Thrive24

Target Audience: Adminstrators, Teachers 6-8 Teachers 9-12, Mental Health Professionals, Special Educators, Specialists (Arts, Music, PE)

Students and teachers face unprecedented division, conflict, and polarization in the classroom and across school communities. We need educational spaces today, more than ever, that will empower school community members to leverage compassion and curiosity, build authentic relationships, and resist the toxic influence of political polarization.

In this 3 hour workshop, educators develop the skills and confidence they need to engage differences in ways that create authentic connections, rich mutual understanding, and resilience to political polarization. This highly interactive workshop will anchor participants in the theory of communication across differences and provide a new framework to foster more constructive conversations. Participants will learn and practice tools that strengthen the skills of dialogic listening, inquiry, reflection, and speaking in order to promote healthier dynamics, encourage meaningful interpersonal connections, and halt the spread of polarization in their classroom or school. These interventions are adaptable for classroom learning, extracurricular activities, and the school culture at large.

Objectives:
To identify patterns that can make communication difficult
To gain a basic understanding of a framework for more constructive conversations
To learn and practice tools for listening, inquiry, speaking and reflection that interrupt dysfunctional patterns and support more constructive conversations.

Participating educators will receive a ten-lesson-plan curriculum (grade levels 6th-12th) that they will be equipped to deploy immediately with students to put what they learned into practice.

Target Audience: Adminstrators, Teachers PK-5, Teachers 6-8 Teachers 9-12, Specialists (Arts, Music, PE)

What if embracing Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education (CRSE) was the key to unlocking students' full academic and personal potential? In order to combat the structural inequities at play in our current educational system which continue to marginalize students and family members based on race, social class, gender, language, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, ability, we must deepen our understanding of Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education. In this highly engaging session, participants will unpack the key principles of CRSE and explore their own cultural identity to determine how it influences our ability to enact a Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education for all students.

Objectives:
Articulate a foundational understanding of Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education (CRSE).

Develop awareness of cultural identity and how it influences our ability to provide a Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education (CRSE) for all students.

Guiding Question: Why is it important to understand our own cultural identities?

Target Audience: Adminstrators, Teachers PK-5, Teachers 6-8 Teachers 9-12, Office Staff, Mental Health Professionals, Para Professionals, Specialists (Arts, Music, PE)

Our workshops seek to foster philosophical reflection on some of the most pressing, pertinent questions facing teachers today. For this particular session, we hope to foster a walking conversation on self-care and purpose in the helping professions. Each of our sessions entail a series of short journaling prompts, discussion cards, and nature appreciation/mindfulness exercises. In the lead up to our sessions, we typically learn about

Our workshops are best delivered in outdoor environments that allow for walking. In the lead up to our session, we typically do some research on local biomes/history to promote connectness to place.

If you'd like, I can share soem of the resources that we use.
https://walkandtalklearning.com/2-16-24-lawrence-township-school-district/

Target Audience: All Educators

The notion of “repair” has become emphatically relevant in the last decade. Individuals and communities have experienced damage such as pandemics, bush fires, and extreme weather on an unprecedented scale and at an accelerated pace. How do individuals and communities conceptualize notions of “damage” and “repair”? What supports matter when supporting learners to creatively face the challenges of an uncertain future and develop a sense of belonging in and responsibility for their communities and the world? This workshop introduces participants to the Transformative Repair project, a collaboration between Project Zero and Independent Schools Victoria, that investigates how strategic engagement with repair as an artistic practice can support individuals and communities in finding purpose in times of uncertainty and challenge. Participants will learn about the shifts in mindset that transformative repair catalyzes and experiment with how the idea of “repair” can open up possibilities for how they respond to damage in their own lives and their own communities.

Target Audience: Teachers PK-5, Special Educators

Goal Outcomes:
1. To have a framework for understanding cognitive processes that underlie learning
2. To apply this knowledge when reading student IEP’s and accommodations/modifications.

