Recapping Professional Development Week
Updated: 3 hours ago
Our Professional Development week this summer began with an address from our founder, Karen Misher, in which she expressed her three goals for all of the students in our care: to be safe, loved, and educated. Staff spent the remainder of the week working together in various trainings that emphasized a variety of ways to ensure these core tenets are being met every day. A few of these trainings included CPI and Ukeru; Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR); and Engagement and Play training.
Each training utilizes the building of relationships with students to ensure these three tenets are met on a daily basis. These relationships are crucial in helping our staff and students develop trust in each other. This trust leads to stronger relationships that allow staff more opportunities for meaningful interactions and greater success in utilizing de-escalation techniques. When our students trust the adults around them, feel connected to them, and feel safe within our buildings, they are able to learn and gain new skills.
"Question, Persuade, Refer" (QPR) training is a nationally recognized, evidence-based practice that teaches participants how to recognize possible warning signs of suicide, and empowers them to support individuals and take action when needed. As a suicide prevention training, QPR is similar to CPR, in that it is a training that anyone can take, to save a life! QPR offers hope through positive action, emphasizing empathy and connection. This 1-year certification is important for all ASUA staff to have when working with students so they can be empowered to take action and provide hope in difficult times, keep students safe, and show students that ASUA staff do not turn away during hard moments.
CPI is a program that focuses on Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Techniques with a guiding philosophy of Care, Welfare, Safety, Security. This person-centered and trauma-informed approach understands that behavior influences behavior. Staff explored the ways in which their responses to behaviors can help escalate or de-escalate these behaviors. Utilizing CPI, staff build trust and relationships even during a crisis and focus on the individual and their specific needs and triggers. Through building therapeutic rapport with students, staff strengthen those relationships that aid students in calming their body during crisis moments. When a student is able to move through the various levels of a crisis and reach a regulated state, then they are able to engage in learning. Ukeru is a tool we utilize throughout school to aid in student and staff safety during these crisis moments. During the training, staff learned the most effective way to utilize these tools to ensure all students and staff are able to maintain safety.
After learning how to ensure our students remain safe throughout the day, staff spent some time learning about how important play and being an engaged caregiver is to learning. Staff spent time rotating through various centers like they may utilize in the classroom modeling how they may utilize the materials to engage their students. They explored the various ways that activities can be turned into learning opportunities. While moving through these centers, our speech team modeled how to effectively model the use of student’s AAC devices. We highlighted the Engagement Triangle: students learn because they participate, students participate because they are engaged, students are engaged because they trust us. This triangle is key to ensuring our core tenets are met. When our students feel safe, they are more engaged; when our students are engaged, we strengthen those connections, ensuring they feel loved; those strong connections encourage our students to want to participate within our classroom; when our students participate in our classroom, they learn.
Kara Morris (she/her)
Education Coordinator for the Annex