Conference Day 1 – May 23, 2018
Registration & Continental Breakfast
8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Campus Center Event Room
Opening & Keynote
9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Dr.Jared Scherz, Teachercoach.com
Presentation Title: The Future of School Safety: Violence Free Schools
Presentation Location: Campus Center Event Room
The safety of our schools is the foundation upon which every other goal is built. Our work to create a base of emotional and physical safety relies on our appreciation of the cycle of exclusive aggression and the downward spiral into catastrophic violence. Together this keynote session will explore the complex nature of school violence through a new lens of psychological theory, including the crucial elements necessary in evolving violence free schools.
10:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Concurrent Session I
Workshop I
Workshop Title: Teen Suicide: Risk, Factors, & HOPE for Saving Our Children
Presenter: Phyllis Alongi, MS
Workshop Location: Campus Center Event Room
This engaging workshop addresses the crucial role of educators, counselors and youth serving organizations in youth suicide prevention while encompassing current statistics, identifying warning signs, risk factors, protective factors, discussion of risk assessment and resources. Presented information is designed to enable participants to gain confidence when talking with at-risk youth, addressing parents and collateral contacts. Discussion of assessment tools and introduction to developmentally competent techniques for speaking with youth regarding suicide will be emphasized throughout the presentation.
Workshop II
Workshop Title: It’s Just Locker Room Talk, or is it?
Workshop Presenter: Randy Nathan, M.A.
Workshop Location: Campus Center Theater
The Locker Room is both a sacred space and a breeding ground for harassment, intimidation, and bullying. There’s a fine line between “boys being boys” and inappropriate behavior – both physical and verbal. This presentation will focus on social conditioning, initiations versus traditions, understanding the “sacred oath” and hazing. Coach Randy will address the culture and mindset within the locker room, address needed consequences to change behavior and identify key strategies to create effective change.
Workshop III
Workshop Title: Social and Emotional Learning: How to Create Safe and Caring Learning Environments in the Classroom (PK-5th Grade Audience)
Presenter: Lauren Hyman Kaplan, M.A.
Workshop Location: Campus Center Meeting Room 5
This workshop will discuss the critical role of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in creating safe and caring learning environments in the classroom. SEL teaches students and educators the emotional intelligence competencies they need to be more self-aware, make good decisions, develop empathy, appreciate diverse perspectives, and improve the quality of their relationships.
Participants will learn the importance of SEL focused, comprehensive programs that involve all school stakeholders including, administrators, teachers, students and parents. The speaker will share her experience implementing SEL programs in schools across the country and give concrete research-based strategies for successful program implementation.
11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Campus Center Event Room
Conference Break/Exhibitor Room Open
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Campus Center Event Room
Lunch
1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.
Concurrent Session II
Workshop I
Workshop Title: Evidence-Based Mentoring Models that Improve School Climate and Social-Emotional Learning
Presenter: Catherine Nti
Workshop Location: Campus Center Event Room
The proposed workshop will review New Jersey’s Social-Emotional Learning competencies and discuss evidence-based mentoring models that improve school climate and social-emotional learning. Participants will experience activities that highlight best practices from effective models such as Peer Group Connection (PGC) and New Jersey’s Teen Prevention Education Program (Teen PEP). We will also the explore the benefits and challenges of implementing a mentoring model and learn best practices for developing school-based mentoring models that can improve school culture and social-emotional learning.
Workshop II
Workshop Title: Using the Arts in School Climate Education: A Case Study
Presenters: Steven Hernández, Esq. and Jill Nesi
Workshop Location: Campus Center Theater
In Connecticut, as part of an initiative to support various entry points to social and emotional skills building and resourcing, the Commission on Children partnered with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, an Emmy nominated writer/producer, and one of our premier community colleges, Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), on an initiative called “Stand Up and Speak Out: Empathy and Connection Through the Arts.”
As a result of that collaboration, we created an anti-bullying musical and showcase a curriculum guide that helps middle schools teach and prepare their students leading up to the performance and manage follow-up activities and resourcing in collaboration with school leaders, nurses, psychologists and other relevant staff.
