Category: Events

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Dr. Peter Gray’s AERO Conference Keynote (Video)

Attend this year's 25th anniversary AERO conference! Find out more here.

Dr. Peter Gray, research professor of psychology at Boston College, has conducted and published research in a wide range of fields, including neuroendocrinology, animal behavior, developmental psychology, anthropology, and education. He is the author of a highly regarded college textbook, Psychology (Worth Publishers), now in its 6th edition. Most of his recent research and writing has to do with the value of free, unsupervised play for children’s healthy social, emotional, and intellectual development. He has expanded on these ideas extensively, for the general public, in a blog that he writes for Psychology Today magazine and in his recently-published book, Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life (Basic Books, 2013).

Peter Gray grew up in small towns in Minnesota and Wisconsin, where he had a rich childhood play life, which, he believes, prepared him well for adulthood. He did his undergraduate study at Columbia University and then earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences at the Rockefeller University, in New York City. His career since then has been centered entirely at Boston College. His play life continues, not only in the joy he derives from research and writing, but also in his enjoyment of long-distance bicycling, backwoods skiing, pond skating, kayaking, and backyard vegetable gardening.

Watch Dr. Peter Gray's keynote from the 2013 AERO conference in its entirety below:

 

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Ron Miller to Keynote AERO Conference

Ron Miller
Ron Miller
We’re very excited to announce that Ron Miller, one of the leading and most frequently cited pioneers in holistic education, is briefly coming out of retirement to be a keynote speaker at the 25th anniversary AERO conference this June. Ron has always been one of AERO’s strongest supporters since our inception and served as editor of our magazine, Education Revolution, for many years. Ron Miller was involved with diverse educational alternatives from the mid-1980s until 2010, as a teacher, researcher, activist, editor and author.

Ron Miller has written or edited ten books, such as What Are Schools For?, Free Schools, Free People: Education and Democracy After the 1960s, and most recently The Self-Organizing Revolution: Common Principles of the Educational Alternatives Movement. Miller established the Bellwether School in Williston, Vermont and he taught at Champlain College and Goddard College in Vermont Miller founded two journals, the Holistic Education Review (later renamed Encounter) and Paths of Learning. Since retiring as an educational researcher and activist, Miller has run a bookstore, literary festival, and adult learning program in Woodstock, Vermont. You can find dozens of articles and a complete list of Miller’s books online at www.pathsoflearning.net.

Ron Miller’s talk will be entitled: 1964-2014: A Half Century Since Freedom Schools and How Children Fail. Miller offers a unique and critical perspective on the history and landscape of alternative education in the United States. Miller’s book, Free Schools, Free People, placed democratic, freedom-based schools in an historical context that enabled a more thoughtful and necessary critical analysis of the movement to take place. As schools continue to be founded out of those same theoretical traditions, Miller’s work demonstrates the relevancy of learning from these historical roots to create healthier and more successful alternatives. In the same vein, this talk will help alternative educators learn about the significance and relevancy of the 1960s and what has happened since as it relates to their schools and learning environments today.

Ron Miller's last issue of Education Revolution (read by over 40,000!) can be read in its entirety here:

 

Watch Ron Miller's 2006 AERO conference keynote "Building an Educational Rights Movement" here:

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Agile Learning Facilitator Summer Intensive (Event)

Agile Learning Centers

Why?

In a world where all information is at your fingertips we understand that success relies not on your ability to memorize or regurgitate facts, but rather to filter, organize, and creatively apply this information. An Agile Learning Center prepares young people to navigate the world by cultivating the skills of entrepreneurialism, digital literacy, resourcefulness, efficient collaboration and self-directed initiative.

What?

Agile Learning Centers are a network of self-directed learning communities creating and curating an open-sourced educational model. We borrow, invent, and evolve leading-edge tools and practices for creating healthy cultures, and share resources within our network to support its continued development.

The structure of an Agile Learning Center is designed to nourish a productive, vibrant, and healthy culture – allowing participants to engage authentically in a learning process that cultivates confidence, dynamic skill sets, mental agility, self-awareness, and group skills.

