Resilient Schools: Recent Episodes
Jethro Jones
Go beyond trauma informed schools and turn you school into a resilient school that is ready for anything that is thrown at it.
The Bridging to Resilience conference is about coming together with educators, social workers, health care professionals, religious communities, and other helping professionals to share conversations, ideas, strategies, tools, and connections to help build resilience and heal trauma in our own communities. November 6-8 in Wichita, Kansas. Register to attend this conference today!
Tessa works with teenagers and has decided to take on parenting from a new perspective. While patiently waiting for her book’s completion "For the Sake of Our Youth: A Therapist's Perspective on Raising Kids in Today's Culture" (due to hit the shelves in Spring 2020) Tessa coaches and presents to parents her research on today’s teen depression, anxiety and suicide rate focusing on parent/child connection. You can connect with her at her website Tessastuckey.com or follow her on Instagram @themomtherapist.
- Why she wanted to work with teens and parents.
- Kids came to me with suicidal thoughts.
- It scared me that they were going to grow up in a world where suicide was so common.
6 cultural influences that are happening in today’s world.
- Social Trend - People see it and so they think it. Not being balanced with appropriate preventative care.
- Immediate gratification - everything is just a click away. Teaching our kids how to struggle. There is no instant fix for an emotional hardship. You have to think a little unnaturally to slow things down a little bit.
- Lack of personal connections is being made. Social media is meant for connection but it doesn’t create the same closeness and bond.
- Attention seeking - longing to feel important. It has become an acceptable way to get attention in our society. Reacting to a lack of attention and lack of resilience.
- Social media - 5 categories: don’t need to connect face to face, comparison, kids can’t turn their social life, cyberbullying (hurt people hurt people), phone addiction.
- Pressure - We live a go-go-go lifestyle. No mercy and no grace. Everyone is striving to be perfect.
- Be the supporter and helper for your child and not the fixer for all their problems.
- How to be a transformative principal? Understand your own philosophies on the kids you interact with. What are the core values you want kids to have when they leave your school? This is not just mental illness anymore.
The Bridging to Resilience conference is about coming together with educators, social workers, health care professionals, religious communities, and other helping professionals to share conversations, ideas, strategies, tools, and connections to help build resilience and heal trauma in our own communities. November 6-8 in Wichita, Kansas. Register to attend this conference today!
Amy McDonald helps kids have a strong web of support
- Working with kids vs doing work for kids.
- Developmental ecology of a youth
- Strengths-based
- Lots of training for teachers and youth.
- Prince Wales Island in Alaska
- Eat sleep and work in gyms.
- 70 kids and 20 adults. 3 day lock in events
- Brightways Learning runs Phlight Club.
- Descriptions of the ROYGBIV story from the link above.
- Red – The Rule of Five: The foundation for a personal village for each youth by five caring adults (or more,) having high expectations and providing opportunities, teaching skills, and celebrating relative best in appropriate ways.
- Orange – Tangible Strings: Measurable supports are provided through the anchors that shape the home, school, and community environment of each youth.
- Yellow – Intangible Strings: Important, yet difficult to measure, beliefs, values, and behaviors that are being taught to and caught by the youth.
- Green – Resiliency/Growing the Balloon: These DNA based characteristics and talents increase the likelihood that the youth will remain connected to any web that they are given. How are you smart rather than how smart are you? Grit optimism, how am I smart, gender, wonder gene.
- Blue – Scissor Cuts/Problem Reduction: Decreasing or eliminating the conditions, actions, and attitudes that erode the supports being created by the adult anchors.
- Indigo – Caring for the Carers: Supporting those who anchor the web so they do not drop out of their lives even when circumstances in their own lives change.
- Violet – Social Norms: The climate and culture of the social environment (home, school, and/or community) that have been accepted or agreed upon by a critical number of adults.
The Bridging to Resilience conference is about coming together with educators, social workers, health care professionals, religious communities, and other helping professionals to share conversations, ideas, strategies, tools, and connections to help build resilience and heal trauma in our own communities. November 6-8 in Wichita, Kansas. Register to attend this conference today!
During the interview with Teri Barila, the Children’s Resilience Initiative Director, several key points were discussed. Teri emphasized the importance of safety, connection, and learning in supporting trauma-impacted youth. She highlighted that regulation is crucial before any learning can take place, as the body’s response to stress shuts down other functions. Teri stressed the need for adults to understand the impact of toxic stress on brain development and to approach behavior from a different lens, focusing on what the individual has experienced rather than what is wrong with them.
Teaching regulation to students was also discussed, with Teri emphasizing the importance of teaching self-regulation skills from an early age and providing opportunities for students to calm down. She emphasized the need for adults to be present with the child, noticing, naming, validating, and managing their feelings. Teri also highlighted the significance of attachment to a caring adult as the number one strategy for resilience.
The interview touched on the role of schools in creating a caring and supportive environment for students. Teri emphasized that any perception of loss of safety can lead to students becoming disregulated, and that trauma is not just about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), but also about the perception of loss of safety and connection. She stressed the importance of moral and emotional safety in addition to physical safety.
Teri also addressed concerns about the time and resources required to support trauma-impacted youth. She emphasized that creating a calm room is not punishment and that schools cannot do this alone. She encouraged a shift from a punishment mode to a regulatory mode in teaching and supporting students.
Overall, Teri Barila’s interview highlighted the importance of understanding the hardwired response system in the brain and the need for adults to support trauma-impacted youth through nurturing and regulation. She emphasized the role of attachment to a caring adult, the importance of creating a safe environment, and the reparative and restorative nature of nurturance.
- Toxic Stress impacts our brain development and architecture
- Brain developed to protect that individual.
- When you feel threatened, you go to that brain stem.
- How we look at behavior from a different lens.
- It’s not what’s wrong with this person
- What has this person experienced that I can manage to support him or her?
- Regulatory skills are needed for kids.
- Body already understands that you are being threatened.
- Body shuts down all other functions to be supportive.
- Use the same response systems as a child.
- Understanding our brain architecture.
- Language centers are disconnected when they are under stress.
- Provide opportunities to calm down.
- You ain’t getting to learning until that student is regulated.
- We further escalate that response by sending the student out.
- When we recognize that behavior is a call for help, we will move from punishment to regulation.
- How to teach regulation to students.
- Teach them how their brain works.
- Don’t wait until they are in high school to teach self-regulation.
- Recognize, validate, and manage their feelings.
- Where are you as you’re walking into my classroom?
- What’s going on in your world?
- Mantras, other ways to regulate.
- It’s all about being present with the child.
- Noticing, naming, validating, and managing their feelings.
- We forget to notice that kids are escalating.
- Rather than punishing a child for having a feeling…
- Do you have enough skills to manage the feelings
- What to do when they are escalated.
- When one is having trouble, we don’t alienate, we try to help.
- Welcome slip - “We’re glad you’re here. Welcome to school.”
- Safety. Connection. Learning.
- This makes it too easy for kids. We coddle them.
- How did you learn resilience?
- Did you have an adult to help shape you into something better?
- Resilience - #1 strategy attachment to a caring adult.
- Bruce Perry - National Leader on trauma.
- Witnessed in their humanity
- How do we create that caring, supportive environment that supports that student when we are in the school environment?
- We can’t get hung up on the behavior.
- The problem is when we alienate because of the behavior.
- Understanding that any perception of loss of safety is the potential for students to become disregulated.
- Trauma is the perception of loss of safety and connection, not just the ACES.
- Safety - not just physical safety. Moral safety and emotional safety - see more from Sandra Bloom
- How to deal with the response, “This takes too much time.”
