Training Topics:

Each session below is research and relationship-based. Each is informed by a deep and abiding love for all children and a profound belief in their limitless potential. As educators ourselves, we know that educators make a powerful difference in the lives of children. Our goal is to support children through supporting the work of all educators, and to help them improve their practice through “doing different” as opposed to “doing more”. Each presentation is designed to be dynamic, inspiring, engaging and practical. Check out the topics below, email DR. TRANTER or click on the LEARN MORE button for more info:

What is Student Well-being and How is it Best Promoted in Education?                                                                          

This looks at the research in well-being and identifies the key areas and critical strategies to best support children and youth well-being in educational settings. It explores how educators can have a powerful and enduring impact on the trajectory of their students’ lives. (JK-12)

Trauma-Informed Teaching

This examines the research on the signs and symptoms of childhood trauma, and its impact on the brain, the body, and learning. It focuses on practical classroom strategies that teachers can use to help students to become better regulated and ready to learn. (JK-12)

Walking the Third Path: A Model for Promoting Student Well-being and Achievement                                                  

This provides an overview of the Third Path Model and the Eight Conditions that support student well-being and achievement. It challenges educators to think differently about their role, and the ultimate objectives of education. It emphasizes the WHAT of education, but more importantly it emphasizes the HOW and WHY. (JK-12)

An Introduction to Relationship-Based Education (Part One)                                                                                          

This covers the critical-concepts that underlie the Relationship-Based Approach, as opposed to more traditional thinking. It examines what it actually means to have strong, authentic, intentional and responsive relationships with students, and how this is critically connected to student well-being and success. (JK-12)

Thinking and Teaching from a Relational Perspective (Part Two)                                                                                    

This delves deeper into understanding learning and behaviour from a relational approach—rather than a traditional behavioural or task-based approach. Relational thinking emphasizes the social, dynamic and interconnected nature of human development. This challenges educators to think deeply about their role and their commitment to personal and professional growth. (JK-12)

Implementing Relationship-Based Education in Classrooms and Schools (Part Three)                                                     

This final session in the series focuses on how to systematically implement RBE and move from theory to day-to-day classroom practice. RBE is not simply a program to adopt and implement, it’s a deep pedagogy that should be embedded in all aspects of the curriculum and school life. (JK-12)

Safety: Strengthening Student Attachment                                                                                                                  

This is the most fundamental of the Eight Conditions and looks at the critical role of emotional safety in learning and development. It examines how attachment styles shape student behaviour and learning, and the strategies that educators can use to best address student behavioural struggles. The concept of the Cycle of Student behaviour is introduced. (JK-12 - but most relevant to JK-6)

Regulation: Co-Regulation, Stress and Trauma                                                                                                              

This explores what regulation and dysregulation really is, and examines how stress affects learning and relationships. It also includes the impact of trauma and neglect. A comprehensive range of classroom and school-wide strategies to support regulation are covered, as well as a framework for understanding the different degrees of dysregulation, and the powerful influence of co-regulation. (JK-12 - but most relevant to JK-8)

Belonging: The Power of People and Place                                                                                                                  

This examines how Educators, Peers and Places all contribute to an overall sense of student belonging. It defines belonging in a simple, yet meaningful way and introduces a clear model to explain how belonging is best built, as well as covers a range of classroom and school strategies. (JK-12)

Positivity: Supporting Strengths and Promoting Potential                                                                                               

This explores how qualities such as joy, gratitude, optimism, and a sense of fun all contribute to student well-being and academic success. It challenges educators to look at their more deeply held assumptions about student strengths, limitations and potential, and provides strategies to identify and support the unique capacities of each and every student. (JK-12)

Engagement: Capturing Imagination and Fostering Focus                                                                                            

This provides a clear framework for thinking about the challenges involved in engaging students in education. It looks at the power influence of depletion, and the key reasons that contribute to student disengagement. It provides research-based strategies to avoid disengagement, and best practices to strengthen engagement and focus. (JK-12 - but most relevant to 5-12)

Identity: Inclusion, Empowerment and Pride                                                                                                                 

This focuses on the importance of creating a classroom and school environment in which all students feel equally valued and fully included. Students need to see themselves reflected in the school environment and in the curriculum. Issues such as student marginalization, as well as educator assumptions and biases are the emphasis. Strategies are addressed that create an educational context in which students feel highly valued, and understand who they are and who they can be. (JK-12 - but most relevant to 5-12)

Mastery: Strengthening Self-Efficacy and Self-Confidence                                                                                             

This focuses on developing the skills of independent learning and self-efficacy. The critical role of building intrinsic motivation in emphasized, as well as the paradox of extrinsic motivation. Strategies to enhance a personal sense of mastery and motivation are addressed in detail. (JK-12 - but most relevant to 5-12)

Meaning: Making Education Make Sense                                                                                                                     

The role of meaning in learning and human development is examined, especially the concept of meaning-making. This goes beyond simply making the curriculum more meaningful, relevant and relatable, to also address the larger goals of helping students find greater meaning in education, as well as developing meaning in their lives. (JK-12 - but most relevant to 7-12)

Supporting Educator Well-being           

This goes beyond discussions of mere self-care strategies and focuses on the deeper questions of the role of education and the educator. Educators will be inspired to think deeply about their professional purpose, while at the same time strengthening their personal well-being. A range of research-based well-being practices for educators are presented. (JK-12  - but most relevant to 7-12)

Teaching the Teen Brain                      

Teenagers are unique largely because of the incredibly rapid brain growth that occurs during this period. The focus is on how educators can best connect with and motivate teenagers, support the development of executive functioning, and teach the skills of learning. (7-12)

Supporting Students Who Have Anxiety                                                                                                                       

This focuses on what anxiety actually is, how it occurs within the brain and body, and why more and more students are struggling. A range of practical classroom strategies are provided for educators to best support students who experience stress and anxiety. (JK-12)

Mindfulness Practices for Educators and Students                                                                                                         

This examines what mindfulness is, and how it can best be applied in an educational setting to students of all ages. Mindfulness strategies for students, and for educators, are covered in detail. (JK-12)

Digging Deeper into Difficult Student Behaviour                                                                                                         

This goes into greater detail to examine the source of the most problematic student behaviours and how to understand and successfully address them. The student behaviours include everything from significant disengagement to active oppositional behaviour. Educators are encouraged to take a long-term, growth-oriented approach to addressing the behaviour, rather than a brief classroom-management orientation. (JK-8)

From Worried to Well: Strategies to Help Your Child Succeed Through the Ups and Downs of School and Life               

This is for parents and caregivers and focuses on the best practises to support student well-being and academic achievement, and how to work most effectively with educators toward this common goal. (JK-12)