Safety Equals Success: Demystifying Fearful Patterns that Keep Schools Stuck (Series)

As school professionals, we have a powerful opportunity to either magnify or reduce stress for our students. We are not neutral variables in our students’ lives. Our state of regulation either stresses or calms our students in each moment we spend with them. In this series we will find ways to harness this power and responsibility to give students back their rightful mental and emotional bandwidth.

Webinar #1: Working Well with Neurodivergent Students: Safety, Belonging and Getting Out of the Way

This webinar focuses on the significant benefits of adult regulation in supporting neurodivergent students, including autistic and ADHD learners. We also explore how these concepts apply to students who may not have a specific diagnosis, but still experience heightened sensitivity to sensory stimuli and executive function difficulties.

Webinar #2: Safety and Executive Functioning: Building the Muscle of Task Engagement Without Squashing Anyone’s Spark

Executive functioning is the mental muscle we use to get ourselves to do things that may not be immediately gratifying. We often practice these skills in the service of self-determination and meeting goals that are important to us.

Educators risk teaching executive functioning skills from a fearful stance of urgency, which can cause students to override their own internal cues that something isn’t right for them. This webinar focuses on the importance of teaching executive functioning from a calm and collaborative adult stance.

Webinar #3: Safety, Behavior and Co-Regulation: Fostering Self-Determination Rather than Compliance

This webinar focuses on the importance of moving students in the direction of self-actualization rather than unquestioning compliance. We take a compassionate look at how the most well-meaning educators and schools can unwittingly end up in a compliance-based model in response to the unsustainable pressures of behavior management and curricular expectations central to modern schooling.

We consider both the ethical and pragmatic benefits of fostering intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation, helping students recognize and align with their core values rather than blindly adopt the agenda of others, and even self-advocate and question authority responsibly and effectively. Additionally, we explore how adults might shift their own internal compliance-based patterns and practices, including adherence to an external agenda and fear of “getting in trouble.”

Webinar #4: Basic Safety For Adults: Learning to Model Calm Connection and Internal Freedom

In recent years, we have learned many regulation tools to weather arduous circumstances and focus on student progress. The biggest learning: cultivating calm adult nervous systems is the foundation upon which everything else can rest. In this webinar we review and deepen our skills in the realms of self compassion, self-insight, and mindfulness. By building internal safety, we foster courage and freedom to model and inspire the same in our students.