Target Audience: Teachers PK-5, Mental Health Professionals, Para Professionals, Special Educators, Specialists (Arts, Music, PE)

Social and emotional coaching is the practice of supporting students in learning to identify their emotions and developing strategies to self-regulate to manage their emotions. Teachers and support staff team members can coach students using a variety of strategies, including role play, self-reflection, developmentally appropriate literature, think sheets, visuals, and communication tools. Social emotional coaching includes in the moment, direct, explicit instruction to support a lagging skill in an effort to support the student in managing their emotions in order to improve and generalize skills, regulate and return to the task at hand.

Target Audience: Mental Health Professionals, Para Professionals, Special Educators

We will focus on the Mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy paradigms of the AIM Curriculum purchased last year and developing interventions to increase student awareness of their values and the thoughts, feelings and actions that move them in the direction of what is most important to them.

Target Audience: Adminstrators, Teachers PK-5, Teachers 6-8 Teachers 9-12, Mental Health Professionals, Para Professionals, Special Educators, Specialists (Arts, Music, PE)

A workshop for a classroom of 20-25 attendees that introduces the concept of restorative practices in schools, its three tiers, and includes a circle experience for attendees.

Plan

1. Introduction to Restorative Practices (25 min)
   1. State Law 71 37 that requires school principals to employ “alternative remedies” before suspending students, which will lead to an increase of restorative circles in schools.
   2. Introduction to the three tiers of restorative practices and their rationale—along with time for questions and a few exercises.
   3. What does it mean to build a restorative school?
2. The Circle Process / Structure (35 min) Attendees participate in a Community Circle that uses restorative circle protocols with various personal or professional prompts that will introduce attendees to the circle experience.
3. Wrap-Up, with Questions (15-20 min)

Target Audience: Teachers PK-5

This professional development session will focus on trauma-informed self-regulation strategies tailored for elementary classrooms. Participants will explore various types of classroom break spaces and strategies, including how to design and set up functional break areas. The session will also cover the use of routines, visuals, think sheets, and other tools that support self-regulation. Educators will leave with practical, adaptable techniques for implementing break spaces and fostering emotional regulation in students experiencing dysregulation. By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
Identify and create trauma-informed break spaces in their classrooms.
Implement a range of self-regulation strategies that meet diverse student needs.
Use visuals and think sheets to support emotional and behavioral self-regulation.
Develop plans for ongoing support and adaptation of break spaces.

Target Audience: Adminstrators, Teachers PK-5, Teachers 6-8 Teachers 9-12, Office Staff, Mental Health Professionals, Para Professionals, Specialists (Arts, Music, PE)

Our workshops seek to foster philosophical reflection on some of the most pressing, pertinent questions facing teachers today. For this particular session, we hope to foster a walking conversation on self-care and purpose in the helping professions. Each of our sessions entail a series of short journaling prompts, discussion cards, and nature appreciation/mindfulness exercises. In the lead up to our sessions, we typically learn about

Our workshops are best delivered in outdoor environments that allow for walking. In the lead up to our session, we typically do some research on local biomes/history to promote connectness to place.

If you'd like, I can share soem of the resources that we use.
https://walkandtalklearning.com/2-16-24-lawrence-township-school-district/

Target Audience: Teachers PK-5, Para Professionals, Special Educators, Specialists (Arts, Music, PE)

Led by a former classroom teacher (turned SEL Coach) and a SEL Interventionist with years of experience and true behavioral expertise - this session will focus on providing you with culturally responsive strategies that you can use to promote engagement for all learners. It will include ways to help you gauge authentic engagement, build genuine relationships, get to know your students as learners, and bring joy and fun into your learning spaces - for you and your students! You will come away from this session with tools, tips and strategies that you can use immediately to increase engagement across all content areas. ALL educators - classroom teachers, interventionists, specialists, ESPs, special educators, ISS, administrators, etc. will take something away from this session. We are excited to have fun with you!

Target Audience: Teachers PK-5, Mental Health Professionals, Para Professionals, Special Educators, Specialists (Arts, Music, PE)

Social and emotional coaching is the practice of supporting students in learning to identify their emotions and developing strategies to self-regulate to manage their emotions. Teachers and support staff team members can coach students using a variety of strategies, including role play, self-reflection, developmentally appropriate literature, think sheets, visuals, and communication tools. Social emotional coaching includes in the moment, direct, explicit instruction to support a lagging skill in an effort to support the student in managing their emotions in order to improve and generalize skills, regulate and return to the task at hand.