- A calm room is not punishment.
- Schools can’t do this alone.
- “My Piece Matters”
- Won’t kids take advantage of that? Teachers notice that.
- Every child wants to do well.
- Do we teach them through a punishment mode or a regulatory mode?
- Building adult skills to support trauma-impacted youth.
- Emotional Hygiene
- How to be a transformative principal? Dig into the understanding of the hardwired response system in the brain. Kids aren’t out to get you, they just don’t know how to manage themselves.
- Self-Reg Stewart Shanker
- By Daniel Goleman Emotional Intelligence
- Starts with the understanding that each of us can help create a safe environment.
- Nurturance is reparative and restorative.
About Teri Barila
Theresa Barila is the founder of the Community Resilience Initiative (CRI) based in Walla Walla, WA. CRI’s mission supports three pillars: training, community engagement, and Resilience product development.
Teri earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology (American University) and a Masters of Science in Fisheries Management (University of Maryland) and spent 20 years as a Research Biologist with the Federal Salmon and Steelhead Recovery program in the Pacific Northwest. Her experience in that field helped her bridge science and practice when she changed careers and moved into community engagement work 22 years ago.
Recognized internationally for her work with CRI, Teri frequently travels, training communities to develop their own blueprint so that “Resilience Trumps ACEs.” Teri is involved extensively in training, consulting, writing, and researching in trauma, Resilience, and community capacity building. Her work has attracted attention in various venues, in part due to the focus Teri places on grassroots organizational development and the focus on hope of Resilience.
Teri is a mom to two children, a son, and a daughter, and was pleased to add the title grandmother in 2018. Experiencing a special needs child’s world has significantly shaped Teri’s thinking on systems, education, Resilience, and advocacy for children. Teri enjoys anything to do with the out-of-doors and sunshine and blue sky in her spare time.
In this episode of the Resilient Schools podcast, host Jethro Jones interviews Dr. Barbara Sorrels , the Executive Director of The Institute for Childhood Education. Dr. Sorrels shares her insights on managing behavior and healing children from the inside out.
Dr. Sorrels’ journey began when she started rocking abandoned babies in high school. Her first year of teaching was in the inner city, where she discovered the importance of spirituality and faith in children. She emphasizes that the faith community can be a resilience factor and enable connection.
Dr. Sorrels believes that children have an innate understanding of God and that their behavior is often a reflection of their experiences. Instead of asking what is wrong with a child, she encourages educators to ask what has happened to them. Trauma can impact children at a cellular level, and it is important to approach it with compassion and understanding.
Understanding the impact of trauma is crucial. Dr. Sorrels explains that trauma can affect the organization of the brain, particularly during the prenatal stage and the first two months of life. She discusses the role of neurotransmitters and how ADHD medication manipulates them. Trauma can also interrupt the connection between the two hemispheres of the brain, affecting memory, language, and the use of symbols.
Dr. Sorrels emphasizes the importance of creating moral classrooms and communities for children with trauma. These children often act at half their chronological age and require developmentally appropriate practices. Active learning engagement and the use of strategies like do-overs and giving choices can help heal children from the inside out.
Practical strategies for managing behavior include creating a cozy corner where children can calm down and offering a wet washcloth as a tangible symbol of empathy. Dr. Sorrels reminds educators to see struggling children not as problems, but as individuals who have experienced something difficult. By understanding their stories and offering support, educators can truly make a transformative impact.
Overall, this episode provides valuable insights into managing behavior and healing children from the inside out. Dr. Sorrels’ expertise and compassionate approach offer practical strategies for educators to create a supportive and healing environment for all children.
- Barbara started rocking abandoned babies when she was in high school in Washington, D.C.
- First year teaching was in the inner city.
- The role of spirituality and faith in children.
- Faith community is a resilience factor.
- Faith enables us to have connections.
- Children have an innate understanding of God.
- When you have that child standing in front of you that can sometimes get on your last nerve, ask not what is wrong with you, but what has happened to you.
- Impacts us at the cellular level.
- I look at you with compassion for your story.
- The kids’ history has told them that the world is not a safe place.
- “Children act out“ in behavior when they do not have the words to say.
- How much do we need to know about students’ trauma?
- The trauma determines the impact.
- The behavior speaks for itself.
- Need to look at trauma with a broader lens.
- What happens inside a child’s body when they experience trauma?
- FAE and Pre-natal drug exposure impacts the organization of the brain.
- The most vulnerable time is in-utero and the first two months of life as it relates to brain development.
- Dr. Perry and neurotransmitters.
- ADHD medication manipulates one of the three neurotransmitters.
- Dendrites on neurons related to quality and health of early life.
- Trauma can interrupt two hemispheres of the brain.
- Memory, language, using symbols can be compromised by trauma.
- Moral classrooms, moral children.
- Children with trauma will only thrive in a community.
- Developmentally appropriate practice with kids exposed to trauma - Narrow window of strategies.
- Children with significant trauma act at half their chronological age.
- Active learning engagement for kids exposed to trauma.
- The primary strategy is a do-over or reboot. “Let’s try that again!” - may need to model that first.
- The goal is not to manage behavior but to heal them from the inside out.
- Ignore the no and give two choices!
- Cozy corner: “You let me know when you’re ready to go back to class.“
- Simply changing the location is sometimes enough.
- Pattern, repetitive movement is calming to the brain.
- A wet washcloth is a tangible symbol of empathy.
- How to be a transformative principal? When you see those children who are struggling, remind yourself it’s not about what’s wrong with you, but about what’s happened to you. I know who you are.
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
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Matthew is a principal in Nashville, He was recently selected by FranklinCovey Education as a Leader in Me Community Champion in recognition of his outstanding work Trauma Informed Educators Network Facebook group
“I’m an activator,” he says. “In education, everyone is waiting for someone else to do something different, but if something is inequitable, I’m not going to wait―I’m going to disrupt.”
- Impact of social justice and trauma informed practices
- Trauma as a whole, but not as an event.
- Intergenerational transmission of trauma.
- Impact of racial trauma over time and day to day.
- ACES and Trauma.
- Understanding implicit bias
- If we’re not cognizant of it, it can wreak havoc on our impact as an educator.
- How do we navigate our roles as educator’s knowing that we possess bias?
- Why do we have clip charts in elementary schools?
- Unapologetic disruptor
- Our schools are designed to reflect the majority of our culture
- Behavior is a lagging skill instead of a personal choice.
- Change the school to meet the needs of our kids.
- When we put norms on kids.
- Look at kids as though they are doing the best they can!
- Many people have experienced trauma.
- Focused on the strengths of what kids come with.
- We’ve learned that clip charts in the classroom
- When public shaming becomes a norm in the school it can have major damage.
- Every kid is a genius.
- You’re being sent home because…
- How to have the conversation with adults.
- Teachers just like kids are doing the best they could.
- De-escalating kids.
- An escalated adult cannot deescalate an escalated child.
- Tap in and tap out strategy.
- Happy teacher revolution.
- You’re done.
- I can’t handle that weight. It’s too much.
- How to be a transformative principal? Activator - don’t wait for someone else to do it or try it. If it doesn’t work, it’s ok.
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
Tamara Fyke is the founder of Love in a Big World, which provides SEL support for families all over the world.
- SEL is related to their emotional, mental, and physical health.
- Kids may have experienced more trauma at home during closures than they ever have.
- Maslow before Bloom's.
- The need that kids have is to connect.
- The pace of learning is different at home.
- We have to acknowledge what is most important.
