“Whatever it takes” is the mantra currently guiding Finnish education, a system whose guiding principles have caught the attention of educators worldwide. This interactive workshop will intersperse a look at the success story of Finnish educational reform with practical exercises meant to help the participants experience their own shift in perspective and awaken another dimension of their own creative potential. Drawing from her experience as a classroom teacher, Polly will share simple writing strategies for participants to use in releasing stress and negative messages in themselves and their students. In addition, she will share a meditation used by some cardiologists to help lower blood pressure, an NLP quick fix for neutralizing mild trauma, the “tapping technique” for releasing negativity, and color saturation for positive change.

Dr. Polly Palmer

Polly Palmer, a high school language arts teacher for 34 years in Indiana and Colorado, is currently in her 7th year as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Writing Studies, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Earning a B.A. in English, and an M.A. in Anthropology, she continuously taught in public schools from 1969-2005, during which she completed her Ph.D. in Multicultural Education (Curriculum) at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1984. Throughout the years she has expanded her repertoire of strategies for helping students tap into their creative potential, release stress, and overcome negativity, both in the US and the UAE, drawing from studies in meditation, NLP, Color Therapy, Jin Shin Jyutsu, Reiki, and Theta Healing.

For more information, contact Patricia Upczak, Synchronicity Publishing, LLC