teaching at home – EduSpirit

What does it mean to keep a promise? Lesson Plan 4 Weeks 6 -7 (vBlog 10/11)

April 28, 2020April 29, 2020eduspirit3

LESSON PLAN 4 – PROMISE

What does it mean to make a promise? What promises have you made to yourself or to others? Are you good at keeping your promises? What happens if you break a promise? How does it feel?

This week I have been thinking about what it means to make and keep promises to myself. I made a commitment that I would be creating, implementing, and posting lesson plans on a weekly basis. Experiencing illness the way I have been, has made me rethink this promise. I’ve actually had to ‘break’ my promise for the purpose of taking care of and healing myself.

I’ve learned a lot about the ability to recognize if the promises I am keeping are actually serving a larger purpose. These past few weeks, in having to let go of my vision for weekly content on EduSpirit, I have felt mixed emotions. On one hand, I have felt like I am breaking my promise to all of you who are following these lessons and are interested in trying them out at home. On the other hand, I have realized that I have to prioritize my commitments. My commitment to health and wellness is more important right now than video recording lessons and contributing to this website using the schedule I had been following. That said, my promise to follow through with my initial commitment of 40 vBlogs still holds, even if their production takes much longer than originally anticipated.

I hope that you and your family enjoy these lessons that my family and I have been co-creating and sharing together. Thank you for your continued encouragement and support. – Cristina

LESSON PLAN – PROMISE

Please remember to cite the lesson plan if you use it for a more public venue by attributing the material to: Cristina Santamaría Graff, eduspirit.org. Thank you!

Weeks 6-7_PROMISE lesson DOWNLOAD LESSON PLAN HERE

RESOURCES FOR LESSON 4

LINKS USED WITHIN THE LESSON PLAN

BE INTENTIONAL

Listen to the TedTalk by Alex Sheen, “Because I said I would” on making and committing to PROMISES:

Alex Sheen: “Because I said I would”

Alex talks about creating PROMISE CARDS or “Because I said I would” cards. Use the template provided. The template reads, “Because I said I would.” Write down a promise on the card that you want to make to yourself or to another person. Maybe it’s been something you’ve been putting off. Then give it to someone (for safe keeping). Once you fulfill the promise (it can take a day, a week, a year…) you will ask that person for the card back and let them know you have fulfilled the promise on the card. As Alex says, “You need to earn the card back.” One you fulfill the promise, the card you receive back will remind you that you are a person of your WORD. You are someone who keeps their promise.

Check out Alex’s Facebook page and his non-profit organization, “Because I Said I Would.” https://www.facebook.com/BecauseISaidIWould/

DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE HERE

Because I said I would – Sample Template

BE THOUGHTFUL AND COMPASSIONATE

For this lesson you are building off of last week’s lesson, PATH. You will be using the same game board you created as a family in Lesson 3, “Path to Wellness.” You are now going to create PROMISE cards that will be added to the other cards. These cards will be questions to prompt each player to talk about specific times in their lives where they have made commitments to themselves or to others. They will also include questions about future promises, commitments, or goals that each person is thinking about making and how to achieve them.

Please email Cristina at eduspirit.community@gmail.com if you would like to receive more examples of board game questions.

Here are some examples of PROMISE questions/prompts:

TAKE ACTION

You will create an autobiographical “topical” map by gathering the following materials (or ones you can substitute for these):

Poster Board or Cardboard
Clay, Playdoh, or other type of molding product
Cotton balls
Toothpicks and/or popsicle sticks
Glue
Markers and/or crayons
Felt or fabric
Scissors

The map will demonstrate in a visual, 3-D manner, the landscape of your life. You may focus on your entire life or on a specific timeframe. Within this map, you must add at least 3 representations/depictions of major “landmarks” (or promises/commitments you have made to yourself or another that you have achieved).

Here are examples of 2D representations from online.

In this video, we, as a family are engaged in a lesson plan in which my girls are writing their own story by creating an autobiographical map. An autobiographical map is a way to map out one’s life by choosing a “landscape” of important events that have impacted and shaped one’s trajectory. This video is a part of a series in which our family, during safe-sheltering in COVID-19 times, is working together on projects and lessons that are meaningful to us. The girls, who by the end of each week, are exhausted and frustrated by e-Learning, have demonstrated an appreciation for family-centered lesson in which we are all participating in some manner. Here, in this video, I, Cristina, am sitting at the dining room table with my daughters and am assisting them with thinking about significant events in their lives.

vBLOG 7_LESSON PLAN “FIRE”: HOME-TEACHING IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

March 30, 2020April 7, 2020eduspirit3

LESSON PLAN 2

We decided to begin the pre-lesson with a FIRE Ceremony for the purpose of bringing healing to our Earth and all her inhabitants during this time. This is a very intimate snapshot of how we, as a family, gather together in sacred, intentional ceremony. We ask that you enter this space with respect, an open mind and heart, and with healing intention. Thank you.

PLEASE ALLOW VIDEO TO UPLOAD… IT MAY TAKE A COUPLE OF MINUTES. It’s an embedded video, so if you are accessing it from your phone, make sure you wait a minute or two. It should come up after a couple of tries.

