Examples of the current planned topics and discussion focus are as follows, this includes 3 different breakouts (in each subject topic) targeted to educators, social workers, parents/caregivers.
-The Challenges and Opportunities of supporting student well-being in school extracurricular activities
-Understanding and managing challenging and escalated behaviors in homes and in schools
-Bridges Out of Poverty
-Getting Ahead in the Workplace
-Closing the Gaps in D-E-I
-Making the Grade with DEI this School Year
-Secondary Stress and Self-Care
-Technology and Trafficking
-LBGTQIA+ Supports in your home- what’s the best way to help your child.
-Navigating Mental Health
-Working with Transgender Youth
-Parenting with dignity
-Honoring relationships, while re-parenting challenging behaviors
-Financial tools for success
-Erasing the finish line; redefining success
-Educational Advocacy for kids in care
The following is information on our keynote speakers:
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS :
Ana Homayoun is an academic advisor and early career development expert working at the intersection of executive functioning skills, technology and personal energy management. She is the founder of Green Ivy Educational Consulting, that helps students, parents and educators confidently navigate today’s unique educational environment. Ana is an author, public speaker and , is the founder and director of Luminaria Learning Solutions. She was also recently featured on Good Morning America to discuss her newest book, Erasing the Finish Line.
For over two decades, Ana has focused on helping students discover practical solutions to promote purposeful learning. Her prescriptive solutions encourage better executive functioning skills, effectively address the culture of teen perfectionism, and provide real-life advice on how to navigate social media and technology overwhelm in an always-on digital world. Her sensible perspective is real, relevant, and adored by parents, educator and students around the world.
This training and discussion will:
– Define and understand executive functioning skills
– Understand how systems, connection perspective and acceptance play a role in student well-being
– Recognize practical strategies and solutions for developing these skills
In our always-on, comparison-heavy digital world, it can be hard for tweens and teens – and adults! – to find authentic fulfillment beyond the heightened anxiety caused by faulty finish lines such as college acceptance. In this interactive keynote, audience members will gain a deeper awareness of the effects of this shame-inducing culture and learn how to instead focus on the crucial underlying tools that students will need to navigate life with grace and confidence. With empathy, compassion, and humor, I discuss some of the modern parenting dilemmas in the age of post-pandemic new normal, and speak about the five overlooked skills– systems, connection, perspective, acceptance, and building your own blueprint – that will help students thrive in today’s ever-changing world. My work, which is grounded in research and based on over two decades of working with students, offers practical solutions for students, parents, and educators as they navigate the unprecedented issues involving energy management and healthy child and teen development.
Mac Bledsoe has the honor of not only being the father of former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe, but he is also an author, motivational speaker and founder and President of the Parenting with Dignity Program. Parenting with Dignity (PWD) is one of America’s most effective and highly acclaimed parent education curriculums. The PWD curriculum presents effective techniques for raising responsible, independent children. PWD teaches parents and caregivers to rethink their approach to discipline, punishment and empowerment.
Throughout a distinguished 31-year teaching career Mac and Barbara taught in five different Public Schools Districts. Mac also coached football as well as track, basketball, baseball, and debate. Along the way, Mac was presented Crystal Apples for excellence in teaching in both the Walla Walla and Yakima school districts. He was a recipient of two golden acorns from PTAs in two of the communities where he was one of the few teachers actively involved in local PTAs.
Over time, the Bledsoe’s found themselves disillusioned by the culture in their classrooms, and by the increasing numbers of students who seemed to be morally and ethically rudderless. They were saddened to watch students making terrible decisions with life-altering or life-ruining consequences. Born out of this frustration they questioned what would happen if they were to try teaching parents some of the simple techniques they used in their classrooms. Could they teach parents how to teach their own values, spiritual beliefs, morals, and ethics to their own children? They believed that if parents knew how to instruct their children in effective decision-making and how to set guidelines for making decisions, it could make a difference in their classrooms.
Permission was obtained from school principals and Mac and Barbara held the first of what was to become a parent education curriculum that is now entitled Parenting with Dignity. Only a small group of parents attended that first class, but within weeks they began to notice a profound effect in their classrooms. Students were attending class more regularly, and someone at home had actually convinced their students of the importance of doing homework. Noticeable changes in personal grooming, and perceptible changes in the vocabulary of their students convinced Mac and Barbara that they were really onto something big and important.
Parenting with Dignity evolved into a nine-week course over the years as the program became more comprehensive and fine-tuned to today’s problems. Parenting with Dignity is now one of America’s most effective and highly acclaimed parent education curriculums.
BONUS training—
Come early and get registered HERE for a sponsored QPR-Suicide Prevention course! No cost to you (a $35 value), sponsored by Choice Regional Health Network, in this evidence-based training you will be provided practical and proven suicide prevention strategies for work, school, at home and in your community. You will recognize risk factors and warning signs as well as what to say and what NOT to say to someone experiencing a behavioral health crisis. This is at no cost to you, sponsored by Choice Healthcare Systems.