- The system we’ve been using isn’t actually working.
- The learning council it’s time to let go of control
- Being a compass instead of a sage
- Self-awareness is knowing our strengths and weaknesses.
- What’s it like to have a deliverable that’s due at a certain time?
- How to be a transformative principal? Take a cue from youth culture - Tiktok, Instagram, YouTube, twitch, etc. What do we need to change to show that kids aren’t really lazy?
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
Karen Gross is an author and educator, as well as an advisor and consultant to nonprofit schools, organizations, and governments; instructor of continuing education at Rutgers Graduate School of Social Work; visiting professor at Bennington College; former president of Southern Vermont College; former senior policy advisor to the United States Department of Education; and author of the sidequel, Breakaway Learners: Strategies for Post-Secondary Success with At-Risk Students and the trauma-sensitive children’s book series, Lady Lucy’s Quest. Visit Karen’s website at www.karengrosseducation.com.
- Name it - start by recognizing that it exists. What is traumatic for one may not be traumatic for another.
- Tame it - Strategies to deal with those. Invisible and it never goes away.
- Fight, flight, freeze, faint, fawn.
- activities that activate the senses allow the brain to reset.
- Example of strategies - stand on one leg.
- All of the senses have activities that are tied to them.
- Frame it
- Gotta do something to activate the brain.
- Triphasic - dysregulated, isolated, over-regulated.
- long-term strategies.
- Instead of blaming, seek to find what caused the behavior?
- Processing in place.
- Kimochis - https://www.kimochis.com
- Fidget boxes
- Play table.
- how to be a transformative principal? Assuming schools haven’t reopened - reach out to everyone and provide support.
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
Evin is the CEO and Founder of Belouga, a social learning platform making education impactful, accessible and equitable for the youth of the world through interactive digital content, aimed at providing a global perspective while aligning to everyday school subject areas and student interests. He has 17+ years of overseeing businesses focused on education, social impact and innovation within the Gen-Y and Gen-Z demographic. Evin has created and implemented educational programs and cross-cultural initiatives in all 50 states in the US at the K–12 and university levels, along with consultancy work on six continents. In 2019, he was recognized as one of the Meaningful Business 100, an award honoring global leaders who are introducing new ways of thinking and acting to address the world’s biggest challenges: climate change, pollution, hunger, poverty, education, and health.
In this episode, we discuss #Samehere Schools Month and other things about taking care of ourselves.
- Samehere Schools
- What comes next?
- SEL has been a nice term, but mental health has been around forever.
- How we keep mental health from being a flavor of the week
- Looking at standards, nobody knows how to assess this.
- It’s not the teacher’s or principal’s assignment, it’s society’s.
- None of that stuff matters without mental health.
- The power of connection
- The programming side of this - how do we personalize this in communities
- Everybody’s experiencing completely different
- Schools are over-resourced right now.
- How are they aware of these programs? Making programs more accessible to others.
- Belouga is a global organization that believes that people should learn about the world with the world!
- Creating learning communities
- Mentorship and connections - how to get that out to the masses.
- Global networks and able to travel the world.
- Our kids are consuming at a rapid pace.
- social learning - how do you make it global and how do you make it
- It’s ok to disagree!
- Innovation within education (i.e. what does the future hold for the industry)
- The importance of mental health and wellness within the industry
- Creating a thriving learning ecosystem through passion/interest-driven learning
- We’re not doing any justice by thinking that learning happens within the four walls of a classroom.
- Bring fun and excitement back to learning.
- Equality, Impact, Access
- belouga.org - Learn about the world with the world, aligned to standards - 100% free to register.
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
Evin is the CEO and Founder of Belouga, a social learning platform making education impactful, accessible and equitable for the youth of the world through interactive digital content, aimed at providing a global perspective while aligning to everyday school subject areas and student interests. He has 17+ years of overseeing businesses focused on education, social impact and innovation within the Gen-Y and Gen-Z demographic. Evin has created and implemented educational programs and cross-cultural initiatives in all 50 states in the US at the K–12 and university levels, along with consultancy work on six continents. In 2019, he was recognized as one of the Meaningful Business 100, an award honoring global leaders who are introducing new ways of thinking and acting to address the world’s biggest challenges: climate change, pollution, hunger, poverty, education, and health.
In this episode we discuss the #Samehere Schools Month and other things about taking care of ourselves.
- Samehere Schools
- What comes next?
- SEL has been a nice term, but mental health has been around forever.
- How we keep mental health from being a flavor of the week
- Looking at standards, nobody knows how to assess this.
- It’s not teacher’s or principal’s assignment, it’s society’s.
- None of that stuff matters without mental health.
- The power of connection
- Programming side of this - how do we personalize this in communities
- Everybody’s experiencing completely different
- Schools are over-resourced right now.
- How are they aware of these programs? Making programs more accessible to others.
- Belouga is a global organization that believes that people should learn about the world with the world!
- Creating learning communities
- Mentorship and connections - how to get that out to the masses.
- Global networks and able to travel the world.
- Our kids are consuming at a rapid pace.
- social learning - how do you make it global and how do you make it
- It’s ok to disagree!
- Innovation within education (i.e. what does the future hold for the industry)
- The importance of mental health and wellness within the industry
- Creating a thriving learning ecosystem through passion/interest driven learning
- We’re not doing any justice by thinking that learning happens within the four walls of a classroom.
- Bring fun and excitement back to learning.
- Equality, Impact, Access
- belouga.org - Learn about the world with the world, aligned to standards - 100% free to register.
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
Today we talk with Katie Perez and how to help people be regulated through connection, stress vs. toxic stress vs. trauma.
- We don’t have the language to talk to kids about what is going in their brains when they are dysregulated.
- It’s normal to act this way when you are stressed, and this is how you build resilience
- Name to tame - name an emotion to tame an emotion.
- Kids don’t always have the words to express what they’re experiencing.
- Mad, sad, glad, or afraid as the keywords.
- Coregulation is the idea that self-regulation is baloney. You calm down through connection.
- Connecting with other regulated people.
- Can’t have two amygdalas talking to each other.
- The nervous system can regulate itself if it has strategies.
- When we’re in connection with another regulated person, we try to regulate with theirs.
- Repeated Rhythmic Activity as helps to regulate someone.
- Start having conversations to get us back into
- Emotions are signs: they’re just signs that something is off.
- What our emotions mean.
- Mad really means my sad and afraid got in control.
- We can only choose our responses when we are afraid
- We all go through challenges. We compare our curses, and we live in the curse rather than the blessing
- What is the difference between stress and trauma.
- Everyone experiences things differently.
- How do we reframe those things that we say to kids about their lives
- Transforming discipline
- Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz's episode on Discipline vs. Punishment
- It’s not about you.
- Social discipline window
- Building NeuroResilience Training
- Students even take this through an independent study course.
- Stopitsolutions app help me
- Reach out to her at essdack.org and on Facebook
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About Katie Perez
Katie Perez does a lot at ESSDACK, Project-Based Learning, Trauma/Resilience, School Redesign, Four Disciplines of Execution, Elementary Generalist, Keynoter, Facilitator, Coach, and Mentor. A large part of Katie’s work at ESSDACK focuses on supporting educators as they become trauma-informed. Katie has been researching and speaking about the science of hope since 2007. She says, “Hope guides me in all endeavors. In both my professional and personal life, I see opportunities to share and spread hope with others so that they too may develop pathways to see great possibilities in their lives. I believe in the power of engaged educators to build significant relationships with young people to encourage, inspire, and build great lives.” This work has led to a partnership with Jim Sporleder to build a curriculum guide to support school faculties in their journey to becoming trauma-informed.