The workshop would include four specific goals:
- Strategies on linking in-school and after-school practice to anti-bullying and school climate policy, thus setting the conditions for leadership at the adult level, and peer to peer,
- Strategies on creating a framework for multidisciplinary school and pre-service collaboration around empathy, connection and the arts,
- Strategies on linking state, academic, and private resources and local talent to promote a joint arts and SEL initiative,
- Drawing on academic SEL resources to promote best practices in social and emotional skills building through expressive media, including stagecraft and the visual and performing arts.
Workshop III
Workshop Title: Parents Matter Too: Including Parents in the Conversation on School Climate
Presenter: William McDowell
Workshop Location: Campus Center Meeting Room 5
Talking to parents about bullying and how to prevent these acts in schools can be very challenging. This workshop explores strategies to help educators talk with parents about bullying and specifically those parents of young children who might be displaying aggressive behavior. Parents are a very important and at times under-utilized resource in school climate. The presenter will share with participants research-based strategies to engage parents at all levels in the school climate conversation.
2:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.
Concurrent Session III
Workshop I
Workshop Title: Bullying: Who is Targeted and How to Help
Workshop Presenters: Dr. Rita Johnson & Jose L. Posos, M.Ed., Ceceilyn Miller Institute for Leadership & Diversity
Workshop Location: Campus Center Event Room
We know that far too many students are impacted by peer mistreatment. Some of these students are more vulnerable than others to the impact of these negative behaviors. In this workshop participants will learn which students may be most vulnerable, including special education students and sexual minority students. Most important, this workshop presents concrete strategies to help (1) reduce bullying behavior through school climate change, and (2) reduce the damaging impact of this negative behavior when it does occur.
Upon completion of this workshop participants shall be able to:
- Understand and define bullying and describe its effects on targets, bystanders, and students who bully.
- Identify students that may be most vulnerable to the effects of bullying
- Understand the ways in which involvement in bullying may be a risk factor for depression and suicidal behavior.
- Describe the most helpful actions by adults to help prevent bullying and, if it does occur, to alleviate the impact on students who are impacted.
Workshop II
Workshop Title: Examining and Sharing School Safety Processes
Presenters: James A. Budzilek, Ed.D.
Workshop Location: Campus Center Theater
Safety in our schools is the biggest concern for school personnel. During this program, we will examine ways of improving school safety, reflect on best practices and share with each other specific items that have helped in your schools.
Workshop III
Workshop Title: Addressing Incidents of Bias in our Schools
Presenters: Drs. Judith Springer and Christopher C. Irving, Ceceilyn Miller Institute for
Leadership & Diversity
Location: Campus Center Meeting Room 5
At least half of bullying episodes involve some form of bias- involving race, religion, ethnicity, gender, disabilities, age, socio-economic status or perceived sexual orientation. Bullying prevention cannot be effectively addressed without specifically addressing issues of bias.
In this experiential, interactive workshop, participants will:
- Learn about the relationship between bullying and bias
- Experience activities that raise awareness of our own biases (everybody has them; it’s what we do them and how we treat each other that counts
- Take part in activities that can be used with students to promote multicultural acceptance, appreciation of differences, recognition of underlying commonalities and the building of a positive community.
Conference Day 2 – May 24, 2018
8:15 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Campus Center Event Room
Continental Breakfast/Registration
9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Keynote: A Case Study in SEL and Bias Reduction: The MLK Youth Empowerment Conference
Presenters: Drs. Judith Springer and Christopher C. Irving, Ceceilyn Miller Institute for Leadership and Diversity in America
Workshop Location: Campus Center Event Room
The Martin Luther King Youth Empowerment Conference is an intense and intensive youth leadership and diversity program for high school students in New Jersey. This program, provided at no cost to schools or families, is based on (1) actively and intentionally teaching the skills of social-emotional learning and (2) the building of community as a means of preventing and reducing prejudice. A panel of young MLK program graduates will share their experiences with you and let you know what aspects of the program impacted them most profoundly. They will also talk about how programs like the MLK Conference can help our young people develop the awareness, skills, and knowledge to inspire them to care about, and work on, issues of social justice.
10:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Concurrent Session IV
Workshop I
Workshop Title: Be an Upstander, not a Bystander!
Presenters: Christa Tinari, M.A.
