Booking is essential. Please sign up on Patreon - scroll down to join SDE Facilitator Round 6 https://www.patreon.com/JeannaClements
Most of us by now have heard that helping a butterfly as it struggles out of its chrysalis can cripple it for life. This is also a good analogy for what can happen to learning when teaching gets in the way. (Ever wondered why so many schooled children end up hating maths?)
However, the answer is not as simple as “doing nothing”.
The way that you interact with a Self-Directed Learner and support their Self-Directed Education (SDE) process can have a big positive impact. This course is designed to build your confidence so that you can become an SDE optimiser – instead of a well-intentioned saboteur.
Helping the Butterfly Hatch is designed to support you in your own Self-Directed Learning process about facilitating Self-Directed Education, so that your learning is not only theoretical but also experiential. Perhaps you are preparing to start your own Self-Directed Education (SDE) community, try out as staff in a Free school, Sudbury, ALC, or Liberated Learners, maybe you're already an experienced staff member who wants to take things further. Or perhaps you're a parent preparing to de-school your family for the first time, or you just want to grow in understanding as an Unschooler. Whatever is true for you, this course can support you in accessing your next level of best-practice as an SDE facilitator.
The aim of the course is to
a) build a deeper and clearer understanding of what SDE is and is not, what works and what doesn't, and why.
b) create awareness of facilitation skills and ways of being that can be optimised and developed.
c) tackle 'hot topics' in depth (such as conflict resolution, screen time, special needs, diversity and more) to support confidence and effective facilitation.
d) practically trouble-shoot and support real-life situations and create a community of support and affirmation for facilitators.
SDE Facilitator's Full Online course
This course runs for a basic duration of 6 months, followed by further support should you choose it. During this time, I help you access original study material as well as links to read and watch, supported by 1-2 calls per month(16h00GMT) on Discord group chat (technical support for Discord set-up available on request).
An increasing number of participants stay on longer, as it is rapidly becoming a rich and resourceful community.
The course fee is $75 (USD) per person per month. I try to never exclude anyone for purely financial reasons, if $75 per month is not manageable for you, please contact me at theshiftwillcome@gmail.com to discuss options.
Booking is essential. Please sign up on Patreon - scroll down to join SDE Facilitator Round 6 https://www.patreon.com/JeannaClements
Je'anna Clements (B.A. Psych Hons.)
Je'anna is a writer, Founder and SDE facilitator for Riverstone Village, and mother of two young people who have self-directed their education since birth, about to turn 10 and 15. She has previously been certified as an Aware Parenting Instructor and has also trained in the role of play in education with Associated Learning Libraries South Africa (ALLSA), and in counseling with LifeLine, SA.
Relevant experience:
Aside from facilitating her own family in self-directed learning, Je'anna has been involved for over a decade in setting up several learning facilities, and is a core founder of Riverstone Village, a Self-Directed Education community inspired by the Sudbury Valley School and the 'University' of Robben Island.
Also:
Conducted training for Soweto School Principals in relaxation and emotional self-management.
Key facilitator and Trainer of facilitators in Child Participation for the Gauteng Hear Right Now Project, sponsored by UNESCO.
Researcher and report writer for Save The Children Sweden working in Gauteng and Emthanjeni, South Africa.
Among other places Je'anna's writing has been published by Save The Children (Sweden); the Children, Youth and Environments journal (Univ. Colorado, USA); and Tipping Points magazine (Alliance for Self-Directed Education, USA). She is the author of the e-books “Help! My Kid Hates School” and “Helping the Butterfly Hatch, a Resource for Facilitators of SDE” (forthcoming.)
She is a founding member of the children's rights advocacy consortium Right to Play SA, along with architect Lizelle Wolmarans, Cotlands, ACTPSA, and Play Africa.
Booking is essential as places are limited. Please sign up on Patreon - scroll down to join SDE Facilitator Round 6 https://www.patreon.com/JeannaClements
Helping the Butterfly Hatch: Un-Outline
Given that this is a course supporting facilitators of Self-Directed Education, it is done SDE style - flexibly accommodating the needs of the participants and responding to their questions and circumstances. No two groups are the same.
However, I understand that you still want some kind of idea of what to expect.
