Permaculture Teacher Training

Robin attended the Australasian Facilitators Network (AFN) Conference in Ballana, Nth NSW in early November last year. This annual gathering of peers, along with the approaching ‘Dynamic Groups, Dynamic Learning’ course in mid-November in SE Qld, were used as the launching pad for Robin’s long dreamed of ‘Creative Process Wild Card’ set. Beautiful graphic design by Robin’s partner Rob Clark and thorough editing and brilliant InDesign tuition by Eve Witney made the project possible and supported Robin to achieve a high standard result. The Cards evolved out of a long used ‘Dynamic Groups’ course activity that’s designed to challenge participants to try out new and creative processes to teach or present on a topic. This evolved from an original process that Skye and Robin began using 25 years ago to great effect. For example, if you are a little tired of teaching your pet topic the same way each time …

Thanks to the awesome graphic design skills and willingness of Robin’s partner Rob Clark ‘The Manual for Teaching Permaculture Creatively’ now has a brand new colour cover. Very fitting seeing as the iconic 320 page text, written by Skye and Robin in the early 90s and published by their business Earthcare Education in 1995, is turning 21 this year. Yeah! Many hundreds of people have purchased the Manual and it’s enjoyed in over 65 countries. In recent times it’s become available as a PDF through a DropBox Folder system. It was originally designed as a solid ring binder so it could be a huge ‘Tool Box’ to be added to over and over by its new owners as they witnessed, created or adapted processes that they wanted to remember and find easily. This hard copy is preferable to most people though click this link if you’d like to purchase the PDF …

Robin recently completed a massive five week teaching and facilitation journey in Victoria, timed around an invitation to present at ‘Rainbow Serpent Festival’ and also enabling her to present at ‘Sustainable Living Festival’ and display her relevant books and resources there while helping out in the Edible Garden Area. ‘Rainbow Serpent Festival’ was a fantastic and wildly different event which mostly catered to young people out to dance and party hard. The more recently introduced ‘Lifestyle Village’ area opens the festival to a wider more conscious audience which is where Robin was invited in to be part of. It’s replete with a visionary art gallery, two ephemeral temple spaces, a small and a quite large presentation and workshop venue as well as a Permaculture garden area, Indigenous village, free healing and massage zone and children’s area. Robin presented two workshops on Permaculture design and Social Permaculture and was the only …

Things are moving slowly with Robin’s writing of the five book series, though the two card games that are part of the project have been successfully launched – the ‘Permaculture Principles Card Game in September last year and the Creative Process Wild Cards in November. All the wild cards fed straight into the chapter that’s being worked on at the moment in Book 1, the ‘Tool Box’ chapter. As well as the 60 Creative Processes in the card set, the chapter will highlight many other processes, some that act as ‘Glue Processes’, serving the function of supporting the group to work well together, meet and greet and make the most of the material and the time spent together. Ice-Breakers, Name Games, Grouping Processes, Revision Processes and Check-In’s are a few examples.  Also included will be many conventional processes that, even though not creative or participatory, still are valid as ways to …

Robin spent a full 5 weeks in August and September 2015 on an amazingly full and fruitful adventure to UK and Spain, presenting courses in three countries, attending the International Permaculture Conference and Convergence, offering workshops there and also on the core facilitation team for an exciting global Permaculture initiative called Permaculture’s Next Big Step. She came home exhausted yet deeply satisfied at the response to her work and managed to cover the costs of her trip and sell lots of books, manuals and training resources that went home to dozens of different countries. One outcome is invitations to offer her ‘Dynamic Groups, Dynamic Learning’ Creative Facilitation and Teacher Training course in something like 7 European countries and the UK again in the middle months of 2017. Her trip began in the Mediterranean, on the Spanish island of Mallorca where she was hosted by PermaMed to run a one day …

The amazing Delvin Solkinson from Canada just sent this photo and feedback about using Robin Clayfield’s new ‘Permaculture Principles Card Game’ with his groups.  “I so love the amazing new permaculture principles game from the visionary amazitude of Robin Clayfield. Its a key booster for bringing creativity, fun and intelligence to learning” Delvin Solkinson   http://gaiacraft.com/