Description
The School Psychologist: Supporting Solution Focused Teachers, Online Workshop
(4 HPCSA CPD points)
Venue: Online from your laptop, cellphone or tablet. You will receive online access to the course for you to complete at your convenience.
Price: R500-00
Presenters: Dr Jacqui von Cziffra-Bergs, Merritt Watson, Nicholas Birkett and Deborah Schamrel
Online Workshop Outline:
Psychologists and counsellors working in schools often have to help teachers manage their classrooms, sort out discipline issues and be present in teacher and parent feedback sessions. Even though the emphasis of this workshop is on empowering teachers to become solution builders, it also contributes to the school psychologist’s skill base and so empowers school psychologists and counsellors to support teachers in a Solution Focused way.
The world has changed dramatically, and everything is asking for a new way of doing things and teachers have been asked to come up with new innovative and effective ways of teaching within a short space of time. As Professor Jonathan Jansen says “let’s turn a crisis into opportunity and build lasting, impactful and transformative solutions in schools”.
This online workshop aims at equipping teachers with a new way of thinking and doing. Teachers are under a huge amount of strain to not only teach the child but also care for children’s emotional and behavioural well-being. Teachers are passionate and caring people and often take full responsibility for the learners’ learning and behaviour which results in fatigue and burnout. Becoming a Solution Focused teacher is empowering, uplifting and equips the teachers with skills to handle their jobs more effectively. Solution Focused thinking is a collaborative endeavour and this workshop will focus on how to start working collaboratively with the child and parents so that learning becomes a shared activity.
This online workshop comprises of 6 impactful and highly informative modules that empower teachers to become Solution Builders, do things differently and reignites your passion for teaching. Each Module is about 45 minutes long and includes a video lecture and a handout. In order to obtain your SACE points you will need to complete the assignment page and fill in an evaluation form on the completion of the course.
Module 1: Challenging the status quo: an introduction to a Solution Focused Mindset
- Changing our mindset form problem solving to solution building
- In the presence of a problem lies an absence of a skill
- Becoming skill builders
Module 2: A strength-based approach to children, parents and school
- Building relationships with strengths and not with problems
- Making a solution diagnosis out of every problem
- Learning solution focused language
Module 3A and 3B: Solution Focused teaching strategies and classroom management
- Understanding the Solution Focused process of goaling, strength searching, creating possibility and amplifying change
- Creative Solution building teaching strategies
- Solution Focused classroom management strategies
Module 4: Solution Focused Discipline
- Centering discipline around helping children do differently
- Up-skilling instead of punishing
- A Solution Focused discipline checklist
Module 5: Solution Focused parent and round table meetings
- Empowering teachers with skills to host parent meetings effectively
- Creating collaboration and buy-in from parents
- Deflecting resistance and creating partnerships of change
Bonus Module 6: Practical implementation of Solution Focused teaching: Questions and Answers
- Presenters have compiled a list of frequently asked questions by teachers implementing the Solution Focused approach in their classrooms
- These frequently asked questions and their answers are included as a PDF for you in this bonus module
Covid-19 Support Video:
- Tips for psychologists and teachers video on how to support children emotionally as they return to school.
Aims of the Workshop:
- Discuss Solution Focused principles and a new mindset
- Discuss the difference between problem solving and solution building
- Equip teachers with solution focused language and a different set of questions to ask
- Become strength searchers
- Look for strengths in all situations and people
- Help the teacher set individual and class goals with the children
- Guide the teacher to use strengths to reach goals
- Manage their classroom in a positive solution focused way
- Create solution focused discipline strategies
- Up-skill rather than punish
- Work collaboratively with parents
- Find a solution that all parties can contribute toward
- Be more positive and work with children and parents, and not against them or for them
- Create hope
Outcomes of the Workshop:
- To define the difference between problem solving and solution building
- To become skill builders not problem analyzers
- To guide the teachers to become strength searchers
- To create teacher-child collaboration
- To help children find their own goals to doing things differently.
- To teach in creative solution focused ways
- Work collaboratively with all involved
- To be able to use the scaling question to create movement and responsibility
- Ask questions that lead to solution building
- Be able to find what works and do more of it
- Be able to identify what is not working and change it
- Create discipline strategies that lead to solution building
- Build positive partnerships with parents
- Prevent teacher burnout
