Project courses

PROJECT COURSES

The project courses at Avnø are flexibly built up, so that you may choose the length and content of your stay. A project course always starts with a short course (an intensive week) on a particular theme. It is then followed by an optional number of project weeks, which you have the option to combine with one or more short courses. During the project weeks your time is shared between elective subjects and project work.

  • You can tailor your own project course or choose one of the example project courses, we’ve created.
  • A project can be very personal (career, health, house, garden), a community project or design of a green business or an eco-community. It may be one of the projects in Avnø Oasis Ecovillage or it may be a project you like to realize when you come home. You will receive support to choose a suitable project for you.
  • With the support of their mentor, each project group design, implement and present one or more projects, either at the school or elsewhere.
  • Everyone who has participated in project courses at Avnø højskole will receive invitations to follow-up weekends, where the further development of the projects will be presented and evaluated.

Elective subjects

Elective subjects are life enriching, generally educative and develop your social and practical skills. They are continuously developed in collaboration between students and teachers. Here are some examples. 

Art and crafts

with Gitte Hansen

Description

Based on desire and curiosity about materials and techniques.
It is a creative workshop where various techniques and materials can be worked on by agreement. Both the delicious expensive paint, but also the recycling of last year’s Christmas gift paper or your old curtains. It is based on the students’ desire to learn and explore materials and processes.

A program for the theme of the month will be posted, e.g. perspective drawing, sampling, self-portrait, mandala … then the theme is worked on from different angles and with different materials. There is room for us to experiment together.

The teacher does not know everything, but also helps to explore and learn new things. So do you want to try different materials and techniques? Find out if it is for you to make boxes from recycled materials, weave baskets of paper, paint “Smurf houses” on stone, or something completely different, then here is the opportunity to test your creativity and maybe find something you are passionate about.

books shelf

Book club

with elected coordinator

Description

We meet and share perspectives around a chapter of a book / podcast / video. Students are welcome to suggest books.

Chi Gong / Tai-Chi

with Gitte Hansen

Description

CHI GONG

Is getting a good and gentle start to the day,

Chi gong is an ancient Chinese “science” – a way to work with your chi and keep it alive/in a healthy flow.

Chi gong can be described more contemporaryly and westernly as a gentle
 form of exercise “motion meditation”.

A slow exercise that strengthens and relaxes body and mind. Chi Gong is for everyone. The movements are so calm and gentle that everyone can join in and if you have defects, the exercises can be adjusted to suit the individual. It is also formidable for rehabilitation, both physically andmentally.

Chi – energy/vitality
gong – “the dedicated time I spend working with my chi”

There are many different types for chi gong

I teach the following:


Medical Chi gong
This little chigong series called “Medical Chi Gong” is easy to learn and perform.

Tai-Chi 18 chi gong
A slightly longer chigong series with 18 movments.

What you take with you from teaching is an expanded awareness and hopefully the desire to practice chi gong, even after completing course

Chi gong focuses on: Breathing, movement, visualization, energy.

Breathing calms the nervous system and dampens the stress response in the body.

The movement and breathing activate chi and relax the body to create flow of Qi.

The visualization, The individual exercises have names that help to create the visualization, help to create calm, to achieve the meditative part of chi gong.

The energy moves where our focus is. Therefore, we consciously focus on visualization and movement and the purpose of the exercise. It promotes the beneficial effect that the Qigong exercise provides.

Sociocratic Decision Making

with Kristiane Ravn Frost

Description

  • Introduction to sociocracy

  • Sociocratic election procedures and basic roles in a sociocratic organization.

  • Sociocratic decision making.

  • Building a sociocratic organization.

  • Sociocratic evaluations.

Teachers: Kristiane Ravn Frost / Frederik Krups

Compassionate communication

with elected coordinator

Description

Compassionate communication was developed by Marshall Rosenberg. Each of these 9 sessions was enhanced by listening to approximately 1 hour of training video taught by the master himself. During the session, we will share what we have learned and talk about where in life this can be used and what difference it would have made in small everyday situations that we experience in our community.

Choir

with Gitte Hansen

Description

Choir/common song
Singing together makes hearts beat together, that’s why community singing gives this familiar sense of community. It shifts from an I-focus to a we-focus.

Teaching:
With bodily and musical exercises, we warm up in voice and body. There must be room to play. for crazy ideas. The repertoire will consist of easy multi-voiced songs (the starting point is the two-voiced) Which is primarily sung in Danish, but foreign songs can also be included

The principle is that it is easy and everyonecan participate.

