Introduction to Applied Educational Neuroscience

Time: Full Day

Audience: New to AEN administrators, counselors, and teachers

Are you experiencing increased stress? Are you noticing your students exhibiting stress based-behaviors such as increased verbal or physical aggression, avoidance of difficult tasks, decreased concentration, or isolation? Are you looking for evidence based ways to create a sense of belonging, achievement, and fun in your classroom?

Let’s explore these ideas together through a lens that incorporates neuroscience, pedagogy, and psychology! If you are new to applied educational neuroscience or someone who would like a refresher, this session is for you! We will explore the impact of stress and trauma on the adult and child brain and review the 4 pillars of applied educational neuroscience. Together we will delve into turning this theory into practice in our school wide and classroom routines, policies, and procedures. You will leave with strategies that can be quickly implemented to reduce stress, increase connection, and create the conditions for learning.

Applied Educational Neuroscience: A Deeper Dive

Time: Full Day

Audience: Administrators, counselors, and teachers

Do you have a good understanding of applied educational neuroscience but struggle to implement these strategies in your school or classroom? Are you unsure of how to apply your learning in a way that produces positive results with students?

Building on a solid foundation of understanding “the why” behind AEN, we will explore ways to turn this work from theory to systematic practice. Join us to learn how to implement these strategies in your classroom or school. Utilizing the robust set of implementation tools you already have and use, we will discuss how to streamline this work from assessment to evaluation to maximize the benefits of these practices and increase student well-being, regulation skills, and academic achievement.

Mindfulness: The What, The Why, and the How

Time: Full Day

Audience: K-12 teachers and counselors

Are your students coming to class more stressed, distracted and less focused than before? Are you looking for ways to empower students to increase awareness, decrease stress, and elevate the mood of your school or classroom?

Rooted in ancient practices and boasting benefits such as reduced stress, increased attention, enhanced mental flexibility ,improved concentration, improved mood and so much more, mindfulness is not a passing fad. Join me in learning what mindfulness is, why is it so effective, and how you can integrate it into your life and the lives of the students you serve in a meaningful way! Together we will take a deeper look at the neuroscience that supports these practices, strengthen our understanding of the mind body connection, and leave with strategies that we can implement immediately.

Building Empathy in Schools

Time: Full Day

Audience: K-12 teachers, counselors, and administrators

Are you noticing more of a disconnect or even apathy in your students? Do your students struggle to build meaningful relationships?

Empathy can be a first step in creating connection between students, developing perspective taking, and encouraging kindness. Empathy is not an inherent skill. It is something that must be learned! Join us to learn ways to integrate lessons of empathy into your classroom in simple but effective ways. Together we will focus on what works and specifically how to get started. We will have time to explore resources and practice implementation so that you are ready to begin when you return to the classroom.

Building Trust and Creating Connections

Time: 1.5 – 2 hours

Audience: Teachers K-12, instructional assistants, and/or Youth Workers

Learn quick evidence based strategies to create psychological safety and build connections with even your most challenging students or young clients. Positive child/adult relationships have been linked to: promoting a positive sense of well-being in youth, fewer student school absences, increased self-directed behaviors, increased cooperation, increased school engagement, higher academic performance, and resiliency. We will focus on connecting with students by uncovering and understanding their core values and motivations, strengthening communication skills, and building trusting relationships. 

Objectives:

• Participants will understand the importance of positive relationships and communication in resiliency work
• Participants will learn strategies to build meaningful relationships with students individually and as a group
• Participants will understand how to uncover students’ core motivations and values as a foundational component of building trust and creating lasting connections. 

Overcoming Social, Safety, and Learning Loss

Time: Flexible – 2 hour overview or full day in depth

Audience: Teachers K-12 and Youth Workers  (can adapt to fit specific needs of the audience)

According to Mental Health America, the number of children and adults experiencing depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideations is on the rise. The rise has been so alarming among young people that the surgeon general recently released an advisory declaring youth mental health a public health crisis. Together we will explore common warning signs and behaviors people with these brain disorders may exhibit as well as potential risk and protective factors. We will explore the social and safety loss that students have experienced alongside the much talked about learning loss. We will focus on how to integrate evidence-based strategies into our work and lives that will support the mental health of our children while decreasing symptoms of depression and anxiety and increasing self-esteem. We will focus on strengths-based approaches to overcome the unprecedented challenges of the past few years so that we can ready our students to engage in learning. 

Objectives:

• Participants will understand the prevalence and impact of brain disorders in youth 
• Participants will learn common warning signs of struggling youth and understand how protective and risk factors may play a role in prevention and treatment
• Participants will leave with evidence based strategies to build self-esteem and decrease depression and anxiety 
• Participants will leave with evidence based strategies to ready the brain for engaged learning. 

Employability Skills: Mindsets, Work Ethic, Learning Strategies, and Social Emotional Learning

Time: Full day

Audience: Teachers K-12

Integrating employability skills into your policies, procedures, and content work can help your students develop habits that will ready them to be productive, successful, and joyful citizens! Together we will review the IDOE Employability Competencies and participants will leave with implementation strategies that can be plugged into their days with little effort but big results. 

Educator Brain and Body State 

Time: Full day

Audience: All educators

It Starts with Us. Participants will develop an understanding of the significance of the educator brain and body states and their impact on the climate and culture of the school/classroom. Learn and practice strategies for staff and students including, but not limited to: mindfulness, relationship building, regulatory practices. Participants will be given time to collaborate and plan how to incorporate newly introduced strategies into their school day.

