PTA Protocol. Parents often wonder what information they need to give their children in order to keep them safe and how much they can withhold to keep their children from becoming unnecessarily fearful. First we address how we ourselves can keep safe and what myths about safety we may have absorbed. Then we address what perspectives and skills we can develop at home to help our children without creating fear. Includes:
•Personal Safety 101 Seminar
Personal Safety 101 teaches what an assailant is looking for and how to avoid being that target by teaching awareness skills, body language, and using one’s voice to prevent or stop an assault. We address how our socialization and media images affect how we react in threatening or dangerous situations. Students have an opportunity to question safety information they have received in the past to discover whether it is relevant or effective. We show a video of our courses so that people can see what we do in our experiential classes, but also so that students can see someone who looks like them (size, gender, age, etc.) talking their way out of a bad situation/defending/taking care of themselves. People simply can’t do what they don’t believe is possible, so it’s important to shift those expectations.
•Developing Children’s Intuition
In this seminar, adults learn how to model a healthy approach to safety for children in their lives as well as learn how they can reinforce good boundaries in everyday life to help keep their children safe.
Click on a class or seminar within each package below for more information
TEACHING WITH COMPASSION |
TEACHER INTERVENTION |
Teaching with Compassion. This package addresses sometimes difficult issues teachers often face in the classroom that extend beyond the class’s actual subject. The class is tailored for each group by a discussion where teachers are able to share situations that have been difficult or what they worry might come up. Themes often addressed include power struggles that may arise between students, between students and teachers, and between teachers and the administration and/or parents. By exploring how harassment and bullying relate to attempts to “control” another, we set the stage for talking about how as adults, it is our job to guide classroom behavior in effect ways, without bullying. The experiential portion allows teachers to explore how students may experience events in the classroom, following with practicing verbal strategies and effective body language to set boundaries and de-escalate stressful situations. Includes:
•”The Challenges In My Classroom” Seminar
Participants debrief with IMPACT staff and each other about the challenges they have experienced in the classroom or halls and what their concerns are from what they hear from colleagues and/or the media. This sharing is useful for the group as well as for shaping scenarios for later classes.
•Harassment & Bullying 101 Seminar
Participants learn about the manifestations of manipulation and control that often affect interactions at school. We look deeper into why people try to control or punish others through manipulation. Participants examine the ways in which they use manipulation. The group identifies when it is appropriate to have a conversation and when to depend on subtle cues.
•1-Hour Experiential “In Their Desks”
Participants get the opportunity in this session to experience what it is like to be a student, how teachers’ body language might affect them if they were a student, and explore the dynamics that might be involved when they are teaching or trying to set a boundary with a student. By better empathizing with the students, teachers are more likely to set boundaries that will be better received.
•2-Hour Experiential Verbal Assertive De-escalation
Participants learn practice a variety of concrete communication skills in realistic role-play scenarios with in-the-moment feedback. Participants learn effective body language and verbal skills to set boundaries appropriately, using strategies such as humanizing, empathizing, de-escalating, etc.
Teacher Intervention. Teachers and school staff have a job of not only educating students, but also the job of raising the future generation and creating a culture of accountability at their school. They are often expected to stop bullying and mistreatment, but methods of doing so are not often taught as a part of teacher education. This package empowers teachers and staff by giving them insight into conflict and violence, giving them personal safety skills, and giving them practice at actual interventions for when they witness acts/words between students, students and teachers, and between teachers and the administration and/or parents.
Many teachers prefer to learn physical self-defense as a part of this package. Though no school encourages a teacher to use physical defense against a student, learning these techniques address the question that keeps so many people from standing up when they see an injustice; that is, “What if it escalates and I am in danger?” We know fear for one’s own safety is typically the biggest barrier to intervening. The point of learning physical strategies to defend oneself is not actually to use them, but to increase the likelihood that they will actually speak out, and when they do, they are more likely to use effective body language and tone to get their point across. Includes:
Personal Safety 101 teaches what an assailant is looking for and how to avoid being that target by teaching awareness skills, body language, and using one’s voice to prevent or stop an assault. We address how our socialization and media images affect how we react in threatening or dangerous situations. Students have an opportunity to question safety information they have received in the past to discover whether it is relevant or effective.
•The Roots of Violence Seminar
People are assaulted differently based on the way that they are perceived. These perceptions are based on cultural legacies around factors like gender, race, and class. These perceptions are perpetuated by images in the media and the increasingly commonplace use of derogatory language. Participants in this seminar identify how the use of this kind of language serves to socialize the behavior of the group or culture they belong to and how this socialization limits personal expression and encourages the continuation of institutional oppression. This seminar explores the link between casual use of derogatory language and hate-crimes like gay-bashing or domestic violence.
•Harassment & Bullying 101 Seminar
Participants learn about the manifestations of manipulation and control that often affect interactions at school. We look deeper into why people try to control or punish others through manipulation. Participants examine the ways in which they use manipulation. The group identifies when it is appropriate to have a conversation and when to depend on subtle cues.
•3-5-Hour Experiential Verbal and/or Verbal & Physical Intervention Workshop
Participants learn practice a variety of concrete communication skills in realistic role-play scenarios with in-the-moment feedback. Participants learn effective body language and verbal skills to set boundaries appropriately, using strategies such as humanizing, empathizing, de-escalating, etc. These verbal techniques are put to use in intervention situations. In a longer class, participants learn how to stand up for themselves and other physically, which can profoundly change the efficacy of their tone, body language, and verbal skills in interventions.
