Empowering Health, Safety, and Wellness: A Whole Community Approach
Join us on Saturday, January 24th from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm for this engaging webinar. Registration is $15.00 per person and includes access to the recorded sessions.
Thanks to a generous grant from our partner, Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) we are able to bring you this virtual Health Symposium geared to the needs of our educators, health care professionals, parents and caregivers.
Agenda
Welcome and Logistics 9:00-9:05
- Donna Grady, Chair, Mass PTA, Health, Safety and Wellness Chair
- Deb McCarthy, MTA Vice President
Opening Thoughts 9:10-9:40
Karen Gross - The Importance of Naming Taming and Framing Feelings
Session 1 (choice of 1) 9:45-10:40
- Donna Grady - The Importance of Play
- Amelia Sanchez - Adolescence on the Autism Spectrum
Session 2 (choice of 1) 10:45-11:40
- Aura/Dr. Lauren Lee - Emerging Trends in Children and Teens Use of AI and Digital Literacy
- John Crocker - Understanding Trauma's Impact and Establishing Trauma-informed Relationships and Environments
Closing Thoughts 11:45-12:20
jamele Adams - Love, how you love who you love.
Karen Gross, Author; Artist; Educational Consultant Expand
The Importance of Naming Taming and Framing Feelings - the import of naming, taming and framing feelings. Starts with identifying feelings — positive and negative as matched pairs (a positive for every negative). Feeling jars. Feeling thermometers. Kimochis. A wee drawing exercise and guessing what others feel. Then tame, including through the use of our senses. And the frame: recognize importance of feelings and creating a safe place for them. We are not alone in having feelings! connection, community and creativity.
Karen Gross is a Washington, DC and Gloucester, MA based author and educator as well as an advisor to nonprofit schools, organizations and governments. Her work focuses on student success with a specialization in trauma, its symptomology and approaches to its amelioration. She has worked with institutions planning for and dealing with person- and nature-made disasters including shootings, suicides, immigration detention, family dysfunction, hurricanes and floods. Recently, her work has focused on the impact of the Pandemic on student learning and psychosocial development. She speaks frequently in the US and pre-pandemic, she also spoke in more than 10 foreign nations.
She currently serves as Senior Counsel to Finn Partners. She is an instructor in continuing education at Rutgers University Graduate School of Social Work and also sits on the Advisory Council at the Center for Minority Serving Institutions at Rutgers Graduate School of Education. She is an artist-in-residence at Molly Stark Elementary School (VT).
She is the award-winning author of three books: Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door (TC Press 2020); Breakaway Learners: Strategies for Post-Secondary Success (TC Press 2017) and Failure and Forgiveness: Rebalancing the Bankruptcy System (Yale University Press 1996). She is also the author of a trauma-sensitive children’s book series, Lady Lucy’s Quest. She has read to more than 3000 children across the globe.
She served for 8 years as President of Southern Vermont College and also as Senior Policy Advisor to the US Department of Education during the Obama Administration. She also advised the Biden Election Domestic Policy Committee, focusing on student mental wellness. Prior to that, she was a tenured law professor for 22 years in NYC. She has also served on numerous local, regional and national boards, including Campus Compact, New England Board of Higher Education and the Sage Colleges.
A frequent voice on education issues across the preK–20 pipeline, she has written for numerous publications, among them University Business, Age of Awareness, Evolllution, The Hechinger Report, The New England Journal of Higher Education, LinkedIn, Forest of the Rain Productions, InsideHigherEd and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Since the start of the Pandemic, she has done over 80 podcasts on topics related to trauma, education and leadership.
Two of her most commonly quoted phrases are: (1) Education happens in many places and spaces of which the classroom is but one; and (2) Believe in the Power of the Possible as it is within us all.
Added information is available at: www.karengrosseducation.com
Donna Grady, MA PTA Health Safety and Wellness Chair Expand
Understanding the Importance of Play:
Hands on play builds brain architecture, emotional balance, and executive function. When children are given materials that move, resist and respond, they are given tools to build understanding from the inside out. Sensory feedback organizes the nervous system and supports emotional regulation. Meaningful movement (unlike swiping and tapping) connects the sensory and motor systems that shape attention, memory and language. Play organizes the brain for thinking. When children use their hands, their entire body and brain come alive. Let's help our kids be their best selves!
Donna Grady is a 36 year veteran public school educator, currently teaching in a suburban Kindergarten. She has also worked in private Preschool and Kindergarten as well as in an International School.
Donna is an active local Union President as well as being active in both the Massachusetts and National Education Associations. Currently,
She is now serving as the Chair for the MA PTA Health, Safety and Wellness Committee, an area of interest she brings with her from her Union work with Safe Schools for All.
Donna is also a mom to two teenagers, both currently in High School.
Donna is familiar with the day to day needs of students, academically, emotionally, and healthfully, from both a parent and an educator perspective.
