MONDAY, AUGUST 8

1:00 to 2:15 PM

Presenter: Mike Paget

Title: De-stressing the Cycle of Emotional, Behavioral, and Mental Health Challenges

Description: Students with emotional, behavioral, and mental health challenges often experience predictable “stress-triggers” that create resistance, refusal, anger, and other disruptive responses. Being aware of these triggers allows us to decrease distractions and increase student success. Included will be best-practice strategies to address respect, bullying, positive prevention, and collaboration between school, families and youth.

Resources: Mike Paget – Session 2 Handout

Presenter: Reuben Jacobson

Title: Putting the COMMUNITY into Full Service Community Schools: Stakeholder engagement and strong community partnerships

Description: Community schools don’t just deliver services to students, they are a stakeholder engagement strategy. When communities and families share ownership with their school, great things happen. Learn how to engage and empower families in your community from community school practitioners working in Des Moines in this interactive session.

Presenter: Joelle Hood

Title: Social Emotional Learning

Description: This informative, interactive and highly-engaging workshop explores the research that supports the importance of SEL practices in educators’ personal and professional development. Participants will learn how to implement SEL strategies and build skills in classrooms and school sites to prepare students to be successful in school, college, career, and life. Tools such as Neuroscience, Mindfulness in Education, Restorative Practices, Growth Mindset & Grit, Character Development, and Cultivating Kindness, Empathy, and Compassion will be reviewed and emphasis placed on how they play a critical role in building SEL skills and enhancing school culture and climate. The facilitator will lead participants in discussion and activities that they can replicate in a district, school site, and classroom the next day to initiate positive change in the lives of all stakeholders.

Resources:    Updated Joelle Hood Powerpoint

Presenter: Barb Mitchell

Title: Instructional Approaches for Discouraging Inappropriate Student Behavior

Description: This session provides description and examples of a range of strategies teachers can use to effectively address problem behavior in the classroom. Implementation examples and additional resources will be provided.

Resources: Barbara Mitchell – Session 2 & 4

Presenter: Nate Monson

Title: Supporting & Understanding the Queer Youth Experience

Description: This session will explore issues surrounding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) youth including bullying, homelessness, and suicide risk.  Other topics that will be explored include the recent federal guidance regarding transgender students, curricular resources available for educators, and new services that are available for LGBTQ youth.  Come prepared to be challenged and also ask any questions you may have regarding this topic. 

Resources: Nate Monson

Presenter: Corey Harris

Title: 21st Century Jim Crow:  What do the data suggest?

Description: The purpose of this session is to raise the awareness of support staff, teachers, building administrators, district-level administrators, community partners, and concerned citizens regarding a glaring wrong that we have been living with and somehow have been unable and/or unwilling to address.  The pervasiveness of “colorblind” ideology along with affirmative action efforts seem to have blurred our vision of educational excellence for ALL students to the point that we know and don’t know the truth about the educational experiences and academic performance of minority children, especially black children.

Any truth or data which even remotely suggest any parallels to the practices of Jim Crow must be effectively addressed.  Current data suggest that we need a grand wake-up call in the midst of a long slumber of indifference to racial minority, disabled, English-language learner, homeless, and low-income students.  It is incumbent upon all of us to:

a.) Increase our awareness of the problem and its contributing factors

b.) Analyze the consequences of our actions and inaction and determine if those consequences are acceptable

c.) Chose to do something different by taking control over our behavior/actions and support others to do the same

Resources: Corey Harris v2

Presenter: Lana Herteen

Title: Connections Matter:  Developing Brain – Relationships – Community

Description: To enable the learner to apply evidence based information that uses quality relationships as the foundation for supporting healthy brain development of individuals while strengthening the community for successful outcomes in physical and mental health, academic, social, and economic development. :  At the completion of this program, the participant should be able to:

• Define plasticity as it pertains to lifelong brain development.
• Discuss the impact of adversity and toxic stress on brain development.
• Review how toxic stress disrupts the developing brain and negatively effects lifelong learning, behavior, and health.
• Identify how human relationships serve as a mediator to toxic stress through resilience-building.
• Describe how a two-generation approach to supporting children and caregivers has greatest impact for individual and community success.

Resources: L.H. Connections Matter Powerpointpptx

Presenter: Kim Davis

Title: Making it right in a school world of wrongs: creating a restorative school culture

Description: During this session, participants will learn more about what restorative practices are, how they can be implemented into the school setting, what is important to know about creating a trauma sensitive school and if the size of the session allows, session attenders will be able to practice some of the skills that they could utilize back in their own buildings.

