Portland Love

Almost two weeks ago, I spent five days in Portland, Oregon at my favorite conference.  The conference was A-MA-ZING and I feel refueled in the biggest way.  I hadn't been to Portland in many years.  Have you been there?  That city is pretty awesome.  I would rank it in my top three US cities - Portland, Denver and San Francisco.  You can tell I have a thing for western cities that are eclectic.  I asked some locals if living in Portland is ever too inspiring because of how thoughtfully crafted each shop, restaurant, and space felt to me.  They looked at me and laughed, no.

Here are the highlights from my trip and conference including a new way to know if you are stepping into stereotyping.....

• I led a workshop on Dr. Carol Dweck's work on mindset mixed with coaching strategies from my coach training.  Though I've done this workshop many, many times before.  This AEE group is so ready that the information landed in the best way possible.  I have never had so many people contact me during the conference to talk about the workshop or after the conference ended.  The information and take-aways evidently are still resonating with a lot of different people from all over the world, which is totally exciting and speaks to the importance of Dweck's work and co-active coaching.  I'm putting this one in the win column, for sure.
• Speaking of win, I felt like I won the lottery when a participant, Marli, in the workshop I led gave me that You are awesome wooden nickel above.  Besides being so touched, I immediately wanted 1,000 wooden nickels to inject into the world.  Who is with me?  
• You are with me?  I'm thinking about ordering wooden nickels that you can order, I ship and we all shower the world in what people deserve - a true compliment about how awesome they are!  Wouldn't it be fun to give out the nickels to your favorite educators?  Nurses?  Neighbors?  Kids?  The lovely guy at Trader Joe's who scores you more pumpkin-flavored coffee?  Yes!  We need nickels and lots of them.
• Portland is such a delicious town - I'm talking tantalizing restaurants.  My favorites that I am still dreaming about included: Cheese and Crack, Stumptown Coffee, Pok Pok,  Tasty n Sons, Pine State Biscuits, Olympic Provisions, and Salt & Straw.  Seriously, none of these will let you down when you visit PDX.  Being at home now - where the food isn't super tantalizing - is a bit of a tummy/taste bud let down, I got to be honest.
• The theme of the conference was social justice.  Not every single workshop aligned with that theme, but all of the main speakers did.  At the keynote with Caprice Hollins, she shared an interesting and super easy way to detect if you are stereotyping (and at risk of discriminating or being prejudice).  Ready to learn it?   It's easy like I said.  When you are in a situation and are surprised (I'll share an example in a moment), be watchful - stereotyping is lurking.  

For example, I am often surprised when I go see a medical doctor (who is a specialist) when they are either 1) a woman or 2) younger than me!  Yep.  When that doctor walks into the examination room and they are either female and/or younger than me, I have a split second of "wow, they are a woman!" or "wow, they look like they are 20 years old."  That's the moment where we need to be aware - stereotypes are present in our mind (whether we thought they existed or not).  It is how we use that surprise information to proceed that makes all the difference.

If I thought, "Oh, no...this doctor can't be capable (because of their gender or age)," then that would be the discrimination/prejudice part.  See?  Caprice encouraged us to use surprise as a way of noticing bias that may unconsciously exist in our minds.

What surprise moments have you noticed?  Come on....I shared mine.  I'd love to hear what catches you off guard.  Awareness is always a great step one to combating prejudice and social injustice.

Jen

The "Other" Jen

As you remember from my blog post here, there are over 1.4 million Jennifers in the world.  I'd like to think we are all created amazingly equal.

And so I will.

A decade ago while attending my first International Association for Experiential Education (AEE) Conference, I met another Jennifer - Jennifer Stanchfield.  She like me shared similar interests:  a passion for working with kids and adults, knowing learning experientially is powerful & rich and recognizing the AEE community is comprised of kindred spirits like us.  I've attended at least seven AEE conferences since meeting Jen.  We always embrace when we see each other.

Kindred Jens, we are.

The "Other" Jen has authored and co-authored books.  She leads numerous workshops and trainings around the country on topics such as creating classroom communities and differentiating instruction.  She has the neatest store with the perfect educational props.  Look at this unique Miniature Metaphors set.  Isn't it divine?  You know how I love metaphors.  Seriously, can this collection of miniatures be more engaging?

Did I mention Jen blogs?  Check out this blog post on starting off your lesson with style.  Then, you must read her inspiring post on using quotes in your classroom.  Click here to do so.

If you are like me and can't get enough of her creative ideas, then go visit Jen's blog or her website, Experiential Tools. 

Jen S. is making me proud to be a Jen, too.

Thanks, Jen. 

Best,

The "Other" Jen