2007 Faculty Retreat at the Southern Dharma Retreat Center
RMCS faculty and executive director Renee Owen spent two days at the Southern Dharma Retreat Center on August 27–28, 2007. The purpose of the two-day retreat was to help faculty prepare mind, body and spirit for the upcoming school year.
After the retreat, one faculty member was inspired to say, “Our school is becoming a more vibrant, joyful and caring place than ever before.”
Group projects and training as well as dancing and informal relaxation periods helped faculty bond and strengthen their shared commitment to nurture the discovery, enjoyment and development of the unique gifts of each student at RMCS. Techniques for integrating the arts into the classroom were presented and included music, visual arts, literature, drama, movement and yoga.
One of the retreat highlights involved the creation of a rainbow-colored mural depicting child development from preschool through eighth grade. Faculty divided into groups to discuss developmental stages, drawing from both theory and classroom experiences. Then they got their brushes wet and used colorful words and painting techniques to create a vibrant mural that explores key developmental phases in all five domains—mental, emotional, moral/social, physical, and spiritual—from a child’s perspective. The completed mural will be hung in the school's multi-purpose room.
Throughout the retreat, faculty learned how to encourage students to use a variety of artistic forms to enhance and to demonstrate understanding of subject matter. Faculty also explored ways to incorporate nature into the learning process and how to encourage children to be naturalists.
The Four Agreements, a Toltec teaching of Don Miguel and Don Jose Ruiz, was used to explore the spiritual aspects of working in an educational community. Faculty and staff committed to being impeccable in their speech, refraining from taking others’ actions and speech personally, communicating clearly rather than making assumptions, and striving to do their best.
Service learning training rounded out the retreat. Renee Owen introduced a project-learning model that is based on the research of Harvard educator Carla Fontaine. This model identifies ways to involve students more fully in the planning, implementing, and reflecting phases of service learning projects. When children are more invested in the process, they develop essential learning skills that benefit them personally while benefiting the community.
An upper-grades faculty member was eager to use the new learning process “to create meaning for service beyond the obvious.”
Faculty members left the retreat feeling refreshed, connected to each other and to the school's mission, and enthusiastic about the upcoming school year.
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