WORKSHOPS & TRAININGS
The events listed below all take place on Thursday, February 27
and Sunday, March 1, 2020. They are perfect ways to start or
deepen your personal mindfulness practice or receive training in
how to implement mindfulness practices or a specific
mindfulness-based SEL curriculum in your classroom.
Lunch is included only for those attending a full-day workshop OR
both a morning and afternoon workshop.
You'll need to choose your workshop choice at the time of registration.
Register by February 24. No onsite registration.
No group rates. No refunds, but contact us for ticket transfers.
SCHEDULE SUBJECT TO CHANGE: Workshops that do not meet a minimum of 15 registrants by Jan 1 will be canceled and registrants will have the option of a refund or transfer to another workshop.
A special thanks to DuPage Regional Office of Education for partnering with us to get attendees 6 CPDUs/CEUs for each day.
Note: we are not giving credits for half days, but only for those who attend 8:30-3:45. Non-IL attendees should check that their state accepts them as a provider. Attendees wanting units must sign in and out each day and also complete an evaluation form each day.
Click title or scroll down to learn more about each. Ticket prices and workshop times vary. Several were canceled due to low enrollment.
Thursday morning choices:
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Mindfulness Practices for Exploring Racial Identity and Systemic Whiteness (ALL)
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Looking Through the Eyes of Trauma: Using Mind-Body Interventions (ALL)
Thursday afternoon choices:
Thursday all-day choice:
Sunday all-day choices:
Mindfulness Practices for Exploring Racial Identity and Systemic Whiteness (ALL)
Thursday 8:30-11:45
Cost: $75
Led by:
Sally Albright Green
Grace Helms Kotre
At the core of racial inequality is whiteness, a system of harm that is deeply embedded in our society. As educators, it’s imperative that we actively explore our racial identities to understand the dynamics of “whiteness” and its impact in our classrooms. This experiential workshop will include personal reflection, intergroup dialogue, compassion practices, and guided meditations to empower us in this difficult work. Join us to practice presence and cultivate wholeness as we confront our habitual tendencies and begin to fully engage in critically important conversations about race.
Our president Tovi Scruggs-Hussein will share this workshop's facilitation to support the presenters and participants in this deep dive workshop.
Presenters:
Sally Albright Green is a teacher, teacher coach, and mindfulness practitioner and trainer. She has her MEd in Curriculum and instruction, and is a Certified Teacher Evaluator in the state of Illinois. She spent fourteen years teaching 8th grade ELA in a large ethnically diverse middle school, and is now a Teaching and Learning Coach at a K-5 Title 1 school in suburban Chicago. She began studying her racial identity almost twenty years ago, and has worked to incorporate her sensitivities about race into her day to day life in and out of school. Sally understands the idea that teachers and students will thrive, when stakeholders buy in to and correct the impact systemic whiteness has on curriculum, grading practices, and classroom climates all over the country.
Grace Helms Kotre, MSW, is a Certified Mindfulness Instructor and Social Justice Educator. As the founder of Power to Be, LLC, she offers trainings and presentations on using mindfulness as a tool for personal healing and equity-based social change. Grace has a background in community social work and human ecology, and she has been committed to a daily meditation practice for over 10 years. As a white woman, Grace is continually in the work of understanding her own internalized white racial identity, white dominant culture, and racism. Grace’s passion for facilitating inner transformation and social change through contemplative practice inform her life and work.
Looking Through the Eyes of Trauma: Using Mind-Body Interventions (ALL)
Using knowledge of trauma, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and mental health diagnoses, participants will experience and explore the power of mind-body interventions for self-regulation, focus, community connection and overall well-being. In this workshop participants will have the opportunity to delve deeper into the power of mind-body practices for healing and connection by exploring the 6 Domains of complex trauma. Through hands-on learning, reflection and discussion, participants will learn breathing exercises, simple regulating movement and social/emotional skill development activities for regaining a sense of safety and stability in the body.
The learning goals of this 3 hour workshop are to:
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Explore the impact of trauma/stress on the nervous system and how to utilize mind-body practices.
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Experience the role of movement, breath work and relaxation techniques to regain a sense of safety, stability and connection with mind, body and heart.
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Design movement sequences that maximize self-regulation leading to improved focus, body awareness and well-being.
