Professional Learning (Virtual and In-Person) :

Each topic below is adapted to your unique context and needs. Some the the overarching goals for all professional learning topics include:

  1. To become familiar with the Third Path Framework and its Eight Conditions.

  2. To gain a deeper understanding of how all initiatives in education (i.e., mental health well-being, SEL, achievement, equity, inclusivity, trauma-sensitivity, truth & reconciliation, and more) are complementary—rather than competing—and that all require a greater commitment to more responsive and intentional relationships with students.

  3. To more fully realize that it is the “how” of education that supports student mental health and well-being, less so than specific programs (i.e., the “what”). Thus, student well-being is best supported through delivering the curriculum and should be embedded in everything that educators—and indeed, all staff—do.

  4. To acquire a common language for student success bringing together teaching staff, support staff, parents, caregivers and community partners.

  5. To demystify mental health and well-being, inspire educators to more effectively support their own students, while also helping educators to let go of the idea that there is an expert solution (i.e., person or program) “out there” that will fix the woes.

  6. To help all staff adopt the mindset of “I am the strategy” and to more fully realize that each and every adult in education matters and that every connection counts.

The Third Path Framework

This provides a solid introduction to the Eight Conditions of the Framework (Emotional Safety, Emotional Regulation, Belonging, Positivity, Engagement, Identity, Mastery & Meaning). It is designed to help participants adopt an integrative view of well-being and achievement, as well as clarify their understanding of commonly used, but wide-ranging terms, such as emotional regulation or belonging. Key messages include:

  • The importance of identifying and supporting student needs.

  • The Third Path Framework is not “new”, it simply identifies what great educators have always done.

  • The Eight Condition combine to create an education ecosystem for student success in all their forms.

Promoting Student Mental Health

How can educators best promote student mental health and stay within their role? How can they promote well-being and achievement at the same time? How can they be sure to respect cultural differences, temperamental variations, and support the unique potential of each student? The answer is not in universal social/emotional skills teaching, it’s about embedding well-being in everything we do. It’s in the quality of relationships that we cultivate in the classroom. However, mental health-promoting relationships are not simply about making students feel good. Maintaining developmental relationships with students means interacting with students in ways that support their whole development, build resilience, and motivate them to be their best. This session focuses on myths and truths about mental health, and provides educators with both an overall framework for understanding how mental health is best promoted, as well as a wide range of practical, developmentally-appropriate classroom and school-wide strategies.

School Leadership

Leaders come in many forms. There are formal leaders and informal leaders. Talkative leaders and quiet leaders. You can lead from a central position, or you can lead in the classroom. You can lead from the top, or from the bottom. While school leaders come in many shapes and sizes, all good leaders have one fundamental approach in common, they think systemically and act relationally. They know that people, not programs, change people. They focus on enhancing the quality of human connection in order to make meaningful and lasting systemic change. This session focuses on the eight conditions of the Third Path Framework apply to organizations and how to cultivate psychological safety, practice trauma-sensitivity, challenge implicit biases, and more in your school and organization-wide.

Supporting Educator Well-Being

As an educator, how often has someone told you that your job is stressful, so you should make sure you take care of yourself! When it comes to adult mental health, we often view it as simply the responsibility of the individual. And that the difference between feeling poorly and feeling well is a mere matter of incorporating more self-care activities into our daily life. However, if someone is already struggling with their well-being, is it really fair or useful to simply put the burden of feeling better back onto them? Is it accurate to frame good mental health as someone who is cheerful and efficient all of the time? The truth is that mental health and well-being is complex and unique to each individual, and arises as much from our relational context as it does our individual actions. This session will explore what adult mental health and well-being really is, in all of its diverse forms, and examine what can be done, individually and collectively, to support our own mental health and the mental health of others.

Creating Healthier Systems

You don’t have to work in education for very long before you realize that education has an implementation problem. We adopt new initiatives with great fanfare and high hopes. For a while, all seems well. Out efforts appear to be working. And yet, in a little time, the promise of the new initiative starts to fade. We don’t get the outcomes we had hoped for. Sometimes, the new initiative even seems to make things worse. We bravely keep at it, until eventually no one seems to be talking about it anymore. Then, a new initiative is found. A new promise. It’s adopted with high hopes and around we go again. This session is designed to help educators and administrators break free of the cycle of implementation ups and downs, of program adoption and abandonment, and instead make meaningful change that lasts. It focuses on the eight steps of systemic change. It examines how educators and staff at all levels can powerfully contribute to a healthier overall system that supports the uniqueness of school communities while promoting ongoing innovation and sustainability over time.

Trauma-Informed Education

Trauma is increasingly recognized as a challenge in education, not just trauma that students experience, but educators too. This session will focus on the critical elements of a trauma-sensitive approach, whether you are a school administrator, classroom teacher, or system leader. Key elements of a trauma-informed approach will be covered including:

  1. Big T & Little T: Trauma & Healing - We will examine trauma in its various forms, along with the many ways that trauma can manifest itself in the classroom, both as student and as educator. It will also examine how we can help others heal from trauma, especially as educators and not therapists.

  2. The Secure Base: Trauma’s Antidote - Trauma can be best understood as a violation of safety, a transgression of the relationship. Thus, the healing of trauma is done through relationships. Here, we will examine what it means to be a secure base--for students and for staff--the foundation of the healing relationship.

  3. Reflexivity: The Trauma-Informed Mindset - Understanding and responding to trauma challenges us to think differently. It requires us to appreciate the complex nature of people and problems, to see beyond behaviour to underlying needs, to let go of our ego, to recognize our vulnerabilities, and to become more aware of our contributions to the very problems we seek to solve.

  4. Eustress & Distress: Reducing Trauma’s Impact - Trauma typically disrupts the “normal” stress response, often turning smaller stresses into larger ones. Yet, stress is a vital part of learning and development. What are the signs of trauma-influenced stress, and how can we help students and staff manage stress more effectively?

  5. Words Define Us: Challenging NarrativesThe way we speak about people and their struggles is powerful. As a leader, you have an important role in challenging harmful narratives and promoting healthy ones. This topic will examine how to change the way we think about problems and possibilities through the narratives we construct.

  6. Staying the Course: Trauma-Informed Education - Being trauma-informed is more than a handful of strategies. It requires a rethinking of our core assumptions about the roots of behavioural and academic challenges. We will focus on what it means to be a trauma-informed educator throughout one’s career.

Addressing School Violence

From zero tolerance policies to progressive discipline, a wide range of practices have been adopted to address student misconduct. However, school violence continues to be on the rise. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to successfully addressing the complexity of the problem. Instead, an ongoing, systemic approach is required in which violence is addressed at all systems levels. This session examines how the Human-Centred, Systems-Approach is used to create a comprehensive violence reduction strategy through the following eight steps of development and implementation:

  1. Start With a Systems Mindset

  2. Reflect and Empathize

  3. Clarify Your Why

  4. Focus On How, Not Just What

  5. Choose Your Leverage Points

  6. Develop Clear Actions

  7. Identify Look Fors

  8. Learn & Respond As You Go