Workshops

Learning Community: All staff. Parent programs available.
When children hurt, their distress often results in diminished performance,
underachievement and undesirable behavior.

Life happens. Resiliency skills are developed in the presence of helping witnesses.

The story of the emotionally-distressed learner is the story of traumatic stress. Many
factors lead to traumatic stress and poor social, emotional and behavioral health: abuse,
neglect, incarcerated family members, poverty, neurological challenges, and mental
health disorders…

Two decades of evidence-based research on the mind/body connection, the emotional brain,
traumatic stress disorders, resilience, motivation, and optimal performance states have
opened the frontier to effective techniques that educators can use to help students
who are suffering and acting in or acting out. (These techniques work for staff, too!):

Resilience building strategies help teachers and learners:

• Increase motivation, positive engagement, and self-regulation.
• Improve classroom culture and school climate.
• Empower students to recognize and claim the ability to take positive control of
  their emotional lives despite conditions.

Learning Community: Pre-K –12, Gen/SPED.
Do you have students with these types of chronic behavioral problems:
Difficulty managing emotional responses? Irritability? Oppositional behavior? Prone to
meltdowns, explosions, and aggression? Poor social relationships? Inflexibility? Trouble
with transitions? Blaming others or not recognizing how behaviors affect others?
Avoiding tasks?

Learn how to identify triggers and intervene before the behavior occurs, collaborate
with students to solve their chronic problems, use positive behavioral interventions
and support alongside (not instead of) solid classroom management techniques.
Models include: problem solving w the student(s) as stakeholders, restorative discipline
principles & techniques, PBIS approaches, safe and engaging learning environments.

Learning Community: General and Special Education Staff K-12 Parent programs available.

ADHD is typically viewed as a behavior problem because many ADHD-driven behaviors
affect the learner and the learning environment. ADHD is primarily a performance
problem. These students often require a GPS!

This training provides practical techniques and strategies for increasing on-task
performance, enhancing performance, and reducing behavioral disruptions. In addition,
staff will learn how to use what they know, how to take action and not react, and how to
implement positive behavioral interventions and supports designed to address typical
problems of learners with ADHD.

Learning Community: K-12 ALL.
“What did you do?” “Who was harmed?” “What is needed?” ”How will you make it
right?” These are the essential questions that drive restorative discipline approaches.
For a long-term return on discipline, RD is the way to go.

Restorative Discipline practices focus on naming and claiming the harm done, rather
than the broken rule. RD builds respectful relationships and personal responsibility. It
teaches decision-making and right action. It develops reflection and community. It is an
essential component of peaceable classrooms. It is also a way to help bullies learn a
different way of being.

Learning Community: Pre-K-8 Gen and SPED.

Relational aggression, once primarily a “girl” thing, is increasingly used by students
of both genders. The student (or adult) who uses relational aggression hopes to gain
popularity by controlling rivals, friends, and perceived enemies. Rumors, gossip, and the
threat of social isolation are the types of behaviors used in relational aggression.

What can educational staff do? In this workshop, participants learn strategies to
identify relational aggression, set pro-social standards for “inside and outside the
classroom” behavior, model and train social skills, and create classroom and individual
weekly goals for practicing positive social skill behavior.

Learning Community: K-12.

Familiar after school conversations:

“How was school today?”

“Boring.”

“Boring! Well, what did you do?”

“Nothing.”

Every classroom educator knows that nothing could be further from the truth, and yet…this
is student perception. How do we change the student’s “boring” and “nothing” into “wow”
and “Wait ‘til you hear”? How do we inspire the students who greet each learning opportunity
as a tiresome chore? How do we manage students who quit? What strategies can we use to
attract and keep learner interest and attention while teaching specific content and skills? How
can we inspire the learner who’s motivated but not engaged?

Interest, challenge, authenticity, and personal relevance are the principle cornerstones
of engaging and motivating instructional practices.

This workshop examines the connection between performance and emotion, engagement,
connection, attention, goal-setting and goal keeping. Participants learn how to apply the
cornerstone principles to their instructional practices.