'24 MSAA Summer Institute

Schools are seeing an increased number of students of all ages and stages "misbehaving" and "acting badly." This interferes with learning, classroom management and psychosocial development on virtually a daily basis. It adds significantly to educators’ stress. This workshop is designed first to help school counselors and other educators understand the whys:

Why are students acting out or self-isolating? To this end, we will focus on this phrase: "Behavior is the language of trauma."

Second, we will focus on how to address the negative student behaviors now being seen in many classrooms, which can be recharacterized as cries for help. In the process, we are challenging the existing assumptions in many settings that punishment (isolation, suspension, and expulsion) is effective and offer up, in their stead, different approaches that focus on understanding, compassion and restorative practices.