Target Audience: Teachers PK-5, Teachers 6-8 Teachers 9-12, Para Professionals

Districts and schools across the nation recognize the importance of social emotional learning (SEL) to promote positive student academic and behavioral outcomes, but they are often challenged to authentically integrate the development of these skills and mindsets into daily instructional practices. Educators can embed implicit and explicit strategies into lesson plans, classroom routines, and everyday interactions with students as part of a comprehensive effort to build students’ social and emotional competencies. This training offers guidance for teachers on how to intentionally and consistently integrate strategies to support the development of social and emotional skills and mindsets into their daily practices. Specifically, we will discuss how to integrate various SEL competencies, using the CASEL framework, into classroom routines and lesson plans in a systematic manner. Teachers will leave this training with specific strategies and practices for integrating SEL practices into their academic instruction.

Target Audience: Administrators, Teachers PK-5, Teachers 6-8 Teachers 9-12, Mental Health Professionals, Para Professionals, Special Educators, Specialists (Arts, Music, PE)

Intermediate Restorative Practices—for staff who are familiar with Restorative Practices and / or who have facilitated circles in their own classes.

A workshop for 20-25 attendees that begins with a circle that includes prompts related to staff experience and questions and gives participants the opportunity to create or hone classroom or group circles.

Plan

1. Begin with a Circle.  (30-35 min.) Prompts include shared stories of experiences (successes and challenges) with restorative practices and circles,
2. Tier 2—Addressing Conflict (25 min)
   1. Problem-Solving Circles
   2. Listening Circles
   3. Restorative Chats
3. Building / Creating Circles for Classroom Use (20 min).  Participants identify a need for their own classrooms / groups and build/create their own circles.

Target Audience: Teachers PK-5

This professional development session will focus on trauma-informed self-regulation strategies tailored for elementary classrooms. Participants will explore various types of classroom break spaces and strategies, including how to design and set up functional break areas. The session will also cover the use of routines, visuals, think sheets, and other tools that support self-regulation. Educators will leave with practical, adaptable techniques for implementing break spaces and fostering emotional regulation in students experiencing dysregulation. By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
Identify and create trauma-informed break spaces in their classrooms.
Implement a range of self-regulation strategies that meet diverse student needs.
Use visuals and think sheets to support emotional and behavioral self-regulation.
Develop plans for ongoing support and adaptation of break spaces.

Target Audience: All staff
The session will start by us  learning about the importance of affinity spaces with student and staff testimonials, looking at data and open discussions. For the second half of the session they will be able to break off with other staff members from their school to collaborate on what 1st steps they may need to take to create affinity groups in their building. A syllabus and a curriculum will be provided for you to create off of. By the end of the session each group should have a foundation for how they would like to roll out their groups for hopefully a January start. The intended outcome for educators is to be excited about the work and understanding how important and beneficial it is to their school community.

Target Audience: Teachers PK-5, Teachers 6-8 Teachers 9-12, Mental Health Professionals, Para Professionals, Specialists (Arts, Music, PE)

Working with young people means your social and emotional skills must be sharp—not just for them, but for you. This session is all about practical, down-to-earth strategies that you can immediately apply to build a classroom (or any learning space) where everyone feels like they belong, knows they’re capable, and has the freedom to grow-including those students who may feel like outsiders, or othered. We’ll explore how to boost your self-awareness and social, social, and emotional skills so you can foster a positive environment and ensure every student and adult feels valued and empowered.

Session Outcomes:
-Learn and apply strategies to enhance self- and social awareness and management in yourself and your students. These strategies can be immediately put into practice to create a more inclusive and equitable learning environment.
-Discover techniques to help students and adults build their social and emotional competencies.
-Practice using tools to assess the student experience of being recognized, capable, and motivated to thrive.

