2022 Events and Workshops:
20th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Education in Honolulu, Hawaii
If you are attending the conference on education, I will be presenting two 90-minute experiential workshops:
- Integrating Meaningful Social Emotional Learning into your Humanities Curriculum
in both group and individual work, that you can adapt and take back to your own school. While the majority of lesson suggestions will be geared to middle school, many can be easily adapted to upper elementary and high school humanities units.- Creating a Meaningful Social Emotional School Wellness Program
Come join us at the conference! To register, please click here.
2021 Events and Workshops:
The Wisdom of Scheherazade: The Power of Narrative to Heal the Heart and Mind
The Fates and Graces Mythologium: A Conference and Retreat for Mythologists and Friends of Myth
As her childhood friend, Sultan Shahryār, grows more and more unstable and deadly, Scheherazade knows that she alone has the knowledge of how to heal him. As a storyteller, she courageously embarks on a “fool’s journey” to employ her considerable narrative skills as she attempts to restore sanity and peace to his heart and mind. Scheherazade aims for the heart of his core stories, and each night in their marital bed, instead of lecturing him directly on the harmful and delusional ramifications of his current state of mind, she engages him mythically, slowly unraveling and addressing his pain through masterful storytelling, provoking a profound healing.
This presentation will look at how Scheherazade the Storyteller from “One Thousand and One Nights” demonstrates a mythic understanding of the power of stories to heal. This faith in mythic narrative as healing device has implications in our modern world as well, as it has become more vividly evident how the potent use of narratives can be used to confuse, misdirect, and incite to violence, but can also be used to bring clarity of mind, healing of heart, empathy, and personal awareness.
2020 Events and Workshops:
Narcissus, “Reality” TV, and the Power of a Compelling Narrative in the Year 2020
NY Mythology Group/NYC Joseph Campbell Foundation (Virtual Talk and Discussion)
The myth of Narcissus, tells the tale of a young man cursed to fall in love with his own reflection. Narcissus, a mythic character whose inability to discern between the reality and illusion he is now faced with, brings about his own demise, and with it, a loss of the possibility of redemption. Unable to fully comprehend the tragic nature of his predicament, he suffers, completely convinced that his perspective of reality is truth.
The year 2020 has brought worldwide pandemic, quarantines and lockdowns, civil unrest, deeper ideological divisions, wildfires, hurricanes, racial reckoning, a contentious election, conspiracy theories entering the mainstream, and there’s still a month to go. And through all of these challenges, people continue to fight about what is truth and what is constructed story. Perspectives have given way to concretized narratives, unyielding and validated by echo chambers within news sites, social media, and communities.
In this presentation, Dr. Miller will look at these events though the lens of how the development of constructed mythic nartratives have given rise to a lack of discernment between truth and illusion. In what ways have we become Narcissus, seeing only our own reflections in the pool and no longer able to discern what is real. Has reality split into diverse narratives? Has reality always been a subjective perspective? Have we shunned the truthtellers and the ones who would love us authentically, only to fall in love with our shadow natures and project them out into the world as the “other?” Narcissus is calling out to us, how will we respond?
2019 Events and Workshops:
17th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Education in Honolulu, Hawaii
If you are attending the conference, I will be presenting a 90-minute experiential workshop on January 5th at 8:00am on the basics of Unstorying! Come join us and see what Unstorying is all about.
All the World’s a Stage: The Creative Arts as a Tool for Character Development and Transformation in San Francisco, CA
755 Ocean Ave,
This workshop through CSEE.org is for K-12 Creative Arts Teachers or anyone who wants to incorporate more social-emotional learning into their coursework with students.
Join Dr. Nicole Kavner Miller as she explores the power of creative arts education in effectively teaching social-emotional learning skills to students. Whether through theater, fine arts, movement, writing, or music, the creative arts enable us to look deeply into the artistic mirror, and shine a light on aspects of who we are, and who we want to be. Creative Arts teachers have seen this transformation unfold time and time again.
This workshop will offer discussion, journaling, experiential activities, ideas, and strategies you can bring back to your own classrooms, to foster your students’ character development, explore their inner worlds, strengthen their interpersonal dynamics, and build self-confidence.