Workshop Location: Campus Center Event Room
Researchers have found that bystanders are present in the majority of social cruelty and bullying situations. Adult and student bystanders can prevent and interrupt bullying when they choose to “stand up” for targets. Students may be hesitant to stand up when it means they will be the next target. However, research shows that support strategies (rather than confrontational ones) can be very effective in supporting targets of teasing and bullying. This workshop will present 10 practical, safe, and effective upstander strategies that school staff and students can use to support targets and promote a positive school climate. Mini-lessons and activity ideas will be provided.
This workshop is for professionals who work with students in grades K-12.
Workshop II
Workshop Title: Caring for Transgender Students in Our Schools
Presenter: Dr. Lauren Picciano
Workshop Location: Campus Center Theater
In this session, Dr. Picciano will identify the unique developmental, social, and medical issues that transgender students face, and specify how school staff can support them to provide a positive academic and social experience. Dr. Picciano will define, and distinguish between, transgender and gender non-conforming, and will clarify pronoun and other terms currently in use.
Learning Objectives
- Participants will be able to differentiate among gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.
- Participants will be able to identify the criteria for gender dysphoria in children and distinguish between children who are gender non-conforming versus transgender.
- Participants will be able to identify the typical developmental, social, educational, and medical issues faced by this population, and learn specific ways to support them.
- Participants will be able to formulate responses to give other students and parents regarding transgender students using the bathroom of their affirmed gender identity.
Workshop III
Workshop Title: Implicit Bias in our Schools: What Educators Need to Know
Presenters: Drs. Christopher Irving and Judith Springer
Workshop Location: Campus Center Meeting Room 5
Through a series of presentations, discussions and experiential activities, this interactive session will explore the knowledge and skills needed for participants to (1) understand where implicit or unconscious biases come from and that we all have them, (2) learn to recognize their own blind-spots and (3) apply strategies for reducing the impact of implicit bias in the classroom and in school communities.
Objectives
- To learn how implicit or unconscious biases develop in all of us.
- To understand the various ways in which implicit biases impact students’ academic achievement, school engagement and emotional well-being
- To gain practical strategies to reduce the impact of implicit bias in the classroom and throughout school communities
11:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Concurrent Session V
Workshop I
Workshop Title: Creating Safe and Welcoming Schools for LGBT Students: Merging Legal Compliance with Best Practices
Presenter: Dr. Paula C. Rodriguez Rust
Workshop Location: Campus Center Event Room
Addressing the needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning students is an emerging challenge and opportunity for schools. Rapid changes in social awareness and acceptance, recent legal developments, and students who are coming out at younger ages, have created an urgent need for schools to educate K-12 students, staff, and parents about LGBT issues to meet the needs of these students and promote compliance with the ABR, NJLAD, and federal laws against discrimination.
Learning Objectives: After this workshop, participants will be better equipped to:
- Use accurate and respectful terminology when discussing sexual orientation and gender identity diversity
- Discuss the rights of LGBT students in school, including the rights of transgender students under state and federal law.
- Support LGBT students, including transgender students who are transitioning while in K-12 schools.
- Createschool environments that are safe, welcoming, and inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity development
Workshop II
Workshop Title: Incorporating Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) within Your School
Presenter: Sonia Moticha, M.A., Student Support Specialist, Office of Student Support Services, New Jersey Dept. of Education
Workshop Location: Campus Center Theater
This session will provide participants with a brief background on Social Emotional Learning and the benefits of implementing SEL practices within the school setting. Participants will develop an understanding of the NJ SEL Competencies and Sub-Competencies released in August 2017 and how they can be embedded into their respective roles. Furthermore, this interactive presentation highlights how both school counselors and teachers can support each other in this important work.
Workshop III
Workshop Title: ABC’s and 123’s of the New Jersey Anti-Bullying Law
Presenters: Farrah Irving-Wilkins, Esq.
Workshop Location: Campus Center Meeting Room 5
Just as educators must teach their students to master the alphabet and counting principles, they must also educate themselves on the ABC’s and 123’s of the New Jersey Anti-Bullying Law. This session will use the principles of the alphabet and numbering to help educators understand their responsibilities under the New Jersey Law. At the conclusion of this primer, attendees will understand and be able to articulate the New Jersey Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights. They will also be able to protect their school districts, and themselves, against litigation from parents and students.
1:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Conference Closing/Evaluations