Built by and for educators, we work with you to grow your program and bring lasting change to your school’s culture.


Programming

 Providing professional development, parent workshops, assemblies, keynote talks or other conversations about specific topics including resilience, mindfulness, connection, purpose, and the science of thriving.

Strategy

 Developing a plan at the division, building, or district level to encourage wellbeing in your organizational practices, norms, curriculum, and culture. This can be a one-time session to help chart your course or align with best practices and current research in the fields of mindfulness and positive education, or it can be ongoing consulting to support you in embedding meaningful change into your school community or organization.

Support

 Building capacity among staff or parent body in their own personal wellness practices, or in their teaching practice to incorporate mindfulness and positive education into existing programming and curricula. This may include facilitated groups, one-on-one coaching, and instructional coaching & observation.

Programming

  • Presentations & Workshops for Educators

    Programming can be configured from a large all-district keynote address to intimate workshops. Workshops are always interactive and will always include an appropriate experiential component.


    • Mindfulness & Wellbeing:
      • Introduction to Mindfulness, SEL, or the Science of Wellbeing
      • Self-Care for Teachers/Caregivers
    • The Mindfulness-Informed Classroom:
      • Teaching Attention in the Age of Distraction
      • A Teacher’s Guide to Working with Student Stress & Anxiety
      • Trauma-Informed Classroom Practices
      • Teaching Strategies & Classroom Routines that Build Resilience
      • Feedback That Actually Works: a Positive Framework for Growth-Oriented Feedback
      • Strengths-Based Teaching: Focusing On and Fostering What’s Going Well
    • Positive School Culture
      • Advisory Programs that Work
      • Mindful Communication
      • Moving Beyond Party Planning: Engaged Student Leadership
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
      • Mindfulness & Implicit Bias: Seeing Our Own Snap Judgments
      • Bridging Power Dynamics: Inclusive Classroom Practices
      • The Somatics of Bias: Learning to Tolerate the Discomfort of Equity & Inclusion Work

  • Presentations & Workshops for Parents

    Many schools choose to include a presentation for parents when working with Learning to Thrive. An involved and engaged parent body can significantly aid the growth of mindfulness & wellbeing programs by aligning home and school cultures.


    • Program rationale: “What is Mindfulness (or SEL) and Why Does It Matter?”
    • Parent burnout, stress, exhaustion: “Putting on Your Own Oxygen Mask First: Care for the Caregiver”
    • Working with common challenges like online distractions and ADHD: “Mindfulness & Attention: Raising Children in an Age of Distraction”
    • Strengths-based parenting “Moving Away from Deficits: How a Focus on Your Child’s Strengths Can Change Everything”
    • Raising resilient children: “Learn to Fail or Fail to Learn: What We Can Do to Help Our Children Develop Resilience”
    • Transitions (for parents of incoming 9th graders, outgoing 12th graders): “Let Me Go but Hold Me Close: A Parent’s Guide to Changing Needs & Relationships”
    • The high school or college admissions process: “The Wellbeing Outcome: Navigating the Admissions Process without Losing Sight of What Really Matters”

  • Presentations & Workshops for Students

    While many schools have well-developed wellness and positive school culture programs, it can help to have an outside expert to validate, support, or jump-start work that’s already happening in classes and advisories.


    • BALANCE. Learning to self-regulate and bounce back from difficult experiences or emotions
    • ATTENTION. Learning how to focus on the things we actually want to give our attention to and actively resist distractions instead of being carried away by them
    • WELLNESS. Creating healthy routines and healthy habits–both of mind and body
    • SELF CONCEPT. Identifying strengths and learning to capitalize on them in our work and play
    • RELATIONSHIPS. Navigating “drama”, conflict, or difficult people (adults or peers), cultivating more compassion and empathy, and finding the good in others
    • ORGANIZATION. Becoming more organized and creating systems to keep on top of many different obligations in our lives
    • PERFORMANCE. Remaining calm and centered in the face of stressful, high-stakes situations including test-taking, presentations, athletic competitions, theatrical productions, an argument, or just everyday life
    • CALM. Learning to quiet the mind/body when anxious or critical thoughts are excessive, & learning to deal differently with boredom & the impulse to be constantly entertained, stimulated, or connected
    • ADDITIONAL SPECIFIC POPULATIONS. Strategies for working with Tourette Syndrome, tics, and other nervous system vulnerabilities, as well as with ADD/ADHD, without chemical interventions or in tandem with medications with the goal of relying less or not at all on them.

