True Colors (2–4 hours) — This is a fun, interactive personality inventory, much less complicated than Meyers-Briggs or others.  Educators learn what each type is like and how they interact with one another.

I Can Do It (1–15 hours) — Classroom management training that includes a participant manual of tips and ideas, and class time to sample different strategies to keep students engaged.  

Teach, But Don’t Touch (45 minutes) — A short presentation on appropriate levels of contact with students and how to handle situations that present an ethical or moral dilemma.  

Trauma-Informed Classroom Sessions 

Brain Architecture Game (1 hour +) — This session has participants building a model of a brain in the first 8 years of life.  Using a game format interspersed with short video segments and group discussion, teams learn about the impact of traumatic events on brain development and the role that social supports play in building resilience in young minds. 

Trauma-Informed Classroom Sessions Mindfulness (1 hour+) — The ability to recognize when students have become disengaged from learning or when a student is near dysregulation means that educators can intervene with activities to calm the mind and re-engage students in learning.  Sample brain breaks, mindful breathing, motion and other mindful activities.  

Building Relationships (1 hour) — The key to controlling student behaviors and learning is to forge a strong, trusting adult relationship with your students. Explore techniques that create those relationships and search for one or more that may fit with your teaching style. 

The Role of Restorative Justice Strategies in Classroom Management (1 hour) — Restorative Justice is a less authoritarian means of managing a classroom while also retaining student respect. It involves mediation, responsibility and agreement rather than punishment. Dig into restorative strategies that can be adopted at the classroom, building, or district level.

ACES, Resiliency, and the Trauma-Informed Classroom (2 ½ hours +) — Educators are well aware that student behaviors have changed dramatically in the past decade or two.  They are also aware that classic classroom management techniques are often ineffective.  This training examines Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) as the source of the change in behavior and focuses on building relationships with caring, nurturing adults as the starting point to redirect behaviors.  Participants will learn about the effects of ACEs on brain development and long-term health issues, how to boost resilience in your students to help them overcome traumatic events, and classroom strategies that work. (Includes the Brain Architecture Game described above in the 2 ½+ hours.)

Paper Tigers Screening and Discussion (2 ½ hours) — Paper Tigers is a 1 hr., 42 min. documentary chronicling a year in the lives of 6 students at an alternative high school after it radically changed its approach to discipline.  From getting into fights, grappling with traumatic events in their lives, and on the cusp of dropping out, they find healing, support and academic promise at Lincoln High.  Facilitators lead a debrief and discussion after the movie to allow participants to synthesize what they have seen into practical applications in their own setting to break the cycles of poverty, violence and disease that affect families.  This movie contains graphic language.

Resilience Screening and Discussion (1 ½ hours) — Researchers have recently discovered a dangerous biological syndrome caused by abuse and neglect during childhood. As this one hour documentary reveals, toxic stress can trigger hormones that wreak havoc on the brains and bodies of children, putting them at a greater risk for disease, homelessness, prison time, and early death. While the broader impacts of poverty worsen the risk, no segment of society is immune. Resilience, however, also chronicles the dawn of a movement that is determined to fight back. Trailblazers in pediatrics, education, and social welfare are using cutting-edge science and field-tested therapies to protect children from the insidious effects of toxic stress.  Facilitators lead a debrief and discussion after the movie to allow participants to synthesize what they have seen into practical applications in their own setting.
Poverty Simulator (2 + hours) — Educators are filled with compassion, so it is natural to want to help when we see students who need food, clothing or other essentials, but do we grasp the real, lasting toll poverty takes beyond what we see at school?  The Missouri Community Action Network has developed a poverty simulation that lets you experience being poor first-hand.  This training requires a larger group with a minimum of 40 needed to fully implement the simulation. 

Restorative Justice and Equity in Schools (1–16 hours) — A trauma-informed school starts with building healthy, trusting relationships with caring adults.  Take a deep dive with an NEA Leaders for Just Schools trainer into understanding equity and its impact on learning environments.  Lessons range from 10-90 minutes and cover topics from how we have formed the thoughts and opinions that drive our disposition, decisions, and relationships to the impact bias has on equity to seeking ways to improve school culture for all students.

EdCamps — EdCamps are a great PD resource where the attendees determine the content of the training, and share their knowledge and resources with one another.  SDEA is available to facilitate an EdCamp in your school, or to train local leaders to run their own camp. 

Using Oral Culture in the Classroom to Connect with Students in Poverty (1 hour) — Print culture communication is widely used among middle class and public schools for sharing/receiving information. However, oral culture is the preferred communication style among those in poverty. Learn to incorporate both print and oral culture skills into your teaching. Practice adapting print-based lessons to accommodate oral culture skills.

Successful Trauma-Informed Instructional Strategies (1 hour) — New behavior management issues in the classroom call for an examination and adjustment of your instructional strategies.  Examine strategies that work for in-class instruction and homework.

Special Education Basics for General Educators (1 hour) — Most teachers have students in their classroom who are on IEPs or who are covered by a section 504 accommodation for students with disabilities.  However, we often cut corners when it appears that a student doesn’t need accommodations.  Learn what the law requires and why it is important to follow the IEP regardless of the underlying assumptions we are making based on observation.  

Protecting Yourself and Your Career on the Internet (1–1 ½ hours) — As the incidence of career educators getting into trouble or losing their jobs over internet issues rises, the need to review the pitfalls and ways to avoid them grows.  Steps to take when being harassed on the internet are also presented.  

Become your own SPED advocate for yourself and your students (2 hours) — A review of federal and state SPED law to help answer questions that often perplex educators, as well as a session on the use of restraint and how case law is evolving.  

Review of Ethics (1–1 ½ hours) — Both probationary and veteran teachers have a need to know or review ethical dilemmas in teaching.  This session provides the class with 10 situations to solve and discuss.  

Jump Start! (15 hours) — Created by Washington EA and run as a member benefit, Jump Start! Is nationally renowned as the best preparation for teachers who are either considering or who have decided to take on the challenge of becoming a National Board Certified Teacher.  The training takes participants through the four components of certification and is the firststep a candidate should take in their National Board journey.  The training is offered annually or biennially, depending on demand.

SD Teacher Effectiveness Model (1–2 hours) — Designed to introduce first-year teachers in your district, or those new to the state, to the statewide model for teacher evaluation and growth.  Explore the Charlotte Danielson domains and components and their accompanying rubrics, the SLO process, and how the entire process is intended to be used and scored as a means of preparing new hires for evaluation.  

Micro-Credentialing (at least 15 hours per credential) — A micro-credential is a means of acquiring new learning or of documenting existing skills/learning through a personalized platform.  It is available on demand.  Hundreds of topics are available. Graduate credit is available through Augustana University. SDEA can facilitate a PLC or local groups.

Title IX in Public K12 Schools (1½ hours) — Although Title IX rules around sex discrimination have been around since 1972, recent court rulings have expanded coverage and updated how issues are handled in schools.  Learn what your role is in reporting issues, how and when to report and how and when to intervene.