Presenter:
Kathy Flaminio has trained over 20,000 individuals on how to integrate yoga-based movement, breathing techniques, and social/emotional skills into classroom and therapeutic settings. She holds a master’s degree in social work with more than twenty years of experience in regular and special education settings. Kathy is adjunct faculty for St. Mary’s University and is ACE (American Council on Exercise), Yoga Alliance (E-RYT 200), and Yoga Calm certified.
Mindfulness and Brain Science-Based Conflict Resolution for Students (ALL)
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In this 3 hour workshop with Linda Ryden, Peace Teacher and Curriculum Author, and Cheryl Dodwell, Curriculum Author and Executive Director, Peace of Mind Inc., we will explore many topics relating to how to apply mindfulness to real life, including:
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Neuroscience as it relates to gratitude and the negativity bias, and to conflict resolution
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Effective ways to teach brain science to students of all ages
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The most effective teaching sequence to help children develop conflict resolution skills for life
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Mindfulness practices, skits, games and learning activities that can be taken back to your classrooms.
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Advanced mindfulness practices that lead to metacognition and how we can use our awareness of our thoughts to understand and address racial and gender bias
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How mindfulness practices can help us to prepare to speak up in the face of injustice.
All of these activities and lessons will be appropriate for younger and older students. We will have time to break into small groups to focus on the particular needs of your students. Bring your experiences, questions, and curiosity!
Presenters:
Over the last 15 years, Linda Ryden has developed the Peace of Mind Program for elementary school, a weekly 45-minute curriculum that integrates mindfulness, brain science, social and emotional learning, and effective conflict resolution to prepare kids to face challenges with skill and compassion. Linda continues to teach Peace of Mind to over 650 students a week. Cheryl Dodwell has co-authored the Peace of Mind Curricula for Grades 1-2, 3-5, 4-5 and 6 and oversees training and support for educators teaching Peace of Mind.
"Peace of Mind is an extraordinary curriculum, at once practical and visionary. The lessons are thoughtfully and meticulously scaffolded as the children are guided step-by-step into an understanding of how their brains work, how to interact with the world with kindness, and how to master themselves. In this age of anxiety, what could be more important or valuable than to teach children at an early age how to interpret and navigate their big emotions, calm themselves, and by extension, each other?" – Val C., Educator
Inhabiting Emerging Social Realities & The Aesthetics of Masks, Faces, Spaces, Movements, Stillness, and Mindfulness (ALL)
Thursday 12:30-3:45
Cost: $75
Led by:
Barnaby Spring
Director, Mindfulness in Education, New York City Department of Education
If mindful social change is to happen, we are called to examine the architectonics of our common experience around a fundamental question: What's Really Going on Here?
In this workshop, we will utilize masks, movement, stillness and our authentic selves mixing in playful creativity to consider a possible shared language of aesthetic practice. A social mindfulness requires shared inquiry into how we inhabit social fields, how these fields shift, and how our mindful response "enables individuals and groups to deepen their collective sense-making and gain clarity on how we might apply our learning....to our every day and work contexts" (see Arawana Hayashi's "Aesthetic Language Cards").
This session provides a slice of investigation into some of the more subtle and profound structures of our common experience, of our felt, non-verbal reality, that exist in various social situations we find ourselves living in and through on a daily basis. We will briefly engage our own "PRAXIS" (see Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed") - action and reflection - to explore how creative, innovative and emergent strategies - mindfully applied - can foster social change through awareness, acceptance, and action in response to our individual and collective social reality.
Presenter:
Barnaby Spring is an actor, artist, writer, educator, public speaker, activist, certified mindfulness and yoga teacher, educational theorist, husband, father and currently serves as Director of Mindfulness In Education, in the Office of the First Deputy Chancellor, in the New York City Department of Education where he has served since the mid-90s as a teacher, then as a Dean of Students, then as Principal and now in this current role.
