It was cool, rainy, and windy at times today. We are going to go through a couple of days of below seasonal and bounce back on the weekend. Today, a new parent was the parent-helper. She did a wonderful job and told me how much her child was enjoying our little corner of paradise. It warmed the heart on a dreary day.
The day broke
Cool and wet
Grey.
Able to dampen one’s spirit;
If allowed–
And let the dull prevail.
A glow emerged
Warmth radiates
Revealed in community.
In communal spirit
Discover my world
Leads me forward.
About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope, nonviolence and its anticipatory relationship with the future, as essential elements to teaching and learning.
Academic publications can be found at Ivon Gile Prefontaine on ResearchGate
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
Lovely Ivon… Hearts touching hearts; always a joyful result…
Yes, the hearts are what speak when the conversations of community are authentic.
A little gratitude goes a long way. A good reminder.
Yes it does. A little honey so to say.
I wish my grandson had had a teacher like you. When I went along, to be teacher’s help she sent me outside to restack and tidy the book cupboards !!!….not allowed in class or near the children!
Actually, that is still prevalent. I just happen to believe when people show to help they want to do something meaningful. At some point, that means interacting with the children. My experience has been parents, grandparents, and other members of the community have things to offer I do not.