Professional Development
How we empower schools and teachers to meet the needs of every student
Our professional development, consultation and coaching for teachers and school administrators provides the training necessary to address neurodiversity in the classrooom as well as prevention for lagging academic, behavioral, or social skills.
We enable teachers to see their students’ behaviors as lagging skills instead of lagging motivation, thereby authentically promoting more positive interactions in developing teacher-student relationships.
These positive relationships become the driving force behind what leads to greater academic success for students.
Students who trust their teachers – and whose teachers authentically believe in them:
- Are more motivated to exhibit appropriate behaviors
- Are more receptive to support and interventions (both behavioral and academic)
- Feel safer taking the risks necessary for success
Kids do well if they can
REACH trains school administrators and teachers in ways that can be used with all students. But it is especially useful for helping teachers and administrators support students who have challenges learning.
Our philosophy is based on Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS), which is the idea that academic success is based on skill, rather than will. Using research-based methods, we offer professional development and training based on models of best practice and data-driven information.
Using CPS, we train and support teachers to guide student behavior in a direction that will have meaningful and sustained positive effects. This leads to more consistently positive student behavior and stronger overall student success.
We also use the methodology of Social Thinking, a social-emotional learning framework that helps children navigate social situations by teaching them to observe and think about their own and others’ thoughts and feelings and learning the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.The idea is that children must develop social “thinking” before they can use social “skills.”
This can help kids understand how to interact more effectively with others – better navigating the social world, fostering relationships, and improving their performance at school and at home.
ST is used in schools, private programs, and clinics across the U.S. It also includes developmentally based strategies and curricula with ideas to support individuals as they learn about and manage their anxiety and stressors and is a resource for therapists around the country.
Our staff are trained in ST, and we are currently offering introductory trainings to all school teachers, with continuing PLCs for a select number of school staff.
REACH Menu of Professional Development Opportunities:
Collaborative Problem Solving
- Re-thinking students with challenging behaviors
- Lost at School by Dr. Ross Greene
Differentiation in the classroom
- How to meet the needs of diverse learners in the same classroom
- Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom by Diane Heacox
Choice Words
- Teacher Language
- Choosing our words wisely
- Keeping our language judgment free
- Choice Words by Peter H. Johnston
Understanding by Design
- Meaningful curriculum development
- Backwards planning
- Designing lesson plans and considering goals
- The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High Quality Units by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
Data Driven Instruction
- How to collect student data
- How to analyze student data
- Using observable data to identify potential causes of behavioral challenges
Hidden Sparks’ Neurodiversity
- The Learning Lenses
- How learning works: “The systems of the mind”
- Temperament and Classroom Environment
- The interaction between personalities, classroom environment, and student learning
- All Kinds of Minds by Dr. Mel Levine
…and much more!