Family Fire Ceremony

Here, as a family, we engage in a fire ceremony that we share with all of you so that you can see how elegantly and beautifully simple it can be. Healing occurs with intention. When there is a gathering of individuals intent upon the healing of the Earth and its people, a powerful synergy occurs. I intentionally only name Fire as the element of warmth, comfort and healing as a way to create an openness for all to witness and to feel invited. This is a sacred space that we share with you for the purpose of assisting you during these times. By actively engaging in the practice of healing, we are, in essence, doing something. Many times, it is by action that we feel we are contributing to the overall good. This is something we (you) can do. It is purposeful action with the goal of bringing healing to ourselves and to every human being who is in need of warmth, comfort and healing. We hope this brings you a sense of connectedness and purpose.

RESOURCES FOR LESSON 2

DOWNLOADABLE PDF OF LESSON 2 WITH HYPERLINKS

Please remember to cite the lesson plan if you use it for a more public venue by attributing the material to: Cristina Santamaría Graff, eduspirit.org. Thanks!

LINKS USED WITHIN THE LESSON PLAN

BE INTENTIONAL – RESOURCES

Jimmy Santiago Baca’s Poem: “I am offering this poem”

PDF version of POEM – Downloadable

Information about FIRE – its properties and fun facts.

BE CRITICALLY/CONSTRUCTIVELY COMPASSIONATE

Indigenous Fire Practices – news story

Indigenous Fire Practices – video

Excerpt from Indigenous Fire Stewardship by Frank K. Lake and Amy Cardinal Christianson (2019):

“Indigenous peoples believe they have a responsibility passed down from their Creator to be stewards of the land. In relation to wildland fire – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health are tied to the health of the Earth. Many Indigenous cultures cannot be resilient without a healthy landscape to exercise cultural fire-related practices on” (p. 3).

In the video below, we are implementing a lesson to learn about indigenous fire practices. This lesson can be found in the section called, “Be Critically/Constructively Compassionate” of Lesson Plan 2, “FIRE” (above). Here we document how we implemented the lesson on indigenous fire practices and land stewardship. Discussions center on a youtube video about cultural burning in Australia. The differences between cultural burning and hazard reduction are explained. What does it mean to be a caregiver, nurturer and steward of the land?

Cristina and the girls sitting talking about indigenous fire practices.

TAKE ACTION

Fire Safety Plan – template for home floor plan drawing

Kids creating a diorama – one example

We are in Week 3 of having to stay at home. The girls wanted to “do” something so we looked at the section of the lesson plan that focuses on TAKING ACTION. Paloma wanted to create the fire safety plan using the template provided above. The girls created a map of the home by drawing floor plans of the house. Then, they found all the smoke alarms and discussed an escape plan in the event there was a fire. The girls had a lot of fun doing this. I’d recommend it for kinesthetic learners who like to move and explore. Please watch video below on “Take Action.”

Candles Burning

vBlog 3_Home-Teaching in the Time of Corona

March 18, 2020March 18, 2020eduspirit3

Cristina is sitting in front of her meditation table.

Welcome to Day 3.

For some reason it feels like Day 33. The day is now winding down. Here in Indiana it was a rainy day, too chilly to venture outdoors. We stayed inside and worked together and alone on different projects. The girls completed their e-Learning by lunchtime and then were able to work with my husband on finishing up the birdhouses. I’m actually amazed at how well they turned out.

Further, during this time of being completely sequestered in our homes has made me realize how creative we can be when we don’t have the same pressures as before. For example, my husband can build birdhouses right now. He is in-between teaching classes so, in the meantime, he is enjoying hours of doing things he’s been wanting to do like baking cookies, making corn tortillas on the placa from scratch, and, of course, building birdhouses.

And, in my case, I have had more time to learn about filming, editing, and putting material up on social media. I didn’t realize how incredible intense this process of rendering material online could be, especially since I’ve created self-imposed deadlines (e.g., 1 video per day documenting this time of home-teaching and Corona-imposed, social isolation). However, instead of feeling somewhat irresponsible about diving into something I’ve always wanted to do (e.g., learning how to edit digital material) because I “know I should be doing work-related stuff,” I actually feel sort of liberated. I feel like I have time … it’s not an either/or (either editing or working) but rather an and/and (I can both do what I am excited to do AND do work). This said, it’s not that I do not enjoy my “work,” but rather, I am free to “do work” on my own time and on my own terms – to a greater degree, at least.

In this video, I discuss what my family and I did on Day 3. I also talk about creating a work space that is relatively easy to set up.

For those of you who enjoyed the Caroline Myss quotation:

Managing the power of choice,
with all its creative and spiritual implications,
is the essence of human experience.
All spiritual teachings are directed toward inspiring us
to recognize that the power to make choices
is the dynamic that converts our spirits into matter.
our words into flesh.
Choice is the process of creation itself.
Each choice is a creative act of spiritual power
for which we are held responsible.

Thank you for being a part of this journey with me. We are all in this together.

Abrazos,

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LESSON PLAN 2

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