*formerly known as Teaching for Transformation.
✓ The wholebeing approach, which enables you to present from a place of wholeness and authenticity
✓ Foundational presentation skills to support the expert and the novice alike in organizing content flow for successful audience engagement
✓ How to aspire to your best by leveraging your strengths, passion, and wisdom in order to offer your audience a lasting positive impact.
1. The Wholebeing Approach
Participants will be introduced to the principles of whole-person well-being, and given a vocabulary for understanding how individuals and teams move toward their highest selves and toward sustained health. This establishes a unique foundation of skill for the trainer. As we understand how adults move toward health and well-being, we are able to offer material that strengthens their growth and enhances our own growth toward our best selves.
❖ Concepts examined include appreciative inquiry, permission to be human, and the principles of Wholebeing Institute’s SPIRE (Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Relational, Emotional) approach. Each concept is addressed from the perspective of how and what to present.
2. Foundational Presentation Skills
Presenters from every field—from business to art, coaching to education, athletics to politics—receive in-depth instruction on the fundamentals of presentation skill development. Based on the latest and best research from the fields of positive psychology, education, and training, these fundamentals provide a clear, impeccable support structure for both the novice and the practiced instructor.
❖ Concepts explored include beginnings and endings, transitions, keeping energy high, the inspiring use of story and data, handling difficult audience members, and managing anxiety.
3. Aspire to Your Best
Participants come to understand their deepest strengths: what makes them unique as a presenter, where their passion elevates both the audience member and the material, how they best connect with their audience, and how the very act of presenting moves each of us toward our most important work in the world.
Maria Sirois, PsyD
Maria is the Vice President of Curriculum for Wholebeing Institute and an inspirational speaker, seminar leader, consultant, and author. She has worked at the intersections of wellness, psychology, and spirituality for more than 30 years. As a presenter, Maria has been invited to keynote internationally at conferences for wellness centers, hospitals, hospices, philanthropies, and business, academic, and corporate institutions, as well as for the general public. She is the author of A Short Course in Happiness After Loss (and Other Dark, Difficult Times).
Novice, aspiring, and experienced presenters, including seminar leaders, coaches, educators, trainers, and lecturers.
❖ For all participants: To provide training for presenters at every level that broadens and deepens skills, increases personal well-being, and sharpens excellence for the presenter as well as for audience members.
❖ For WBI graduates: To provide a professional development pathway for teaching positive psychology and whole-person well-being material. .
Technology
Wholebeing Institute uses state-of-the-art, user-friendly webinar technology that allows you to see the faculty via video, watch the slides during the presentation, and participate during the live events, through your computer or your mobile device. Presentation materials will be available in advance, and recordings will be posted following each session for students who are unable to join live or would like to review the material again.
Online engagement is also fostered in the discussion forum, where students and faculty connect for questions and conversations about the course material.
Need help navigating the online educational experience? Our technology team is here to assist you.
Homework includes optional peer-to-peer video calls to practice critical skills in presenting, such as beginnings and storytelling.
Schedule and Time Commitment
Participants will be asked to create a final project, consisting of a three- to five-minute video presentation on one aspect of teaching for transformation. Your partner will be invited to spot the strengths in your presentation and to provide you with feed-forward (information about what worked well). You’ll also be asked to reflect on what you learned through this process, what went well for you, and what your own next step as a presenter might be, in terms of strengthening your skills. The final project is not mandatory, but is strongly recommended.
Peer Work
To strengthen learning, students can choose to be paired with a fellow student to practice key presentation skills via video conference calls. At the start of the course, students will be given the opportunity to opt into the peer presentation sessions.
Assignments
Weekly assignments will consist of material from the fields of positive psychology, education, and training. Weekly journal prompts will be aimed at deepening students’ engagement with the material. The viewing of video lectures (such as TED Talks) will be required as part of weekly assignments.
Final Project
Participants will be asked to create a final project, consisting of a three- to five-minute video presentation on one aspect of teaching for transformation. Your partner will be invited to spot the strengths in your presentation and to provide you with feed-forward (information about what worked well). You’ll also be asked to reflect on what you learned through this process, what went well for you, and what your own next step as a presenter might be, in terms of strengthening your skills. The final project is not mandatory, but is strongly recommended.
What Students are Saying About the Course
“Joining in this journey with the leaders and the vibrant students was like taking a drink of cool, clear water after walking through the desert. Get ready to think about teaching in a whole new way. Delightful.” —Cindy Stack
“I have noticed since taking the course how much more closely linked my writing and speaking are becoming. Now when I present, I write an article for the people who won’t be able to attend and that hones the presentation in a way I had not explored before.”
—Alice Dommert
“I have been teaching for years, and yet this course offered many new viewpoints and skills. It has greatly impacted the way that I teach, by making me a much more dynamic presenter.” —Amanda Ingall
“If you ever get a chance to hear Maria present, you will not forget it. She is brilliant, insightful, and creative in her style. You will feel touched, impacted, inspired.”
—Ryan M. Niemiec
Education Director
VIA Institute on Character
“I had never taken an online class before, and this surpassed my expectations in every way. I had no idea that an online class could be so rich and deep in learning. The live lectures were captivating and experiential. I look forward to taking more courses with WBI.”
—Lynn Alpeter,
Facilitator and Marketing Coach
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Tuition is $595 USD
