Author Archives: Sue

About Sue

I work as a facilatator and consultant and am passionate about Appreciative Inquiry, education and working with other like-minded folk to help make this a better world for our children and young people.

Please Send Us Your Stories & News!

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7265445 (WinCE)We invite you to send us your stories about strength focused work with children and youth for publication on the PCC website.

Whether you have a short snippet to share or would like to send us a longer story, we’d love to hear from you!

Shorter pieces can be published directly on the website. If you would like to send us a longer article, please include a short introduction for publication on the site. We’ll convert the longer piece into a  downloadable pdf to accompany the web-page introduction.

You may find our PCC Web Writing Guide helpful in writing copy for publication on the web.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Leo Buscaglia – Words of Wisdom

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Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four-year-old child whose next-door neighbour was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbour, the little boy said, “Nothing, I just helped him cry”

Intergenerational Conversations

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Marge SchillerThis is the title of an article by PCC founder, Marge Schiller PhD.

As Marge says:

Schools and youth are agents of benefit for their communities and the world. They are the future. Sustainability of that future depends on human beings, young and old meeting our responsibility as stewards of the earth.

In this article, Marge talks about the benefits of creating space for intergenerational conversations and explains two of the foundational principles of PCC:

  1. Don’t do anything about me without me
  2. Maximum mix is magic

She shares some thoughts on how to proceed with such a gathering, and suggests three phases for maximum success.

Download  Intergenerational_Conversations

Voices of Learners October 12-16, 2009

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The week of October 12 is going to be different this year.  For an entire week, the eyes of Stark County citizens will turn to schools and youth.

The spotlight will shine on students and teachers, youth organizations and schools that are flourishing, that use their strengths to accomplish great things, and to make a difference in their communities.

PCC is co-sponsoring with the Stark County Educational Service Center an event that is not like anything Stark County has seen before.  Students, teachers, community leaders, parents, and visitors from near and far will convene conversations about excellence.

  • October 12 and 16 will be devoted to field site visits around Stark County and northeast Ohio
  • October 13 is the celebration kick-off at the new and beautiful GlenOak High School in Plain Local Schools
  • October 14 will be at the Timken Senior High School Campus, where students’ graduation rates and achievement are leaping upward
  • October 15 will be at Stark State College, a day to congratulate local schools of higher education for their many contributions to our community and our young people

Sound intriguing? We hope so!

If you’re from Stark County, we need you, your students and staff to help finalize our plans, nominate your outstanding programs, and to come join us as we explore teaching and learning in hands on, intergenerational groups.  It will be fun, join us – you’ll be glad you did!

And to those of you elsewhere in the world, please “Watch This Space”.

We’ll be posting some updates to share our journey with you between now and October – and we know we’ll have lots of news to share with you after the event!

Voices Of Learners Registration Form

Please email Joyce Lemke or call her on 330-705-0793 if you you have any questions or would like further information.

Joseph Renzulli – Words of Wisdom

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By personalizing instruction to match a child’s interests, strengths and learning styles, teachers find that students welcome more challenge and stretch their capacity to learn.

Prescriptive, remedial approaches to achievement are falling short.

Accountability for the truly educated mind in today’s knowledge-driven economy should first and foremost take account of high-end learning skills.

These are the learner-centered skills that grow young minds, promote genuine student engagement, and increase achievement.

Dr. Joseph Renzulli (Director,  National Research Center for the Gifted and Talented. University of Connecticut . Co-founder of Renzulli Learning)

The Power of Commitment

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This is the title of an inspiring article by Nancy Oelklaus, who is a former assistant superintendent of schools in Texas. Nancy is also an executive coach and the author of Journey from Head to Heart: Living and Working Authentically and Alphabet Meditations for Teachers.

Nancy describes ‘the invisible school’ – the billions of neuronal patterns that each of us is carrying around inside our heads. How we think about school. How we feel about each other.

This invisible school has its dark side – our negative responses to others’ imperfections and our tendency to analyse, judge and perhaps condemn.

But as Nancy says:

Since we are susceptible to the phenomenon of mirror neurons-being influenced by another person’s state of mind-we need to protect our brains from invasion by negativity.

A starting point is to write or draw or create in some visual form our commitment to our relationship with ourselves, parents, students, and colleagues. Following are some examples.

My hope is that these words inspire you to write your own commitments, read or write them every day, and have a more peaceful and rewarding experience in education.

Download The Power of Commitment