The Kindness School: Curriculum & Strategies for Social Emotional Learning

The Kindness School: Curriculum and Strategies for Social Emotional Learning

Dates: Saturday, September 21 AND Saturday, September 28, 2024

Time: 9:00 am to 12:00 pm

Location: Online via Zoom

Cost: $175 per individual, $125 per person for teams of 2+

In this workshop series, participants will learn how to create a school culture centered around kindness, empathy, and compassion. The series is broken into two 3-hour virtual sessions. In the first session, participants will learn what a Kindness School looks and feels like by hearing descriptions and watching video examples from educators and children from all corners of the world. Based on the worldwide youth kindness project, Kindness City-School: International Contest, they will also learn about the child-generated Kindness School concept and the steps educators and administrators can take to actualize a Kindness School. Kindness Schools are communities where every member of the school interacts and engages in all situations with kindness and actively pursues actions that create and further an atmosphere of kindness. In such schools the focus extends far beyond academic achievements, placing equal importance on fostering a sense of belonging, respect, and compassion among all members. Once educators understand all that is possible in the Kindness School, they’ll explore steps and resources to achieve it.

In the second session, participants will learn how to become a Kindness School by implementing a very simple, yet transformative, supplementary SEL curriculum that aligns with CASEL and other research on trauma-based instruction, gender identity awareness, equity, and social justice called Connect with Kindness: Child-Generated, Teacher-Friendly Supplementary SEL Curricula for pre-K-12. The lessons are designed to align with other SEL programming that might currently be in place and are specifically designed to fit into small pockets of time that pre-kindergarten through twelfth-grade educators often have, so kindness can be taught in the moment. Educators who are using these materials have found that the lessons not only help to fill in skill gaps where some SEL programming falls short, but they align with restorative practice models. Each lesson is hands-on and project-based, leveraging the voices and ideas of the students in the classroom while introducing them to children from all over the world who, too, are expressing kindness. Lessons range from 10 minutes to several weeks in length, so there is optimal flexibility for educators. All the curriculum materials come at no additional cost to participants.

Workshop Participants: This workshop is designed for pre-K-12 educators, support staff, school administrators, and after-school programming staff, and can accommodate up to 75 participants.

Workshop Objectives:

Participants will be able to:

• Recognize the attributes of a Kindness School and how becoming one is transformative by recreating a Kindness School.
• Analyze why becoming a Kindness School is important by discussing the relationship between consistent kindness actions and the overall culture of the school and its relevance to local culture.
• Comprehend all components of the kindness curriculum materials by thoroughly reviewing and discussing definitions and implementation steps, including consensus.
• Synthesize the use of the curriculum materials so they can systematically impact the culture of their schools and classrooms by constructing new meanings through implementation experiences.

Workshop Agendas:

Session One:

9:00 - 10:00 am: What are the concept and attributes of a Kindness School? How is becoming a Kindness School transformative?

10:00 - 10:10 am: Break

10:10 - 12:30 pm: Let’s create our own model for a Kindness School, what attributes will you select? Why is creating a Kindness School important to the overall well-being of children, and their families, as well as staff? What steps can teachers and administrators take to become a Kindness School?

Session Two:

9:00 - 10:00 am: What is Connect with Kindness: Child-Generated, Teacher Friendly Supplementary SEL Curricula? How was the curriculum created? How can Connect with Kindness be a driving resource for becoming a Kindness School?

10:00 - 10:10 am: Break

10:10 - 12:30 pm: Let’s walk through the components and timing of the hands-on, student- generated lessons. Why are student voice and their generated ideas so important in these lessons? How and why is it important to use consensus with children of all ages? Let’s experience a lesson as educators and discuss the impact and ripple effects of how kindness can permeate the walls of the school and go into the community.

About the Facilitators:

Amy Spangler – As a lifelong public school leader, Amy has had a significant impact on countless learning communities for more than 30 years. A “trailing spouse”, Amy has been afforded the opportunity to serve schools in Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, and Minnesota as well as in the international school community of Tokyo, Japan. She actively holds an administrator's license in Oregon.

Amy’s key to transformational success as a principal in school communities is her unwavering drive to always do what is best for children by collaboratively strategizing how to markedly improve staff and student culture, which paves the way for her schools to make significant academic gains as measured by state assessments. Notably known as a servant leader, Amy carefully listens to and engages others through authentic collaboration, shared leadership, and grit. Amy has also served as a teacher; gifted and talented program manager and professional developer; strategic planning director, principal mentor; adjunct professor; and worked on special assignments leading comprehensive public education transformation projects. As a senior leader, she, and her team developed/delivered learning to 30,000 teachers, managers, and executive leaders within a privately held early childhood education corporation. An ardent volunteer, Amy has led nonprofit organizations as a member of the board of directors, serving both as vice president, and president in four organizations.

Very recently, Amy has presented at 3 international conferences and has been a guest professor at the University de Turin in Italy. She serves on a nonprofit board raising funds for homeless Veterans and is a volunteer advocate for children with special needs. She has authored several articles/chapters for distinguished books and publications. She is the primary coauthor of Connect with Kindness: Child-Generated, Teacher Friendly Supplementary SEL Curricula (2023), which is currently being used world-wide. Amy is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of the nonprofit organization, International Kindness Reset. Amy measures her success through the children whose lives she has served.

Tatyana Tsyrlina-Spady, PhD – Tatyana is a distinguished academic with an extensive background in education. Formerly an Adjunct Professor at Seattle Pacific University (USA) and Professor Emerita at Kursk State University (Russia), she also holds the title of Vice-Provost Emerita at the Regional Open Social Institute (Russia). Tatyana is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Russian-American Education Forum, an online journal. As a visiting professor at the Summer Institute on Child Advocacy in Action at UBC (Canada, 2019), Tatyana has made significant contributions to the global academic community and child advocacy. Boasting a portfolio of over 20 books and numerous papers, her expertise lies in the theory and history of education, as well as educational psychology. Her recent work involves a critical comparative analysis of history teaching in modern Russia, innovative approaches to fostering kindness and compassion in children and young adults, and the role of culture in strengthening the resilience of young people in Ukraine today.

Tatyana has actively participated in international multimedia projects for children worldwide, particularly during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, with a strong focus on kindness. She served as the director and international coordinator of these projects and a co-author of "Connect with Kindness: Child-Generated Teacher-Friendly Supplementary SEL Curricula" (2023). Tatyana has presented at over 60 international conferences worldwide, authored chapters for edited volumes, published papers in peer-reviewed journals, and contributed articles to online journals, all showcasing her unwavering commitment to education and global well-being.

Currently, Tatyana serves as the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of the nonprofit, International Kindness Reset, and holds the position of Director at the Kindness City-School: International Contest. Her leadership and dedication continue to make a positive impact on the fields of education, child advocacy, and global kindness initiatives.