Creating conditions for learning through a trauma-informed lens (Intro and Advanced options)

Time: Full Day

Audience: All school staff and youth workers

Participants will develop an understanding of how trauma impacts development, relationships, and learning. We will begin the shift from traditional thought to trauma-informed teaching/discipline practices through the application of educational neuroscience. Participants will have time to collaborate and brainstorm first steps and will leave with strategies, rooted in science, that can be integrated directly into school wide and/or classroom policies and procedures. 

Relational-based Discipline

Time: Full Day

Audience: All school staff and youth workers

Discipline through a trauma-informed lens. Participants will be invited to consider student behavior and student discipline through a trauma-informed lens. We will discuss preventative brain-aligned interventions with a goal of creating sustainable behavioral change. Strategies will include neuroanatomy instruction, relational practices, regulatory skill building, and restorative practices. Participants will be given the opportunity to discuss, practice, and plan how to best use these strategies in their classrooms. 

Strategies to Take the Stress Out of Testing

Time: Full Day

Audience: Teachers k – 12

Test anxiety can prevent students from showing up as their best selves on test day causing results that are not an accurate representation of their ability. Test anxiety seems to be even more prevalent for standardized tests. More concerning is the negative impact on student self- confidence and motivation. Learn strategies to boost student confidence, increase motivation, and ease anxiety that will help students in testing situations and beyond. 

Creating a Culture of Connection

Time: Full Day

Audience: School staff, organizational leaders, youth worker organizations

Creating the conditions for learning begins with creating a supportive environment for staff and students alike. Learn how to intentionally and relationally create connections between staff members, students and staff members, and between students. Participants will develop skills to relate to each other and the job through shared values, an emphasis on psychological safety, and stress management techniques. Prioritizing these points can lead to less turnover, open lines of communication, increased productivity, decreased absenteeism, and a more enjoyable working and learning environment. 

Staff Well-Being

Time: Flexible – Half or Full Day

Audience: School staff, organizational leaders, youth worker organizations

Understanding the impact of chronic stress and mental health on employees while integrating supportive strategies into the workplace is an important step in boosting morale, increasing job satisfaction, and increasing productivity. This workshop is created to develop that understanding, introduce supportive tools, and empower individuals and agencies to care for themselves and one another.

Together we will explore the impact of collective grief and chronic stress on our long term health. We will learn how to increase self-awareness, develop a deeper understanding of the mind-body connection and will practice evidence-based practical techniques that can be integrated into your professional and personal lives immediately. This discussion and these strategies are rooted in science and are meant to empower participants to prioritize self-care and mutual support in transformative ways. 

This session can be modified and personalized based on the specific needs of your agency. 

Addressing Secondary Trauma, Empathic Distress and/or burnout in Human Services Agencies

Time: Flexible 2 hour, half, or full day

Audience: Any agency/organization serving youth

Compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, empathic distress, and burnout are all common but difficult effects of working with people impacted by trauma. It can be difficult to navigate these difficult situations. Learn how to prevent and intervene from an organizational and individual perspective. Participants will leave with a clear understanding of the potential impact of working with clients who have experienced trauma. They will understand the impact this stress may have on physical and mental health. Finally, they will leave with concrete, evidence-based strategies to prevent and treat the effects of secondary trauma. 

Navigating Stress When Stressors Still Exist: Strategies Rooted in Mind-Body Medicine

Time: Flexible Half or Full Day

Audience: School staff, organizational leaders, youth worker organizations

Workshop: Are you struggling with collective and/or individual stress and feeling powerless to regain peace, purpose, and connection? You are not alone. In this workshop, you will develop an understanding of the impact stress can have on your physical and mental health. You will be introduced to strategies that will empower you and your team to regain control of the stress you carry even when the stressors in your life still exist. These skills, rooted in science, have the potential to transform individuals and communities. 

Skills group:

This 5 week healing journey comes in the form of a highly supportive educational group facilitated by Tiffany Creager, LSW, MSW, advanced mind-body medicine practitioner trained through the Center for Mind Body Medicine. This is not a therapy group, but is instead grounded in self-reflection, a sense of community, and the development of mind-body skills. The skills introduced will be presented in such a way that they can be easily integrated into your life in a real and practical and transformative way. Suitable for groups of up to 10 and available in person or virtually. To learn more about the Center of Mind Body Medicine, we encourage you to check out their website www.cmbm.org   

Meet the instructor: Tiffany Creager, LSW, MSW

Tiffany is a licensed social worker and advanced mind body medicine practitioner. She has worked as an early childhood education director, a school social worker, a director of school-based services for a community mental health center, and has provided clinical therapeutic services to youth, adults, and families. Tiffany has partnered with over twenty schools and youth and family serving agencies to provide professional development, mind body medicine skills groups, and supportive services. Her focus on healing centered engagement supports staff, students, and families alike in understanding the impact of stress, trauma, and adversity while working to heal individually and collectively. This work is foundational to student and staff success and well-being.

Tiffany specializes in social and emotional learning, improving school culture and climate, applied educational neuroscience, trauma-informed schools, mind-body medicine, teacher retention, and supporting students’ and teachers’ mental health.

When you’re ready to set up one of our valuable professional development opportunities for your school, simply click the button below to contact Tiffany Creager. With school year dates filling up quickly Tiffany will work with you and your school to schedule a date and PD model option that works best with her availability and your school’s needs.