Katie’s true passion in education is in helping teachers reignite their own passion for teaching and learning. As a facilitator and coach, Katie customizes professional learning to target the specific goals and needs of each educator or audience. She believes that the key to unlocking the full potential in our education system relies on the hope, well-being, and engagement of our educators and students.
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
In this podcast episode, Emily Torres, an educator with Spokane Public Schools for 21 years, discusses her experience piloting a program for trauma-impacted teens. The program uses a counselor-in-the-classroom approach with a curriculum designed around self-awareness. Torres worked alongside psychologists to develop and implement the curriculum, which includes daily practices and a weekly therapist visit. The program also incorporates the Circle of Security approach to help students deal with challenging situations. Torres emphasizes the importance of having a willing teacher and a partnership to implement such a program successfully. Torres’ goal is to help students develop skills that they can use with their own families later in life. Torres believes that her students have incredible wisdom. Overall, Torres’s program aims to help students become more resilient and better equipped to deal with the challenges they face.
- Noticed a shift in student disposition
- AVID was the start, but it grew from there.
- Nothing worse as a teacher than feeling ill-equipped for your students.
- Starting a Project-based learning program that had a counselor in the classroom.
- Soapbox project
- Jevon McCormick episode
- The counselor comes in one time a week.
- Daily practices - therapist comes once a week
- Circle of Security gave us ways to talk about things that were challenging.
- Helped students feel like they had a place every week to deal with what was going on in their lives.
- Savior Complex
- Kids get recommended to come into this class.
- The interview process for students.
- The goal is to see it at every high school.
- Use it to talk about characters in literature
- The Power of different roles in Resilient Schools
- It makes sense for students to make sense of their understanding
- Are we thinking beings who feel or feeling beings who think?
- We are so much more complex than that.
- Awesome People in Progress
- Teaching brain states in regular classes.
- Nobody is harder on us than we are on ourselves.
- The role of the judge saboteur.
- The goal is to do no harm
- The goal is to have the students start using these things with their own kids and families later in life.
- My students have incredible wisdom.
- We need a willing teacher and a partnership.
- See this community
About Emily Torres
Emily Torres has been an educator with Spokane Public Schools for 21 years. In 2016, she helped pilot a program for trauma-impacted teens. This unique counselor-in-the-classroom approach uses a curriculum designed around self-awareness. She has worked alongside psychologists (Kent Hoffman (Every Person has Infinite Worth | Kent Hoffman | TEDxSpokane - YouTube, Dr. Russel Kolts (Dr. Russell Kolts and Compassion-Based Therapy - Eastern Washington University (ewu.edu), and Sean Barrett) to develop and implement this specially designed curriculum. Emily is a trauma-informed trainer through the Community Resilience Initiative (www.CRIResilient.org) where she has also been a presenter introducing others to Holistic Curriculums at their annual Beyond Paper Tigers Trauma-Informed Care Conference. And, she was the 2022 Lilac City Teacher of the Year.
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
Dr. Gastrid Harrigan has been an educator for over 19 years as a mathematics teacher, Assistant Principal, and currently as Secondary Principal. In addition, Dr. Harrigan is a Professor of Education at Broward College and Colorado State University Global. He specializes in supporting teachers and school leaders to build trusting relationships with students and improving the culture and climate of schools to optimize staff and students experience. He has extensive experience leading and instructing educators at all levels and has been recognized for his expertise, innovative leadership, student engagement, and academic achievement strategies. He frequently speaks at national conferences on leadership, curriculum, school culture and climate, social-emotional learning, and trauma-informed practices.
He is also the host of The School Leader’s Podcast. The podcast provides bite-size tips, ideas, and PD for emerging and current school leaders.
In 2021, he was named Principal of the Year by Learning for Success, Inc. and nominated for the Principal of the Year in 2023 in Broward County Public Schools, FL.
- Adult side of trauma
- What are the challenges that teachers and staff face now?
- If we don’t feed the teachers, they’re going to eat the kids.
- Take a moment - OOSA
- Morning meetings and staff meetings start with a mindfulness moment.
- It’s ok for the principal to lead these mindful moments.
- Been in the journey for 6 years.
- Started looking at ACES (adverse childhood experiences study) and saw that many of our adults had high ACE scores.
- Bringing in community partners
- Striving to meet their needs, regardless of what they are struggling with.
- The staff felt the kids have issues, it’s not me.
- The child triggered the adults’ traumatic experiences.
- Trained everyone to be trauma-informed.
- Self-aware of our own triggers to know how we are going to respond.
- Hurt people hurt people.
- Whatever helps the person center is worthwhile.
- Teams have their own mindfulness moment
- Not prescribing how it’s done, but that it’s done.
- Additional benefits to making people be mindful.
- Receiving grants - teams are getting together and finding ways to make more of this possible.
- Zen spot - one for adults and one for kids.
- We need to make it safe for people to center themselves.
- How to connect @drgharrigan. www.drgharrigan.com
Check out Bear Crawl with Dads and all the other great shows on the BE Podcast Network
Rachel Archambault, MA CCC-SLP is an SLP Program Specialist for Broward County Public Schools. After a traumatic event happened at her workplace on 2/14/18, she looked for ways to help work with students (and herself) after trauma. She found trauma-informed care and has been presenting nationally to SLPs and other providers on how TIC can be used in their setting. She runs the PTSDSLP.com web site and Instagram account, @PTSD.SLP which discusses TIC from a speech lens.
- Pillars of trauma-informed care
- 3–12 pillars of Trauma, but here are the six.
- Safety
- Trustworthiness & Transparency
- Peer Support
- Collaboration & Mutuality
- Empowerment Voice & Choice
- Cultural, Historical, & Gender Issues
- Aftermath of Marjory Stoneman Douglas
- Transparency - There’s no rulebook for this. We have a rulebook and it is what other people have experienced.
- Camera crews were around 24/7.
- 3600 students at the school.
- Anything was under a microscope.
- Kept things quiet, but it made them
- Celebrity visiting, but made it scary
- Some people were offered transparency
- Control in a situation
- Three E’s Definition of Trauma [[What Happened to You]]: three E’s” definition of trauma: “that a trauma has three key aspects—the event, the experience, and the effects. The complexities of these three interrelated components are what should be considered in clinical work and studied in research”
- Loaded school with school resource officers.
- What would make a big group of people able to cope better.
- Connection - Forming a connection with someone who has experienced trauma is a way to help them overcome it.
- Fishing in the Olds and Russian Rivers
- How do we form connections with students?
- Therapeutic speaking - active listening
- Let them determine the connection and relationship
- It’s not personl
In this episode, we’re bringing you a conversation from The Authority Podcast, part of the Be Podcast Network.
Today’s guest, Principal Baruti Kafele is author of seven best-selling books, including the topic of today’s episode: The Equity & Social Justice Education 50.
He and Ross discuss:
● Equity vs. Equality — the strategy vs. the goal and why it matters
● Does my presence positively alter the trajectory of my students?
● The personal nature of this work and this book. How Principal Kafele learned to share his story to the benefit of his students.
● Becoming credible to your students
● “I want my readers to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and uncomfortable with being comfortable.”
● The Big 3: Individuality, Identity, and Voice. Why these are non-negotiables in every classroom.
● The leader’s role in making equity work resilient
The Authority is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with leading authors from the education world and beyond. Host Ross Romano, a leadership coach, storytelling strategist and edtech advisor, draws out their invaluable insights on leadership, culture-building, transformation, and student & educator success.
