This year I’ve gradually been transitioning back into my role of being a tutor on the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design. It’s work I haven’t been well enough to do over the past few years and I’m feeling really excited to be part of such a great programme and community again.
Over the summer I spent time designing illustrations for the new Diploma website (designed and launched for the new 2020 system), which was a lovely creative way to start being connected. I then undertook the online training to became an assessment level tutor, meaning I can now work alongside apprentices through every stage of their Diploma journey. Through the training, several other Diploma tutors in the north of England and myself, decided to create a regional, day-long gathering for anyone involoved in the Diploma in the area, initially to be an online event, and then hopefully to be an “in person” event as the pandemic conditions allow. We hosted the first of these gatherings last week and it was a really motivating event. We opened the gathering up to any Diploma apprentices and tutors who wanted to attend, with the aim of sharing the design, to inspire others to create other regional events. About 40 people joined in sessions about; documenting designs, ‘getting unstuck’, a review of the assessment criteria, design shares and time/space for everyone to be able to introduce themselves. Our northern England tutor guild is just about to arrange our gathering evaluation online meet up but we are already pretty sure there will be more similar events to happen. I also facilitated my first tutorial in the new system last month and am looking forward to gradually accepting other apprentices over the next few months. You can check out my tutor profile on the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design website and get to know more about me and my permaculture interests by having a general nosey round my own website. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about my tutor work.
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These events have sadly been cancelled for this year. Hoping to run some similar days in 2018 I'm really pleased to announce a programme of (Yorkshire) Dales Diploma Days over the next few months, for anyone doing the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design. These will take place at two different locations on a variety of days, with the aim of being as accessible to as many Diploma apprentices in the area as possible. The functions of the Dales Diploma Days are:- * To provide a space to focus on getting some design documentation completed, (both venues have great internet access). * To meet with other apprentices - guild/peer support time. * The opportunity to have a tutorial with me. * Visit a great venue. * It's possible to video link to either of venues (Skype, Facetime etc) for guild time or a tutorial. You are welcome to either attend the whole day or just turn up for an hour or two Those Plant People is a LAND centre in the village of Steeton in between Keighley and Skipton. We have access to a fab classroom there. Settle Community and Business Hub is a wonderful new community project in the centre of Settle, a small market town in the heart of the Dales. There is a 'Pay as you feel' (suggest £5-10) request to cover the hire of the venue, hot drinks etc. Any tutorials are at the usual Permaculture Association set rate of £30/hr (or part of your existing route fee if I am your personal tutor) For more details about my role as a tutor click here The following dates for 2017 have been confirmed. Please get in touch with me if you are thinking of coming along or would like further details. ![]() Over the last year a core part of my Edible Garden work has been to improve the fertility and life force of the soil, to ensure a healthy grounded place for flora and fauna to flourish ....In parallel my pathway as a permaculture practitioner also feels as though creating a holistically healthy base from which to grow a diverse rightlivelihood and life balance, has been key for me during this time - and its now time to start creating yields from them both Mentoring can be a very powerful tool in lots of aspects of our permaculture work. I particularly like this article from thechangeagency.org which explains the benefits that successful mentoring can bring. " Mentoring provides an opportunity to think and reflect in a confidential and supportive environment. It may make sense to review the preceding period, identify challenges, and workshop ways to respond to challenges in the future. " Many aspects of permaculture design -process, ethics, principles and tools - can help to structure and guide mentoring relationships in permaculture contexts and settings. This week Ive been reminded how valuable mentorship is in my both my personal and professional development and learning. Connecting, observing and receiving feedback from others who are more experienced and knowledgeable in subjects we are interested in taking further in our lives can be really empowering. My Skype mentoring session, which was part of the year long people focused permaculture facilitators programme, gave me space to reflect on the last few months of undertaking my facilitators pathway design, while gaining some focused clarity on specific designs and projects I had been working hard to start implementing. Looby's skill in identifying analogies and patterns, in the various tangles of my story is something I am really appreciating learning from her. In addition, a helpful reminder about how erosive my repetitive story for myself about "I need to be more confident" (So, if I need to be more confident, that must mean Im not confident enough!), can be, has given me the motivation to reframe that story by consciously identifying and noting times when I am taking steps to improve my confidence. ![]() More flowers! my Growing Confidence design ....each time I do something which demonstrates I am a confident practitioner and person, I draw a flower in my planner /journal with a few notes. Looking back at the patterns should really help create a lovely spiral of confidence abundance! I have a different colour flower according to significance of the activity ('day to day', 'moderate', 'life changing'!) Another Skype meeting with Ryan, the strategic communications co-ordinator from the Permaculture Association, about my developing work in communications and marketing in the permaculture community, was also a great time to appreciate the role of Ryan's mentorship. Then an observed Diploma tutorial along with some comprehensive feedback by Wilf, (Wilf observing me undertaking the tutorial, after me observing his tutoring/educator skills over the last few years), was my third experience of some wonderful mentors in my life just now.
Reflecting on the momentum and motivation these 3 events in the last few days gave me, also made me consider my mentoring role to others in the permaculture community and beyond too. This is something I will be looking at in more depth as part of my developing practitioner and designer role. The National Diploma Gathering - NDG- (for anyone involved in the UK Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design) took place over the weekend in St Werbergs Centre, Bristol. Its one of the highlights of my permaculture year- so much inspiration and learning, and catching up with friends old and new - and for me my first NDG both as a Diploma tutor and as a member of the Diploma Working Group. The Friday before the Gathering was a tutor training day - so a great opportunity to connect further and increase confidence with my new role. 'Im tired of' - discussing patriarchy, and solutions - a fab workshop facilitated by Anna Broszkiewicz, expanding on some of the issues raised in a recent blog by Nicole Vosper, "Overcoming burnout part 6 - Patriarchy makes me tired" A layered system of observing and assessing Graham's tutorial with Reevsie - I got totally lost as to who was observing and assessing who and why, but the whole experience was really useful as a new tutor - and I have so much gratitude to Graham for letting us all in on his design support hour! Me presenting my Creative Dying design, without my planned presentation, due to a series of tech issues. The problem being the solution meant I had to just get on with it though - and it certainly deepened some confidence edges in doing so!
The weekend, as usual, renewed my designing energy and motivation and I'm very much looking forward to spending the next few days planning on the next steps I aim to take as a permaculture practitioner. |
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December 2020
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