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 
If one doesn’t turn the page, Ivon, one never gets to the end of the story.
I sometimes feel as though I have turned a thousand pages and just when I get close to the end, I find Life has bought out a sequel and after reading the last page, I wake up the next morning and start reading the next book.
I agree Victoria. We need to turn the page and bring freshness into life. It keeps life full of mystery.
I agree, but with a caveat. While I see some folks who live in fear and rarely if ever change or seek out new adventures, I also see some others who flit from thing to thing, person to person, and job to job, at the first sign of challenge or difficulty. To me, both approaches to life have major drawbacks. For example, I don’t know of any relationships that are issue-free or experience no difficulties. I think some people leave relationships so soon that they may be walking away from something that could turn out to be good for them, and they miss the learning and growth that can occur when one sticks around for a bit to attempt to work out things with people. I believe life works best when one finds their sweet spot somewhere between the extremes that works best for them at that point in their journey through life.
Russ
I agree with your caveat Russ. Relationships are hard work filled with complexity and messiness. Sometimes it is the complexity, messiness, and hard work that are their own reward.
Perfectly perfect Ivon. The photograph and the words! For me change isn’t the problem as much as the balancing and counter balancing during the change, but then that’s what life is all about, perhaps!Thank you!
Life is a dance and we have to find the rhythm. Thank you for a wonderful comment Penny.
Your very welcome Ivon, I hope your weekend is being a pleasant one for you!
I’m with the gopher! 🙂
I am too.
🙂