Heading 1NDMTSS Conference
Description
Teachers have always needed to know and practice protective strategies in their social emotional first aid kits to manage the daily stressors of working on the front lines of a human-service oriented profession. That need has never been greater given the massive increase in uncertainty and unpredictability in the teaching profession and in one's personal life due to COVID.
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In short, teaching is emotional labor-- the effort required to manage and metabolize strong emotions like anger, shame, guilt, anxiety, and overwhelm, as well as generate and stoke positive emotions like joy, hope, and compassion.
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Stress significantly diminishes a teacher's capacity to regulate their negative emotions and cultivate positive emotions. Ironically, teachers who leave the profession often cite their inability to cope with their own emotional reactions to loss of control, unpredictability, and lack of purpose in their teaching as the primary reason for burnout.
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There are many, many strategies and practices rooted in cognitive and affective neuroscience and social and behavioral sciences that teachers can learn, practice, and integrate into their personal and professional lives as teachers to metabolize stress, manage negative energy, protect themselves from the burnout cycle, and find joy in teaching the whole year through!
Learning Objectives
In this session, teachers will:
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Explore the core elements of the teacher burnout cycle and learn how to protect one's self from the 2 paths to burning out,
The Present Teacher Restoration ProjectTM is an innovative and inspiring research-based professional learning experience designed by Present TeacherTM that focuses on providing our educators (and by "educators" we mean all individuals who have a presence with students-- EAs, school counselors, school nurses, administrators) with systematic and strategic mental health and emotional resilience training to RESTORE hope, energy, and passion and “RE-FINE” their minds and physical bodies amidst a global pandemic and our collective renewed call for social justice.
Objectives
In this 4 hour self-paced, virtual learning curriculum that integrates experiential learning practices, neuroscience, mindfulness, mindful movement, and adult SEL, educators will:
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Learn about the origins of healing from toxic stress,
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Discover the 4 core elements of mental well-beingness and emotional resilience,
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Receive support and insight on how to manage personal and collective trauma,
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Engage mind-body practices grounded in mindful awareness that “restore” the body's natural health, sense of safety, and innate resilience,
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Experience strategies rooted in neuroscience and cognitive behavioral therapy that help an educator “re-story” stress in a way that promotes integration and integrity of self (vs. dis-integration and burnout).
Educators will engage (8) 30 minute experiential learning modules:
Format
10 minute training video
5 minute guided audio or video meditation
10 minute guided gentle yoga practice
5 minute guided "put into your practice" reflection activity
Prioritizing Your Well-Being: The Power of attention, attitude, and awareness
Modules
Mindfulness Focus: Breath & Body Awareness
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Banishing "Time Stress": The art of managing your energy and not your time
Taming the Toxic Stress Impact: Learning the art of metabolizing stress
Mindfulness Focus: Perceptual Awareness ​
Compassionate Teachers: How to protect yourself from compassion fatigue
Mindfulness Focus: Another Awareness​
Trauma & Teaching: Transforming teacher stress into strength
Mindfulness Focus: Breath Awareness​
Teacher Emotional Resilience & Responsiveness
Mindfulness Focus: Emotions & Intrapersonal Mindfulness
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Teacher Restoration AS Social Justice Work
Mindfulness Focus: Interpersonal Mindfulness & Body Awareness
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Mindfulness Focus: Mind Awareness
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Establishing Your Well-Being Manifesto: Creating a plan to enact your well-being habits the whole year through
Mindfulness Focus: Self and Emotional Awareness
Timeline
Spread the Word to Educators and Staff:
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October 19 - October 30, 2020
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"Welcome" video by Jen will be provided to you to share with your staff.
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Present LeaderTM Leading with Presence, Wellness, and Resonance
LIVE Webinar Event (90 minutes):
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Wednesday, October 28th from 4:00-5:30pm
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Present Teacher Restoration ProjectTM Module Release Dates:
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​Tuesday, November 3rd
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Tuesday, November 10th
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Tuesday, November 17th
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Tuesday, November 24th
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Tuesday, December 1st
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Tuesday, December 8th
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Tuesday, December 15th
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Tuesday, December 22nd
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Present TeacherTM is a research-based professional learning curriculum that leverages mindful awareness practices, neuroscience, adult SEL theory, and experiential learning to provide educators with experiences that equip them with practical strategies, knowledge, skills, and classroom practices to remain calm in chaotic teaching moments, find purpose amidst the challenge, and protect one’s self from burnout, moral injury, and secondary trauma.
Present TeacherTM
Our Mission
Provide teachers with strategies, practices, and experiences rooted in mindfulness to deepen self-awareness, equity consciousness, and compassion for self and others so to learn how to adapt to the stressors of a heart-centered profession in a healthy way.
Strategically cultivate habits of mind and humanizing dispositions to remain calm in chaotic teaching moments, see student behavior through the lens of curiosity and compassion, and see the self as capable and confident through the many challenges of teaching.
Engage teachers in exploring the origins of teacher well-being while learning a research-base process to productively "process problems" that commonly arise in teaching so that teachers can actualize their innate calm, resilience, and emotional agility to stage off burnout and realize happiness, joy, passion, and purpose in their teaching practice.
Dr. Jennifer Clifden
Founder, Creator
Dr. Jennifer J. Clifden is the founder of Present Well-Being LLC and the creator of Present TeacherTM Training. Jennifer received her BA in Elementary Education from the University of Michigan and her MA in Socio-Cultural Foundations and Educational Thought from Western Michigan University.
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Jennifer received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Minnesota College of Education + Human Development with a focus on human-service professional mental and emotional well-being, dispositional development, and human-centered curriculum design and instruction. She researches human- service professional stress resilience and the process for "burning in" to heart-centered healing professions.
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She draws on 25 years of collective experience as a public school teacher, university teacher educator, program administrator, educator mental and emotional health researcher, mindfulness and yoga teacher, and mother of a 7th grader and twin 6th graders in the Osseo school district to raise awareness of human service professional mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being.
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Jennifer is also a 200 hour certified yoga teacher and has spoken about mindfulness and well-being in the workplace at Target Corp. Jennifer has experience teaching meditation courses for the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota, Lifetime Fitness, and the University of Minnesota College of Education + Human Development and Carlson School of Management.
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