Projects and Activities

Sally Carless, M.Ed.

Global Village School - I am the founding director and Chief Visionary Officer of Global Village School, an international K-12 homeschool diploma program focused on peace, justice, diversity, and sustainability. Launched at the turn of the millennium in 1999, Global Village is working to effect change on the personal and global levels by providing a transformative education that empowers students to cultivate their gifts and passions while becoming wise and capable stewards of the planet. The distance learning model makes this type of education available to youth and adults around the globe. I believe that education is a key component of progressive social change, and Global Village is a natural extension of my passionate commitment to creating a more just and peaceful world.

Whole Child Healthy Planet K-8 Curriculum (primary author) – Fall 2009 saw the launch of the Global Village K-8 curriculum guides. I am very proud of this work. The guides feel like a good representation of my vision of what education can be – and what it needs to be: a process that nurtures the whole child—body, mind, and spirit—and empowers young people to be wise and capable stewards of the planet and each other. Our K-8 curriculum guides cover all of the core academic subjects in a way that engages students through a sense of enchantment, awe, and wonder as well as through incorporation of art, music, nature, imagination, and story. Centered on the four core principles of the Earth Charter, the curriculum teaches (1) Respect and Care for the Community of Life; (2) Ecological Integrity; (3) Social and Economic Justice; and (4) Democracy, Nonviolence, Peace and Diversity.

(See these links for more detail on my other writing and presentations.)

Global Village Resources for a Peaceful Healthy Planet - as we create new curriculum for Global Village School we run across many wonderful resources and organizations. We created the resource site so that we can share them with the thousands of visitors to our site who share our vision for creating a better world. Topics include Resources for Educators, Organizations that are making a difference, Online Activism, Alternative Media, Books, Quotes, Voices of Peace, and War's Impact on the Troops and Their Families (Important articles and resources for currently enlisted soldiers, veterans, their families, young people who are of draft age or are considering enlisting, and all those who care about them.)

Dreamwork - I do dream tending sessions, helping people to understand the messages in their dreams. Dream tending is a method of listening deeply to the images that visit while we are sleeping: it is a way of accessing deeper wisdom. Dream tending is a unique form of dreamwork. It is a practice of befriending the images, of seeing what they have to offer, and listening to what they ask of us. The process acknowledges dream images as allies, teachers, and messengers. It is a way of opening up to a larger way of listening, understanding, and being.

Photography and Film - I love capturing moments that have aliveness and magic in them and touching people's hearts with my photographs. I have been doing photography since the 1980s, when I became the main photographer for the Winnemem Wintu tribe. I’ve photographed ceremonies, dances, and weddings, and enjoyed being able to see the “cute little kids” grow up and have children of their own. I love photographing animal companions (aka pet photography) and also enjoy nature photography and filmmaking. Again - it's about capturing a moment of magic and sharing it.

Power of the Heart is an international online community focused on the ideas of “grassroots philanthropy” and activism. It’s about compassion, action, and change, and the power of an open heart. The basic idea is that you don't have to be rich to be a philanthropist, and that when your heart is touched by something in the world, you can do something that will make a difference. (I created the site in 2007. It is no longer active.)