October 21 - 30, 2017
Polam Farm, Medak District, Telangana, India
Instructors:
Jude Hobbs and Rico Zook
Empower yourself to advocate for change through whole systems design and teaching! This Permaculture Teacher Training course will improve and expand your abilities and make you a more versatile, engaging and effective educator.
In this dynamic and interactive course, you will learn significant teaching techniques to communicate Permaculture principles and strategies in a wide variety of educational settings.
Our goal is to encourage and inspire your unique strengths and talents by demonstrating diverse teaching modalities such as lecture, facilitating class discussions, storytelling, and using visual aids. In this setting of active learning, you will experience essential hands-on practice by preparing and co-teaching several presentations.
21/10/2017: Welcome to the first ever Permaculture Teacher Training in India happening at Polam farm, one of the Convergence venues of the IPC India 2017!
The course started with a wonderful welcome speech by local politicians, followed by an introduction by the teaching duo, Jude Hobbs and Rico Zook. Then, Supriya, Polam farm's custodian, introduced herself and her land before Padma Koppula, CEO of Aranya Agricultural Alternatives, host of the overall IPC India 2017, and her collaborator and friend Raya Cole, from Living Ecology supporting for IPC India preparations, addressed their best wishes to the students.
The 27 participants coming from 11 different countries started to get to know each other under the watchful eyes of Roman, Courtney, Duhita and Abishek, parts of a wonderful organising team! Narsanna Koppula, also gave a talk before the official start of the course and the team work started right from the beginning.
22-23/10/2017: On day 2, participants talked about the ethics and principles of teaching Permaculture and learnt how to give effective feedback.
Each one of them held a presentation about a Permaculture topic of their choice and received a constructive feedback from Jude and Rico. Jude also talked about Mind Mapping and the different learning styles of adult learner's.
Day 3 was another full day starting with participants’ presentations of a topic of their choice, and a session about the roles of a facilitator and the art of facilitation. A funny and insightful roleplay was organised on how to deal with challenging participants!
The day closed with PDC core curriculum planning and how to plan individual modules. It has been another fun and exciting day!
24-25/10/2017: Participants multiplied presentation exercises to train as instructors. An important topic which has been underlined and discussed about is: “How to work effectively and respectfully in different culture?”. In groups, the students developed a curriculum for a Permaculture workshop format of their choice, had a mid course evaluation just before starting planning hands on activities. Afterwards everyone all went out in the field and did a sheet mulch hands on together.
The next day was dedicated to “Methods of Presentations”, “Co-instructing Roles and Protocols”, “How to work with nervousness and stress?”, “Personal Asset Mapping” and participants started to work on their final presentations. The farm offers beautiful landscapes, daily life is going smoothly all together, and the food is super tasty. We can see the smiles and good mood in the air on the group pictures, nice memories are already there in minds and hearts
26-29/10/2017: After ten days of hard work learning about multiple teaching methods, sharing experiences and tips to become as skilled permaculture instructors as their mentors Jude Hobbs and Rico Zook, the participants all completed the course with a final presentation, evaluated, and followed by a last feedback session. Once the certificate were given to everybody, a closing circle took shape, a special dinner was organised, followed by celebration around the fire. A drum circle under the beautiful moonlight and stars!
It was a wonderful occasion to thank everybody who participated in this teacher training as students or organisers, all the people who made this experience so special. We wish all the best to the participants who will soon start teaching and inspiring other permies, and let time, practice and experience guide them to improve their new instructors' skills in the future!
"Polam Farm held the first Permaculture Teacher Training (PTT) in India as one of the pre-courses leading up to the 13th International Permaculture Conference/Convergence. The twenty-seven participants came from eleven countries with sixteen people from across India and more than 31 languages spoken. Jude Hobbs and Rico Zook led the course with a focus on empowering participants to share permaculture with anyone of diverse learning styles, backgrounds and skill levels.
Clear learning breakthroughs developed from the beginning to the end of the transformational course. All participants are motivated to begin teaching many forms of permaculture design workshops, including working toward teaching Permaculture Design certification courses. Participants built facilitation skills, learned module development techniques, practiced social permaculture, and built a strong network of assets and resources that they will use to support one another in both individual and group projects moving forward.
