Staffing & Preparation

Power of Identity: Facilitating Identity Circles

The Power of Identity presents materials on culturally responsive supervision from the first of a three‐part series designed for supervisors in teacher education. This series was developed in partnership with Dr. Tanisha Brandon‐Felder, a consultant in professional development on equity pedagogy. This document contains handouts, planning tools, readings, facilitation video about Identity Circles, and other materials to provide facilitators with a scaffolded experience. The materials focus on experiential understanding of the power of identity and to imagine the possibilities when teachers truly know their students. 

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Speak Up at School: How to Implement (video)

This is the accompanying instructional video on how to implement the curriculum in classrooms for grades 6th through 12th. The guidebook from Learning for Justice offers tools and strategies to prepare you to speak up against prejudice, bias and stereotypes at school. Because whoever it is, and wherever you are, there are ways to be ready for such moments, ways to make sure that you aren’t caught tongue-tied, ways to make sure that you don’t let hate have the last word.

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Mental Health and High School Curriculum Guide (Version 3)

The Mental Health and High School Curriculum Guide developed in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association provides a complete set of educational tools to increase understanding of mental health and mental disorders among both students and teachers. The guide focuses on training teachers to be comfortable with their own knowledge of mental health and mental disorders, and then empowers the teachers to share this knowledge with their students through a curriculum delivered in a multiple module format. The program uses a variety of interactive sessions that help to promote dialogue among students, as well as with their teachers. Discussing mental health and mental illness in a supportive, familiar environment enables youth to feel safe, ask questions, gain knowledge, combat stigma and develop their own opinions of the world around them. The teachers training materials are provided for free, and many of the other materials are incorporated into this curriculum site.

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Brain Development in Children

This video emphasizes the critical period for brain growth from birth to age 5 and how experiences like nutrition, learning, and social interactions shape the brain. Trauma, such as abuse or neglect, can cause lasting effects by altering brain structure and strengthening negative connections.

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We Need Trauma Informed Work Places

The past several years have been incredibly turbulent, as we’ve faced Covid, racial violence, political upheaval, environmental disasters, war, and more. Anxiety and depression have skyrocketed. Organizations have had to confront issues they never expected and find new ways to support their employees through repeated traumatic experiences. The reality, though, is that trauma is not new in our organizations. It’s not going away, either. Estimates are that six in 10 men and five in 10 women experience at least one trauma, and approximately 6% of the population will experience PTSD at some point in their lives. As we’ve seen the lines between work and home blur and a fundamental shift in our expectations of the places we work, organizations have struggled to provide the support and leadership their employees need. That’s why it’s so important to take steps now to build the cultures that can see them through current and future crises. To do that, we need to build trauma-informed organizations.

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Cultures Connecting

Cultures Connecting, LLC was founded in 2008 and provides professional development and consulting services to individuals and organizations committed to excellence through equity and social justice. Workshops are facilitated with interactive activities, videos, role play, small and large group discussions, and content-based lectures to engage participants in courageous conversations. The room or virtual platform is set up to create an atmosphere of learning.

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