Workshop Descriptions
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)/Toxic Stress/Trauma
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are the largest public health crisis to be identified in the past thirty years. Traumatic childhood experiences (toxic stress/trauma) impact a child’s daily life in the home, in school and the community as they grow. These adversities (injuries) in childhood also impact adult health and wellbeing, often identified as PTSD. Even when children are too young to remember the events (neglect, physical/emotional/sexual abuse, abandonment, violence, etc.), the body never “forgets.” Childhood adversity affects a child’s ability to learn and behave in productive ways by changing brain chemistry and architecture thus impacting their ability to learn and behave “normally” in schools and other settings. And, if not appropriately treated, these injuries impact life and health outcomes into adulthood. All too often, children who are experiencing trauma, neglect and abuse in their homes and communities are identified in schools as having “special needs,” such as ADHD, ODD or EDD when in fact what they are experiencing is actually trauma/toxic stress. These life circumstances cause diminished executive functioning abilities, learning difficulties, and/or misbehavior. Educators, as well as all other adults, need to be keenly aware of this body of research and practical school- home- and community-based remedies in order to mitigate the impact of toxic stress (ACEs) on successful child cognitive and emotional development, including impulsivity, learning difficulties and misbehavior, not to mention diminished physical health outcomes in adulthood. In this workshop, the critically important information about this life- and practice-changing body of research, including ACEs and the ACEs Scale, will be introduced and the clear and present pathways to healing will be presented.
Cultural Competence and Educational Equity
Children/people of color (and special needs) are disproportionately treated inequitably in American society, and what we may see in our society begins in our schools. In Schools students of color are disciplined, suspended and expelled at far greater rates than their Caucasian peers. In community settings and in judicial/correctional proceedings, this is also the case. In this session, educators, among others will be introduced to key aspects that are required to become culturally competent adults/educators who embrace and practice equity. This highly interactive workshop includes the exploration of how and why racism and discrimination are so difficult to eliminate (“White Fragility”), the difference between Equity and Equality, the various notions of School Climate, School Culture and the wider Community Culture. In order to map the territory to reach a destination of far more equitable treatment for all, different ideologies of Cultural Diversity will be shared, as will the relationship between Racism and Discrimination, anti-racist perspectives, the differences between Explicit and Implicit Bias and ultimately, how we can impact our classrooms, schools, workplaces and all community settings to become truly equitable places to work, learn and socialize led by culturally competent , anti-racist and non-discriminatory individuals who function in institutions free from racism and discrimination.
Intellectual Safety Professional Development
Students must be in “intellectually safe” environments in order to learn. Part of intellectual safety is feeling emotionally & physically safe, but an often-ignored aspect of intellectual safety is being able to learn in a way that is comfortable for you. In this highly interactive workshop, participants will be introduced to a myriad of components of this critical aspect of intellectual Safety. Topics that will be covered are: Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic Learning Styles, [Accelerated Learning for the 21st
Century] Multiple Intelligences [Howard Gardner], Jung’s theory translated into the Meyers-Briggs/MTBI Type Indicator, Spectrum of Attitudes (People as Objects, Recipients and Resources) [Bill Loftquist], as well as more recent work done to flesh out Temperament and Personality [David
Kiersey], which has been most recently articulated in the True Colors model of personal strengths [Don Lowry].
In a face-to-face workshop, this is a half day professional development session (3 – 4 hours).
In a virtual WebEx setting, the workshop would happen in two two-hour modules, which could happen in the same day, or conducted on different days
Parent/Gaurdian/Educator Training Topics
1. Building Positive Relationships among Home, School and Community
a. Why this is so important in the time of Covid-19
b. Collaborating with teachers and administrators to strengthen relationships
c. Communicating successfully with teachers and administrators, especially when problems arise and how best to bring problems to the schools’ attention and solve them collaboratively/successfully
2. What I Wish My Child’s Teacher Knows about My Child
a. How my child learns best
b. Experiences that have happened at home since schools closed in March
c. Any social interactions that impact my child’s ability to learn
3. Impact of Trauma on a Child’s Ability to Learn and Behave
a. The science/biology of trauma
b. How trauma changes a child’s ability to learn and behave
c. Strategies for healing trauma
4. The Impact of School Transitions and Family and School Routines
a. Understanding the difficulty of daily transitions during the school day
b. How establishing clear expectations and routines support student success
c. How to support your child with family (and school) routines/rituals
5. Restorative Practices: What It Is and Is Not
a. Busting myths and laying out the framework/philosophy
b. Learn why “Restorative Practices” is a confusing label
c. The value of disciplining restoratively rather than punitively
6. Restorative Practices Strategies for Home and School
a. Learning how to use Affective Statements and Restorative Questions at home
b. How to have restorative discussions at home when problems arise
c. Exploring the value of using “circles” at home, as well as in school
7. Misbehavior in School
a. What to expect when your child misbehaves in our restorative school
b. The unchanging process that is used when students experience conflict with peers or teachers
c. Why solving problems restoratively is vastly more successful than school exclusions (detentions, suspensions, etc.)
