“It usually takes me all year to get my kids to where they are today – more open, confident and trusting. Thanks to Tools For Peace Camp, I will be able to accomplish so much more with them this year.” —Michelle Lewis, 8th Grade Teacher, Northern Light School, Oakland
Tools for Schools is an opportunity for 8th-12th grade educators and schools to incorporate Tools For Peace into their own classrooms. Because the Tools For Peace curriculum increases students’ self-awareness and understanding of interdependence, incorporating it into the classroom increases their ability to succeed individually and as a class or school. For both teachers and students, it is a starting point to creating peace in themselves, their school, and our world.
School groups (of students and faculty) receive in-depth Tools For Peace training and then work with Tools For Peace at their home campus on an on-going basis. Supported by a comprehensive program guide specifically designed for schools, teachers implement the curriculum of the Personal Mandala Workbook at a schedule specifically adjusted for the classroom.
The lessons of the Personal Mandala Workbook align with framework-based instruction for Visual Arts, Health, Service Learning, History and Social Science, and English Language Arts. Schools or teachers are also encouraged to request funding from Tools For Peace to enable special projects (fieldtrips, community engagement, etc) planned around each section of the Personal Mandala Workbook.
Tools For Peace Facilitators provide continual support to participating schools and teachers through an online support blog, and phone calls or visits to the school as needed.
By training faculty and student leaders to implement Tools For Peace in their own classrooms and schools, the Tools For Schools program effectively contributes to the well-being of the entire campus and the local community.