This is a “next step” for permaculture in India and internationally. Many high-caliber participants came to the course with a great deal of maturity and experience in their areas of expertise related to regenerative agriculture, design, teaching, engineering, architecture and other diverse livelihoods. The world now has twenty-seven more whole-systems thinking teachers with enough confidence to execute permaculture teaching methods in their respective communities." - Jude Hobbs
Jude and Rico will be offering Permaculture Teacher Trainings in the future: www.cascadiapermaculture.com
Coming up later this month, a Permaculture Teacher Training with Rosemary Morrow will take place from November 14th-19th in Srinagar, Kashmir, India. You can find more information about this and other “Edge Events” on the IPC website: http://ipcindia2017.org/
“The Pre-IPC Teacher Training with Jude Hobbs and Rico Zook brought about life-changing and lasting inspiration I will use in most life situations. While the training sprouted teachers, I feel as though we all grew as human beings. The more people that take a course like this one, the faster we can accelerate succession towards a healthier future.” - Krisztina Mosdossy
“This Permaculture Teacher Training was all that I wished for - professional while at the same time not too formal. The curriculum is very well planned and includes all that needs to be in a teacher kit. I am so glad I joined in and could be a part.” - J.D
“Language, Patterning and Integration. Teaching is a magical act.” - A.T
“I fell the whole process accomplished to meet my goals, intentions and needs. It set the stage for me to practice and just go with it. It set aside my fears yet highlighted them but in a nurturing environment.” - J.
“There was a good balance and shift in theory and practicals. It helped me absorb the information well. Healthy, warm and friendly atmosphere created by the group helped learn without any stress or fear.” - T.G
“Systemic and holistic integration of all aspects.My intention and needs have evolved for the good across the course.It was transformative as I learned and experienced the true meaning of people care in action.” - J.A.
This is an incredible opportunity to study with an experienced teaching team and learn how to teach and facilitate Permaculture workshops. To be eligible to register for the course, you should have taken the Permaculture Design Certificate Course or have the instructor’s approval.
Course activities: include presentations, interactive and participatory processes, role-play, discussions, group work and peer review.
Course Certification: Participants will receive a Permaculture Teacher Training and Facilitation Certificate of Completion
We have just completed building our international team of instructors. Our full team is listed below, with country of origin, websites, and a brief bio.
Jude Hobbs is an internationally recognized permaculture educator, land consultant, and designer. Drawing upon 30 years’ experience of utilizing whole-system design techniques, she provides environmentally sound solutions in urban and rural settings which promote sustainable actions.
Through her business, Ago-Ecology Northwest, Jude specializes in encouraging farm management practices for optimizing resource conservation, biodiversity, watershed enhancement and income diversification. As an educator she brings her passion for Permaculture to her courses by developing curricula that encompass diverse learning styles and methods that are inspiring and information-rich. Jude’s intention is to empower people to creatively change their everyday patterns so as to care for the earth and each other.
As a co-founder of the Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA) she actively supports the next generation of permaculture trainers through continuing education and professional development.
Jude co-tends Wilson Creek Gardens a 7-acre Permaculture demonstration site in Cottage Grove, Oregon where there are abundant micro-climates from which to learn.
www.cascadiapermaculture.com
For the past 20 years, Rico has been a Permaculture designer, consultant and educator working with private individuals, farmers, villagers and local organizations in India, Cambodia, northern New Mexico, the middle-east and other parts of the world.
His work focuses on assisting all levels of the global community to create culturally and environmentally appropriate life systems that are resilient and regenerative.
He has also worked with local and indigenous cultures to help preserve traditional knowledge and technologies while adapting to and becoming active members of our rapidly globalizing world. With work in different climates and cultures, Rico has established himself as one of the new leaders and innovators in Permaculture worldwide. This is further supported by his work with global Permaculture organizations organizing the International Permaculture Convergence.
www.i-permaculture.org
Aranya Agricultural Alternatives