Resources: Kim Davis Powerpoint     Kim Davis Handouts

Presenter: Judy Elliott

Title: The 4-step Problem Solving Process (PSP)

Description: This fast paced session will provide an overview of the 4-step PSP which is a proven and well-established method of identifying, developing, implementing and evaluating instruction, interventions and supports necessary to improve student growth and performance at both Secondary and Elementary levels.

The PSP is on-going and enables educators at the district and school levels to ensure instructional resources reach the right students and at the right levels to accelerate the performance of every student to meet and/or exceed proficiency with accepted academic and behavioral and social/emotional standards.  Simply stated, teams of educators engage in this process to more effectively and efficiently educate all students.

Resources: J.E. PowerPoint #2        J.E. Handout Session 2         J.E. 4 Step PS Worksheet

Presenter: Daniel Spikes & Jason Salisbury

Title: Disrupting Institutional Oppression

Description: This session will discuss our roles as institutional actors/representatives in disrupting oppressive forces that are pervasive in society and within institutions. During this session, we bring participants to a heightened level of awareness around institutional oppression, and we discuss the socialization process and how a lack of awareness can lead to the perpetuation of all forms of oppression, specifically racism

Resources:    D.S & J. S. Powerpoint

Presenter: Tim Lewis

Title: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Behavior Supports for Students with Disabilities, But Were Afraid to Ask

Description: This session will provide an overview of current evidence-based practices for supporting children and youth with challenging behavior. Specifically, applying a function-based logic to intervention design, instructional strategies and environmental supports will be highlighted. In addition, time for questions, discussion, and solutions among participants will be allocated.

Resources: Behavior Lewis.v2

Presenter: Saida Abdi

Title: Refugee Children:  Trauma and Resiliency – Part 2 of 2

Description: The workshop will focus on skills and strategies that can enhance mental health access for refugee and immigrant children in a school-setting; The importance of addressing social environmental factors that might negatively affect learning and how cultural brokers can help overcome cultural and linguistic barriers will be discussed. Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees (TST-R) will be used to illustrate how trauma intervention can be adapted to meet the needs of immigrant and refugee students and their families. (2 Part workshop)

Resources: Saida Abdi

Presenter: Christian Moore

Title: The Resilience Breakthrough for Youth

Description: Discover 10 tools to help you foster resilience in even the most unmotivated students. Whether you work with students one on one, in small groups, or in a classroom, this breakthrough presentation will give you skills to deliver resilience to students of ANY background and learning style.

Presenter: Emily Donovan & Jen Gilmore

Title: Addressing Mental Health In A Multi-Tiered System of Support

Description: This session will provide participants with an overview of best practices in the area of school based mental health across universal, targeted and intensive levels of support. Particular emphasis will be given to the ways schools can build protective factors for all students.

Presenter: Wes Hall

Title: Relationships are the Keys to Success

Description: An 8-year independent research project conducted by Wes Hall and the Institute for Student Empowerment, revealed, “Relationship Building,” as the #1 contributor to success or failure among teachers who work with students emanating from diverse environments. Is relationship building a natural aspect of the human make-up? Why is building effective relationships with students who grow up in impoverished conditions critical to classroom management? This interactive session will help you understand the nonverbal cues that trigger disruptive behavior among youth and provide you best practices for building effective relationships with challenging students.

Presenter: Ami Chen Mills-Naim

Title: Tapping the Promise of Challenging Youth (and Colleagues … and People!)

Description: A New View Toward Releasing the Best in Ourselves, and Others.

How can we get out of our own way with youth, and even co-workers, staff (family members?) who challenge us on a daily basis? Is there an easy way to take such challenges less personally and respond from a place of calm and creativity? Yes!

This workshop will re-introduce simple principles from Ms. Mills-Naim’s morning session, in light of relationships, and engaging healthy learning in others—youth and adults alike. We will discuss the underlying components of “mindset” and how to help change mindset in youth.

Please note: this session is not technique- or step-oriented, but rather, recognizes and aims to unleash the innate wisdom in each of us … to respond appropriately in each moment. (Recommended to be taken together with “Innate Resiliency for Educators,” if possible.)

Resources: Ami Chen Mills-Naim Handout