This course is designed to provide a general introductory understanding of anxiety and the impact it has on children and teens. This is the initial course in a series of courses that will provide educators and other school professionals with skills for supporting students with anxiety across the tiers in a school setting. This introductory course is foundational for educators to understand the basics of anxiety. Subsequent course(s) will provide evidence-based interventions that can be utilized with students in the classroom.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn facts about anxiety
• Recognize what anxiety is and the physiology of anxiety
• Understand the relationship among thoughts, feelings and behavior
• Understand factors that impact and maintain anxiety (e.g., environment, influence of COVID-19 pandemic)

This short, self-paced course will give learners evidence-based strategies and steps to preventing and managing student behavioral escalations. Topics covered will include:

• how managing behavioral escalations is part of the MTSS framework

• the escalation cycle and how to manage escalations, and

• the role of the adult in the escalation cycle. 

Many school-age children have been exposed to adverse childhood experiences – violence, abuse, neglect, and more.  The result can be psychological trauma, which can affect learning and behavior.  This course lays essential foundational knowledge to prepare educators for future coursework addressing trauma-informed supports for students.  Participants in this course will be able to:

• Describe the prevalence, characteristics and impact of trauma on children

• Recognize behavior for signs of toxic stress response
  

• Explain inter-relationships between adversity, toxic stress, trauma and illness

• Explain the current science on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) 

Connecting with students is more important than ever! But how can we measure whether we are actually forming connections, particularly at the middle and high school level? In this facilitated course, with Community of Practice (COP), participants will learn about a Rhode Island established Connections screener, the administration process, and how data from that screener has been traditionally utilized. Participants will then work to develop and pilot the administration of a screening process within each participant’s school context. The course will have required synchronous meetings (along with optional office hours with the course facilitator), self-paced course completion activities aligned with evolving research and resources on connectedness as a result of redesigned educational experiences due to COVID, and creation of action steps for a screening process within each participant’s school setting. We strongly encourage teams of educators from one location to participate to help facilitate the implementation.

This course is designed to provide consultation, support, and assistance to individuals and/or school teams as they plan and consider the implementation of a Connections screening process. 

This course will run from January to April 2023. Enrollment is now open and will close on January 17th, 2023. If you have any questions, please contact either Kim Pristawa, kpristawa@gmail.com, or Michele Walden-Doppke, mwalden-doppke@westbaycollaborative.org.

Requirements: 

• There will be 4 required one-hour long online meetings which will be conducted after school hours (3:30-4:30pm). The meeting dates will be: January 17th, February 15th, March 23rd, and April 25th.

• You must either develop an action plan for how a Connections screening can or will take place in your building or implement a Connections screener in your building. This may be with a small group, classroom, grade-level or greater and may involve others in your building.

Prerequisite: All participants must have taken the one hour self-paced course “The Importance of Connectedness” prior to enrolling in this course. At the end of that course, after completing all required activities, an enrollment key for this course will be provided. If you have already taken that course or have difficulty obtaining an enrollment key, contact Michele Walden-Doppke for further assistance. 

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