Are you a school principal, assistant principal, school administrator, school SEL team member, education coach or specialist interested or active in leading social and emotional learning in your school or district?
In an age when educators are reporting high numbers of learners aged 0-8 being developmentally behind in self-regulation and relationship building…
How would you like to ease educator stress and reduce dysregulated behavior in class?
What if, in the next 8 weeks, you could work with a trained professional to implement a program that provides a deep level of support and care for educator well-being while equipping participants with evidence-based, trauma-informed tools they can use right away in their work with children...
A program that offers educators' new ways to respond positively to dysregulated behavior so that children can focus, become engaged, cooperate and learn well.
Because when educators feel supported and have a practical framework with effective tools to use they avoid becoming dysregulated themselves, and can respond to their students in ways that feel supportive and empowering and students’ behavior improves.
If you are leading the charge on SEL in your school or district...
...You've probably heard many concerns from educators you work with:
- Children's intense behaviors can feel impossible to handle - kids are frequently melting down and getting increasingly disruptive. Can SEL strategies really turn that around?
- Educators and support staff are already stretched and feeling burned out. Won't asking them to do another thing will be too much.
- You hear educators say they want to teach, not manage behavior… What if they will not get on-board?
Educators are doing emotional work...
You know your educators are up against big challenges right now. They take on an emotional toll that often goes overlooked and can leave them deflated, drained and anxious themselves.
Asking them to adopt SEL strategies can feel like a big stretch that can mean social and emotional learning does not gain traction or deliver the results all educators want and deserve.
Giving teachers the support they need as they do this vital work with children would make the difference...
How would you like to meet the needs of your staff and your students - without huge expense or a big time commitment?
With such a strategy in place you would be able to successfully implement an SEL program in schools you oversee so that you:
- See a dramatic improvement in children’s connectedness and engagement
- Provide reliable and effective systems that all educators can follow when children are dysregulated, meltdown, or get destructive
- Ensure the support that educators and staff need for their own social and emotional development is in place so that they are able to sustain SEL with children
- Increase in-school community to prevent professional isolation and reduce educator burnout
Why Foundations for Early Educators?
Hand In Hand is dedicated to supporting adults who care for children.
For 33 years, Hand in Hand has supported parents and professionals to nurture social-emotional development for themselves and the children in their care.
The Hand in Hand approach is based on five unique tools that operationalise SEL thinking. The approach we teach on the Foundations For Educators program has been named a promising evidenced-based practice by the Association for Maternal and Child Health Programs.
If you desire to bring an affirming and sustaining program to your school or schools…
Welcome to
Foundations For Educators
An 8-week experiential program for early childhood school directors, administrators and educators that provides support for staff and practical trauma-responsive tools to transform dysregulated behaviors
Course Objectives & Schedule
Week 1
The Value Of Connection
Within a connected educator community and mentor call group, peers support one another in setting goals for their educational setting, and practice how listening and connecting shifts patterns and offers support.
Week 2
How Listening Builds Intelligence
Learn the science of connection and listening, how it builds a child's intelligence, and how to get a special kind of support for yourself to offload your own tension. Explore the ways in which we can all get stretched too far, so much so that the joy of children can degrade into formulaic duty or even drudgery. Practice Listening Partnerships - a way for us to provide support for each other and replenish our social emotional systems.
Week 3
Understanding A Child's Emotions
Learn about the function of emotions and what children need from you and the environment in order to thrive. Practice co-regulation strategies and how to respond during emotional moments with the powerful tool called Staylistening. This tool is all about helping you listen to a child's feelings with our warm attention and care, while continuing to set limits on off-track behavior.
Week 4
How To Build Closer Connection
Practice Special Time - one-on-one, child-led playtime. This go-to Tool builds connection and safety with a child, both proactively and strategically, to solve common problems. Learn ways in which Special Time can be used in large group settings.
Week 5
Why Children Get Dysregulated - And How To Help
Understand what's happening for a child when they exhibit challenging behaviors. Practice setting respectful, loving limits with Hand in Hand’s 3-step approach: listen-limit-listen and understand how to support a child's emotional arc of responses so that they restore calm and regulation.
Week 6
Working On Long-Term Issues
Learn why some behaviors and feelings take longer than others to resolve, and how you can proactively use play to make change. Practice a special kind of play. Playlistening, where we take the less powerful role and follow the giggles in order to build a child's confidence, solve problems, work through fear, and master new skills. Playlistening may involve physical play and roughhousing (without tickling). but can also be used without any physical contact - adapted to adhere to your school's guidelines.