Strategy

Whole-School Implementation & Program Development


  • Audit of Programs or School Culture

    Learning to Thrive can help you align with best practices in the field and maximize the potential of your non-academic programs to foster a positive sense of identity, belonging-based school culture, and genuine engagement. This could entail a one-time consult to give you new ideas or a multi-step process that provides you with an actionable roadmap for change, depending on your school’s needs.

    • Advisory Programs
    • Student or Community Life Programming
    • Leadership & Student Stewardship Programs
    • Student Support
    • Real-World or Experiential Learning

  • Whole School Implementation of Mindfulness, SEL, and Positive Education

    Effective programs don’t develop overnight; they grow organically over time. For schools ready to take on organization-wide change, we offer a long-term relationship to develop school-wide or district-wide programming. Rather than giving teachers “one more thing to do,” we look to build on what’s already happening and what’s already working in your school context and grow buy-in from within by starting with those people who are excited by this work, privileging quality over quantity.

    Schools and districts interested in a system-wide shift or whole-school implementation should plan a minimum of 3-4 years’ investment to grow the systems and structures needed for sustainable change.


    Needs Assessment & Rollout
    We bring together a working group of invested stakeholders for the following:

    • Establishing common language and a common framework based on best practices. Change works best with everyone working toward the same goal and there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. We will incorporate characteristics of programs that work well.
    • Taking stock of what’s going well and what are you already doing. No school starts from zero, and all schools are unique. The best programs are the ones that make sense within existing school culture & practices. There are likely many great things happening already in your school, and we will build on them rather than bulldozing them.
    • Identifying and planning next steps for the short, middle, and long term. Effective & sustainable school change takes time. Having a road map helps manage expectations.
    • Sharing goals and findings with the community. The community can’t get on board if they don’t know where you’re leading them. We deliver programming to help establish the relevance of the program as it relates to your specific school culture.

    “Early Adopter” Cohort

    • Identify a committed, voluntary group interested in learning to incorporate mindfulness & positive education into their teaching. These are people already doing this work in their personal or professional lives, or with a strong interest in starting it. Note: because doing this involves personal exploration and commitment, we do not endorse forcing teachers to do it.
    • Cohort teachers train in their own personal practice first, then learn to share mindfulness & wellbeing practices with students.

    New Cohorts

    • Subsequent years see the addition of new cohorts who go through the same process as the previous cohort.
    • Care is taken to fold the connect the cohorts and foster a supportive community of educators, so that the work is self-sustaining.

    Supplemental support & add on services can include:

    • Facilitating cohort meetings for the group to come together, practice together, and share their learnings.
    • Assemblies/workshops for students and/or parents to jumpstart a program with the backing of us as an outside expert or special guest.
    • Observation so teachers get feedback about their teaching.

Support

Support and coaching services, available in person or by videoconference using Zoom:

  • Instructional Coaching & Observation

    Many schools don’t have an expert or supervisor on staff who is a highly-trained teacher of mindfulness and other SEL practices. Online or in-person observation provides teachers who are learning to teach mindfulness & positive education with valuable, growth-oriented feedback. Coaching and observation services can be purchased separately from other professional development services or bundled as part of a package.

  • Group Practice or Teaching Support / PLC Support

    Making shifts in our own personal routines and habits or in our teaching can be challenging. Coming together in a group (like a professional learning community or a practice group) is an excellent way to lend support to these changes. Online or in-person group facilitation is typically paired with a larger school change package, but can also be purchased separately for schools with an existing positive school culture, mindfulness, or SEL framework.

  • One-On-One Coaching or Practice Support

    Whether you need support shifting habits, you need help getting unstuck from a challenging situation or relationship, or you need help finding areas for growth and expansion in your personal practice, short-term individual support can help you find a more balanced perspective and provide you with new insights and identify practices that will help carry you forward.