"Leadership. Diversity. Change."
Anti-Bullying Conference Schedule Day 1 and Day 2.
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. Jonathan Cohen, National School Climate Center
Presentation Title: Educating Minds and Hearts Because the Three Rs are Not Enough
Presentation Location: Campus Center Event Room
This keynote will summarize national school climate and SEL policy and practice trends, challenges and opportunities. The benefits of school climate/SEL will be summarized. Jonathan Cohen will focus on practical steps that educators can set in motion to support sustainable schoolwide, instructional and relational improvement efforts that promote even safer, more supportive, engaging and healthy climates for learning that further school and life success.
10:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Concurrent Session I
Workshop I
Workshop Title: Promoting Trust and Community Building
Presenter: Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D., Co-founder and President of NSCC
Workshop Location: Campus Center Event Room
This workshop focuses on an essential foundation for school climate improvement efforts: relational trust and collaborative problem solving abilities. Distrust and a culture of “blame” and “excuse” undermine school climate reform, bully prevention efforts and social-emotional education. Teams and individuals will consider current levels of trust on the one hand and individual and organizational strategies that support students’ trust, accountability and responsibility on the other hand.
Workshop II
Workshop Title: School-Based Peer Mentoring to Improve School Climate and Forge Effective Peer-to-Peer Relationships
Presenter: Margo Ross, Psy. D.
Workshop Location: Campus Center Theater
This workshop presents considerations and strategies for establishing an effective school-based peer mentoring program that will help improve school climate and forge effective peer relationships. We will explore benefits and challenges to school-based peer mentoring and share best practice recommendations for program design and implementation. The Peer Group Connection (PGC) program will be presented as a case study example of an evidence-based model that has been successfully implemented in over 200 schools across the country since 1979. Participants will learn evidence-based practices for developing student mentors who are strongly connected through caring relationships with adults and peers and highly capable of using leadership, academic, social, and emotional skills.
Workshop III
Workshop Title: Social-Emotional Learning: The Sustainable Approach to Bullying Prevention (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 and school as a whole. SEL teaches students and adults the emotional intelligence competencies they need to become more self-aware, make good decisions, develop empathy, appreciate diverse perspectives and improve the quality of their friendships and relationships. Participants will learn the importance of SEL focused, comprehensive programming that involve all school stakeholders including administrators, teachers, students and parents. The speaker will share her experience implementing SEL and bullying prevention programs in schools across the country and discuss concrete strategies for successful 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: Race, Racism, and “Humor” and Laughing Until It Hurts Someone Else
Workshop Presenter: Eva Vega-Olds
Workshop Location: Campus Center Event Room
Is your class clown using their gift of humor to bully? This workshop will explore the ways in which humor has the potential to perpetuate racial bias by negatively impacting youth attitudes about cultural differences. Educators will leave with strategies to challenge racial bias and help raise the bar on humor.
Workshop II
Workshop Title: Cultural Competencies for Educators with Transgender Students
Presenter: Christine Hamlett, NJ GLSEN
Workshop Location: Campus Center Theater
This workshop experience is a dynamic presentation of video, PowerPoint, group and individual learning activities which will advance the understanding and cultural competence of the participant. One gains a deeper understanding of the issues, concerns and trends facing Transgender people, generally and Transgender/Gender Non-Conforming in our schools. Participants are engaged in a learning journey that is safe, open and informative. Resource packets and evaluation of the presentation are essential elements of the workshop.
Workshop III
Workshop Title: Creating Community with Restorative Practices
Presenter: Beth Smull
Workshop Location: Campus Center Meeting Room 5
Restorative practices is based on the premise that people are happier, more productive and increasingly willing to make positive changes in their lives when people do things with them, rather than to or for them. Restorative practices works to proactively to create a positive community environment by strengthening relationships, building community while holding stakeholders accountable. This workshop will explore the basic framework of restorative practices and how to incorporate the principles into various systems.
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, MEd., 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:
Workshop II
Workshop Title: The School Climate Transformation Project: A data-driven approach to promoting a safe, supportive, and inclusive environment for all students
Presenters: Lori Guerriero, Psy.D. & Alicia Raia-Hawrylak, M.S.T., Rutgers University
Workshop Location: Campus Center Theater
This workshop will provide an overview of the School Climate Transformation Project (SCTP), an initiative supporting schools in the use of the New Jersey School Climate Survey (NJSCS) to develop data-driven School Climate Improvement Plans (SCIP). Participants will be introduced to the domains of school climate, research-based approaches for addressing those domains, and an overall process for school climate improvement. Participants will engage in interactive discussions and activities around these concepts and practices and leave the session equipped to share resources for promoting more positive and supportive school environments with key stakeholders back at their schools. SCTP at Rutgers University is a partnership with the Office of Special Education Programs and the Office of Student Support Services at the New Jersey Department of Education.