Subscribe:
● Apple: https://apple.co/3ePnTea
● Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3JxkyeX
● RSS: https://feeds.libsyn.com/425789/rss
Connect on social media:
Principal Baruti Kafele is one of the most sought-after school leadership and classroom equity presenters in America. He has delivered over 2500 conference and program keynotes, professional development workshops, parenting seminars and student assemblies over his 35 years of public speaking. Connect with him:
● https://principalkafele.com/
● https://twitter.com/principalkafele
● https://www.facebook.com/principalkafele/
Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies, a consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect with him:
● https://twitter.com/RossBRomano
● https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossromano/
Setting our sights on cultivating joy as the key to solving work culture malaise is inadequate and even dangerous. A singular focus on joy tempts us to view our culture woes as a technical rather than an adaptive challenge because technical challenges are much easier to solve. We take plug-and-play “joy factor” activities off the shelf and avoid anything that doesn’t feel good. This creates dissonance for people when they are experiencing challenges. Even more dangerously, the focus on creating joy—even thoughtful joy—obscures or distracts from what our work culture truly needs to create the conditions for people to thrive. Those conditions are built on connection, care and challenge. Pushing joy in the wrong moments leads to people becoming frustrated and focused on resenting you rather than collectively moving toward a collective awareness and intention that can truly shift your work culture.
- Joy is important. But it is overused when used as a strategy.
- The overuse of joy as a strategy to build culture
- Positivity by Frederickson
- Conditions for joy - surroundings are safe and familiar.
- People who are going after joy can create dissonance.
- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
- Social awareness
- What schools and educators need right now? They need to feel like they are not alone.
- What types of issues are the wrong focus on joy?
- Planned a lunch - we had some bumps, let’s move on.
- People were hurting, and needed to be affirmed.
- Trying to infuse positivity and camaraderie where people needed affirmation.
- Not meeting people where they were.
- People need three things to feel like they’re thriving
- Connection - having real conversations.
- Care
- Challenged
- A space for emotional experience to be shared.
- Vulnerability is important
- Show up as their full selves
- Care is about compassion and belief in someone.
- Are they invested in my well-being?
- Do leaders care about their teachers’ well-being as much they care about the students’?
- Clear is kind.
- Connection and care without challenge is enabling.
- Challenge is still a necessary ingredient to improve culture
- Finding and owning their locus of control.
- Make it clear what is and is not in and out of control.
- Challenge - identify places where we do have locus of control.
- Hold each other accountable.
- How do you know the right thing to challenge on?
- What do people need right now?
- They need to feel seen, supported and they need hope.
- How to take control? Listening.
- We need to do a better job of creating those spaces.
About Matt Taylor
Matt Taylor is the CEO and founder of The Noble Story Group- a leadership coaching and training group that ignites thriving for individuals and equity for groups by operationalizing EI. Matt has coached and trained hundreds of education and non-profit leaders over the last 15 years, from CEOs to school principals. Matt’s 5 Square methodology is used as an anchor leadership development tool in non-profit organizations, school leader development programs, and executive coaching programs across the country. Matt began his leadership career at Amistad Academy Middle School after ten years of teaching. During Matt’s tenure as principal, Amistad distinguished itself as the #1 middle school in Connecticut for African American student achievement. His book, The Noble School Leader, is a self-guided coaching journey for school leaders seeking to reduce suffering, spark hope, increase equity and inclusion, and help leaders and the people they lead thrive in their work and their lives.
About Jethro Jones Jethro Jones, 2017 Digital Principal of the Year, is a former principal and host of Transformative Principal, Cybertraps, and My Bonus Money podcasts. He is also the author of the books How to be a Transformative Principal and SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves! Jethro currently consults schools and districts on redesign efforts that don’t seem like another program. Jethro has worked as a principal at all K–12 levels, including a prison school, a district coach, distance learning team lead, and English teacher.
- Staff mindset, what can I control vs. what can we not control
- Advocate for students and teachers
- If we’re not well, how can we promote wellness for our students?
- Every day is a fresh start.
- How to tell between what is a special need and what is trauma.
- Kids start to other themselves at a certain point when they see they aren’t getting what others are getting.
- Self-beliefs around learning
- Helping students say positive things about themselves.
- Asking students what their strengths are and what they’re good at.
- All kids need help, regardless of their IEP status.
- Ross Greene’s work on lagging skills.
- Difference between defining and diagnosing a kid.
- Are there tools and strategies in the classroom that make it easy for the student to be successful?
- Flexible seating, flexible work environments?
As students, we all know the importance of being successful in school. But what does it really take to achieve that success? While good grades and test scores are certainly important, there are other key skills that can make a big difference in a student’s ability to succeed. These skills, known as executive functioning skills, can be described as the things students need to be successful in school and in life.
Executive functioning skills include things like goal setting, working memory, time and task management, organizational skills, accountability, and self-regulation. These skills are crucial for helping students feel successful, even if they don’t always experience success in terms of grades or other traditional measures.
Over the past few years, there have been numerous disruptions to traditional schooling, from the COVID–19 pandemic to online learning and hybrid models. These disruptions can make it even harder for students to develop and hone their executive functioning skills. That’s where Mitch, the founder of Organized Binder, comes in. Mitch started Organized Binder to help students who were struggling with school to be more successful by teaching them the executive functioning skills they need to succeed.
As Mitch says, “School is a game, and when you know how to play the game, you can be successful.” He emphasizes the importance of being ready to play the game for the sake of your team, whether that team is a group of classmates or a group of coworkers. And the key to playing the game well is having strong executive functioning skills.
So, how can students learn and develop these skills? According to Mitch, there are three key factors to teaching executive functioning skills: modeling, explicit instruction, and consistent and predictable routines. In other words, students are best able to learn these skills when they are explicitly modeled for them, when they get to practice them, and when they have consistent and predictable routines that allow them to practice these skills on a regular basis.
For example, it’s not enough to just tell students to be on time or to be ready to learn. Instead, students need to see what it looks like to be on time and what it looks like to be ready to learn. As they get exposure to these habits and routines, they are better able to learn and internalize them.
Regardless of what type of profession kids end up having, their executive functioning skills will enable them to be successful throughout their life. And, as Stanford University research has shown, these skills can have a big impact on a student’s overall well-being and happiness. In fact, adults often say, “I wish I had these executive functioning skills when I was a kid!”
But the good news is that it’s never too late to learn and develop these skills. In fact, there are many experts, like David Allen and Michael Hyatt, who have made millions of dollars teaching time and task management skills to adults. And Mitch offers both in-person and virtual trainings to help students learn and develop these skills.
One key to success is having a daily routine that helps students see what is possible and gives them the structure they need to succeed. Mitch also recommends Lisa Delpit’s book “Other People’s Children” as a great resource for learning more about how to teach and develop these skills.
If you’re interested in learning more about executive functioning skills and how they can help your student succeed, be sure to sign up for Mitch’s free Executive Functioning Webinar Series at organizedbinder.com. So, these are the things you need to know about executive functioning skills and how they can help students succeed in school and in life.
Dr. Wendy Watson is the Principal of Garry Middle School in Spokane, WA. Garry is a Title I school, and they took a unique approach
In recent years, Dr. Wendy Watson and her team at the school have made a concerted effort to improve support for students’ academic and behavioral needs. This has involved increasing the number of behavior interventionists from one to four, and adding additional support systems to help students de-escalate and regulate their emotions.
One of the key challenges faced by Dr. Watson and her team was ensuring that these support systems worked well together. To address this, they brought a group of adults together to brainstorm and problem-solve. This team-oriented approach has been crucial in helping them create a highly trusting and supportive environment for their students.