Tentative Agenda:
- The Power of the Creative Arts in Character Development – An overview and discussion
- Each topic will focus on specific social-emotional learning concepts and associated experiential activities:
- Writing
- Art
- Movement and music
- Performance activity
- Closing discussion and strategy session
Registration includes coffee and lunch
Member Schools
$125 for first registrant from a school / $100 for additional attendees
Non-Members
$200 for first registrant from a school / $175 for additional attendees
For more information, or to attend this workshop, please: Click Here To Register
NYSAIS Workshop: Unstorying: A 360° Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum in Oyster Bay, NY
31 Yellow Cote Rd, Oyster Bay, NY 11771 map
To attend this workshop, please: Register Here
Who should attend? K-12 Faculty, Administration, Social Emotional Learning Coordinators, Advisors
Overview:
This experiential workshop will discuss the process of Unstorying, a tool for creating more authentic relationships with the teachers, administrators, students, and parents in your school community, as well as within our personal lives. School communities strive to be nurturing environments, which endeavor to foster a child’s academic and social-emotional growth, but unfortunately, many times, we fall into story patterns with each other which create distrust, divisions, and miscommunication. Unstorying explores why this happens and how to dissolve those issues with intention; why seemingly unimportant conflicts seem to trigger strong emotional responses, and how you can “see through” those experiences to have more clarity in your relationships, and find more peace in your life. Strategies will be given for stepping back from triggering scenarios, and communicating more clearly and honestly with your self and others, as well as practical applications adapted for your school community.
A tentative outline for the day:
- Opening activity
- Introduction to Unstorying: What is it and why do we need to un-story ourselves?
- School community dynamics and the need for a 360° approach to Social Emotional Learning
- Observations from the implementation of Unstorying at East Woods School
- Unstorying nuts and bolts:
- Recognizing the trigger stories we carry and why
- 10-second rule/Responding vs. Reacting
- Clear, honest, kind communication
- Footsteps conflict resolution process
- Creating communities of kindness
- Resistance to Unstorying, or “Why wouldn’t you want to gain more clarity in your relationships with colleagues, students, and the rest of the school community?”
- Designing and adapting an Unstorying program at your school
- Closing discussion and reflection
To attend this workshop, please: Register Here
Fee includes Continental breakfast, lunch and all materials.
Substantial discounts are available for groups registering together.
- 5-9 attendees @ $175.
- 10-20 attendees @ $150.
Regular Registration Fees apply within 2 weeks of the event
• NYSAIS members – $215.00
• Non-members – $260.00
Early Discount of $20.00 will apply until 2 weeks before the event.
Late Fee of $10.00 will apply within 2 days of the event.
* Note: Payment is by credit card only.
All the World’s a Stage: The Creative Arts as a Tool for Character Development and Transformation in Washington, DC
(EVENT CANCELLED)
4759 Reservoir Rd NW
Washington, District of Columbia 20007
United States
This workshop through CSEE.org is for K-12 Creative Arts Teachers or anyone who wants to incorporate more social-emotional learning into their coursework with students.
Join Dr. Nicole Kavner Miller as she explores the power of creative arts education in effectively teaching social-emotional learning skills to students. Whether through theater, fine arts, movement, writing, or music, the creative arts enable us to look deeply into the artistic mirror, and shine a light on aspects of who we are, and who we want to be. Creative Arts teachers have seen this transformation unfold time and time again.
This workshop will offer discussion, journaling, experiential activities, ideas, and strategies you can bring back to your own classrooms, to foster your students’ character development, explore their inner worlds, strengthen their interpersonal dynamics, and build self-confidence.
Tentative Agenda:
- The Power of the Creative Arts in Character Development – An overview and discussion
- Each topic will focus on specific social-emotional learning concepts and associated experiential activities:
- Writing
- Art
- Movement and music
- Performance activity
- Closing discussion and strategy session
Registration includes coffee and lunch
For more information, or to attend this workshop, please: Register Here
I am also available for individual and group workshops and consultations, please contact me directly at millernk@yahoo.com to arrange for a session.
See you Beyond the Story…Nicole Miller
