2024 CDE Fall Conference: Creating a Landscape of Wellbeing and Belonging

This presentation will inform coaching and program development efforts in PreK–12 education as it pertains to effective and equity-focused trauma-informed practice implementation.

Presenters will share lessons from a trauma-informed implementation model (tested over time; pre-COVID-19) and align it to the current state of mental health crisis in PreK–12 education. Additionally, current considerations for trauma-informed implementation and coaching in PreK–12 education will also be addressed through best practice protocols, evidence-based models, and relevant coaching tools.

Session Objectives:

• Explore educators' personal perceptions of trauma-informed practices
• Explore professional and organizational barriers that impact educators’ implementation of trauma-informed practices
• Engage with practical tools for coaching and centering educators in trauma-informed implementation

What does it mean to be a mental health informed educator? Attendees in this presentation will learn about and engage with a mental health informed educator tool. This tool provides staff the opportunity to dive deeper into their current practices and confidence levels with proficiencies related to Mental Health Informed Classrooms. Attendees will leave with practical strategies to utilize with individual staff members, groups, and/or for building professional learning to reflect, plan, and monitor progress on being a mental health informed educator.

Session Objectives:

• To discuss mental health informed proficiency indicators for educators. 
• To engage with a mental health informed educator action planning tool to assist staff in self-reflection on confidence levels, current practices, and goal setting
• To propose and adapt processes and progress monitoring related to mental health informed educator action planning and implementation

Physically healthy and resilient students and staff function at their highest level. The American Heart Association helps you create a culture in which health and wellbeing are prioritized. Learn simple ways to support students, their families, and your employees so they can meet your vision for excellence. “We’re glad the AHA provides the body of work that allows us to address physical health and emotional well-being, community safety and preparedness, and provides a shared language that creates permission to take good care of one another while working towards important outcomes.” Kerry Gain, Deputy Executive Director, Academic Services, Austin.

Session Objectives:

• Prioritize your wellbeing and become a leader who inspires others to improve their physical, emotional health so your community can function at a higher level.
• Help students create wellness habits that build resilience.
• Recommendations enhancing preparedness through CPR skills and cardiac emergency response plan.

Executive functioning skills are necessary for success in life and academics. This workshop will demonstrate how executive functioning impacts academics, social and emotional wellbeing, and mental health. Participants will simulate the hardships and frustrations of having an executive functioning deficit and leave with strategies to increase confidence, independence, and the mental health of their students. Investing in students' executive functioning skills can benefit school professionals by reducing stress, improving wellbeing, and fostering a more successful learning experience for all. We invite you to our interactive workshop to problem solve, collaborate and find solutions to the everyday challenges executive functioning deficits bring.

Session Objectives:
1) Discover research-based brain development milestones and best practices for supporting executive functioning skills for neurotypical and neurodivergent thinkers.
2) Experience firsthand why students with executive dysfunction can struggle obtaining academic and emotional expectations.
3) Walk away with three easy-to-use strategies that can be implemented right away.

Educators are some of the most stressed professionals in the US. This is affecting budgets, retention, climate and culture, and student outcomes. We all want students that are mentally and physically well. It is very difficult to achieve that if we don’t prioritize adult wellbeing. This session will outline a research based approach to creating a strategic action plan for staff health and wellness.

Session Objectives:

• Participants will understand different ways partners can be leveraged to achieve their health and wellness goals.
• Understand how Implementation Science and a Multi-Tiered System of Supports play a critical role in developing a strategic plan for staff wellbeing.
• Be given the information necessary for designing a strategic plan that aligns with existing goals and their unique needs.
• See examples of two different implementation plans and how they aligned to each district’s goals.

How do you want your life to look? Manifestation is not about just attracting “things” into your life but rather empowering yourself to live your best life. A vision board can illustrate the person you truly want to become. In this session, we will discuss how vision boarding can support student and employee wellness and then provide time for you to start creating your own individual or team vision board that represents what you hope to achieve this school year. Supplies will be provided. If you have your own supplies or magazines, please bring those, too.

Session Objectives:

(1) Explain what manifesting a vision is and the basic neuroscience behind the effectiveness of vision boards.
(2) Identify types of vision boards and when vision boarding may be a useful intervention for student and employee wellbeing.
(3) Create a situational vision board that displays your goals for the new school year.

At Playworks we believe that play benefits us through our entire lives and is a language that everyone understands. It provides unique skill building opportunities when seen as an intentional time of every day. Our presentation dives into the benefits, barriers, and best practices for incorporating play to support the whole child, highlighting the physical, social, emotional, and academic benefits play provides both students and adults. We address common barriers with practical takeaways on how to combat them in schools and play based programs.