The results of these efforts have been impressive. Since implementing these changes, they have seen a 59% drop in overall suspensions, and a marked improvement in students’ ability to regulate their emotions and behavior.
Of course, making these changes has not been without its challenges. Communication breakdowns are inevitable when implementing significant changes, and it can be difficult to stay focused and on track when dealing with the pressures of data and administration. However, Dr. Watson and her team have found that taking a restorative approach, and being forgiving of miscommunications, has been key to their success.
One key factor in their ability to make these changes has been hope. As the interviews with Melissa Sadin and Cathleen Beachboard on the Resilient Schools website highlight, hope is a powerful motivator and can be a key factor in making schools more resilient.
Overall, Dr. Watson’s experience has taught her that making positive changes in schools can be challenging, but the rewards are worth it. By working together, and focusing on the needs of their students, they have been able to create a supportive and resilient learning environment.
-
- Resources wrapped up in academics
- Needed a lot of behavior support as well.
- Moved from 1 building interventionist to 4 behavior interventionist.
- Adding additional support systems.
- You start naturally problem-solving.
- Here’s the problem, how do we get together, and how do we make it work?
- We got a group of adults together to help kids de-escalate kids.
- Need to work through what everyone’s needs are in then put everyone together.
- Wonderful people who have the toughest jobs of dealing with emotional
- People are naturally learning from one another learn how to work with kids and help them regulate.
- Being part of a team, no sense of people being in their own separate offices.
- Built-in support for when adults are overwhelmed.
- Highly trusting place for students to come when they are dis-regulated.
- 22 staff members with admin got together to define what MTSS means for our school.
- When Wendy arrived suspension numbers were higher than every high school.
- 59% drop in overall suspensions.
- When there is pressure on the admin to get suspensions decreased, it can be very challenging.
- You can’t solve problems when you’re dealing with data that isn’t real.
- When interventionists want to get out, it’s a red flag.
- The challenge of communication when you’re making change.
- Change is challenging, but worth it.
- General breakdown of communication can and probably will happen.
- Be forgiving when miscommunication happens.
- Restorative practices take time.
- Clarification of roles of people within the community support room.
- What the process looks like now: quick collection of data, interventionist comes to get the student, recommendations for support, goes to reset room, may eventually connect with admin.
- Base curriculum - in-the-moment lessons on the subjects they specifically need right now.
- 1 thing to make schools more resilient: hope - it’s so important. Big Beautiful Future.
- For more about hope, see these interviews with Melissa Sadin and Cathleen Beachboard about hope.
As an engaging and interactive keynote speaker, consultant, educator, and mom, LaVonna bridges her passion for how the brain learns with identifying how every individual S.H.I.N.E.s with their mindset and social-emotional well-being. She leads a small business where her and her team boost schools in embodying a Human-Focused Culture. A culture where we put those doing the work at the heart of the impact desired. How? By supporting schools in harnessing the S.H.I.N.E. framework, increasing psychological safety, & building a foundation based on the brain sciences. S.H.I.N.E. is the secret to a work environment where all want to be! LaVonna has 3 degrees, is the author of 8 books, and has worked with organizations in the U.S./Canada, Europe, South America, and the Middle East. She is the creator and founder of the Ignite Your S.H.I.N.E.® framework and also Prime to S.H.I.N.E. where she coaches educators in how to make an impact through educational consulting – part-time or full-time. S.H.I.N.E. will leave you inspired. Help you find your power through ah-ha moments. Ignite the fire within you to have the confidence in who YOU are and what you do, because YOU are the difference maker!
Creating a human-focused culture in schools is crucial for fostering a sense of inclusion and psychological safety among students and staff. This means putting people first and making sure that everyone feels valued and included.
According to LaVonna Roth, it’s important to start with small, low-risk activities, such as check-ins, to build trust and create a safe space for vulnerable conversations. Asking the right questions is also crucial; instead of asking “how do we solve this?”, try asking “how might we solve this?” to make it a group effort and encourage creativity.
In addition to creating a safe space for conversation, it’s important to evaluate and release stress in a proactive way. This means being open and honest about where we are at and whether we are living up to our ideals, and taking time to check in with each other before things get too overwhelming.
To help foster a human-focused culture, Roth created the SHINE Framework, which focuses on strengths and encourages individuals to be self-aware, have a heart for humanity, inspire others, navigate challenges, and be exceptional. By focusing on strengths and empathy, we can create a more resilient and inclusive learning environment for all.
- Human Focused Culture - how to create a place where people want to be.
- Putting people first makes a big impact.
- How does the brain thrive best in achievement
- It starts with everyone feeling valued
- When people feel included, they can ask vulnerable questions.
- Must go through different levels of psychological safety to get to the highest level.
- It’s difficult to ask harder questions if you’re afraid to ask even simpler questions.
- True empathetic listening ear.
- Do you have a Heart for humanity
- To help people feel really included, our actions and our verbiage need to be aligned.
- We’re used to having a hierarchy in our society - If we’re going to have everyone be included, we have to watch those walls of hierarchy.
- Knowing who makes the final call, but also recognizing that everyone can overrule the person in charge.
- As a group, deciding how we want to move forward.
- In a low-trust environment, start with a small-risk activity, like a check-in.
- Are we asking the right questions? Not How do we solve this but how might we solve this?
- Make it our idea, instead of my idea.
- The way we ask a question matters, too: Tell me when you have a staff thrive at their best.
- When things get stressful, prior to that break, ask for the voices about what is working and not working.
- Be open about where you are at and whether you are living up to your ideals?
- Evaluate and release stress when it is going to be challenging and you know it is.
- Tell me about the SHINE Framework and why you created it. Self, Heart, Inspire, Navigate, Exceptional
- Focused on strengths. Gallup says a strength will remain a strength and a weakness will never become a strength.
- Even really challenging situations can be positive and create strengths in us.
- the 1 thing to make our schools more resilient: Have empathy.
Cathleen Beachboard is an award-winning educator, best-selling author, and leading innovative expert on raising psychological hope in schools. Her Building H.O.P.E.© framework has improved resilience, well-being, and achievement in thousands of schools across the country. As a sought-after speaker on well-being and retention, she provides practical tools and strategies for parents, educators, and school leaders to increase hope so students and staff can thrive.
- Hope is a positive cognitive process
- Hope is a mix of your goals, pathways and agency.
- Hope is determined in different ways.
- Hope is measurable.
- How do you increase your hope?
- Your hope level is similar to your friends. Introduce someone who is at a different level.
- Put a high hope kid next to a low-hope kid.
- Hope scale at Thrively
- If you’re high hope, spread it.
- If you’re low in hope, start improving your hope.
- Wherever you are lowest, start there.
- Low in pathways - one way to solve a problem.
- Backup plans show you that you can improve your plans.
- Will power and self-control.
- Even if you don’t have control, having back up plans help you feel more in control.
- Hope Research
- As hope increases, the impact of stress decreases.
- Teachers can be overwhelmed, too.
- Hope is the greatest way to impact secondary trauma.
- Mindset
- Looking at your culture and seeing what you already have in place and modify them to be more hopeful.
- Strategies for principals: vulnerability.
- Don’t let problems fester - give everyone a post it, write down the problem they’re having right now. Get out of silos. Problem speed-dating.
- Plan hopeful practices into their day. Write gratitude emails to three people each day.
- When we have a problem, we focus on the problem, vent about the problem for 1–2 minutes, then list all of your strengths, figure out how your strength can be used for your problem.