Therefore I have created the following un-outline for the course, based on my past experience of most people’s needs. For the sake of clarity I have artificially split the material into five streams - Theory, Personal Development, Facilitation Skills, Decolonising Communication, and Nuts and Bolts (practical issues). Within each stream I have artificially split the material into segments.
My educated guess is that your group will cover most and possibly all of this - but probably not in this order; plus there may be additional material that arises in response to some specific need.
- The Basics - beginner definitions and overviews, the educative instincts and drives.
- The ‘proof’ that it ‘works’.
- What qualifies as SDE? Where are the boundaries and overlaps between SDE and other forms of education?
- Children’s rights, ‘pedagogy’, ‘andragogy’, 'Heutagogy', SDE.
- Power, democracy and equality in SDE. The cycle of socialisation and education as a political tool.
- Product vs Process
- Content vs Meta Skills
- Understanding how “Human Nature” fits with SDE, including Polyvagal Theory.
- Human motivation.
- Understanding the importance of play, and ‘flow’.
- How ‘scaffolding’ works in SDE.
- Why SDE is optimal given the future we face.
- SDE FAQ and 'hot topics': What about Maths? What about Literacy? What about “Screen time”? What about "Special Needs" and “Learning Disorders”? Team sports? Returning to mainstream? Tertiary education? Fitting in to an undemocratic world? Related learning theorists and educational critiques.
- Understanding how I got here and how I have been shaped, so I can choose the direction of my growth.
- Becoming a self-directed learner.
- Trust, determination and resilience vs self-doubt.
- Releasing self-judgement and opening to confidence.
- Developing self-insight and a witnessing consciousness.
- Emotional self-management.
- Management of my impact as a facilitator.
- Self-assessment.
- Decision-making skills.
- Play:
- Enabling children’s play.
- Protecting children’s play.
- Playing as a facilitator.
- Observation of what Is.
- Getting to know kids.
- Interacting with other facilitators.
- “Strewing”, offering, initiating.
- Who is responsible for what? Where does my job begin and end?
- Dealing with learning goals:
- Setting, and holding myself and others to goals.
- Letting go.
- Effective communication - see next stream, plus:
- Feedback vs evaluation and praise.
- Confrontation and challenge.
- Balancing Needs:
- Facilitator’s needs vs. children's needs.
- Juggling multiple children’s needs.
- Sexuality: dealing with sex ed, young children’s sexual exploration, older kids connecting, abuse.
- Understanding what NVC, PET, How to Talk, and other connection approaches have in common: “Horizontal” vs “Vertical” communication; historical impact of invasion on peaceful cultures; how a mismatch of skills and intentions sabotages us in practically implementing our relationship and communication ideals.
- Learning to perceive interactions from the horizontal perspective: understanding the other.
- Learning to express ourselves horizontally: bridging the divide between hearts and minds so that we connect in mutual empathy and comprehension.
- Problem solving: requests, generating win-win solutions, mediation.
For everyone:
Making the most of the internet.
Making the most of your surrounding community.
Dealing with other people’s fears and prejudices around SDE.
For Unschoolers:
The home as a rich environment.
Family decision-making.
For SDE facilities:
Choosing/adapting/creating your SDE model (e.g. Agile, Sudbury, etc).
Choosing a suitable venue.
Playground/outdoor space.
Indoor space and resources.
How to run effective democratic meetings.
Facilitating rule-making.
Structures for rule-enforcing and conflict resolution.
Structures for ‘certification’ to safely use dangerous/fragile and expensive resources.
Screening, initial selection and training of potential staff.
Recruiting, managing and training part-time adult volunteers
Admissions processes - interviews, indemnities, assessing ‘fit’.
Money matters.
Dealing with parents.
Building culture.
New kids coming in after opening.
Sustainability as a viable facility.
Exclusions:
- We do not currently deal with writing a “business plan”, this may change depending on what course-participants offer and ask.
- We do not currently deal with Legal issues, since this is an international course and each country has specific legal situations. You may encounter someone on the course in your country who can offer help.
- You may notice that ‘bullying’ doesn’t appear anywhere on the list. My own experience is that bullying is not a thing, but just a judgemental ‘black box’ word used when we don’t understand the dynamics of what is going on. Our aim will be to develop the facilitation and communication and conflict resolution skills to be able to see and tackle the real picture.
Booking is essential. Please sign up on Patreon - scroll down to join SDE Facilitator Round 6 https://www.patreon.com/JeannaClements