Wellness Wednesday
SEL & Adults
According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional, Learning (CASEL), social-emotional learning (SEL) is “the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.” Often, educators focus primarily on SEL for students, yet the research is clear that cultivating social and emotional skills in educators can lessen depression, burnout, and turnover and increase both job and life satisfaction, engagement, well-being and resilience.
Successful and sustainable SEL for students starts with us. If we truly want to boost our students’ SEL competencies, then we must first start to be more intentional about strengthening our own social-emotional intelligence and presence. In this interactive and reflective session, participants will learn science and strategies centered on building SEL for adults in order to empower staff, students, and their organization to thrive.
Audience: CTI Induction Coaches and Candidates.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness has been growing in popularity and for good reason! Research demonstrates that it is effective at addressing a number of issues, including chronic stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout. Participants in this session will learn mindfulness principles and practices that can be applied in their daily life to enhance resilience, emotional wellbeing and life satisfaction. Many of the practices teachers learn in this session can be adapted to support the social emotional learning and development of their students.
Participants are asked to bring three raisons to the session for a classic mindful eating exercise!
Audience: CTI Induction Coaches and Candidates.
Presenter: Dr. Kurt Kowalski
More Good Days - Brain Based Practices for
Trauma-Responsive Schools
In the United States, more than 60% of children under the age of 16 have reported experiencing at least one Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE). As educators, we see the impact of trauma every day on students’ behavior, engagement, and academic readiness in our classrooms and on our sites. Trauma has exacerbated three things that the brain hates: chronic unpredictability, social isolation, and physical and emotional restraint. In this experiential learning session, facilitators will focus on how to meet our brain’s need for predictability, belonging and connection, and voice and choice. This informative, engaging, and experiential session explores the neuroscience around trauma and provides participants with simple yet powerful research- based strategies to build relationships and cultivate environments that empower all students to thrive. Participants will walk away with a deeper understanding of the impact of trauma on student learning and behavior, as well as research-based practices and strategies that they can begin to implement in their classroom immediately as part of a trauma-informed approach.
Audience: CTI Induction Coaches and Candidates.
Presenter: Dr. Joelle Hood, Thriving YOUniversity Co-Founder and Chief Empowerment Officer
Exploring B.I.A.S.
Beliefs and Brain Patterns, Identities, Assumptions,
& Stereotypes
Our brains are biased. It’s not a judgmental statement, it’s a factual one. Imagine how much information your brain takes in each day, each hour, each second. Researchers estimate that we may be exposed to 11 million pieces of information per second! If our conscious brains tried to filter and process all of that information, we would overload! Instead, our brains create shortcuts to sort through the vast input and functions at its best by making connections between things, pairing concepts, and grouping things together. This associative design mode of our brain is critical to how we perceive, learn, categorize, and interact with the world around us. The unconscious mental shortcuts that we make about others can create problems because these quick shortcuts can lead to misjudgments about people and situations that cause hurt, pain, discrimination, injustice and inequities in our classrooms, workplaces, and the community at large.
In this session, we will create a safe space to discuss and engage in activities that explore. In this highly informative, engaging, interactive, and transformational workshop, participants will learn neuroscience and social science about our:
Beliefs and Brain Patterns
Identity
Assumptions
Stereotypes
Through this reflective process, participants will become more aware of their own biases and learn research-based strategies designed to interrupt and disrupt those biases in order to cultivate a climate of belonging, acceptance, psychological safety, and equity in the classroom, workplace, and world around them.
Audience: CTI Induction Coaches and Candidates.
Presenter: Dr. Joelle Hood, Thriving YOUniversity Co-Founder and Chief Empowerment Officer
Creativity and Wellbeing Using Art as an Introspective Tool for Connection
Research shows that the COVID-19 Pandemic has had a significant negative impact on school-aged children’s mental health. Research also shows that art and creativity can promote our capacity for managing mental and emotional well-being. During this wellness session, Triny A Rios will lead us in learning more about the importance and benefits of using art as an introspective tool for connection. In this engaging, hands-on session, participants will learn art-based interventions that can be used in the classroom and virtually. She will provide strategies on how to integrate art with social-emotional learning to strengthen pupil literacy and well-being. Educators will leave with strategies and tools to help meet the needs of their own well-being as well as their students through art.
To best prepare for this session please have on hand the following:
- Blank sheets of paper
- Colored fine tip markers
- Pencils
Brain Research Shows the Arts Promote Mental Health by Brittany Harker Martin
Audience: CTI Induction Coaches and Candidates.
Presenter: Triny A Rios
Happiness
“Happiness is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated and defended privately by each person.” – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
In this session, we will explore how our mind tends to lead us astray regarding keys to happiness, and simple things we can do today to start experiencing a happier, more well-adjusted life. This will not only benefit us, but has a positive, lasting impact on those around us in a rippling, exponential way. Based on work by Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky (UCR) and Dr. Laurie Santos (Yale), find out how you can lead a more positive and enjoyable life.
For a good head start = The Happiness Lab– choose from many podcasts.
Audience: CTI Induction Coaches and Candidates.
Presenter: Dr. Joseph Boffa
