Here are a number of links to training programs that may be of interest. If you attend any of the webinars, please email the Director of Spiritual Exploration and Learning so we can record that information on your file. Most of the information is freely available. If you are aware of other training that may be of interest to other volunteers, please email Director of Spiritual Exploration and Learning. to let me know.
Classroom Management
Using Experiential Education in youth ministry (article)
Experiential education is a learning theory that particularly fits with our theology, which knows each of us must wrestle out meaning from our lives for ourselves. It is helpful for debriefing games, activities, youth group projects, and much more. Use it when things went great and when they were an utter flop. It is also a helpful frame for us as pastoral caregivers where our role is to support people to make meaning out of their lives and make their own decisions about what actions to take.
Need tips for responding to student behavior and keeping learning on task? We created this webinar for you, with input from over 1,200 educators who completed our classroom management survey. Join us to explore the most common behavioral problems and effective ways to respond, as well as promising strategies for fostering a supportive school climate. You’ll be able to download these helpful handouts: Five Strategies for Relationship Building and Seven Ways to Redirect Interruptions.
In the last webinar of our series on school climate, NEA and Teaching Tolerance will offer strategies for responding to biased remarks in a timely manner and helping students to do the same. You will learn to name different types of biased language you might hear at school, identify words that have become colloquial yet are still harmful, understand intent versus impact and gain valuable skills for creating a positive school climate.
When students and colleagues experience oppression based on their identities, being there sometimes just isn’t enough. Join Teaching Tolerance to learn more about how you can be a partner in empowerment for marginalized students and colleagues. In this introspective webinar, our activities and resources will help you learn more about the importance of self-identity in having complex identity-based conversations with students and colleagues. The toolkit for “Anatomy of an Ally,” the article “Teaching While White,” the webinar Let’s Talk! Discussing Whiteness and more tools will all be available to help you be an effective ally to those who may need you.
Activities
Five Mindful movement practices – Mindful Schools
All the movements can be done wearing regular clothes. Your students don’t need yoga mats. You can do it right in your classroom even if you don’t have a ton of room, and all the movements can be adjusted for students who don’t want to stand or might have a physical limitation – they can do them seated if they prefer.
To offer this practice in a trauma-informed way, make sure that students have choice if there is a movement they don’t want to do. They can pick another stretch so that the whole class is moving together and engaged, while allowing students to interact and engage with a physical practice in a way that feels safe and comfortable for them.
Are you looking for fun and creative ways to engage elementary students in anti-bias learning? This on-demand webinar will feature entertaining and educational activities you can use in your classroom as soon as tomorrow. Help young students learn the meaning and value of Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action—the four domains of the Teaching Tolerance Social Justice Standards. Find out how to implement these activities in your classroom with this exciting webinar! You’ll receive a certificate of completion once you finish this webinar.
Are you looking for fun and creative ways to engage your students in anti-bias learning? This webinar will feature entertaining team-building activities you can use in your classroom tomorrow. Created in partnership with The Origins Program using the Developmental Designs approach, these exercises not only break down social barriers; they also improve classroom climate. Help students learn the meaning and value of Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action, the four domains of the Teaching Tolerance Anti-Bias Framework. Find out how to implement these activities in your classroom with this exciting webinar!
Inclusivity
Is your Youth Ministry Welcoming, Inclusive and Accessible? By Jennica Davis-Hockett (article)
A youth group doesn’t magically transform into a welcoming, inclusive and accessible space as soon as you hang a poster of the Seven Principles on the door. We need to intentionally cultivate an environment where youth can practice caring for one another and holding one another accountable to living our highest values.
The third Equity Matters webinar delves into implicit biases—the subconscious biases we all have that influence how we respond to others. To create equitable classrooms, educators must acknowledge their own biases and take steps to confront them. Participants will better understand what implicit bias is and how it affects school climate. They will also learn ways to confront implicit bias within themselves and help students to do likewise.
The final webinar in the Equity Matters series will address how to move from a deficit-based approach to an equity-literacy framework for meeting the needs of students and families experiencing poverty. Using the four principals of equity literacy, participants will be able to define with their colleagues a shared vision of equity in their school and uncover and disrupt existing inequities. They will also draft a plan to create and sustain equitable policies and practices for all students and their families.
Gender, Sexuality, Sexual Health
Our Whole Lives (OWL) Training
Our Whole Lives (OWL) is an excellent, comprehensive sexuality education program that offers our young people the opportunity to explore their values, gain accurate information about topics that are often not easily accessible. The overall goal of the Our Whole Lives program is to help participants gain the knowledge, values, and skills they need to lead sexually healthy, responsible lives. We are proud that our congregations recognize that in order for young people to grow into spiritually whole, mature individuals we need to address the topic of sexuality. The material on Sexuality and Our Faith connects our religious beliefs with sexuality, spirituality, and issues of justice.