Administrator Academy: Implementing Schoolwide Mindfulness for Well-Being, Equity & Inclusion (ALL)
Thursday 8:30-3:45
Other in-person and online course dates available HERE
Cost: $300
Choose AA credits or
6 CPDUs/CEUs
Led by:
Tovi C. Scruggs-Hussein
Lauren Beversdorf
Matt Dewar
Overview
In this specially designed Administrator Academy for district leaders, school leaders and wellness teams, participants will become clear on what mindfulness is and is not. They will learn the benefits of mindfulness, the supporting research, and research-based practices. They will learn the most effective ways to integrate mindfulness in schools and classrooms, how mindfulness supports stress reduction, prevention of negative impacts of primary and secondary trauma, interrupts implicit bias, and cultivates empathy. These factors enhance the creation of positive culture climate in schools, improving academic and more equitable outcomes in our schools.
Participants will explore and strategize how to integrate mindfulness into their K-12 school community in a way that honors its unique environment, culture, and goals. We will also share adaptations for teaching mindfulness in a variety of special education settings.
Part 1
The course will start with 6 hours of instruction from various school leaders, including a K-8 Director of Student Services, a High School Well-Being Coordinator and an award-winning urban principal and leader of equity, all with extensive experience and expertise in mindfulness-based social emotional learning. This will take place on February 27.
Part 2
Before or after the initial 6 hours of instruction, participants are required to read the article Creating Trauma-informed Schools from the Inside-Out by Shawn Nealy-Oparah & Tovi C. Scruggs-Hussein and the book Cultivating Mindfulness in the Classroom - effective, low-cost ways for educators to help students manage stress by Jeanie M. Iberlin and Mike Ruyle.
This will be followed by a 1.5 hour online mentoring session on March 24 at 7pm CST via Google Meet. In this session, participants and instructors will share experiences teaching mindfulness strategies in school settings in the categories highlighted in the book: stress reduction, attention, emotional control, positive self-concept and positive interactions. We will dive deeper into considerations for designing a mindfulness implementation plan based on the leadership roles and school types of the participants.
Part 3
The course will conclude with an ISBE-required application component where participants will design a mindfulness implementation plan for their school and submit it via an editable Google Doc to hello@educatingmindfully.org. Participants will use the template from Chapter 7 of the course book and provide details on their specific goals, measurements of success, people responsible for carrying out tasks, resources needed and date for completion of each task.
This will be followed by a 1.5 hour online mentoring session on April 28 at 7pm CST via Google Meet. Participants and instructors will have the opportunity to review each other’s plans prior to this mentoring session and provide feedback and guidance, supporting and learning from each other.
Presenter Bios:
Tovi is a visionary educator, author, and award-winning urban high school principal with over 25 years of emotional intelligence and self-mastery experience. She has served as California’s Regional Executive Director of Partners in School Innovation, founding co-director of the Association of CA School Administrators Equity Leaders Academy and Regional State Equity Representative, and co-founded a secondary school. Tovi is the founding co-teacher of the trauma-informed leadership course at Mills College. Most recently, Tovi was personally trained with Brené Brown and is a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator and Courage Catalyst. Her other certifications are numerous and include Integral Coaching by New Ventures West, Search Inside Yourself, and Niroga Institute.
Dr. Matthew Dewar is COSEM's 18-19 President and also a high school teacher, well-being coordinator, and learning facilitator at Lake Forest High School who has designed and implemented teacher professional development and school wellness curricula, including mindfulness-based wellness for faculty and students. Most recently, Matthew has created and implemented mindfulness programming for professional and collegiate athletes. His work has been featured on TEDx, NPR, and the National Wellness Institute's podcast. He is the author of Education and Well-Being: An Ontological Inquiry. Watch Matt's TEDx Talk.
Lauren Beversdorf teaches K-8 Spanish at Bannockburn School in Bannockburn, IL. With 18+ years of experience working with all age groups, she also coordinates, designs and implements SEL and mindfulness curricula and multi-age lessons for students and fellow educators. She received her mindfulness instructor training through Teacher Advancement Courses, Gina Biegel’s MBSR-T program, the Mindful Schools curriculum and is an experienced certified yoga instructor. Her passion is teaching language and promoting stress-reduction, self-compassion, and self-awareness using mindful techniques to educators, students, and parents. Lauren has lead workshops, mindful groups, spoken at conferences, and presented a variety of mindfulness strategies in schools and workshops. She is also a certified ELL/Bilingual Educator.
