Experiential Facilitation for Schools & Learning Communities
Build strong, connected communities for learning that lasts.
Through professional learning programs, ongoing embedded mentorship and consultation, and direct-service facilitation, facilitator & educator Jen Stanchfield works with all members of learning communities to fully engage students and faculty, create supportive learning environments, and use reflection to deepen learning and growth.
Jen empowers educational leaders with practical techniques to enliven meetings and design meaningful, engaging professional learning. She will boost your ability to spark excitement for learning and help your community connect to build a positive and productive environment.
Jen’s Foundational Books on Experiential Teaching and Facilitation Methods
“My most engaging and powerful lessons and activities come from Jennifer Stanchfield. When I reflect on what works best in my classroom, every lesson on the top of my list has an element of her wisdom.”
~ Heidi Pauer, New Hampshire English Teacher of the Year
Inspired Leaders: Modeling a Responsive Approach from the Top
With a participant-centered, collaborative approach — informed by neuroscience research and experiential education principles — you can act as a partner in learning to model responsive facilitation for your learning community.
- Strengthen essential leadership skills to navigate today’s complex educational landscape
- Increase buy-in and participation from staff, families, school boards, and your broader community
- Foster shared ownership and a unifying vision for student success
- Build trust and credibility within your school and community to improve teamwork
- Use simple, multi-modal activities for more engaging and collaborative planning, goalsetting, and reflecting
- Support staff well-being for a positive group culture
- Facilitate difficult conversations with clarity and confidence
Flexible and easy to transfer into real-world practice, a breadth of modalities offers practical ways to engage and inspire participants across learning styles, comfort levels, and group needs.
Learn more about Jen’s work in learning communities — including with Educators and Counselors — to help you meet your school or district’s specific goals.“Jen’s workshop exemplified what we as school leaders SHOULD be doing. Community building and connection start at the top. Jen’s role modeling of responsive facilitation and practical tools and techniques has empowered me to empower the educators on my team by giving them more voice in our meetings and training. I have seen our coaches and principals throughout the district repeatedly use Jen’s tools and techniques in their staff meetings — starting on the day after our workshop with her last fall.”
Workshops for Educational Leaders and School/District Professional Development Teams
You will leave with actionable strategies and easy to implement tools that support the work you’re already doing.
Choose from a sampling of popular professional learning workshops for educational leaders or co-design a custom workshop with Jen to meet your school or district’s unique needs.
Inspired Educational Leader, Engaged and Connected Community
Harness practical engagement, reflection, and community-building strategies to enhance group facilitation and professional learning. Facilitate empowering meetings, team-building, and professional learning experiences to increase buy-in and involvement. Guide meaningful dialogue and collaboration with strength-based approaches to faculty well-being and positive group norms so that your team can better serve students. Inspire change in your learning community by modelling a responsive, engaging approach for faculty teams, families, and the school-wide community.
Gathering with Intention: Techniques for Building Connected Communities
Cultivate collaborative experiences that strengthen relationships and bring students, staff, and the broader community together for a shared purpose and deep sense of belonging. Build rapport, transform school climate, and empower participants by fostering deeper communication, self and social awareness, conflict resolution, and gratitude. Create and maintain a positive, effective learning and working community where everyone feels safe and supported to spark more creativity, productivity, and resilience.
Bring Learning to Life with Active Reflection
Weave accessible reflection and active review strategies throughout your lessons as an engaging core part of experiences rather than an obligatory report out. Increase emotional connection and depth of understanding with multiple brain-based modalities, including movement, metaphor, art, and interactive dialogue. Facilitate continued learning beyond the lesson to inspire students to become lifelong reflective learners.
ALL IN and Empowered: An Invitational Approach to Facilitation and Lesson/Program Design
Intentionally design and sequence interactive, strengths-based lessons and programs to meet students’ differing needs and personalities, building confidence, rapport, and comfort with the group process. Plan learner-centered experiences with the introvert in mind to promote empathy, respect, and collaboration, and ensure that every member of the classroom or school community feels valued and appreciated.
Collaborate with Jen to Create a Custom Workshop for Your School or District
Jen’s interactive workshops explore the why behind the practice to offer practical tools and techniques and the confidence you need to adapt them right away. Each workshop blends the foundations of experiential education, neuroscience research, and tangible strategies based on decades of experience with diverse groups and learners. Her participant-centered approach creates a forum for everyone in the room to learn from each other. Reach out to Jen to start a conversation about your school, college, or organization’s unique goals.
Ongoing Professional Learning, Consultation, and Mentorship
In this collaborative format, participants learn to increase engagement thoughtfully while meeting specific learning goals. A focused community of practice allows participants to try the methods taught in the program in their own communities with the support of both a professional facilitator and a group of their peers.
It takes time and ongoing practice and reflection to solidify skills; ongoing programming is designed to offer the necessary opportunities for practice, reflection, and growth that empower leaders with confidence and increased capacity for creativity and risk-taking.
Jen brings a deep bag of tools to co-create welcoming and unique experiences. Whether you’re in need of rapport and dialogue facilitation for a joyful and connection-centered student or family night, or more in-depth facilitation to develop a shared mission and positive group norms during a staff retreat, strengthen your community with intentional facilitation that allows leadership to be part of the experience. Experiential Tools for Reflection and Engagement
Based on requests by the educators and facilitators in her programs, Jen has developed many of the reflection and engagement tools she uses in her own facilitation into products you can use in your classroom.
Making experiential, brain-based methods of engagement, reflection, and group dialogue accessible is a passion of Jen’s work and every tool she offers is hand-selected for usability, quality, and aesthetic appeal.
Let’s Spark Meaningful Change
Author, educator & facilitator Jen Stanchfield’s innovative workshops and books blend the art of teaching and facilitation with the latest neuroscience. With over three decades of diverse experience in mental health, K-12 education, higher ed, and organizational team building, her teachings have inspired leaders across generations to spark joyful learning, cultivate emotional connection, and build resilient communities.
Jen will support you to model the change you would like to see in your learning community. If you’re ready for a collaborative, engaging approach to professional learning, begin a conversation with Jen today.
