Title: Supporting Your Teachers During the Pandemic Maintaining communication, collaboration, and strong community for your staff

Presenter: Jeffrey Benson

Overview and Essential Questions

• Do you know how your teachers are navigating their responsibilities in this new context?
• Do your teachers have clarity about the expectations and guidelines that have been established?
• What systems of support will help sustain the professional community when you are unable to convene and communicate in the ways you are accustomed?

Cost: Free for RIASP members.

When: June 4th and June 10th 3:00pm-4:40pm.

This is a 2-part (90 minutes per session) interactive on-line seminar that will provide tools for school leaders to support their teachers at home, with significant time for sharing resources and strategies with peers. In order to maximize the sharing of the expertise and experiences of participants, enrollment will be limited to 22 school leaders.

The seminar will focus on three areas:

• Effective ways to assess how your teachers are managing the stress of their responsibilities in this totally new context;
• Setting flexible and clear guidelines for what you ask of your teachers regarding curriculum and instruction.
• Developing systems of support that sustain the professional community when you cannot be physically together in the school.

Each of these three areas will be introduced for facilitated discussion, along with specific tools and strategies, all within a framework of leadership. Then the participants will consider together how to implement the tools and strategies with their staff, and hear from each other ways you are already making headway. We will undoubtedly laugh, sigh, and find moments of solace; in this way, the participants will be a virtual support team for leadership --no one else really knows the completely disorienting environment in which you are all still needing to make decisions

About the presenter: Jeffrey Benson has over forty years of experience as a teacher, mentor, and school administrator. He focuses on supporting schools that work for all students. He’s had the incredibly good fortune of working with many talented people on school reform, conflict resolution, learning theory, trauma and addiction, school advisory programs, math education, staff development, leadership training, and curriculum development. He coaches principals and teachers, writes about education, and speaks at conferences—all in an effort to upload what he has learned in hopes others can make good use of it. Along that path, he continues to learn more. His books include, “Hanging In-- Strategies for Working with the Students Who Challenge Us Most;” “Ten Steps for Managing Change in Schools” and “Teaching the Whole Teen: Everyday Practices that Promote Success and Resilience in School and Life.” His website is JeffreyBenson.org, which includes links to his many articles, interviews, and services.