SAAFE & AAMES Deeper Dive Discussion (Hinkley HS Students)

CONFERENCE SESSIONS: MONDAY, JUNE 11

SAAFE & AAMES Deeper Dive Discussion (Hinkley HS Students)

Dig deeper with the students from the opening session into the topics discussed on the student panel. Their advisors will also join to share how they are supporting the work of their students and share how we as educators can be the supportive adults who make the space for our students to be the change they wish to see and be in their world. After this session, you will have better tools and ideas to go back and support your students in dismantling and impacting the school to prison pipeline.

Don't Forget Your ESPs! (Lara Center & Amanda Crosby)

ESPs are a critical component of the public education landscape and shouldn't be forgotten when we think about union organizing. Many Colorado locals find that their ESPs turn to other unions to meet their needs. In this session you will learn how to start engaging your district's ESPs in organizing talks and bring them under the public education association umbrella where they belong!

We Owe Our Kids This Much: Making Reparations Through Public Education (Caroline Casteel & Vicki Flores)

The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS) is releasing a report in the spring about achieving racial justice through equity in public education. This session will review the report and discuss how the community schools model ties it all together and gives us the tools we need to fight back against the corporate takeover of an essential public good by putting the neighborhood back to the neighborhood school.

Building Power for School Improvement by Implementing the Community Schools Model (Emily Heath, Kyle Serrette, Rhiannon Wenning)

Participants will learn about a billionaire-backed strategy to privatize education in the United States and about the Community School strategy and other research-backed strategies that can achieve transformational results. The presenters will share real examples of union and community led campaigns for school improvement.

High Impact Parent Teacher Home Visits (Don Diehl & Yesenia Ramirez)

This interactive session centers on building the capacity of educators to build meaningful relationships with the families of their students, starting with a voluntary home visit. Participants will learn and experience our distinct 5 non-negotiable core practices and how and why they lead to success, the research behind the model, step by step logistics for successful home visits, skill-building and practice in engaging families, overcoming barriers to effective home visits, addressing and letting go of assumptions, connecting what is learned on a home visit to the classroom and curriculum.

Introduction to Classroom Management (Discipline-Instruction-Motivation) the Tools for Teaching Way (Matthew Bergles)

This session gives an overview of the Tools for Teaching program of classroom management (Discipline-Instruction-Motivation). It will cover building a classroom management system, student engagement, raising expectations, classroom structure, meaning business and positive classroom management.

Supporting Transgender Students (Heidi Beedle)

This session is an overview of best practices for supporting transgender students in the classroom and information about why it is important using data from the Colorado Healthy Kids survey and a Q and A session with me, a real live trans person.

Implicit Bias in Schools (Kinette Richards & Stacey Brandon)

This session will be geared toward an interactive presentation and discussion on what Implicit Bias is and how it impacts teacher and student interactions. The session will include pair discussions, whole group discussions, short activities, and videos, in an effort to provide a multi-method approach to the learning.

CONFERENCE SESSIONS: TUESDAY, JUNE 12

Becoming a Nationally Board Certified Teacher: Impacting Students (Phyllis Robinette, Donna Brooks, Timothy Brown)

Have you ever thought about aligning your practice to the national standards for accomplished teaching? Participants will learn about the process for becoming a Nationally Board Certified Teacher. Here from a group of Colorado NBCTs about the process, district & state support, and plan your next steps.

Trauma Informed Care for Educators (Amber McDonald)

You will gain and increased understanding of trauma and its prevalence in youth nationally and in Colorado. The impact trauma has on children aged 3-18 years will be discussed and how disruptive behaviors present in the school setting. You will be equipped with practical strategies to address disruptive behaviors and timelines for the use of these strategies. Finally, throughout the duration of the training, participants will learn how to set appropriate boundaries with school staff peers and students in order to lessen feelings of burnout and complete exhaustion.

Cultivating Community: Using Restorative Practices to Transform Classroom Culture (Lindsey Lee)

This session will include an overview of restorative practices in Denver and the creation of the Denver School-Based Restorative Practices Partnership, experiential activities designed to help participants gain confidence in using restorative approaches in the classroom, and an introduction to the theoretical framework that underlies the effectiveness of the restorative paradigm shift. Participants will be encouraged to engage in implementation planning, examining how restorative practices can be used intentionally to improve school and classroom cultures.

Educator Effectiveness: SB191 Revisited (Cassie Harrelson, Josh Quick)

This session will be focused on the State Educator Effectiveness System’s revisions to the rubric and scoring. It is intended to jumpstart local level discussions to shape support for members. It will also focus on how to create local level policies, with or without a negotiated contract for a successful system.

Communication Messaging and Social/Digital Media Engagement (Matthew Moseley & Frank Valdez)

Organizing and Teaching for Critical Consciousness Using Popular Education Pedagogy (Vicki Flores & Amie Baca-Oehlert)

To become an agent of social change as an organizer in your association or as an educator in a school, one must learn the skills of developing Critical Consciousness. In this session, we will introduce the critical work on popular education "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" by Paulo Freire and some of the works of bell hooks and other theorists. We will dive into exploring personal histories and identity to better understand ourselves, while analyzing power and institutional structures like institutional racism and other biases and how they affect public policy and the behavior of institutions and individuals.

Community Building (Barb McDowell & Trish Ramsey)

Democracy is not merely voting, but actively engaging in the public arena to help solve challenges in our community. In this session, participants will learn how to listen to the challenges people in their community are facing and discover ways to work together to make their community healthy and safe.