The benefit of participating
should be the
 joy of singing in a community. There are also many other benefits to singing. On a physical level, singing helps with both breathing and blood circulation. And on a mental level, the song has a de-stressing effect

Teacher: Gitte Hansen

Planning your life and career

with Lene Ezzaaf

Description

You will gain insight into issues like:

  • The Danish Model (About the Danish Labor Market)
  • Job and career planning (Work and life balance)
  • Living in spite (How to live well, in spite of chronic illness)
  • Living with fewer worries (How do I face adversity)
  • Personal Finance (Budget for Dummies). Business Administration (Use an Accountant)
  • The topics that we find is interesting to us

You will get methods and inspiration to move forward with your desires and goals:

  • “Know yourself” and “Perhaps you need to clean up”?
  • How to win in “Game of life”
  • Goals  and Business Plan
  • Risk Assessment and Crisis Management
  • Cost / Benefit
  • “Nothing is right and everything is possible”

How does it take place?

Lectures or Workshops are based on stories from a long life, presentations on current topics, or on the participants’ desired themes.

Method: Empowerment

Empowering Storytelling for Personal Development

with Gitte Hansen

Description

The class structure will depend on the number and level of participants

The aim of this class is to enable you to understand the vital importance of storytelling and how to prepare and deliver stories to international audiences. You will learn, practice and tell beautiful stories using various skills and techniques including your body language, voice, tone, focusing energy into your voice and your voice into the energy.

Hence, you will learn about: Story narration based on your own life story, how to shape and deliver it, what to focus on, what comes first, in the middle and in the conclusion. You will learn how to use drama to boost your story in order to capture the attention of your audience and keep them focusing on you.

The method of the class will include:

  • Brief keynote lectures on selected aspects of storytelling with special focus on the why, how and what storytelling is all about: Drama, including group exercises, individual exercises, improvisations etc.
  • The use body language and other nonverbal instruments of oral communication.
    Singing – group singing, lighter multi-voiced singing, circling singing together to create common ground rhythm to establish a team
  • Active listening to others and being actively listened to human right communicate and being listened to.

At the end of the course, you may expect to gain the following and hopefully more

  • What goes into your story, how to tell it and how to draw the attention of the audience and keep them interested
  • A boosted self-confidence in public speaking
  • Understanding and ability to use your body language to enhance your storytelling
  • Ability to research, structure, design and deliver your stories in a way that is aligned with the present audience and situation
  • Understanding the vital importance of listening skills and core value of communication
  • To be an active listening audience offering empathy to speakers
  • Improvement of your English speaking and listening skills

Conversation Salon

with Pernille Jespersen

Description

Conversation salon is a structured way to talk together. You will be guided through a series of conversations of varying duration, with a number of different people, preferably someone you do not know.

There is an overarching theme and the introductory questions are given. We skip the generalities, and jump straight into the theme of the day.

There is so much learning in the meeting between people and in the Conversation Salon you just have to relax and participate in the conversations you are guided into, listen and contribute. The essence of the conversation room provides enriching encounters and red cheeks.

The 5 Conversation Salon Principles.

  1. Uninterrupted talk time
    The good conversations are the goal in themselves. It will be between you what you talk about. No disruptive cell phones – just other callers.
  2. Encounters with people who are different from you
    The desire to listen and gain insight into how and why others think and live as they do. And the courage to be challenged on ones own positions.
  3. Fixed frames
    Hosts and questions that ensure that everyone finds someone to talk to – and quickly get started talking about something interesting.
  4. Everyone talks and talks together
    No passive listeners, quarrelsome or boring lectures – just curious conversation partners.
  5. All people are exciting conversation partners
    The belief that we each have a lot to say about the great topics of life and society. And that Conversation Salons are a good way to practice speaking out.
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Grow your own Food

with Kristiane Ravn Frost

Description

Here you have the opportunity to participate in the cultivation of vegetables and herbs and along the way learn more about how you with a minimal effort get the maximum benefit out of a piece of land.

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Yoga

with Pernille Jespersen

Description

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Write a Short-Story

with Gitte Hansen

Description

Mondays 19-21 


Room for both students and for “evening school participants” Should then be planned as a course with a certain number of times.
New students cannot be admitted along the way. Since writing together and sharing your texts can be a vulnerable situation and the relationship and trust that is built between the participants is important for the process.

Writing a short story

The aim is to grow and improve your writing pleasure.
Based on the short story as a genre, small writing exercises of varying lengths and content will be worked on that will make the participants aware of the magic of being able to create a narrative themselves.

Learning about giving and, not least, receiving a response to the writing.

The plan is that we all have at least one finished short story at the end of the writing process.

community empowerment

Thought Storm

with Kristiane Ravn Frost

Description

About Thoughtstorm
Harry Palmer’s Thoughtstorm method, like brainstorming, aims to illuminate all points of view. It differs from brainstorm in that it presupposes that there is a common solution / understanding of a given problem / theme and it requires that everyone has their primary focus on finding it – not on testing the method, get it right, be heard, etc. It differs from a regular meeting routine in that there neither is used a moderator nor a list of speakers, but a pilot who himself actively participates in the Thoughtstorm.