Target Audience: Adminstrators, Teachers PK-5, Teachers 6-8 Teachers 9-12, Special Educators, Specialists (Arts, Music, PE)

Very young children possess what most of us adults have lost: the capacity to relentlessly ask questions in the service of a hunger to learn. There's literally no time like the present to take their example and skillfully bring curiosity into all school environments. Join Metrowest private practice psychologist and author, Dr. Mitch Abblett, to learn specific, hands-on, mindfulness-based language and emotional communication tools helping educators in all roles not only spark student’s engagement with academics, but also foster collaborative, connected relationships with adults and peers.

Target Audience: Adminstrators, Teachers PK-5, Teachers 6-8 Teachers 9-12, Office Staff, Mental Health Professionals, Para Professionals, Specialists (Arts, Music, PE)

Our workshops seek to foster philosophical reflection on some of the most pressing, pertinent questions facing teachers today. For this particular session, we hope to foster a walking conversation on self-care and purpose in the helping professions. Each of our sessions entail a series of short journaling prompts, discussion cards, and nature appreciation/mindfulness exercises. In the lead up to our sessions, we typically learn about

Our workshops are best delivered in outdoor environments that allow for walking. In the lead up to our session, we typically do some research on local biomes/history to promote connectness to place.

If you'd like, I can share soem of the resources that we use.
https://walkandtalklearning.com/2-16-24-lawrence-township-school-district/

Target Audience: Teachers PK-5, Para Professionals, Special Educators, Specialists (Arts, Music, PE)

Led by a former classroom teacher (turned SEL Coach) and a SEL Interventionist with years of experience and true behavioral expertise - this session will focus on providing you with culturally responsive strategies that you can use to promote engagement for all learners. It will include ways to help you gauge authentic engagement, build genuine relationships, get to know your students as learners, and bring joy and fun into your learning spaces - for you and your students! You will come away from this session with tools, tips and strategies that you can use immediately to increase engagement across all content areas. ALL educators - classroom teachers, interventionists, specialists, ESPs, special educators, ISS, administrators, etc. will take something away from this session. We are excited to have fun with you!

Target Audience: Administrators, Teachers PK-5, Teachers 6-8 Teachers 9-12, Mental Health Professionals, Para Professionals, Special Educators, Specialists (Arts, Music, PE)

Intermediate Restorative Practices—for staff who are familiar with Restorative Practices and / or who have facilitated circles in their own classes.
Rationale: a 70-minute workshop for 20-25 attendees that begins with a circle that includes prompts related to staff experience and questions.

Plan

1. Begin with a Circle.  (30-35 min.) Prompts include shared stories of experiences (successes and challenges) with restorative practices and circles,
2. Tier 2—Addressing Conflict (25 min)
   1. Problem-Solving Circles
   2. Listening Circles
   3. Restorative Chats
3. Building / Creating Circles for Classroom Use (20 min).  Participants identify a need for their own classrooms / groups and build/create their own circles.

Target Audience: Adminstrators, Teachers PK-5, Teachers 6-8 Teachers 9-12, Para Professionals

Students are ready to learn and make healthy choices when they feel safe, supported, and welcomed in their classrooms and schools. Creating a sense of belonging is particularly important for students from historically marginalized populations—who are most likely to feel isolated and disconnected. Strategies to foster belonging for all students, including historically marginalized populations, require systemic planning, impementation, and monitoring of evidence-based strategies, both in the classroom and across the school. This session will provide teachers and administrators tools and strategies to develop such a plan. By the end of the session, participants will a) understand the importance of promoting belonging, both in the classroom and throughout the school, for promoting student academic success and wellbeing; b) learn about specific evidence-based strategies for promoting belonging; and c) use tools to develop their own action plan for selecting, implementing, and monitoring sense of belonging strategies.

Target Audience: Teachers PK-5

This professional development session will focus on trauma-informed self-regulation strategies tailored for elementary classrooms. Participants will explore various types of classroom break spaces and strategies, including how to design and set up functional break areas. The session will also cover the use of routines, visuals, think sheets, and other tools that support self-regulation. Educators will leave with practical, adaptable techniques for implementing break spaces and fostering emotional regulation in students experiencing dysregulation. By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
Identify and create trauma-informed break spaces in their classrooms.
Implement a range of self-regulation strategies that meet diverse student needs.
Use visuals and think sheets to support emotional and behavioral self-regulation.
Develop plans for ongoing support and adaptation of break spaces.