Session Objectives:

• Re-inspire a love and interest in play and its value
• Verbalize how play contributes to healthy youth development
• Apply best practices for facilitating healthy play within their circle of influence

This engaging session will help participants unlock the potential of school-based out-of-school time (OST) programming to boost wellness and belonging among students and staff, enhancing the culture and connectedness of the school community. We will delve into how OST programs support each of the 5 features of the Landscape of Wellbeing and demonstrate how a focus on quality OST programming can positively impact students, families and staff within a school.

Session Objectives:

• Demonstrate the benefits of out of school time programming related to wellbeing and belonging for students, families and school staff
• Identify how OST programs can be leveraged to enhance each of the 5 features of the Landscape of Wellbeing and Belonging
• Give participants tangible next steps to building a culture of OST programming designed to enhance wellness at their school

Using the PERMA model from the Center for Rural School Health & Education to define wellbeing as Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment, we will look deeper into the ways wellbeing can be supported throughout Rural Communities as it relates to staff, families, and student experiences.

Session Objectives:

• Connect with other rural districts to provide ongoing support
• Examine and review supportive structures of building relationships in your rural community
• Discover new ways empower students in their own wellbeing

Ever set a wellness goal only to find yourself struggling to make progress? You’re not alone! Maybe your wellness blueprint is lacking scale, lines, views, or measurements for you to be successful. Together let's establish a powerful wellness blueprint by learning how the components of physical and mental wellness are the foundation for well-being. Learn to develop routines that are scaled, lined, viewed, and measured, that when implemented overtime help you to become the Best Version of You!!!

Session Objectives:

• Explore the components of physical and mental wellness and their role in establishing overall well-being.
• Understand how gradual, consistent improvement can enhance wellness over time.
• Learn effective strategies to build incremental shifts in habits for sustainable wellness routines.

Discover a variety of opportunities in your community to expand the wellness programming for your staff, students, and families. Louie and Jess will share examples on partnering with businesses for free or minimal cost that can impact the physical, social, mental and nutritional health of your school community.

Session Objectives:

• Participants will leave with new ideas for partnership for school and/or district wellness programming. 
• Participants will be able to identify new ideas for partnership for staff, student, and family wellness programming.
• Participants will be able to identify at least one program or event they can implement/promote for free or minimal cost.

As educators, we dedicate our lives to the wellbeing and success of our students. But rarely do we take the time to care for ourselves. This presentation will equip you with skills to fill up your own cup, so that you can support the wellbeing of your students without burning out and be a role model for self-care. You will learn a new definition of resilience and how it helps you respond to life’s challenges, why it’s so important to maintain your energy, and how to work with negative self-talk so that you don’t reach a state of overwhelm.

Session Objectives:

(1) What resilience really is and how it helps you respond to life's challenges
(2) How to work with negative self-talk so that you don't reach a state of overwhelm
(3) The importance of maintaining your own energy and a personalized plan to create resilience

In this session, participants will learn how to integrate the latest in neuroscience research from Dr. Lori Desautels’ into their school counseling program. Participants will engage in different techniques that can help shift the energy in their classrooms and counseling sessions, as well as walking away with a list of over 100 three to five minute activities. This session will also describe how the Cripple Creek Victor School District utilizes their district level neuroscience educator, and the grants surrounding that position. This session will have a presentation piece as well as hands-on activities to get participants engaged with neuroscience.

Session Objectives:

1. Objective One: Participants will have an understanding of their own brain and nervous system states.
2. Objective Two: Participants will walk away with neuroscience strategies and mindfulness strategies to implement immediately.
3. Objective Three: Participants will understand the importance of coregulation, and strategies around coregulation.

Increasing mental health concerns among young people are reflected nationally in the recent US Surgeon General’s Advisory on Student Mental Health and locally in Healthy Kids Colorado data. Effectively addressing these concerns will require focus not only on mental health treatment, but also prevention efforts. This presentation will make the case for the importance of mental health literacy education to promote positive mental health. Core components of mental health literacy will be delineated as will a variety of reasons why this work in schools is critical. Finally, resources will be shared along with discussion of how to use them intentionally.

Session Objectives:

Participants will be able to:
(1) describe the four core components of mental health literacy
(2) give examples of reasons why mental health literacy is important in schools
(3) locate mental health literacy resources and recognize how to use them intentionally