- Get the book The School of Hope?
- Connect with Cathleen on Twitter
Blog Post (
Stephen Smith’s life was going great. He was an award-winning college quarterback with a vibrant social life and a bright future ahead of me. But then OCD came out of nowhere and derailed everything.
He started having repeated intrusive thoughts that made him doubt the most fundamental characteristics about himself. Depression hit, and he felt like he was stuck. He went from playing quarterback in college to being housebound in six months due to misdiagnosed and untreated OCD.
It took a lot of time and money to access effective OCD treatment, but once he had the right diagnosis and found ERP therapy, his mental health improved, he returned to school, and he finished my football career. He felt like he had a future once again.
Getting the treatment he needed to conquer OCD was a battle on its own. It made him wonder: Why isn’t effective care more accessible and affordable to those of us struggling with OCD?
Hi experience fueled the creation of NOCD. Talented, like-minded individuals joined me to make this vision a reality. With their passion and innovation, it took off in a big way. Now, NOCD is working to help 180 million people with OCD around the world regain their lives.
OCD is a misunderstood condition, yet it’s one of the few words in our society that everyone recognizes. It’s a condition where people have recurring thoughts and fears that violate their core values and beliefs.
If you have someone close to you that has OCD, you might want to ask them questions such as “what is causing you to do these things?” or “Do you have unwanted thoughts?” or “Do the thoughts feel real, even though you know they’re not?”
It’s important to note that a licensed therapist should do diagnostic assessments with kids. Generalized therapy can be harmful to kids. It’s estimated that 1 in 40 people have OCD in their lives.
If left untreated, people with OCD are more likely to die by suicide.
OCD is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, but it often takes 14–17 years to get evidence-based treatment. However, with the right treatment, people with OCD can learn to manage the condition in a three month window.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is a very effective treatment for OCD. ERP is based on the idea that trying to stop the thoughts makes the compulsions
- Watch the clip from 20/20 on Howie Mandel and his experience with OCD. Powerful.
- OCD is one of the only words in society that everyone recognizes and everyone misunderstands.
- Condition where people have recurring thoughts and fears that violate the people’s core values and beliefs.
- Questions you can ask: what is causing you to do these things? Do you have unwanted thoughts? Do the thoughts feel real, even though you know they’re not?
- Licensed therapist can do diagnostic assessments with kids.
- Generalized therapy can be harmful to kids.
- 1 in 40 people have OCD in their lives.
- More likely to die by suicide if left untreated.
- OCD is caused by genetic and environmental factors.
- It often takes 14–17 years to get evidence-based treatment.
- Can manage the condition in a three month window.
- Exposure & Response Prevention - Trying to stop the thoughts makes the compulsions worse - instead they need to accept uncertainty.
- OCD is the doubting disorder
- Talk therapy or thought stopping therapy.
- OCD is a chronic condition, treatment needs to be flexible.
- Train all therapists internally in addition to their licensure and monitor regularly.
- Monitoring and support 24/7
- With virtual therapy, therapist can go with them to their location.
- Hoping that every single teacher can recognize and see OCD symptoms and help others.
- Trauma and OCD and veterans in the military.
- PTSD is intrusive thoughts about the past
- Cormordities. Environmental.
- Living on a daily basis can be an exposure in and of itself.
- Learning how to respond to those specific situations
- Accept uncertainty when fear pops into his head.
- Exposures teach them how to respond to their fears.
- When you stop exposures, you forget how to respond.
- The VA article that breaks down PTSD and OCD
- Lack of dissemination of information
- Understand how to probe for it.
- Couple thoughts -
- 1 subtype of OCD - real event - questioning the memory
- Also build a model that can help us educate students and faculty - easily get connected - disease awareness 1 page summary
- 10% of families will be affected
Dr. Erika Garcia-Niles is a principal in MIssouri.
- https://twitter.com/flyingmonkey13/status/1499808853063577600?s=21 we don’t remember our impact but they sure do.
- behind the scenes at new district
- better than I could have imagined.
- Focus on people - It’s all about the people.
- People by day, paperwork by night.
- It’s about surrounding yourself with the right people.
- Leave before you’re ready.
- Don’t find the next thing, find the right thing.
- Use coaching to help someone reflect on themselves.
- Ask questions of them to get them to reflect
- We can get hung up on the things we don’t believe, rather than what we do believe.
- Every single child should have a person.
- I feel like school was made for me!
- Eric Makelky
- Special Education
- What teachers need from principals right now?
- How to be a transformative principal? Check in with your teachers!
Dr. Henry J. Turner is an award-winning high school principal, author, and nationally renowned speaker. He is most proud of the collaborative community he works within to empower students to fight hate and bigotry in their school. Pointing to his unwavering commitment to equity and a student-centered culture, Henry was named 2020 K12 Principal of the Year by K–12 Dive.
Henry is the author of the newly released book, Change the Narrative: How to Foster an Antiracist Culture in Your School, published by DBC inc. As a national speaker, he shares his experience as an innovative instructional leader, passionate advocate, and committed antiracist educator with educators and organizational leaders. Henry works with educators, leaders, and communities on how to create a culture that commits to diversity, equity, and inclusion empowers students’ voices and addresses economic and racial disparities.
He has a biweekly newsletter, “Lessons on Social Justice Leadership” that can be found at HenryJTurner.com.
- Race is a social fabric that has been created in our society.
- If we believe in all students succeed, then we need to respond to students’ needs.
- School was founded on separating students and what systems were excluded.
- 25% of students were on IEP, 50% of black students were on IEPs.
- Racism - system of advantage based on race
- Who are we blaming for these disparities? What is wrong with these students vs. what is wrong with these schools?
- 80% of educators want to do racial justice work in their schools.
- Leaders are nervous about diving into this - how
- Teaching students to stand up for someone else.
- Start small
- How do you make sure students are seen?
- How do you pronounce your name?
- Intent is good, impact is bad.
- The way to make students feel included is to empower them.
- How do you get started?
- Creating agreements with students
- Name activity - sharing the history of your name
- This is the way to begin to talk aboutt he work.
- Talking about race really begins with talking about us.
- Focus on relationships.
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Who are we blaming for the problem?
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What did I do over the course of the year to help you feel comfortable sharing that with me? Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer. Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more
Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Elaine Harper is an experienced teacher, counselor and leader in the arenas of education and mental health. Dr. Harper is the former educational services director for Positive Education Program in Cleveland, OH.
Her practice, Elaine Harper Consulting LLC, serves by teaching, facilitating, coaching and mentoring individuals, teams, schools and organizations who work with children and adolescents presenting emotional and behavioral challenges.
Dr. Harper founded Trauma Sensitive Teaching Network which connects teachers, counselors, leaders and others dedicated to serving children and adolescents through compassionate interactions and decision making.
Dr. Harper earned her doctorate degree in urban education with specialization in learning and development from Cleveland State University. Her doctoral research centered on social emotional learning and bibliotherapy.
- Secondary expertise on mental awareness into schools.
- Change is loss.
- No mental health awareness in graduate courses.
- Chief of a department - technician vs. leadership.
- How to learn the skills needed
- 3 areas to pay attention to:
- students
- staff
- systems
- Trauma informed teaching practices.
- Trauma-informed care: definition SAMSA -
- Realize
- Recognition
- Respond
- Resist retraumatization
- Culture of the system
- discipline, school well-being, programs
- Find someone where they are at and build up from there.
- Easily maintained over time.
- Programs matter, but it is the approach we take that really matters.
- Program, Process, People
- ElaineHarper.com
- How to be a transformative principal? Focus in on relationships.
Founder of The Mentor Project www.mentorproject.org bringing STEM mentors to schools and the community.
Deborah Heiser, PhD holds a degree in Applied Developmental Psychology with a specialty in redefining what being older looks and feels like. She is a Tedx Speaker, 92nd Street Y Speaker, 100 Coaches, Adjunct Professor, recognized by Thinkers50, award winning researcher, consultant and coach.
- The Mentor Project - More than 100 top-level experts into classrooms
- STEM/art, business, law, finance, etc.
- Mentoring students for free - K-University
- Goal is to level the playing field.
- Mentor is there to guide, inspire, and support, and help you out there along the way.
- Teacher is teaching you something specific.
- Mentor enhances what a person already has.
- You don’t know what you don’t know.
- Vertical and lateral mentors
- Mentor focused organization - we provide supports for each mentor.
- We have as many models as we have mentors.
- Javier - Hackathons
- Working with students to patent inventiones
- [[Aton Gotian]]
- Building 8-bit computers
- Mentors give talks in schools
- Mini-masterminds
- Ask a mentor
- You can be vulnerable with a mentor. Mentors are there to bring out the best in you
- Mentors open the eyes of mentees so they can go on their own.
- You don’t have to spend all your time with just one mentor
- Mentorship can be one-off or in depth.
- You can have many mentors all throughout your life.
- Have as many mentors as you need.
- Many people don’t seek a mentor because they don’t think the mentor would talk with them.
- Someone looking for a mentor should see how they should be as a mentee. Am I just looking to take?
- Come in seeing yourself as part of a relationship.
- Look for someone you feel comfortable talking with.
- Look at mentorship as a relationship
- People who are curious, not looking for an answer.
- What am I going to do with this knowledge. Feeling
Dr. Henry J. Turner is an award-winning high school principal, author, and nationally renowned speaker. He is most proud of the collaborative community he works within to empower students to fight hate and bigotry in their school. Pointing to his unwavering commitment to equity and a student-centered culture, Henry was named 2020 K12 Principal of the Year by K–12 Dive.
Henry is the author of the newly released book, Change the Narrative: How to Foster an Antiracist Culture in Your School, published by DBC inc. As a national speaker, he shares his experience as an innovative instructional leader, passionate advocate, and committed antiracist educator with educators and organizational leaders. Henry works with educators, leaders, and communities on how to create a culture that commits to diversity, equity, and inclusion empowers students’ voices and addresses economic and racial disparities.
He has a biweekly newsletter, “Lessons on Social Justice Leadership” that can be found at HenryJTurner.com.
- Race is a social fabric that has been created in our society.
- If we believe in all students succeed, then we need to respond to students’ needs.
- School was founded on separating students and what systems were excluded.
- 25% of students were on IEP, 50% of black students were on IEPs.
- Racism - system of advantage based on race
- Who are we blaming for these disparities? What is wrong with these students vs. what is wrong with these schools?
- 80% of educators want to do racial justice work in their schools.
- Leaders are nervous about diving into this - how
- Teaching students to stand up for someone else.
- Start small
- How do you make sure students are seen?
- How do you pronounce your name?
- Intent is good, impact is bad.
- The way to make students feel included is to empower them.
- How do you get started?
- Creating agreements with students
- Name activity - sharing the history of your name
- This is the way to begin to talk aboutt he work.
- Talking about race really begins with talking about us.
- Focus on relationships.
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Who are we blaming for the problem?
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What did I do over the course of the year to help you feel comfortable sharing that with me?
Nadine Levitt [Twitter] is a Swiss-born German, Kiwi, US transplant, and founder of the music technology company, Wurrly, LLC. She began her career as a lawyer but after 6 years of practice, she began to pursue a career in music as a professional opera singer and songwriter. She has performed extensively all over the United States and the world, sharing the stage with David Foster, Andrea Boccelli, Kiri Te Kanawa, Roger Daltry, Christina Perri, and Steven Tyler to name a few. Passionate about music in schools she sits on the national board of Little Kids Rock, and in 2016 led the development of the music education platform WURRLYedu, which empowers student voices and makes it easy to bring a fun and effective music education to schools. Nadine is also an author of children’s books, including the My Mama Says book series, which teaches kids to identify, acknowledge and direct their emotions.
- PDReimagined.com
- Mary Ellen Imodino-Yang TEDX Talk
- Value
- Care package.
- Each month has a theme.
- Work in groups to come up with strategies to come up in daily life.
- Do things in 2–3 minutes or less.
- How do you get up when you don’t know where the ground is?
- The power of curiosity.
- It’s not an end destination, it’s a journey.
- Music to move you.
- The power of music in SEL situations.
- We shouldn’t teach music to be a musician.
- Physiological - music is one of the only things that can really get into our brains.
- Music can interrupt other emotional cycles.
- People are more inclined to buy expensive items when the store is playing classical music.
- How to rekindle their passion?
- Time scarcity - brought on by an emotional response that you’re feeling overwhelm.
- Interrupt overwhelm - do something different
- Free to teachers, cost to districts.
- The more you apply these skills the easier it is to avoid and manage overwhelm.
- Emotions are just messages
- We are engineered to see patterns. Thoughts are just patterns.
- Often our thoughts are not based in patterns.
- When you become aware you’re telling yourself a story, just tell yourself.
- Respond rather than react.
- Communication cards
- Need to speak freely: challenged and rewarded.
- When we share, we don’t feel shame.
- The need for people to take responsibility for their part.
- Leadership - formal and informal leadership opportunities.
- Leadership is having control over the outcome.
- Controlling your own identity.
- SEL - Teach emotions in an isolated way
- How you can use for deeper learning
James Moffett is a principal in Kansas and he loves kids.
- Pretty empathetic
- Relationships
- Teri Barilla
- Question things I did as an educator
- If you were doing these things before the pandemic, you were as ready as you could be for the pandemic
- If you wouldn’t accept it from your supervisor, don’t dish it out to your kids.
- Accountability, structure, consequences, - all structured in love.
- It’s such a mindset shift for educators because it’s not how school was for us.
- Model it, live it, let them experience it.
- How do we help schools see that kids are respected on day 1.
- Teachers are structured beings
- Each vs. every.
- The Rabbit Effect
- How to be a transformative principal? Rest and recover and put more focus on the relationships you have in your building.
Dr. Sadin has served as a special education teacher, a gifted education teacher, and a building administrator. Most recently she served as a director of special education. Dr. Sadin has been vice-president of her local School Board and is recognized as a Master School Board Member. She has conducted research on the perceptions of teachers working to create trauma-informed classrooms. Dr. Sadin is a published author and has produced numerous webinars on children with attachment trauma in schools. Currently, Dr. Sadin works a director of exceptional education and as an education consultant and developmental trauma expert providing professional development to school districts, municipal service providers and parents. Nationally, Dr. Sadin is a highly sought-after keynote speaker and conference presenter. Her Trauma Guide Series of books are available on her website, www.traumasensitive.com.
- Building resilient students
- Hope - Start and end with the people.
- Over half of teachers are seeking to leave!
- We are doing it to ourselves.
- We have to start with what happened to us?
- Resilience is the ability to adapt and overcome challenges.
- Google Meet rooms open.
- Choose 1 issues
- The flight of teachers from the profession.
- What are the components that a school leader needs to create a resilient school?
- Deeply rooted in social justice and forgive yourself.
- Google Scholar - science of hope - When you say the word hope, you begin what they define as hope.
- Use the word Hope
- Then laugh.