I offer a variety of professional development workshops intended to provide helpful strategies and skills to best support the social, emotional, behavioral, and academic wellbeing of youth to ensure optimal success inside and outside the classroom.
Many of our students have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) and trauma. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on additional traumas and stressors due to social isolation, disconnected relationships, and emotional distress. Research has indicated that stress and trauma affect brain development and can impact students’ ability to learn. This workshop will help you understand more about trauma, the impact these experiences have on students, and how students who have experienced trauma may behave in the classroom. Participants will learn strategies on how to support students and how to form trauma-sensitive classrooms to promote resilience, emotional wellbeing, and academic achievement.
Due to COVID-19, classrooms and schools have had to undergo a complete overhaul in the way we teach and how students learn. Whether you are doing distance learning, blended learning, socially distant in-person learning, or any form of non-traditional instruction, this workshop is for you! This workshop will provide strategies to successfully reach and teach students during challenging times. Participants will learn about the additional social and emotional challenges students face during times of non-traditional instruction and how to best support students to promote wellbeing and academic achievement. Participants will learn effective strategies to ensure student and teacher success in all types of learning environments.
This workshop will provide an overview on the common mental health struggles that students experience. Educators will learn practical strategies to identify and support students with the following common mental health/ behavioral struggles: anxiety; depression; autism spectrum disorder; and, shutting down/ oppositional behaviors. This workshop teaches educators how to successfully approach students who are struggling and how to better understand the reasons why students struggle. Participants will leave this workshop understanding how to apply a simple three step process to successfully handle challenging situations with students.
School connectedness is a proven protective factor against health harming behaviors such as substance use, including opioid misuse, and helps students achieve higher levels of academic achievement. Starting in elementary school, forming positive connections with students builds the foundation for positive learning experiences. Feelings of school connectedness tend to decrease in middle and high school, a time when students need positive adult connections more than ever. This workshop identifies effective strategies to improve school connectedness to creating caring school communities and improve student wellbeing.
Students enter schools with a variety of beliefs learned from their families/ pop culture/ communities and this workshop helps prepare educators to combat prejudice and create inclusive school cultures. Educators will learn about the impact of identity on student learning and how culturally responsive teaching can help students succeed. Educators will also learn how to recognize our own implicit biases and how to create equitable learning environments. Now, even more than ever, equity must become the focus in schools and this workshop teaches educators strategies on how to cultivate diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools.
Trauma negatively impacts our students. As teachers and educational staff, you are the front line of supporting traumatized students. This trauma can impact you, by putting you at risk for secondary/ vicarious traumatization which may lead to feelings of burn-out and frustration. This workshop helps educators develop strategies to prevent professional burn out and vicarious traumatization. Participants will develop their own self-care plans and learn how to bring their best selves to work every day, all year long.
Note: This workshop can also include an optional overview of trauma and the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACES) on students for schools that have not already had any training in trauma
These workshops can be modified to your school population and setting.
All workshops can be done in 1, 1.5, or 2 hour sessions.
Workshops can be combined to make half-day or full day trainings.
Money should not restrict learning. All prices are flexible to your budget.
I understand that learning and teaching can be hard. Students are experiencing more struggles than ever before. I am here to help.
Tell me more about what you need, and I will get back to you soon.