The U School Lexicon is a guide to speaking truthfully and usefully with children and other humans. It contains a spoken and signed vocabulary which keeps our daily conversations with children firmly anchored in the U School’s ideals and the Ubuntu Communities Approach to Early Childhood Education (UCA-ECE). The Lexicon helps all people understand how they can be powerful problem-solvers, helps children and grown-ups communicate with less friction, and supports social-emotional development and executive function. It is the glue that holds together the Skillful Togetherness Curriculum!
Because it is extraordinarily useful:
The U School Lexicon course is divided into three sections that unpacks strategies for how and why to implement the concepts from the Lexicon book, offers opportunity for reflection and application of knowledge, and provides concrete activity ideas and curriculum content to use with the children in your care.
$130 (includes a copy of the book)
Package discount (entire Skillful Togetherness Curriculum) – 15%
Group discount (10+ staff) – 15%
Group discount (20+ staff) – 20%
Please contact Ryan for package and group discounts.
Visit our Shopify store to purchase the book as well as additional curriculum materials like posters and playing cards.
Ryan has more than 25 years of experience in the field of education, with 20+ years of that being in leadership and management roles. Starting off as a first grade basketball coach, Ryan has built his career as an innovative and well-respected early childhood and school-age educator. His passion for working with children, teachers, and families combined with his engaging stories of past experience translate into powerful, inspiring, and informative guidance for others.
After earning a Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education Administration and Leadership from the University of Michigan—Dearborn, Ryan cofounded the U School in Ann Arbor, MI where he has served as the Executive Director for 8 years. He is also the cofounder and Managing Partner of Ubuntu Communities, continuing to serve as Lead Trainer to offer training and consulting opportunities to early childhood organizations and educators around the world.
Charlie is the Lead Teacher of a 3- and 4-year-old classroom at the U School, and has been a classroom teacher of various ages since 2002. Charlie is our resident mindfulness coach, and has been training others since 2013 after taking teaching courses from Shinzen Young. Charlie has helped people apply mindfulness to work- or family-related stress, to process chronic pain, to interact with more compassion, to break down mental habits or “tape loops,” to improve interactions between teachers and students, and more.
Charlie is also the author of the U School Lexicon: A guide for speaking truthfully and usefully with children and other humans, which he helped to develop with Ryan Brown over the course of many years working together as educators. Charlie’s current focus is developing skillful togetherness trainings for parents, educators, and preschoolers through his roles as lead teacher at the U School and trainer for Ubuntu Communities.
© 2020 Ubuntu Communities, LLC
