Early Childhood, K-12, Higher Education
1 to 2-Hour Interactive Virtual or In-Person Training

There are many stressors impacting today’s educator including: understaffing, structural racism, supporting students with significant mental health needs, trauma, and poor compensation. The negative impacts of these stressors can be lessened by creating welcoming, compassionate, and healing environments that celebrate the importance of rest and play. In this session, educators will learn ways to address stressors in the workplace by implementing strategies to close the stress response cycle. At the conclusion of this session, participants will leave with personal and collective wellness intentions for implementation throughout the year.

Objectives

Educators will:

• Describe the stress response cycle.

• Identify ways to “close the stress response cycle loop” and avoid burnout.

• Engage in a variety of strategies to support their wellbeing.

• Set personal and collective wellness intentions for future implementation.

Early Childhood, K-12, Higher Education Workshop
1-Day and 1.5-Day Options

To be an effective educator, one requires a high degree of flexibility and responsiveness to create a beneficial learning environment that functions for both students and educators. Educational environments are inherently stressful often causing educators to feel the need to react versus respond to students, especially students exhibiting ineffective social and emotional skills.  Reactivity can cause breakdowns and get in the way of the development of meaningful relationships and negatively impact students’ social, emotional, and academic achievement.

The ability to be an effective, resilient educator who has positive relationships with students, student families, and colleagues is directly related to the educator’s ability to boost their own inner resiliency and to become empowered by living a values-driven life. In this workshop, educators increase their resiliency and sense of empowerment through mindfulness practices for everyday educational routines, techniques to enhance flexibility in difficult situations, and ways to connect with their values related to education. The workshop activities will help reconnect them with their professional purpose, increase positive relationships in the educational setting, and lessen the effects of stress and burnout.

Objectives

Educators will:

• Learn mindfulness practices to create space between urge and action.

• Identify values as an educator to connect to their “why”—their purpose as an educator—and create values-driven goals to boost their resilience.

• Using a targeted workbook, create a WellEducator-designed Intentional Wellbeing Plan, which will be Specific, Positive, Realistic, Inspiring, Goal-Oriented, and Set next steps (SPRIGS) to strengthen their resilience skills and in turn support their wellbeing when they return to their lives in and out of the classroom.

• Learn techniques to increase flexibility, further supporting response versus reaction, live values-driven lives in and out of the classroom, and enhance relationships with students, student families, and colleagues.

Early Childhood/K-12/Higher Education Workshop
3-Hour and 1-Day Options

Educators can be asked to make over 1,500 decisions in a day, leading to stress and cognitive fatigue. Stressors also include lack of social and emotional training, ineffective interpersonal relationships, vicarious trauma, and unrealistic systems requirements. Tough stuff is unlikely to go away even as we work on it, and it negatively impacts wellbeing. This experiential workshop offers practice in skills to increase awareness of stressors on mind and body systems including acceptance skills to increase flexibility in difficult situations. It connects educators to their values using research-based mindfulness practices and provides an innovative approach to values-driven goal setting. Engaging activities, videos, and conversations are used to help educators say, “YES, AND I will move towards my values, even with the tough stuff!”

Objectives

Educators will:

• Practice and use three mindfulness exercises in daily school routines.

• Identify and describe their personal core values, vision, and mission to connect to the wonders and curiosities of a career in education.

• Identify, describe, and practice techniques to say “yes, and” while moving towards a values-driven life when the tough stuff shows up.

• Plan strategies for use outside the training environment using a WellEducator-designed Committed Action Plan.

Early Childhood (Birth to Grade 3) Workshop
3-hour and 6-hour Options

Educator stress has been reported as higher than any other profession. Stressors include lack of social and emotional learning training, ineffective relationships, trauma, and ever-changing requirements. Stressors impact wellbeing and availability to effectively support children. Educators deserve support in nurturing their holistic wellbeing. Let’s practice skills to decrease stressors on body systems and stay connected to the wonders and curiosities of teaching.

Objectives

Educators will:

• Examine and connect the impact of your environment, values, assumptions, and beliefs on your wellbeing.

• Explore and practice research-based tools, skills, and strategies to support your wellbeing to decrease stressors on mind/body/being systems.

• Apply the 5 Pillars of Educator Wellbeing to create an Early Childhood Educator Intentional Wellbeing Plan.