The Our Whole Lives teacher training will cover the curricula for one of two age levels – elementary (K-Gr1 & Gr 4-6) or junior/senior high (Gr 7-9 & 10-12). The goals of this workshop are to prepare the participants to implement the curriculum as well as the Sexuality and Our Faith component. Through a varied program including practice and participation activities, the trainers will cover implementation techniques, information about adolescents, curricula details, and technical information. Trainings are typically Friday evening through Sunday afternoon and include 15 hours or more of training time. To be certified as an Our Whole Lives Facilitator, one must attend the entire training. If interested please email the Director of Spiritual Exploration and Learning.
Teaching Tolerance proudly presents our four-part webinar series Let’s Talk! This series covers a range of critical topics that can be difficult to discuss with students and colleagues. For this third part in the series, Teaching Tolerance and Gender Spectrum are teaming up to help educators think beyond the gender binary and to create gender-inclusive classrooms. This interactive webinar will examine thought-provoking case studies and explore best practices.
Want to better support LGBTQ students in your classroom? Based on our brand-new Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students, this webinar models how to create an inclusive classroom culture and build an intersectional curriculum that incorporates queer history and perspectives.
“One of my favorite students came out.” “One of my second-graders has changed his name and his pronouns.” “My colleague is a lesbian. How can I support her?” “How can I make the school environment inclusive for the entire community?” Join Teaching Tolerance as we address these concerns with the support of Johanna Eager, director of Welcoming Schools. During this informative, interactive and insightful conversation, she’ll share her expertise in bias-based bullying in schools, with emphasis on intersectionality, gender and LGBT inclusivity.
Race and Racism
Join NEA and Teaching Tolerance for our second of three school-climate webinars. This time, we will provide guidance on how to have relevant and rigorous conversations with students about race, racism and other important topics. Teaching Tolerance’s resource Let’s Talk! will serve as a foundation to help build your capacity to safely broach these issues, and you’ll walk away with use-tomorrow strategies.
This webinar in the series will explore Black Lives Matter, an activist group that media, schools and communities often struggle to understand. You’ll learn about the roots of Black Lives Matter, its platform and its connections to past social justice movements. You’ll also gain tools for engaging students about the Black Lives Matter movement in the classroom.
This sequel to Let’s Talk! Discussing Black Lives Matter in the Classroom, reviews the education related policy demands within the Movement for Black Lives’ platform: Invest-Divest and Community Control. Participants will receive resources and a framework for bringing the Black Lives Matter movement into their classrooms. This webinar features EduColor’s Awo Okaikor Aryee-Price.
“Why does whiteness fly beneath the race radar?” We explored this question in a recent Teaching Tolerance feature story, and readers clamored for more information. We’ll dive deeper in the final webinar of our four-part Let’s Talk! Series, which covers a range of critical topics that can be difficult to discuss with students and colleagues. This interactive webinar will guide you in reflecting on and defining white privilege through multimedia and group chats. We’ll discuss whiteness as a racial identity with the understanding that acknowledging whiteness and the privilege and power attached to it is a necessary step in working toward racial justice.
What is white privilege, anyway? And do we really need to teach about it? Deconstructing white privilege in the classroom requires educators and students to understand the origins of whiteness and how the legacy of white supremacy endures. In our webinar What Is White Privilege, Anyway? educators will learn about all this and more, reaffirming their commitment to anti-racist education and developing practices for inviting students into this work. Join Teaching and Learning Specialist Stef Bernal-Martinez and anti-racist educator and scholar Ronda Taylor Bullock for this interactive, resource-rich opportunity that can help you create a more racially just classroom and community.
These two educators argue that truly serving all students means confronting racism, privilege and injustice.
Special Needs
Welcoming Children with Special Needs: A Guidebook for Faith Communities by Sally Patton (book)
Teaching All of Our Children by Sally Patton
Unitarian Universalist Training
The Renaissance program offers programs related to spiritual education and UU identity, history and theology. Each of these programs are offered online typically over 5 weeks. Topics include:
- Curriculum Planning—offered in July and January/February
- Philosophy of RE—offered in July and January/February
- UU Identity—offered in April and October
- Unitarian Universalist (UU) History
- Unitarian Universalist (UU) Theology
If you are interested in taking any of these programs please email the Director of Spiritual Exploration and Learning to find out more.