Come join us for our 5th year!
October 25th - November 7th, 2015
Relationship-based Classroom Management
Emotional Intelligence and Compassionate Communication for Educators.
Cost $1600 (includes tuition, room and board)
Objectives
By the end of the course participants will be able to:
What do nurturing and supportive teacher-student relationships look like in the classroom and why do these relationships matter?
*Developing supportive relationships in the classroom has long lasting implications on students’ academic and social development.
*Students who have positive and supportive relationships with their teachers will attain higher levels of achievement than those students who experience conflict in their relationship with the teachers.
*If a student feels a personal connection to a teacher, has ongoing communication with a teacher, receives more guidance and feedback than criticism from the teacher, the student is much more likely to build trust with the teacher, engage in the academic content and contribute to the learning process.
*Nurturing and supportive teacher-student relationships draw students into the process of learning and promote their desire to learn when materials are relevant and interesting.
Earl Stevik states that “that success in the language classroom depends less on materials, techniques or linguistic analysis, and more on what goes on inside and between the people in the classroom” and further elaborates that “the most important aspect of "what goes on" is the presence or absence of harmony: it is the parts working with, or against, one another.” In this 10 day course we will look at the relationships in the classroom (teacher-self, teacher-student, student-self and student-student) and explore ways that mindfulness, (the ability to pay attention to the present moment without judgment) and empathy (the ability to truly understand or imagine the depth of another person’s feelings and needs) contribute to collaboration, connection and harmony in those relationships which in turn support dynamic and joyful learning.
By the end of the course participants will be able to:
- Describe and analyze key theory emotional intelligence and compassionate communication.
- Self-assess own ability to put these theories into practice.
- Practice and receive feedback on their own abilities to make observations with out judgment, identify feelings and universal human needs and strategize ways to get those needs met.
- Practice and receive feedback on their abilities to perceive emotion, use emotion to facilitate thinking, understand emotion and manage emotions.
- Practice and receive feedback on their knowledge and abilities to mediate conflicts that arise in their educational contexts.
- Develop action plans for teaching and using these theories in the classrooms and educational contexts
- Develop action plans for implementing teacher training workshop sessions that highlight the aspects of these theories that are applicable in their contexts.
What do nurturing and supportive teacher-student relationships look like in the classroom and why do these relationships matter?
*Developing supportive relationships in the classroom has long lasting implications on students’ academic and social development.
*Students who have positive and supportive relationships with their teachers will attain higher levels of achievement than those students who experience conflict in their relationship with the teachers.
*If a student feels a personal connection to a teacher, has ongoing communication with a teacher, receives more guidance and feedback than criticism from the teacher, the student is much more likely to build trust with the teacher, engage in the academic content and contribute to the learning process.
*Nurturing and supportive teacher-student relationships draw students into the process of learning and promote their desire to learn when materials are relevant and interesting.
Earl Stevik states that “that success in the language classroom depends less on materials, techniques or linguistic analysis, and more on what goes on inside and between the people in the classroom” and further elaborates that “the most important aspect of "what goes on" is the presence or absence of harmony: it is the parts working with, or against, one another.” In this 10 day course we will look at the relationships in the classroom (teacher-self, teacher-student, student-self and student-student) and explore ways that mindfulness, (the ability to pay attention to the present moment without judgment) and empathy (the ability to truly understand or imagine the depth of another person’s feelings and needs) contribute to collaboration, connection and harmony in those relationships which in turn support dynamic and joyful learning.
Words used to describe their experience on the course:
fulfilling, connection and community, balancing perspectives, creating new awarenesses
The training in Costa Rica has Changed my mind and the way I used to work with my students.
Excellent self-discovery process
It was a life-changing experience in which I learned to see the world with different eyes. This was one of the best courses I took since it helped me grow as a person but it also helped me become a better, more humanistic teacher.
AMAZING, MIND OPENING, SOOTHING, MOTIVATING, INSPIRATIONAL
My happiness rolls a circle motion after that course
enlightening, humbling, informative, educational
Amazing, Interesting, Challenging, Spectacular, and Motivating
Revealing, heart warming, interesting, innovative
Just an amazing experience
A blog about a teacher's experience on the course
Feedback from participants from our first three years:
I think that learning about how to see things from a student's point of view and how to build a trusting community of learners will have lasting effects on both my teaching and my own learning in the future.
This experience and the knowledge I acquired changed my life, as a human being and thus as a teacher. I now feel that I can have a more positive, compassionate view of my and other´s behaviour or attitudes. I think I´m a different teacher now since I can have a wider view of what affects my students behaviour in the classroom and outside it. In this way, I´m now more able to help them learn in a way that meets their particular needs.
After this course I can understand better my feeling, the impact on me as a teacher is understand better my students and facilitating with heart. I enjoy a lot the course of emotional intelligence because I believe the base of each professional is to know very well our own competencies of emotional intelligence. If you know very well yourself you able to pass your knowlege to other in an effective way. Thanks to all of you that make those courses possible.
I started this school year extremely motivated,because of that my students are getting motivated too, so it's gonna be an awesome year for them and their learning!
The course helps teachers listen to their students.
It changed my teaching practice and perspective in a way that now I am more careful while listening or offering help. It was a new teaching and learning method which helped me to understand the importance of self teaching development. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to grow as human teachers.

Raj Gill is the Director of Prosperity Circles Coaching International in BC Canada. She is a trainer certified by the International Centre for Nonviolent Communication, a published author www.nvctoolkit.org and founding member of Freedom Project Canada. Raj is an Inclusive Travel Guide who has been helping to develop and lead Inclusive Leadership Adventures since 2002. Raj provides coaching and mentoring and offers Compassionate Communication and Emotional Intelligence trainings in a wide variety of settings such as schools, prisons, Community Colleges and non-profit societies. Two of Raj’s role models are Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. She is a strong believer in the power of human connection and compassion for resolving conflict and creating Universal success. Raj enjoys working with people co-creating a motivational and supportive environment for managing the human aspect of growth and development

Mary Scholl runs a teacher education center and community English program in rural Costa Rica. She has been teaching languages and working with teacher education for over 20 years. She has also been studying and practicing mindfulness for 20 years and Compassionate Communication for 6 years. She has lived and taught in both public and private settings on three continents and has worked on teacher development programs in the U.S., Japan, Brazil and LIbya. She has also worked with institutional change as the on-site coordinator for a school change project in Rio de Janeiro. Mary is particularly interested in reflective practice, leadership within the classroom, the role of creativity and compassion in language learning, the potential that descriptive,non-evaluative feedback has to promote effective growth and change in a teacher’s practice.
CONTACT US: admin@espiralmana.org
telephone in Costa Rica: +506-2468-0020, +506-8863-5744
in USA +1-585-200-3091
telephone in Costa Rica: +506-2468-0020, +506-8863-5744
in USA +1-585-200-3091