Addressing Compassion Fatigue: Reigniting Passion and Self-Care (Betty Hart, Katie Wall, Laurence Curry)

Teachers are role models of health for students and set the tone in the classroom and on the school grounds. Yet, some of the mental health statistics for teachers are staggering. Teachers experience depression at higher rates than the general population. Due to stress and pressures, one third of new teachers leave the profession in their first three years, and almost half leave before five years. Participants in this session will explore causes and effects of compassion fatigue, identify helpful self-care strategies, and develop their role in building a workplace culture of health.

We Owe Our Kids This Much: Making Reparations Through Public Education (Caroline Casteel & Vicki Flores)

Purposeful Play in the Secondary Classroom (Erica Rewey)

So often, our students are stressed out, disengaged, and tied up in their technology. This session will offer practical ways to insert divergent thinking strategies and purposeful play that will help our students reengage in their educational experience by creating close classroom communities and allowing them (and us) to rediscover the joy in learning.

Implicit Bias in Schools (Kinette Richards & Stacey Brandon)

Building Power for School Improvement by Implementing the Community Schools Model (Emily Heath, Kyle Serrette, Rhiannon Wenning)

High Impact Parent Teacher Home Visits (Don Diehl & Yesenia Ramirez)

Supporting Transgender Students (Heidi Beedle)

Passport to Savings: Utilizing Your NEA Member Benefits (Susan Estes)

Learn more about your exclusive Member Benefits, just one of the advantages of your association membership. Member Benefits staff will provide an overview of all the different programs designed for members to save you and your family time and money and also help with your finances, insurance protection, professional development, and retirement planning. Join the thousands of members enjoying the value of Member Benefits every day!

Facilitative Agreements: Reaching Group Consensus (Phyllis Robinette)

Participants will learn and engage in the process of gaining a group consensus. This is a great process for all those in leadership roles who need to make group decisions. Leave with tools and practiced skills in this process.

Amplifying Association Advocacy: Collaboration with the Community PTA (Ami Prichard, Michelle Winzent, Staci Ruddy)

Participants will understand the power that comes from partnership between the PTA and Teachers' Associations. We will address the similarities and differences between the associations, and where PTA and NEA come together naturally to advocate for students, educators, and families. Participants will learn about some of the winning messages and campaigns that successful PTA/EA partnerships have achieved. Participants will develop plans for engaging school staff and creating joint advocacy campaigns to address the needs of students.

ENGAGE Early Career Educators (Jamie Davis)

How can your association engage and support Early Career Educators? In this session, leaders will learn about Colorado State’s Induction Program Evaluation Rubric, best practices for induction support and CEA resources available to new educators. During this session, leaders will engage in dialogue in order to develop actionable steps, using the tools and resources presented, for how their association might work with their district to support Early Career Educators to increase capacity and retention of early educators in their district, schools and association.

Talking to Legislators is Just Telling Your Story (Nate Golich & Kathy Ruybal)

Sometimes it feels like speaking to a legislator--on the phone, at a town hall, in person--is hard because we don’t know the details of specific bills or laws. Thankfully, there is another way to approach these conversations—your story. In this session, we will focus on how to take your story as an educator and hone it to help legislators understand the what’s happening in our classrooms and schools.

Connection Circles as a Leadership Practice (Kathy Zaleski)

Connection circles, which are a restorative practice, are an ideal tool to create leadership opportunities in the classroom and with staff. In this session, participants will learn different ways to use circles in their classrooms, with co-workers and staff, and consider ways to use circles in their own communities. This session will be highly experiential in order for participants to walk away ready to use this practice in their work setting; some background in restorative practices would be helpful, although is not necessary.

MindFULL to Mindful: Creating Present Minded Classrooms and Communications (Melanie Nienaber)

This workshop specifically offers tools that expand mindfulness skills into your teaching practice and explores the ever-reaching benefit it will have to you, your students, and your teams. With ever-increasing pressures in education for outcomes, along with the significant stress students are bringing to the classrooms, a spirit of mindfulness can be invaluable in skillfully riding these waves of stress.

TLCC and Me! Putting Your Teaching and Learning Conditions in Colorado (TLCC) Survey Results to Work (Lisa Medler, Lisa Steffen, Cassie Harrelson)

Teaching conditions are critical to educator success and satisfaction. The TLCC Survey provides data to schools and districts about whether educators have the supportive environment necessary to be successful with students. Come to this session to get oriented to the new TLCC data set and how to interpret results, Learn how to use the TLCC data with other data points (e.g., student performance, staff demographics) to focus school improvement efforts, and collaborative discuss barriers and solutions.

CONFERENCE SESSIONS: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13

safeTALK: Suicide Alertness for Everyone (Timothy Brown & Amie Baca-Oehlert)

This session will focus on the activities of the Early Career Leadership Cohort from safeTALK is a training that prepares people to be suicide-alert helpers.Participants will learn to notice and respond to situations where suicide thoughts might be present, recognize that invitations for help are often overlooked, move beyond the common tendency to miss, dismiss, and avoid suicide; apply the TALK steps: Tell, Ask, Listen, and KeepSafe, and know community resources and how to connect someone with thoughts of suicide to them for further help.

Connection Circles as a Leadership Practice (Kathy Zaleski)

Non-Released President's Training: Kickoff to the Playbook! (Phyllis Robinette, Stephanie Snitselaar, Lawrence Garcia)

New president's training will introduce help you balance all the requirements you need to be successful in recruiting, engaging, and building your local. Join us for the kickoff to our training manual and create a network of support.

Connection Circles as a Leadership Practice (Kathy Zaleski)