Week 7
Time In / Time Out: Making Connection Plans
Understand the difference between time in and time out. Learn how to maintain the use of the 5 listening tools long-term by creating personalized Connection Plans easily implemented in your school setting. Make a plan for on-going support for you, so that you may feel confident moving forward.
Week 8
Building On-Going Support
Reflect on the goals set at the classes' beginning. Create a plan for on-going support in building the connected classrooms and educator communities that may make it possible for educators to meet the needs of students and their families - without themselves burning out.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“Offers an alternative to education strategies that rush children towards thinking too soon”
“This class challenged my thinking about what an appropriate consequence is. It gives alternatives to behavioral strategies aimed at extinguishing, shaping, or distracting children away from their feelings via rewards, punishments, and the punitive use of time-outs. It also offers an alternative to educational strategies, which often rush children towards 'thinking' and 'using words' too soon.”
BETH OHANNESON, MS MFT
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“I spend five minutes in a listening exchange and gain the whole day back...”
This approach and the tools are revolutionary. They're so simple, doable, and intuitive. It brings me back to my deepest knowing and my best thinking. It's crazy that there are no other caregiving approaches that use this framework. This is really different and very special. It's made a huge difference for my family and can for the world too...
AYLA VOGEL, MA, SEL LEARNING SPECIALIST,
Enrich the lives of students and educators
Enrolment for September classes are now open. Click enrol now to view class times and register.
Translate research into practice
How this program provides a user-friendly and supportive learning experience
16 CLOCK HOURS
Participants earn 16 clock hours and will be provided a certificate of completion by Hand in Hand to be submitted to their accreditation or licensing organization. It is up to the participant to submit their certificate of completion for approval.
CDA ALIGNMENT
Participants earn 16 clock hours that fulfil the 10 hours required by the CDA Council for Subject Area 3: Promoting parents’ use of positive ways to support children’s social and emotional development. This can be put towards initial CDA certification or renewal.
LIVE & DISTANCE LEARNING
Every week you will access video and written lessons independently before reviewing the material on a live mentoring call with a Certified Hand in Hand Instructor and a group of 3-5 other education professionals who work in similar roles.
WEEKLY MENTORING
Each week you will join a 1-hour weekly mentoring call with 2-5 other educators for personalized support and feedback where you will also engage in Listening Groups, where you will receive a high level of support and care from your peers and Instructor.
This course is for you if you would like to equip educators with:
- Concrete short and long-term strategies they can use to address challenging behavior
- A new understanding of children's emotions and impacts on behavior
- Strategies to strengthen the social-emotional foundations necessary for children’s learning
- Tools that can transform classrooms into sources of connection and resilience
- A proven practice that restores energy and enthusiasm for the important role educators and child caregivers play
- Useful resources to strengthen the home-school partnership
- A framework to increase positive, playful, and joyful interactions with students better able to focus
FAQ
How soon can the approach covered in the program be implemented in school?
We recommend educators using the tools actively at work from the very first session so that they can feedback and get guidance during their mentor calls.
We see a high rate of participant bring the tools to their classes with success while they are in the program.
Administrators and school directors can facilitate deeper absorption and long-term implementation by replicating the supportive listening group sessions in school that educators first learn during the class.
What type of educators is this approach best suited for?
This program is ideal if you are leading SEL implementation for your school or district, and you will be able to re-educate others on the tools and approach you what you learn in Foundations for Educators.
The framework in Foundations for Educators is suitable for education professionals working with children from 0-8 years old in schools, centers, or home-based settings.
This includes but is not limited to:
- Site Directors & Managers
- Program Managers and Coordinators
- Principals and Administration
- Daycare or after-school owners and/or program managers
- Home visitors
- Learning and Behavior Specialists
- Social-Emotional Learning Coordinators
- Teachers and Teaching Assistants
- Paraprofessionals
- Coaches
Educators are tired and stretched, will this program tax them further?
We know that educators have been isolated, under-resourced and can find themselves overwhelmed and stressed. This is why a central component of the program supports the educator. In fact, many past participants tell us that this is a surprising and very welcome nurturing element of the program that brought them relief, re-energised them and spurred them to take action and see positive results.
Join Foundations For Educators
Build a sustainable & Supportive SEL program in your community
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