It is wellknown that regular participation in thoughtstorms increases synergy in a group as well as in the lives of each of the group members. We will explore various themes the group finds interesting with this method during the semester.

The method
One or more questions is formulated on the theme. All group participants focus on answering the questions. The pilot notes the answers that appear along the way and makes sure that all the group’s participants

  • have the intention to find an answer that is satisfactory to EVERYONE and that the group continues until such an answer has been found.
  • with an open and exploratory attitude MAINTAINS their FOCUS on answering the question / theme in a way that everyone is aligned with.
  • expresses the answers that come to them. Everyone must say anything at any time in an attempt to answer the question / find a solution. Also things that do not immediately seem 100% relevant, because it could be what inspires someone else to come up with a solution / understanding that feels right for everyone.
  • omits to discuss, comment, analyze, compare, assess, want to be right or have the credit for the answer. If an answer is not inspiring to everyone, you simply drop it and continue to focus on finding an answer that everyone feels is right.
  • focuses more on the essence of what is being said than on the words.
Sophieandmeinthekitchen

Green cooking

with Kristiane Ravn Frost

Description

In addition to participating in the short course Activate your Self Healing Powers, where you learn the principles of green cooking, you have the opportunity to be train as a green chef or just get better at cooking green food. Follow Kristiane and the others in the kitchen and participate in this elective class, where you will be trained in making green menus and dishes.

Examples on Project Courses

All prices are for 2 person rooms. Add DKK 300/week for single room – deduct DKK 150/week for a tripple room.

All project courses may be extended with any number of project weeks for DKK 2100/week in a single room, DKK 1800/week in a double room, DKK 1650/week in a triple room.

3 week courses

DKK 8200 / per person

Adapt a healthy lifestyle

Project course 1: (Dates are coming) –
Choose either of these courses: Activate your Self Healing Powers or Cooking for Health and Happiness + 2 project weeks.

Take Back Your Life

Project course 2: (Dates are coming) –
Reconnection Gives Direction + 2 project weeks.

6 week courses

DKK 15.800-24.600 / per person

Health & Happiness

Project course 3: (Dates are coming) – Choose two of these 3 courses: Activate your Self Healing Powers, Cooking for Health and Happiness and Reconnection Gives Direction + 4 project weeks. DKK 15.800.

Green projects and enterprises

Project course 4: (Dates are coming) – Permaculture Design Certificate Course – PDC 2021+ 4 project weeks. DKK 15.800 .

Aima Master Coach Training

Project course 5: (Dates are coming) – Reconnection Gives Direction + 5 intensive coach training weeks ( 6 weeks). DKK 24.600. 

9 week courses

DKK 23.400 / per person

Design your health and regenerative projects

Project course 6: (Dates are coming) – Permaculture Design Certificate Course – PDC 2021+ Activate your Self Healing Powers  + 6 project weeks.

Inner and Outer Transition

Project course 6b: (Dates are coming) – Permaculture Design Certificate Course – PDC 2021 + Reconnection Gives Direction + 6 project weeks.

12 week courses

DKK 26.200-31.000 / per person

Health & Happiness for You and the Globe

Project course 7: (Dates are coming) – Permaculture Design Certificate Course – PDC 2021+ Activate your Self Healing Powers  + Reconnection Gives Direction + 8 project weeks. DKK 31.000.

Train to be a holistic green Chef, part 1

Project course 8: (Dates are coming) Cooking for Health and Happiness + 11 project weeks. DKK 26.200. It takes a full year with all seasons to be certified. Please start with this. If you after 6-8 weeks want to continue, please request an offer.

Tailor your own course

DKK ??? / per person

Optional number of weeks (min 5)

Choose one of our short courses as a start.

Combine short courses and project weeks as you like.

Figur out the tuition fee:

  • DKK 2.800 (Basic fee includes one weeks short course)
  • + multiply number of weeks with short week courses with DKK 2.200
  • + multiply number of total weeks with DKK 1800
  • adjust for single or tripple rooms if needed.

Example

1 Permaculture Design Course (2 short weeks) + 10 project weeks and 1  Reconnection Gives Direction (1 short week)

A total of 13 weeks with 3 short course weeks gives

2800+ 2×2.200+13×1800=30.600

A typical day & project week

Breaks are added as needed. We reserve the right to make changes.

FAMILY GROUPS

The family groups give you a “family” context, with the opportunity to further develop your skills to participate in communities.

Each family group is responsible for some community tasks such as cleaning, cooking, social events …