The following workshops are available for staff, students and parents. Workshops are offered both in person and via Zoom. MPY requires a minimum of 25 participants for staff workshops and a minimum of 40 participants for parent and caregiver workshops. Exceptions are made on a case by case basis.
Responding to the Effects of Trauma in the Classroom (Remote Only)
This workshop will address the social-emotional needs in the classroom, as well as a deeper look at what ACEs or Adverse Childhood Experiences are and how that stress can become toxic and its impact on learning. We will also explore some classroom techniques that can be used daily to help children with stress and trauma.
Restorative Communication – The Language of Connection (In-Person Only)
Effective Communication, expressing our needs, and understanding our emotions are vital skills to learn in life, yet not something taught extensively in everyday education. When communication breaks down and intense emotions are present, having the skills to self-regulate, to identify feelings, and engaging in collaboratively problem-solving is at the heart of restorative communication.
Our emotions are wonderful guideposts about needs being met or not met. Adults benefit from learning these essential communication skills and modeling empathy for young people to observe and learn from.
Howard Moody has extensive training in Non-violent communication, Conscious Communication and Emotional Responsibility. This workshop will be an overview of these helpful communication modalities and will use the PAIR UP model developed by Annie O’Shaughnessy from the Starling Collaborative, a restorative practices training organization, as our guidepost.
As always with Howard's work, this will be fun and engaging.
Restorative Justice
Traditional school discipline does not always help students take responsibility and be accountable for their behaviors or to realize how those behaviors reverberate through the school community. Restorative Justice helps to change behavior by allowing the victim to be heard and acknowledging that a harm has been done. This workshop will give participants the tools necessary to expand disciplinary alternatives. This presentation is only available to school staff and administrators.
Restorative Justice/Healing Circles
Helping schools discuss, heal, and move forward after a harmful incident on campus.
Safe and Healthy Relationships: Building Respect, Trust, and Boundaries
This presentation will help students understand the foundations of safe and healthy relationships—whether with friends, dating partners, or peers. Students will explore key elements like communication, trust, respect, and boundaries while learning how to identify red flags such as manipulation, jealousy, or control. Through real-life scenarios, interactive discussions, and practical tools, students will gain the skills needed to build positive relationships and seek help if needed. The goal is to empower youth to make safe, respectful, and informed choices in all types of relationships.
Secondary Trauma and Self Care (Remote Only)
In this workshop, we will look and vicarious trauma and self-care. Vicarious trauma is “ a normal response to the ongoing exposure to other people's trauma.” Working to support people who have experienced trauma, and hearing, seeing and learning about their experiences, can have a cumulative effect on you and many aspects of your personal life. Self-care is important for people who have experienced vicarious trauma because it can help them cope with the emotional toll of being exposed to other people's trauma: Self-care includes meditation, mindfulness, breathwork, exercise such as yoga, journaling, massage, and practicing progressive muscle relaxation, as well as creating a work-life balance and learning to delegate.
Section 504 for Student Support Staff
Section 504 can be confusing for school staff and families alike. Yet its implementation is is essential to ensure that students with disabilities have equal access to educational opportunities. This Section 504 workshop is designed to equip student support staff with the necessary knowledge and skills to actively engage in the Section 504 process for students with disabilities.
Self-Care and Work-Life Balance: What Works for YOU (In Person Only)
The demands of educators today have faculty, administrators, and staff running in numerous directions with little time to pause and reflect, let alone allow for space to define what self-care at work (and at home) could/should look like. This interactive workshop provides participants with a "time out" to breathe (seriously), learn steps to craft an individualized self-care approach, understand how to protect oneself from emotional mugging, as well as an honest conversation on why asking your supervisor about "work-life balance" might set us up for disappointment. Participants will leave empowered and recharged--because when you feel good, you do good!
Self-Regulation Strategies: Grades 5-12
Providing 5-12 students with a cognitive behavioral approach to teach how to identify and to process feelings will result in developing strategies to cope with difficult situations. These skills will lead to improved self-regulation in students as well as increase increased ability to be actively engaged in learning.
Self-Regulation Strategies: Grades K-5
Providing K-5 students with a cognitive behavioral approach to teach how to identify and to process feelings will result in developing strategies to cope with difficult situations. These skills will lead to improved self-regulation in students as well as increase increased ability to be actively engaged in learning.