Agile Learning Centers do not have a traditional curriculum, as in a set of subjects or classes one must take. Instead, we recognize that all social environments have a hidden curriculum which are the real lessons taught by the way social interactions are structured. So we have been conscious to craft the lessons of our environment. These are the lessons we've built into our “curriculum:”

  • Identifying your own needs and priorities,
  • Creating projects which accomplish those priorities,
  • Organizing your time and activities around those projects,
  • Focus and follow through on those projects toward a creative end,
  • Sharing your creative output (in a digital portfolio),
  • Reflecting on personal progress and impediments (in a personal blog),
  • Co-creating a collaborative, supportive social environment,
  • Responsibility for your action and inaction
  • and Digital literacy




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Agile Learning Facilitator (ALF) Intensive

Why?

We believe that when it comes to teaching and learning, the medium is the message. In order to teach honesty, respect, authenticity, initiative, self-direction, follow-through, purpose, and shareable value, you must embody these traits.

We are expanding our network of learning communities and facilitators. To support this development we are providing an opportunity for educators, entrepreneurs, and other passionate people to engage a culture creation process together — to learn about the the tools and practices we use, and invent new ones to produce the desired results.

What?

 

The ALF Intensive program will be held in Charlotte, NC for three weeks beginning on Monday, July 7th.

Week 1 (Agile Intensive):

Participants gain a deeper understanding of the “why” and “how” of the ALC project, and dive right into core concepts that create coherence for this work. Together, we will create and embody the cultural values and social DNA of an Agile Learning Center. Each participant will be fully responsible for showing up, being present, adding value, and co-creating together.

 

Week 2 (Hands-on Engagement):

After spending a week culture hacking together, we will begin working with students in the context of an Agile Learning summer camp, hosted by our ALC here in Charlotte — The Mosaic School (TMS). ALFs will facilitate the camp and gain direct experience with the ALC model.

Week 3 (Reflection and Refinement):

The third week of our intensive offers new ALFs the opportunity to pull back and reflect on their experience. The TMS summer camp will continue running with our experienced ALFs, while new participants will get to flex their culture-hacking muscles by evolving or inventing tools to shift results within the camp. We will wrap up with a process for acknowledging each other’s value and identifying next steps in each participant's personal evolution.

Who?

The Agile Learning Facilitators Intensive is for adults who would like to gain the tools and experience base needed to:

  • Upgrade your organization with Agile Learning Center principles
  • Work as a facilitator in an Agile Learning community
  • Begin the process of starting a new Agile Learning Center




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When?

July 7-25, 2014

Details:

This camp is open to adults ages 18 to infinity.

The cost is $375 for a three week program, food is provided. If you are traveling from outside of Charlotte, we can arrange for a family to host your stay in the city.

Click here to register

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Permaculture, Ecovillage, and Arts Community Education (PEACE)

This summer Heathcote Community is offering a special Permaculture, Ecovillage, and Arts Community Education (PEACE) program. This features internships in farming and carpentry plus a variety of educational workshops! The flyer and postcards are enclosed.
 
This program is designed for those who are interested in a focused month of work experience and learning about permaculture, ecovillages, community living and personal growth.  Workshops led by experts will be offered in the following subjects: Ecovillage Education, Permaculture Design, Community Skills, Wilderness Awareness and Survival Skills, Consensus and Facilitation, Empathy in Action, Social Justice, Breathwork, Conflict as a Doorway to Intimacy, Interplay, Enneagram, Meditation, Yoga, and more. 
 
Note:  People can take the workshops without doing an internship.  They can also do an internship without taking the workshops.  Internships are available year-round.  Tuition options are posted online.
 
We think this program will be of particular interest to students of: Environmental Studies, Sustainability, Peace Studies, Women's Studies, Permaculture, Farming, Historic Restoration, Carpentry, Intentional Community, Sociology, Social Justice, Conflict Resolution, Consensus Facilitation, and Mindfulness.
 
For more information: