In this workshop, boredom, bullying and other challenging behavior will be looked at through the lens of congnitive neuroscience with a new perspective provided on the oftern perplexing behavior of these youth.  Boredom will be examined as both a contextual problem as well as a personality trait inherent in may students.  Participants will be provided a tool for assessing the boredom pronesess of their youth and at least a dozen anti-boredom strategies to engage youth in learning.  Bullying will be evaluated from the perspective of dominance and power and participants offered powerful tools for eliminating exploitive behavior and protecting the vulnerable.  Finally, participants will be exposed to new research about students on the fringe of the social culture and the structures proven successful in helping those students achieve success.  Packed with specific, low cost strategies, this workshop will offer an alternative set of tools for reaching those hard to reach youth in a variety of settings.

 In this course, you will learn to:

• Implement specific strategies to assess and assist youth who are disengaged
• Implement specific strategies to eliminate bullying behaviors and protect vulnerable youth
• Implement specific strategies to help youth who are on the fringe of the social culture

About the Instructor:

Heather Higgins is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW-C) and serves as the director of the Family Help Center, an outpatient mental health clinic in Baltimore, Maryland.  She holds a masters degree in social work from the University of Maryland and has experience working with children and families in a variety of settings including residential care, therapeutic foster care, and inpatient psychiatric care.

Class begins at 9:00 am and is scheduled through 3:00 pm with a 1 hour lunch.  Sign in begins at 8:30 am.  Lunch is on your own