In a dream last week, I had a new car. It was an upgrade, bigger and nicer than my old car, but it was hard to drive. Then I realized I wasn’t in the driver’s seat. I was trying to drive from the passenger seat. I’m not surprised by the message from this dream, because [ Read more … ]
Teaching, Coaching & Facilitating
Having the Courage to Speak Up
I’ve always had trouble voicing things… speaking up for myself, calling out deception, and owning my own value and worth. When I was growing up, my mother would always tell me, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” I wasn’t sure that whatever I was thinking was nice, so I stuffed my [ Read more … ]
Sigh. Fond memories of teaching at UC Berkeley’s Tolman Hall….
My very first teaching gig was in the Adult and Vocational Ed teacher credentialing program at UC Berkeley. I taught there for two years, before moving on to other things. Those classes were so inspirational for me… my students were working teachers of all ages who taught all over the Bay Area. They taught in [ Read more … ]
Poison oak blisters and teaching
I learned early in my career that I can teach and be in front of a group when I’m not feeling well or I’m sick. The example that’s forever etched into my memory is when I was hired to teach a day-long seminar at UC Berkeley. And I just happened to have gnarly poison oak [ Read more … ]
Finding Your Image
For many years, I led creative writing workshops. Early on I noticed that some writing prompts tended to keep people entrenched in their thinking mind… and their subsequent writing was heady and dry. These writing prompts often involved using a word or newspaper headline to write from. Their writing might have been slick and witty, [ Read more … ]