Mindfulness Meditation for Educators

With Caroline DeMaio, Michael Carroll and Patton Hyman

July 20 - 22, 2009

Click here to view a printable flyer for this program.

Educators play many roles: teacher, administrator, colleague, negotiator, disciplinarian, counselor, and lightning rod for many community constituencies. Each of these roles can be emotionally challenging, requiring educators to be resilient, focused, and personally upright. Manifesting such an "authentic presence" in all these roles requires emotional self-awareness and skill in reading and responding to the emotional momentum of others.

Mindfulness meditation and related contemplative disciplines are proven ways for developing the mind's natural alertness, clarity, and presence, and can help educators cultivate mental and emotional stability and create open mental space for learning and creative solutions. These disciplines include specific techniques for rousing energy and clarity in workplace settings.

"Learning at a young age to touch silence and stillness within oneself; especially if it is taught in school in an open and non-manipulative or coercive way, can be valuable in balancing out and dealing with the stimulation and outward orientation of the school day. Among other things, children can discover how to tap into their innate ability to go into deep states of concentration, and use it to focus on the task at hand." Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mindfulness in the Classroom: Getting to Know Yourself in School

This hands-on seminar includes mindfulness instruction and practice, interactive contemplations, lectures, and plenty of time for discussion of issues of interest to educators.

Program dates and times: Monday 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. (please join us for lunch at noon), Tuesday 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Wednesday 9:00 a.m. to noon.

Tuition: $245 Program fees include 3 meals per day served by the Karme Choling kitchen.

About Caroline DeMaio, Michael Carroll and Patton Hyman

Caroline DeMaio is the school library media specialist at the Danville School (K-12) in Danville, Vermont. She taught in elementary schools in Vermont before opening and operating Northern Lights Bookshop and Cafe for 27 years in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. She has served on the Barnet School Board and chaired the boards of Karmê Chöling Shambhala Meditation Center, Catamount Arts, and the Northeast Kingdom Chamber of Commerce.

Michael Carroll, author of Awake at Work and The Mindful Leader, is founding director of AAW Associates and teaches mindfulness at seminars and program centers throughout North America and Europe. As a business consultant, he has been engaged by such companies as Procter & Gamble, Oxford Health, AstraZeneca, Aramark, and the Walt Disney Company.

Patton Hyman has taught mindfulness meditation for more than 25 years and serves as Development Director of Tail of the Tiger, an educational nonprofit organization.

This program is being held at Karmê Chöling Shambhala Meditation Center in Barnet, Vermont.  To register please email registration@tailofthetiger.org with your name, address, phone number, email address, name of the program and choice of accommodations. You will be contacted for deposit information and confirmation of registration.

In an effort to make our programs accessible to all, we offer an interest free payment plan. This plan allows you to pay 50% of the total prior to or at the time of registration and give post-dated check or credit card authorization for the remainder of the balance for up to six month post program. If you are interested in this payment option, please let the registration department know when you confirm your registration.