Workshop III
Workshop Title: Safer Saner Schools: Whole School Change Through Restorative Practices
Presenter: Beth Smull
Workshop Location: Campus Center Meeting Room 5
The Safer Saner Schools is a cost-effective evidence-based program of the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP), a graduate school based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Since 1999 the IIRP Continuing Education Division has helped even the most challenging schools across the country improve their teaching and learning environment through practice and proficiency development in the Eleven Essential Elements of “restorative practices,” a proactive approach to whole-school climate change proven to build a stronger community between students, staff and parents, by reducing disruptive behaviors, violence and bullying.
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: Create a Culture of Kindness: It’s Not All Rainbows and Unicorns!
Presenter: Christa M. Tinari, M.A. Peace Praxis
Workshop Location: Campus Center Event Room
Who can argue with kindness? If everyone agree that “kindness is cool”, then how come you’re still hearing mean name-calling in the hallway? And how come staff are still rude to one another? A kindness campaign can produce some pretty good feelings, but it won’t make a real impact on your school climate, if it’s a “one and done” assembly or slogan campaign. This talk will explore what to do when kindness is hard to “do” and will provide research-based practises for fostering kindness all year long
10:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Concurrent Session IV
Workshop I
Workshop Title: 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.
Workshop II
Workshop Title: Creating Safe and Welcoming School Environments for LGBTQ Youth
Presenters: Carol Watchler and Sue Henderson, NJ GLSEN
Workshop Location: Campus Center Theater
Participants will review and deepen understanding about the urgency of insuring policies and practices that promote safety, respect, and equal access for all regardless of sexual; orientation and gender identity/expression. They will learn about research-affirmed recommendations that generate steps to create safe climates, address anti-LGBT behaviors, and grow an atmosphere where all students can learn effectively and take a lead in respecting LGBT peers. Participants will learn age appropriate strategies for k-12 students that promote inclusion, and appreciation of differences as well as fostering positive interventions to address biased behaviors. There will be a focus on information about transgender and gender non-conforming students and an overview of practices that schools must have in place to ensure a safe and welcoming school climate regardless of gender identity or gender expression.
Workshop III
Workshop Title: Protecting Immigrant Students from Bullying and Harassment
Presenter: Michelle Nutter
Workshop Location: Campus Center Meeting Room 5
As political rhetoric calls for the building of walls and deportation of immigrants, schools face the challenge of responding to students making similar remarks to classmates. Harassment that targets ELLs and immigrant students violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. This session will provide an overview of schools’ obligations to create and maintain a harassment free environment under federal civil rights statutes. Participants will review scenarios to determine whether the situations constitute illegal harassment and identify appropriate response steps that school personnel should take to prevent, intervene in and respond to national origin harassment.
11:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Concurrent Session V
Workshop I
Workshop I Title: Addressing Incidents of Bias in our Schools
Presenters: Dr. Judith Springer, Dr. Rita Johnson, and Jose L. Posos, MEd., Ceceilyn Miller Institute for Leadership & Diversity
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:
Workshop II
Workshop Title: An Informed Approach to School Climate Improvement
Presenter: Luiz Pereira,M.S., Coordinator, Office of Student Support Services, New Jersey Dept. of Education
Workshop Location: Campus Center Theater
This session will provide participants with an informed approach to school climate improvement. The presenter will share strategies for collecting data regarding the essential domains of school climate and ways for staff to utilize this data in their school buildings. Specific practices to improve school climate (such as supporting inclusion of all students and encouraging positive relationships among staff) will be discussed.
Workshop III
Workshop Title: How to Speak Up at School
Presenter: Michelle Nutter
Workshop Location: Campus Center Meeting Room 5
Have you ever found yourself in the uncomfortable circumstance where someone, a student, parent or colleague, uses biased language or stereotypes in school? This workshop, based on Teaching Tolerance’s publication, How to Speak Up at School, is designed for educators who want to develop the skills to speak up themselves and who want to help their students find the courage to speak up, too. When someone makes a biased statement, we must act quickly! Using video scenarios, participants will learn to use four techniques (interrupt, question, educate and echo) to respond to biased language in the moment, from any source, in any situation.
1:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Conference Closing/Evaluations
Conference Sponsors and Partners:
