Professional Development

Day-Long Institutes

Principal’s Retreat/Bootcamp

The principal of a school is its beating heart. If a principal is open and confident, those qualities set the tone for the entire school, from the faculty, cafeteria workers and school nurse, to the office secretaries and maintenance engineers. I’ll show participants how to maintain their calm, clarity and focus during stressful or unexpected situations, and get to “I got this,” with confidence and grace.

Leading effectively in moments when your every nerve is being tested, and all you can think about is getting through the next hour without letting yourself or those who depend upon you down, requires more than character and courage. It requires communication, coping and management tools that are common sense based, easily engaged, and powerful.

I’ll provide participants specific insights on how to nurture a sense of community among all students and identify those that are most vulnerable to becoming disconnected or disillusioned.

I’ll show participants how to harness the influence of their most positive-minded staff members, and use their energy and can-do attitude to infuse the entire school with optimism. I’ll share step-by-step advice on communications techniques, acknowledgement initiatives, and compassion-centric policies and protocols that will help principals reinforce to every teacher their value to the school and their belief in them.

I’ll walk participants through the parent aspect, and offer insights on how to inspire parents to work in partnership with the school and not counterintuitively, especially during periods of adjustment or change.

The principal, in addition to setting the tone for the school and navigating the day-to-day challenges, must be prepared if crisis strikes. Whether it’s a sudden disruption, a lawsuit initiated by an angry parent, fall-out from a scandal or the dismissal of an employee, or a tragedy that leaves everyone reeling, it’s the principal that often ends up in the center of the storm. Crisis can define a school’s legacy for compassion and professionalism or it can challenge it past its breaking point.

In this dynamic retreat, participants will also learn crisis management fundamentals from understanding how to avoid the typical mistakes many leaders make under pressure, the difference between re-active and pro-active positioning and how to master both, to what to say and what not to say and why, documentation protocols for minimizing liability, how to handle media and press, and how to move forward using truth and compassion to light the way.

I’ll also walk everyone through how to evaluate a crisis in real time, manage the chaos and make the right decisions. Highlights include:

• How to work effectively with legal and HR
• If leadership is struggling to reach consensus on what next steps should be, how to transcend that impasse and implement powerful and healing strategies together
• Scripted verbiage for disarming even the most unreasonable, irate person
• How to utilize crisis as an opportunity to grow
• How to prevent future crisis
• Lessons learned—what are they and how to put those lessons into action

This retreat is like SEL for principals. It will deepen their comfort level and confidence through a better understanding of the human component of being a master communicator. It will also help them to see themselves and their vital role from a new and exciting lens that will enrich them and the school as a whole.

Teacher Enrichment Retreat/Bootcamp

Kids are like sponges. They absorb the teacher’s vibe. If a teacher is engaged, confident and comfortable with students, they feel that positivity and lean in for learning. Conversely, if a student senses reticence, fear or stress from their teacher, it has a ripple effect. Now more than ever, teachers need to feel valued and validated on a whole new level, especially new teachers, who are entering the education adventure. 

In this retreat, I’ll work with teachers on four main areas of focus:

Communications

There’s a difference between authority and emotional credibility. Authority is what a teacher has over a child; emotional credibility is when a child feels safe in trusting that adult. I’ll walk participants through The Three Tenets of Emotional Credibility in Communication, and how to use them to establish mutual trust, openness and honesty with a student. I’ll walk teachers through the common mistakes often made when dealing with a disruptive student, and offer creative alternatives to sending students to the principal’s office. I’ll discuss the concept of not giving away your power in the classroom, and show participants a whole new approach to not only connecting with their students on a human level, but using that connection to deepen classroom community, inspire inclusivity, and motivate academic earnestness.

Curriculum Enhancements: A Creative Approach to Lessons that Increases Engagement and Deepens Retention and Assimilation

Inside every lesson plan, every quiz, test, homework assignment and classroom discussion is an opportunity for a student to discover a valuable life-lesson. Whether that lesson is about inclusivity, compassion, tolerance, civic responsibility, awareness of others, genuine versus phony friends, goals and objectives, forgiveness, hope, trust, or life itself, each time an educator teaches a class, the possibilities are endless for also helping students understand themselves and their world from a deeper, more meaningful perspective.

I’ll teach participants a simple, practical technique called “Curriculum Enhancements” for integrating life lessons into existing required subject matter. For example, a science teacher adding a quiz question about the food chain that compares the social atmosphere at school to the food chain and asks students where they might fit on that chain and why. This innovative method not only facilitates a more mindful assimilation of academic lessons, but students care more about what they’re learning because they see its relevance to their own lives.

I’ll show participants how to identify the potential life-lessons hidden within the core content of what they’re teaching on any given day and use it to improve retention and combat learning loss, enrich student empathy and character, strengthen the teacher-student bond, and introduce a dynamic new component into the classroom.

Understanding Students on a Human Level

Sometimes the best behaved student has the worst track record for including others, and the most disruptive student has the kindest heart. Understanding who your students are on an individual human level, being able to identify what makes each child exceptional in their own way is a powerful gift. Sometimes a student’s behavior is part of a larger narrative, and the teacher who knows how to interpret something from the “kid” versus the “grown-up” perspective can transform not only that student’s potential but will save lives, too. I’ve spent twenty years in the field listening to kids tell me all the things about grown-ups that they like, what they don’t like or understand, how grown-ups have helped, how they haven’t, and what they’re most afraid to tell the grown-ups in their lives. I’ll share that with participants.

Working Collaboratively with Parents

The final section of the retreat will focus on working in partnership with parents, and learning how to deal with the angry or impatient parent, the one who will intimidate because they can. I’ll walk participants through the fundamentals of parent management, expectation management, how to diffuse a tense situation, and how to apply The Three Tenets of Emotional Credibility in Communication when interacting with parents.

Motivational Conclusion

I’ll conclude the retreat with a motivational piece that will remind each and every participant that for some of their students, they are the only stable adult, and that the difference they are making saves lives.

Written Supplement: white paper through The Jodee Blanco Group, Inc.
*Quotes available upon request.