend some time thinking about why parents don’t register their child for our camp. We can all come up with 50 reasons why parents choose us. Can you come up with ten reasons why parents do not choose your camp? A dozen great things about camp will be ignored as soon as Mom finds something she doesn’t like. You have a lot of competition. You have to start looking for holes in your program, your staff, your marketing, your facilities, your leadership and start working on repairing those problems. As camp draws closer and we are scrambling to understand why we haven’t hit our enrollment goals we have to start asking ourselves hard questions. If we do not start to understand our weaknesses now, we will have the same issues next year. Fix camp this summer, so your retention reflects it next summer. Just for a moment stop focusing on great and just think about getting things right. Stop ignoring the obvious, fix it now. Telling yourself you’ll address it in the fall is what you did last year. It didn’t work. If you can’t find those ten things that are wrong, start calling Mothers of kids who didn’t come back. They’ll be happy to tell you a few of them. Fixmycamp.com

Dublin School Plans Major Transformation: A Taste of the Future in Fairview Here's an exciting piece of news for Dubliners! St. Joseph’s CBS Secondary School, under the Edmund Rice Schools Trust, is taking a big leap into the future. More classrooms, modern facilities, and even a sensory garden are part of the blueprint for this major refurbishment project. The school, located in the heart of Fairview, is set to gain three general classrooms, a home economics room, a multimedia room, and improved toilet facilities. Locker space and an electrical room are also part of the plan. And for those concerned with accessibility, a universal access toilet is on the cards too. St. Joseph’s isn’t just thinking about the here and now. The project also includes the refurbishment and reconfiguration of existing rooms to make way for a four-classroom SEN base with a multi-activity room. But the cherry on top? A 200 m2 hard and soft play area and a 100 m2 sensory garden, adding an extra touch of nature and tranquillity to the school environment. Now, for the numbers: the upgraded school will have a main floor area of 527.5 m2 and a gross floor area, including circulation and internal walls, of 598.0m2. While all this sounds impressive, the project will also involve knocking down the existing covered shelter of 210m2. In its place, the school promises to offer students state-of-the-art amenities that will make their learning experience more engaging and enjoyable. 🚧 Will the refurbishment cause any disruption to the current students? 🌿 How does the school plan to maintain the sensory garden? 🏰 Isn't it about time other schools followed suit and created more inclusive learning environments? #SchoolTransformation #EducationInnovation #Tender #PublicProcurement If you would like to see more detail on this particular tender, please click: https://lnkd.in/gUA8ruyV

🌟 Trail Towns Opportunities! Join Us for our Trail Towns 101 Course & a Free Webinar with American Trails 🌟 Passionate about trails and community building? 🌿 Amy Camp (trail towns guru and CYCLE FORWARD founder) and I have two great opportunities coming right up! Links for more info and to register are in the comments below. OPPORTUNITY #1 🚀 Free Webinar: Building a Trail-Friendly Community – Three Things You Can Start Today Hosted by American Trails, this webinar offers a sneak peek into our Trail Towns 101 course. 📅 Webinar Date: November 14, 2024 🎓 What You'll Learn: Join us, the creators of the new online course, Trail Towns 101: Strategies, Tools and Inspiration to Make Trails Work for Your Community, to learn about what it means to be a trail town (hint: you don’t have to be part of an established program) and how your community can benefit from building stronger connections with trails and trail users. This webinar introduces you to three simple, concrete strategies to engage your community, entice locals and visitors, and take the next steps toward making the most of outdoor recreation and trails. OPPORTUNITY #2 🔖 Trail Towns 101: Strategies, Tools, and Inspiration to Make Trails Work for Your Community Our comprehensive course starting in February 2025, designed to help you transform your community by leveraging the power of trails. 📆 Important Dates: Course Sessions: Tuesdays, Feb. 4-18, 2025 (3 weekly 2-hour live video sessions) Optional Pre-Course Accelerator: Three interactive sessions from September 2024 to January 2025. Notice! The last day to register for the optional pre-course accelerator is September 27. 🚀 About the Pre-Course Accelerator: An exclusive, small-group experience designed to jumpstart your journey toward building successful trail towns. 3 interactive sessions to dive deep into trail town strategies and hands-on tools. Learn by doing, using a proven Trail Town Assessment to chart a course for your own community/ies Bonus: Enroll in the accelerator and receive a free copy of Deciding On Trails: 7 Practices of Healthy Trail Towns by Amy Camp! #TrailTowns #CommunityBuilding #OutdoorRecreation #SustainableCommunities #EconomicDevelopment #Leadership #TrailTownAssessment #EnvironmentalStewardship #LocalLeaders #ActiveTravel #SustainableTourism #CommunityEngagement #TrailAdvocacy #UrbanPlanning #RuralDevelopment

(Post 2 of ?) Mount Shepherd Retreat Center has a number of assets including a fully functioning commercial kitchen, 100 beds (1 person/1 night), 500+ acres of land and a staff that operates both year round overnight retreat activity and a seasonal overnight summer camp program that runs June-August. My first initiative is to implement a structure for achieving organizational goals. We have an established mission statement, but now we are working to turn that mission into a vision and strategy, so that we can achieve clear goals on a routine basis. I have decided to implement the Objective and Key Results structure at Mount Shepherd and we are working to schedule an on site workshop to refine those OKRs! Listing below our mission statement and draft vision statement, Let me know your questions and thoughts in the comments! I'll share our OKR drafts next. Mission Statement: A community that strengthens your heart, Restores your spirit, And transforms your life Vision Statement 2024: Build a thriving and sustainable Mount Shepherd community through empowered staff, strategic programming, and impactful engagement, enriching lives and securing a lasting legacy.