• 01 Mar 2024 - 13 Apr 2025
  • California

Growing, Adapting, and Thriving with Courage

Join us for a series of 4 weekend retreats as we explore the changing seasons in nature and in our own lives. Practice listening to your inner wisdom, the natural world, and the stories of others in a community of trust. Encourage and embolden your authentic self to show up fully in your life and work. Embrace your core identity and strengthen your integrity so that you will thrive through times of stability and in times of change in all aspects of your personal and professional lives.

This Courage to Teach® Circle of Trust® retreat series offers four weekends of reflection, renewal and rejuvenation.  A cohort of 20-24 people will create our Circle of Trust® community over five seasons and in two different landscapes. Together we will draw inspiration from the changing seasons in order to reflect, renew, re-inspire, and re-engage in our professional and personal lives. 

You can expect time in solitude and in community; time to speak from your heart and to listen as others speak from theirs; seasonal, thought-provoking, and heart-inspiring excerpts of essays, poetry, art, nature, photography and music from a variety of sources.

Throughout each weekend, you will be invited to engage in honest self-reflection and to increase your capacity to listen to yourself and to others more deeply. Everything we will offer is by way of invitation, not demand.  Our expectation is that you will participate in ways that are life-affirming for you. Everyone is welcome, regardless of previous Circle of Trust® experience.

In a time when stress and pressure on teachers and administrators continue to rise because of internal and external demands, Courage to Teach® provides educators with an opportunity for rest, renewal and re-engagement with their identity and integrity as teachers. The program, originally conceived by esteemed educator Parker J. Palmer, and supported by the Center for Courage & Renewal, offers educators an opportunity to reflect on the inner dimensions of teaching and leading.

Please plan to check in at 4:00pm on Friday afternoon.  We will meet at 5:00 pm for welcome and orientation, break for dinner, and meet again until about 9:00 pm.

Breakfast will be served at 8:00 am on Saturday.  We will meet all day (9:00am -9:00pm) in our large group, small groups, and in solitude, with breaks for lunch, extended afternoon quiet time, and dinner.  There will be an optional and informal social gathering after our evening session concludes.

Breakfast will be served at 8:00 am on Sunday and we will begin again at 9:00 am. We will conclude around 12:00 pm and share lunch together before heading home.

Our first two weekends will be held at Santa Sabina Center in San Rafael, CA      

Santa Sabina Center is a lovely contemplative space nestled in a wooded hillside just north of San Francisco. Comfortable meeting rooms look out over beautiful gardens. Other areas include an incredibly well-stocked meditative art space, a calm and quiet inner courtyard, several private outdoor seating areas, a chapel, a small bookstore, and a library.  Meals are lovingly prepared and served three times a day, with coffee and tea available all day long. Santa Sabina is located in a lovely, walkable neighborhood near Dominican University of San Rafael.

More information:  https://www.santasabinacenter.org/

Our third and fourth weekends will be held at Villa Maria del Mar, 21918 E. Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz, CA 95062

Villa Maria Del Mar is a beautiful and serene house of hospitality, located on a bluff overlooking the Pacific ocean in Santa Cruz, California. Comfortable meeting spaces, serene outdoor areas, and beach access make this a one-of-a-kind retreat experience. Meals feature locally sourced and organic food where possible, and are served in a dining room with an incomparable panoramic ocean view. Coffee and tea are available all day long. Also onsite are a meditation room, library and chapel.

More information:  https://villamariadelmar.org/

50% of registration fee will be refunded if cancellation is requested (by emailing facilitators) by January 1, 2024.  No refunds will be issued after that date.

 

 

 

Payment by Cash or District P.O. $3000.
(Payable with 2 checks sent upon registration – one with current date for $1500 and one dated 3/1/2024 for $1500.)
Payment by Credit: $3100

Partial Scholarships may be available. Please inquire with Teri and Rona before registering. We will ask you for some additional information.

All rooms are single occupancy unless otherwise requested.  Upon registering, you will receive a Google Form to complete regarding your lodging preferences and Dietary Needs.

At the time of this posting, Santa Sabina Center requires proof of full COVID vaccination (including booster).  Mask mandates will be at the discretion of the Center, depending on COVID conditions at the time of the retreat.  You will receive a welcome letter a few weeks in advance of the retreat weekend clarifying these details.

Because our Villa Maria dates are in 2025, we will notify participants of the COVID policy as the dates approach. Assume that they will be the same as Santa Sabina’s.

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