This past weekend we hosted our very first workshop at UIUC! Our workshop revolved around social and emotional learning and featured speakers from the University as well as current teachers.
Our first speaker was Joey Merrin, who is a doctoral student in Dorothy Espelage's lab. Joey talked to us about the current research on bullying prevention and intervention. He also enlightened us with some good tips for how to prevent or intervene in bullying incidents. The work shop attendees had many great questions and we learned a lot.
Our second speaker was Anne Butler. Anne gave us a great talk about ten different essentials in creating a positive classroom environment. This list will be very helpful for any classroom situation and it was great to learn about.
Next on our list was a guidance counselor from University High School, Karl Radnitzer. He spoke about emotional intelligence and self-directed learning. Karl was very knowledgeable on the subject and recommended a few good books for future teachers as well.
Once in our break out sessions, we heard from Debbie Stapleton and Sarah Varland. Both are current teachers and offered some great advice. Sarah talked about some different types of activities she uses with her high school students and Debbie discussed strategies to inspire active learning. Both sessions were extremely engaging.
In between the speakers was coffee/bagel breaks and great suicide prevention activities led by our very own Melissa Johnson. We had a very productive and successful workshop, and we can't wait to plan another. Keep a look-out on our website for the workshop resources to be uploaded. The workshop was a great end to our semester and we can't wait to see everyone in the fall!