8. Bullying and Cyber-Bullying
a. CT Anti-Bullying laws and definitions
b. Differences between “Bullying” and “Protected Class Harassment”
c. Real solutions to bullying
9. Creating and Sustaining a Positive School Climate
a. The importance of being highly connected to school
b. Explore why experiencing a sense of belonging in school is so important for student success
c. Learn what are the observable factors in a classroom/school with a positive climate
10.Bias, Racism, Prejudice and Discrimination
a. Exploring the difference between “explicit” and “implicit” bias
b. Understanding the difference between prejudice and discrimination
c. Race and Racism; why is it so hard to have meaningful conversations about race
Overview of Restorative Practices (Virtual)
This overview of Restorative Practices provides the overarching principles
of working restoratively rather than punitively. This highly interactive virtual
training opportunity is conducted in real time over WebEx. This overview
provides the necessary information for establishing the conditions for
developing and nurturing a culture based on high quality relationships
among all school community members and positive community building
that is trauma-free. This is accomplished by focusing not on rules broken
and punitive consequences but rather on the harms done and providing
appropriate restorative consequences and the systems that are necessary
to repair and support strong relationships among all school community
members (students and adults). Working restoratively is a social/relational
rather than a behaviorist model. Embracing restorative practices is not a
program but rather a way of thinking, being and operating in the day-to-day.
This overview includes concrete and practical strategies for establishing the
appropriate classroom and school-based routines as well as conducting
circles and conferences in primary prevention as well as intervention
contexts.%
The topics to be covered are:
* Nature of Restorative Practices (Myth Busting…what it is and what it
isn’t)
* Connections with Equity and Disproportionality
* Connections with Trauma and Healing
* Restorative Practices Continuum/Strategies for Practice
- Affective Statements
- Affective Questions
- Restorative Problem Solving
* Restorative Conversations and Conferences
- Circles (Virtual and In-Person)
* Relationship and Community Building
* Problem Solving
- Use of Talking Pieces
Overview of Restorative Practices (in Person)
This overview of Restorative Practices provides the overarching principles of working restoratively rather than punitively. This professional learning opportunity is conducted in person. This overview provides the necessary information for establishing the conditions for developing and nurturing a culture based on high quality relationships among all school/organization community members and positive community building that is trauma-free. This is accomplished by focusing not on rules broken and punitive consequences but rather on the harms done and providing appropriate restorative consequences and the systems that are necessary to repair and support strong relationships among all school/organization community members (students and adults). Working restoratively is a social/relational rather than a behaviorist model. Embracing restorative practices is not a program but rather a way of thinking, being and operating in the day-to-day. This overview includes concrete and practical strategies for establishing the appropriate classroom, group, team and whole school/organization-based routines as well as conducting circles and conferences in primary prevention as well as intervention contexts.
Managing Adult/Educator Stress
This workshop explores the science of stress and how adults can view stress in ways that help them manage stressful times and events in ways that don’t become toxic and debilitating. Our students need us to be available to them in all ways, so it is imperative that we “put the masks on ourselves first” and provide critical self-care so that we can be available to them. The science of stress teaches us that how we view stress impacts our ability to deal with it. When we can view stress as positive…our bodies energizing us to meet stressful challenges, we get through stressful times without harming our health and well-being. Unfortunately, all too many adults perceive stress as harmful to health and well-being and that’s when we struggle. The key element to managing stress is to understand how important relationships are in our lives; reaching out to others when we need help and support as well as reaching out to help others in need is what transforms the negativity of stress into a positive force that allows us to rise to any stressful challenges we may experience and thus make meaning in our lives.
