About the store
Tom McLaughlin (Mr. Mac) has been an award-winning instructor of World Religions at multiple colleges and high schools as well as the teacher of other religious studies courses at the high school level.
He is the facilitator of workshops, retreats, and classes through his Telios Collaborative. He is also a writer, spiritual mentor, life coach, and consultant.
He loves stories, countless kinds of stories: personal stories, myths, legends, fictional, historical. He loves tales spoken, written, and performed. He loves telling stories through the written and spoken word.
Tom has worked with adults and youth since earning a BA in English from the University of Notre Dame in 1985. After serving as an Air Force officer, he worked myriad not-so satisfying jobs before returning to graduate school. His MA from Marylhurst University focused on Spiritual Traditions and Ethics, and his thesis unpacked the relationship between exploring and telling personal stories and being an authentic human being. He has traveled extensively throughout the United States (45 and counting) and Europe, and also ventured to Japan, Peru, Mexico, and Canada. He’s an avid hiker, a lover of movies, and a voracious reader, particularly of fiction.
He and his wife Rebecca live and work at our Telios Farm near Portland, Oregon.
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Sand Mandala Project
The Sand Mandala Project is a collaborative, creative, mindful, and community building experience inspired by the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of sand mandala creation. It is ideal for high school and college students as well as adults. The finished mandala is a beautiful art piece that reflects the group that constructed it and becomes a focus for contemplation. It’s great for community building and as a summative or formative assessment. While I have used it as part of a World Religions curricul
11th - 12th, Adult Education, Higher Education
Asian Studies, Classroom Community, Religion
Community Spirit Flags
This is a fun, collaborative, and creative activity for all ages - adults as well as students - that: Builds community Develops Social Emotional LearningInvites introspectionLeads to creative expressionResults in classroom decoration After creating the Community Spirit Flags, you can invite students to share what they have created with partners, small groups, or the entire class. After you have strung and hung the flags, invite students to wander the classroom to see the life-giving, positive, a
Not Specific
Classroom Community, Social Emotional Learning
Hero's Journey Experience
The Hero’s Journey is an archetypal pattern found in myths, stories, and lived experience from all over the world and across time. Once they have said yes, the journey proves difficult, sometimes harrowing. If the hero does fulfill their calling, they return home bearing gifts they have gained along the way, treasures to be shared with their community. This pattern can be found in our own life experiences, the grand and the ordinary, which may explain the universal appeal and endurance of the gr
11th - 12th, Higher Education
Classroom Community, Drama, Literature
All My Relations
This activity invites participants to begin getting to know other people in the group, and to begin revealing oneself to others in fun, non-threatening ways. In both versions of the activity, they will see their connection to other people. In one version, they will feel the physical tug of that connection through string. One takeaway is likely to be, “There are others like me here, I’m not alone.” All My Relations gets participants on their feet and moving as they respond to a spectrum of pro
11th - 12th, Adult Education
Classroom Community, For All Subjects
Indigenous Land Acknowledgment and Beyond - Resources
Land acknowledgments are offered with increasing frequency before classes and events across North America. They are ways of recognizing that indigenous peoples have lived and loved on these lands for thousands of years before Europeans colonized, that they were the first caretakers of Turtle Island, and the first human beneficiaries of the bounty of these sacred territories. In order to be meaningful, these words must be followed by action. This document includes a variety of Land Acknowledg
Not Specific
Classroom Community, For All Subjects, U.S. History
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About the store
Experience
Tom McLaughlin (Mr. Mac) has been an award-winning instructor of World Religions at multiple colleges and high schools as well as the teacher of other religious studies courses at the high school level.
He is the facilitator of workshops, retreats, and classes through his Telios Collaborative. He is also a writer, spiritual mentor, life coach, and consultant.
He loves stories, countless kinds of stories: personal stories, myths, legends, fictional, historical. He loves tales spoken, written, and performed. He loves telling stories through the written and spoken word.
Tom has worked with adults and youth since earning a BA in English from the University of Notre Dame in 1985. After serving as an Air Force officer, he worked myriad not-so satisfying jobs before returning to graduate school. His MA from Marylhurst University focused on Spiritual Traditions and Ethics, and his thesis unpacked the relationship between exploring and telling personal stories and being an authentic human being. He has traveled extensively throughout the United States (45 and counting) and Europe, and also ventured to Japan, Peru, Mexico, and Canada. He’s an avid hiker, a lover of movies, and a voracious reader, particularly of fiction.
He and his wife Rebecca live and work at our Telios Farm near Portland, Oregon.
Teaching style
To make classes as relevant as possible, we will create an environment in which you feel safe enough to bravely explore and further shape your individual religious or spiritual identity. I invite you, I challenge you to be brave enough to share your insights and questions. More important than memorization of facts is the deeper meaning and potential application of concepts we’ll be exploring. We will concern ourselves with justice and peace, compassion and mercy, love and understanding. What difference can the concepts we explore make in our living and loving, for a world that hungers for our contributions? Information does not become knowledge until we wrestle with the data in the depths of our mind and heart, and then applies it to our living. To that end, think critically about the course material, and seek way to apply it.
Each of us has dignity simply because we exist, and everyone deserves to be treated with respect. Each person is essentially lovable, beautiful, and good because the Mystery who is Love chose to create us. Every individual has the right to learn in a safe environment, and therefore has the responsibility to create and foster that environment for one another. This means doing your best, treating others respectfully, listening and speaking at appropriate times, encouraging others, and maintaining a classroom environment that is conducive to learning.
I’m glad you’re here. The adventure awaits. We walk this path together. We are embarked.
Awards & shining teacher moments
Lasallian Educator of the Year, La Salle Catholic College Preparatory, 2020-21.
Sisters of Saint Mary of Oregon (SSMO) Spirit Award, Valley Catholic School, 2006.
My own education history
MA Interdisciplinary Studies, Spiritual Traditions and Ethics concentration, Marylhurst University, OR
BA English, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
Spiritual Director Certification Training, Urban Spirituality Center, Portland, OR
Certification, Blueprint Integrative (Life) Coaching and Leadership Training Program, Ford Institute for Integrative Coaching
Mindfulness Fundamentals, Mindful Schools (mindfulschools.org), online training
Mindful Educator Essentials: K-12 Curriculum Training, Mindful Schools (mindfulschools.org), online training
Equity Certificate Program for School Leaders, Center for Equity and Inclusion with Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR
Additional biographical information
Author of "100 Ways to Love Yourself...And Why It Matters to All of Us," available on Amazon and at other booksellers.
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