Nourishing the Soul of the Teacher: A Paradigm Shift in Education

A Conference Calling Forth Imagination, Creativity, Spritual Life, Leadership and Action

The Essential Leadership Conference is a conference/retreat dedicated to the professional and personal growth of educators and artists throughout the globe. As we move into this next phase of the evolution of consciousness, the remarkably rapid pace in which we live, where we and our children are exposed to the most sophisticated age of information and technology in history and the striking cultural/social/political issues of our time, we have the opportunity to develop and evolve our practice as cultural voyagers and leaders in education and the arts. Aligning our work with our deep calling and passion, we make our genuine contribution to the paradigm shift in an emerging world community. We honor our multiple identities, unique complexity and our collective humanity. We begin to blur the boundaries between the secular and the sacred. The creative process and art-making lets us experience the sacred in all that we meet, knowing that we are all part of the organic, generative and living system of life. We become leaders who are an integral part and play a vital role in the world we create. We transform and r-evolutionize the ways in which we nourish ourselves as leaders in education and the arts and those communities in which we work and live.

The Essential Leadership Conference is an emerging and vibrant collection of Educators and Artists who work in elementary, secondary, and higher education, in a broad range of arts-based community programs, and who are dedicated to the growth of the whole person as an integral part of the larger creative matrix of life.

* Explore the intellectual, artistic, emotional and spiritual dimensions of the whole person, traversing the internal landscape of our experience as leaders in education and the arts.

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* Explore the dynamic cultural, political, economic and social issues from our awareness of the sacred in each of us.

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* Consciously engage in the creative process to awaken our spiritual life and enagage in meaningful dialogue and connection with others.

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* Honor and transgress the boundaries of identity that can separate us to actively participate in creating our world.

Rather than finding solutions to 'old' problems, we begin to envision and create new realities. As Ghandi notes, "We must be the change we wish to see in the world".

 * Powerfully create vibrant and enlivening paradigms for living.

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* Call forth passion and energy to fuel personal commitment to change, transformation and wholeness.

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* Place "attention on" and "intention for" the realization of the greatest potential in every moment to live visions that liberate, empower and inspire joy and love.

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Lori Wynters, PhD, MFA, founded the Essential Leadership Conference in 2005, inspired by the hundreds of teachers and artists she has been honored to work with throughout the United States, Canada, England, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Vieques, Belize and Costa Rica. A national speaker and presenter on education, engaged pedagogy, the creative process and the transformative power of the arts to liberate and empower, theatre artist, and author, "Stories From the Inside Out", in the Arts, Education and Social Change, Dr. Wynters serves as National Faculty for Lesley University, and as faculty for Goddard College and The Union Institute and University. She has infinite gratitude to the many students/teachers on this extraordinary journey and to her greatest teachers, true love Wylie and their 2 1/2 year old bundle of joy daughter, Hannah.

Click on www.thesideyard.com/aboutlori for a more complete bio.