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Professional Learning
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Parent / Caregiver Coaching
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Independent Facilitator
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Curriculum and Instruction
Professional Learning
Trauma Informed Practices and Care:
Participants will learn about how trauma affects the brain, the emotional responses to trauma, and effective strategies to respond to trauma triggers. This workshop will support participants in transforming any environment into one that is trauma informed and focused on building a stronger, more resilient and attentive community. Looking at trauma-informed care, participants will connect principles to meaningful practice. We will take a deeper dive into the learning brain versus the survival brain and how trauma and toxic stress impact everyday life.
Strengths-Based Practices and Approaches:
Participants will learn about the origins of chronic behaviors, how behaviors affect those who engage in them, and strategies for strengths-based approaches. If we can identify where behaviors originate, understand how the brain works, and separate the person from the behavior, we can support youth in repairing neural pathways interfering with positive outcomes. We will explore several examples of strengths-based approaches to transform environments resulting in academic and social success. Join us for this learning opportunity to address behaviors in a different way, rebuilding community and helping youth to heal and grow.
We All Need a Parachute:
Participants will focus on our collective need for rescues from time to time, due to a variety of factors. This presentation will provide strategies and information to pinpoint why we fall and how to ensure we have the best parachute to help us land softly and with care. We will explore the effects of toxic stress, trauma, chronic behavior, and negative messaging; all of which impact everyone's lives. Participants will be able to envision the best, personal parachute to help us fall softly by implementing strategies for success. This presentation gives everyone the validation that falling in life is commonplace, happens to everyone, and can be supported with effective, meaningful strategies.
Restorative Practices and Environments:
Participants will first learn about the history of restorative practices and how they transitioned from restorative justice to a more widespread restorative environments model. We will also explore restorative practices as a strategy to promote community, safety, healing, and empathy by setting up an effective restorative environment. We will talk about how to set up and implement restorative circles in a way that encourages participation at different levels. This workshop will give you the tools you need to start setting up a restorative environment and maintaining those practices to reach regular, consistent positive outcomes.
Becoming Tiny:
Participants will be provided an opportunity to look at ourselves as adults and in our positions of authority. Typically, we are the leading presence in the space we share with youth. Feeling small and insignificant is typical for youth experiencing trauma, shame, or for those who are struggling socially and academically. Sometimes the best we can do for youth and others who may be struggling to achieve positive outcomes is to “become tiny”. Young people, especially, are not always looking for adult responses. They don’t often want to be “fixed”. We can look at our role from a different light when we “become tiny” and allow others to be the big presence, and the highlight in their space. Join us to learn about becoming small to support a new environment where everyone is thriving.
FOCUS Learning Institute:
Facilitating Opportunities for Community Understanding of Social Emotional Well-being. This virtual learning series is designed to inform, teach, and share effective trategies as they relate to Trauma Informed Practices, Restorative Practices, and Strengths-Based Environments. The goals are to give participants sensible, relevant, useful tools to build on foundational knowledge and expand daily practices and youth support through these lenses and practical strategies.
3 Presentation Sessions:
Session 1: Trauma Informed Practices ~ 1.5 hours
Session 2: Restorative Practices ~ 1.5 hours
Session 3: Strengths-Based Environments ~ 1.5 hours
3 Collaborative Workshops:
Session 1: Trauma Informed Practices ~ 1.5 hours
Session 2: Restorative Practices ~ 1.5 hours
Session 3: Strengths-Based Environments ~ 1.5 hours
Continuing Ed Credit Option:
7.5 hours ~ Virtual learning sessions
7.5 hours ~ Independent practice to plan, implement, and observe
PARENT / CAREGIVER COACHING
This personalized coaching can benefit parents and caregivers who seek strategies to support their children, family, and themselves. Parents and caregivers will have the opportunity to work through challenging situations and timeframes, because we all have them over these crucial years of child-rearing. Through reflective listening, restorative principles, and sharing effective strategies, we will explore solutions that really work. Each session will be aligned with your needs, your challenges, and your desired outcomes. Coaching sessions can be one-to-one or in a small group. If applicable, grab your friends and neighbors, bring them along. Here are some topics that will be available for coaching sessions. Other topics will be introduced as we customize themes to fit your needs.
PARENT / CAREGIVER COACHING SESSION OPTIONS
Independent Facilitator
The Self-Determination Program is designed for people with disabilities who are clients of their local Regional Center. Regional Centers in California refer to this program as Self-Determination. In other states across the country, this program is referred to as Self-Direction. Self-Determination and Self-Direction focus on giving people with disabilities an opportunity to build a Person-Centered Plan that informs their budget for supports and services. Through Self-Determination and Self-Direction, Regional Center clients are fully involved in the process of writing goals, objectives, and seeking out services based on their hopes and dreams. Self-Determination and Self-Direction are centered around strengths, abilities, and the ultimate goal of being independent. These programs give people the tools they need to have autonomy in selecting services and the providers of those services. There is freedom and flexibility in taking individual budgets developed by the Regional Center and creating a spending plan with all of the supports and services the client would need in order to reach their goals.
As an Independent Facilitator, I will provide ongoing support for Regional Center clients who have entered the Self-Determination or Self-Direction Program. My general role as your Independent Facilitator is to:
Help implement the person-centered plan.
Help track and manage the spending plan.
Support with budget adjustments.
Update spending plan as needed.
Update PCP and IPP annually.
Support with social recreational renewals.
Support with Financial Management Service (FMS).
Prepare for the following year's budget and spending plan.
Provide continued advocacy.
Curriculum and Instruction
Our goal with curriculum and instruction is to provide teachers, support providers, and other educational partners with tools, strategies, and guidance for planning instruction and implementing curriculum. We will help with innovative approaches, relevant to current practices and technology advancements. There are so many new methodologies and effective ways to create engaging lessons and facilitate accompanying activities. We will support all educators on this journey to open doors for students and prepare them for their future.
General:
The LitSELf program is designed to foster student personal connections, as Social Emotional Learning is embedded into the exploration of characters, themes, and conflicts within district-established literary works. The included eleven activities, plus two bonus poetry activities, immerse students into a world of deeper understanding of themselves, and their impact on their family, peers, community members, and/or society at large. Essentially, with LitSELf, students experience personal growth opportunities and connections with others through their study of literature. Therein, educators can cultivate, encourage, and support students to meaningfully navigate and mitigate the circumstances of their lives.
Curriculum: What services are available?
LitSELf: Connecting SEL and self to literature
Customized:
With the purchase of this option, clients will receive the General LitSELf materials, in addition to being provided with the opportunity to meet with Kathleen Dwyer for an initial individual consultation meeting. At that point, the client will answer some questions so that she may gain an understanding of individual needs, as they apply to each client’s student population and the desired/specific unit of study. After that, Kathleen will expeditiously individualize the LitSELf lessons, fashioned to the student population and the specified literary work. Moreover, the client will be able to meet with Kathleen after they receive the lessons in order to further facilitate the learning process for their students. Additionally, depending upon the specific curriculum needs of the client, desired further services may be discussed and priced accordingly.