Amelia Sanchez, Autistic Self-Advocate Expand
"In this workshop, I will discuss and demonstrate the variety of challenges and risks adolescents on the autism spectrum face. Adolescence is known to be an especially difficult time for autistic individuals. Puberty can exacerbate pre-existing sensory processing and emotional regulation challenges. Social challenges can increase as social interactions become more complex. Autistic adolescents are highly susceptible to anxiety disorders, depression and trauma. Autistic individuals of all ages tend to be especially vulnerable to stress, and this issue frequently becomes a much bigger problem during adolescence."
Amelia Sanchez is an autistic self-advocate with professional experience working with children and adolescents on the autism spectrum and with other disabilities. She has also served on advisory boards for autism-related research projects through Boston University and delivered presentations on autism to fellow volunteers for Franciscan Children’s Hospital’s adaptive sports programs. She is currently a student at Bunker Hill Community College.
Dr. Lauren Lee, PhD, Clinical Specialist - Products & Partnership, Aura Expand
Emerging Trends in Children and Teens Use of AI and Digital Literacy
Presenting a frank discussion on digital trends affecting our children and how Aura is responding to these challenges through its Aura for Parents offering.
Lauren A. Lee, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and product innovator operating at the cutting edge of digital health. She currently leads the development of child safety and wellbeing applications at Aura, an intelligent digital safety company. In this role, she leverages behavioral science to build next-generation tools that protect children while fostering healthy family dynamics in a digital-first world. Dr. Lee formerly oversaw the clinical integrity of products serving millions of users worldwide while at Headspace. A defining moment in her tenure was re-launching the External Research Collaborator Program, which opened Headspace’s tools to third-party academic study, reinforcing the necessity of scientific evidence in consumer tech. A passionate advocate for the "clinical-product" bridge, Dr. Lee is an Advisor at Therapists in Tech, where she mentors clinicians transitioning into the technology sector. Her work focuses on professionalizing the role of subject matter experts in startups and ensuring that "move fast and break things" does not apply to human mental health.
John Crocker, M.Ed. Director of School Mental Health & Behavioral Services, Methuen Public Schools Expand
Understanding Trauma's Impact and Establishing Trauma-informed Relationships and Environments
Understanding how trauma impacts youth is not enough; we need to understand how to intervene on behalf of youth who have experienced trauma and create environments and relationships that reduce instances of retraumatization and foster growth and resilience. A brief overview of the science behind trauma and how we can better understand it to inform our supports will be offered followed by a review of trauma-informed practices embedded in a resource entitled the Trauma-Informed Classrooms Strategy Guide.
John Crocker, M.Ed. Bio: John Crocker has worked in public education for over a decade, primarily as the administrator for the Methuen Public Schools Counseling Department. He has overseen the planning and implementation of the “Mental Health Initiative,” which has focused on the establishment of a comprehensive school mental health system (CSMHS) in partnership with the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH). John has worked with the NCSMH as a member of the National School Mental Health Task Force and as the Massachusetts team leader for the National Coalition for the State Advancement of School Mental Health (NCSA-SMH). In his role as the director of school mental health & behavioral services, he is charged with overseeing the district-wide implementation and evaluation of Methuen’s CSMHS and positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS). His work has focused on developing a district-wide system of universal mental health screening, advancing the use of psychosocial data to inform school mental health staff’s therapeutic practice, and the development and evaluation of the CSMHS in Methuen. He has worked to scale up evidence-based therapeutic services across Methuen through the provision of district-wide professional development and the design and implementation of group- and individual-therapy programs. Mr. Crocker founded the Massachusetts School Mental Health Consortium (MASMHC), a group of approximately one-hundred and fifty school districts across Massachusetts committed to advocating for and implementing quality and sustainable school mental health services and supports. Most recently, MASMHC co-led the Massachusetts Collaborative for Improvement and Innovation Network (CoIIN) for Comprehensive School Mental Health and Thriving Minds, a professional development series focused on building comprehensive school mental health systems. He received the National Center for School Mental Health’s School Mental Health Champion Award in 2018 and was nominated the 2019 Massachusetts School Counselors Association (MASCA) Administrator of the Year and the 20-21 Massachusetts Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Counselor of the Year.
jamele Adams, Progenitor of the Love Inclusion & Trust (LIT) Dynamic Framework Expand
Love, how you love who you love. - jamele Adams, Progenitor of the Love Inclusion & Trust (LIT) Dynamic Framework
Love is the constant wave, always there and we will conclude with the same energy that started it all, love.
Jamele Adams Bio: jamele has served as the DEI Director for the District of Scituate Public Schools. Recipient of many awards and recognitions for his work in higher education, with young scholars interested in law and creative writing workshops, he is also a nationally celebrated poet. jamele remains well known for his work engaging issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. Through his L.I.T. platform and model; love, inclusion and trust serve as the basis for human connection while addressing h8 and bias. jamele is often called to high schools to assist in navigating complex terrains of injustice and help student communities after bias incidents have occurred.
“Love how you love who you love” -JMA