Inner Work-Healing Our Inner Child (ALL)
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This 6 hour workshop will identify seven different needs of our "Inner Child" and how nurturing these needs results in character traits that represent positive emotional growth, and result in affirming thought patterns. Note: It will be about going within and further developing your own personal mindfulness practice (not teaching mindfulness in the classroom).
Our greatest gift is our attention. It is miraculous in what it can accomplish. Whatever we pay attention to – our children, our relationships, our world – thrive and blossom like a flower that responds to the sun. Meditation, then is the act of paying attention to our own mind and our emotions in a kind, non-judgmental manner. Such attention is very powerful and has the ability to calm our fears, settle us down, and heal us at very deep levels. Paying attention in this manner combines the head and the heart.
The Inner Child has needs. Focusing on the needs of our own Inner Child helps us to be even more sensitive to the undercurrents within all our relationships including those within the classroom. Let’s develop a deeper understanding of what it means to truly heal as we apply self-compassion to our own vulnerabilities. In doing so, we grow in awareness and build emotional acceptance and resilience.
Our deepest emotions stem from the joys and unresolved fears of our Inner Child. This Inner Child impacts the many roles we play in our lives, especially our role as mindfulness facilitators in the classroom attempting to raise consciousness. Mindfulness begins at home, with true healing possible through the intentional and continued support of a mindful and heart-full inner adult – one who can integrate the needs of the inner child with the many responsibilities and stressors of our daily lives. Workshop hours will include inner work to get in touch with places within us that hurt, along with exercises to cultivate self-compassion and forgiveness, to make peace with imperfections both past and present.
The Inner Child wants to be recognized. The Inner child represents aspects of ourselves whose development may have been arrested by the emotional climate of the family. If we do not acknowledge the Inner Child, it can sabotage our adult life by suddenly “acting out” or being overly needy or difficult in relationships. When we include the Inner Child in our life and decisions, we have the creativity, innocence and enthusiasm of the child which is very energizing, and brings awareness and healthy thought patterns.
Presenter:
Ramaa Krishnan has spent most of her adult life studying and developing techniques to calm the mind and train it to be a fit companion for the journey of the spirit. In 2000, she began teaching others her unique practices. She is the founder of the Full Bloomed Lotus Center for Self-Awareness in Wilmette, IL. There she works with groups and individuals and collaborates with like-minded teachers. She leads others in: meditation, lessons in self-awareness, book discussions, and private counsel. In 2012, Ramaa completed a two-year certification program in Analytical Psychotherapy from the Carl Jung Institute in order to deepen her understanding of the human psyche, and now incorporates this knowledge into both her work and personal life. In 2018, she founded Grow Through Mindfulness, a not-for-profit dedicated to changing the world by approaching education from the inside out--teaching our children to cultivate empathy and compassion, resilience and self-regulation--inspiring them to thrive.
Mindfulness and the Journey of Self-Care (ALL)
In this presentation and workshop, Dr. Matt Dewar, 2018-19 COSEM President, explores how self-care is not selfish nor is it a luxury—it’s essential to our well-being and, more importantly, to the well-being of the children and young adults we care about and oversee. In the spirit of the original meaning of mindfulness as “remembering,” we’ll use our time together to become more conscious of our patterns of forgetfulness and establish mindfulness practices and protocols that bring us back to the present and back to a fuller ownership of our well-being. The workshop will also explore the concept of “co-regulation” and why it’s essential that we practice and embody the mindfulness and self-care principles we want our students to embrace.
Presenter:
Dr. Matt Dewar is a wellness educator passionate about transforming the way we educate, perform and live through mindful awareness. Matt creates and implements wellness and mindfulness-based teacher professional development for schools across the country as well as for professional, collegiate, and high school athletes. As a high school district Well-Being Coordinator, Matt supports teachers as they integrate social and emotional learning into their curriculum and instruction. He also designs and implements teacher professional development and school wellness curricula, including mindfulness programs for faculty, staff, and students. His work has been shared through a variety of media outlets, including TEDx, NPR, the National Wellness Institute and Thrive Global. Matt is also the author of Education and Well-Being: An Ontological Inquiry and the forthcoming The Mindful Breathing Workbook for Teens (New Harbinger, Summer, 2021). Watch Matt's TEDx Talk