Tier 1: Behavior, Social-Emotional Learning, and Climate

The third course in a three-part series on behavior learning foundations, this course focuses exclusively on how we can harness our understanding of behavior learning to teach new behaviors to students.  

Participants in this course will be able to:

• identify and explain the several different strategies that can be used to teach behavior.
• identify which strategy is best for different behavior learning goals. 

This course does not offer self-enrollment. Enrollment is only available after completing Behavior Learning Foundations 2.

This is the second course in a three-part series on behavior learning foundations.  This course builds on the first by examining the role of antecedent triggers, setting events, and existing skills in behavior learning.  The third course focuses exclusively on how we can harness our understanding of behavior learning to teach new behaviors to students.  

Participants in this course will be able to:

• Identify and explain the role of antecedent triggers in influencing behavior learning.
• Identify and explain the role of setting events in influencing behavior learning.
• Explain the importance of considering existing skills in terms of behavior learning.

This course does not offer self-enrollment. Enrollment is only available after completing Behavior Learning Foundations 1.

Upon completion of this course, participants will automatically be enrolled in the third course in this series, Behavior Learning Foundations 3.

This is the first course in a three-part series on behavior learning foundations.  This course focuses on introducing the foundational principles of behavior learning and understanding the role of consequences.  The second course builds on the first by examining the role of antecedent triggers, setting events, and existing skills in behavior learning.  The third course focuses exclusively on how we can harness our understanding of behavior learning to teach new behaviors to students.  

Participants in this course will be able to:

• Explain the relationship between behavior and the context in which it occurs.
• Identify and explain the role of consequences that follow behavior in influencing behavior learning.
• Identify and accurately categorize the different types of behavior consequences. 

Upon completion of this course, participants will automatically be enrolled in the second course in this series, Behavior Learning Foundations 2.

This course will equip educators with strategies to combat chronic absenteeism by leveraging team collaboration and data tools. Participants will gain an understanding of chronic absenteeism, its root causes, and its connection to Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). The course emphasizes utilizing school teams to develop and implement effective attendance success plans, focusing on multi-year chronically absent students and addressing the root causes, such as barriers, disengagement, and misconceptions.

Throughout the course, participants will explore the use of attendance data, learn how to prioritize interventions, and align attendance improvement strategies with broader school improvement goals.

Connecting with students is more important than ever! But how can we measure whether we are actually forming connections, particularly at the middle and high school level? In this facilitated course, participants will learn about a Rhode Island established Connections Screener, the administration process, and how data from that screener has been traditionally utilized. Participants will then work to develop and pilot the administration of a screening process within their own school context. The course has self-paced course completion activities aligned with evolving research and resources, as well as assignments that will be submitted to the facilitator for feedback, and optional office hours to meet with the course facilitator. We strongly encourage teams of educators from one location to participate to help facilitate the implementation. The goal is that you will implement a pilot Connections Screener in your building. This may be with a small group, classroom, grade-level and should involve others in your building.

Requirements: 

• This course has assignments that must be completed by participants and submitted for feedback and grading before moving forward in the course. 

If you have any questions, please contact either Kim Pristawa, kpristawa@gmail.com, or Michele Walden-Doppke, mwalden-doppke@westbaycollaborative.org.

Prerequisite: All participants must have taken the one hour self-paced course “The Importance of Connectedness” prior to enrolling in this course. At the end of that course, after completing all required activities, an enrollment key for this course will be provided. If you have already taken that course or have difficulty obtaining an enrollment key, contact Michele Walden-Doppke for further assistance. 

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Enrollment in this course is restricted to identified teams.

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Enrollment is restricted to identified teams.

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This facilitated course supports a Tier 1 team working to improve climate and outcomes for all students by implementing an effective and efficient instructional core for social-emotional-behavioral learning.   This approach is grounded in the evidence-based foundation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). A combination of live synchronous and self-paced asynchronous activities across one year will be used to develop team and staff capacity with data use, systems, and practices.   

Contact Ellen Reinhardt for information on enrolling your team.

The most effective classrooms set students up for success by building strong relationships, taking an instructional approach to behavior and social-emotional learning, and arranging the environment to maximize learning and minimize challenging behaviors.  The most effective teachers, set up effective classrooms and then engage in ongoing self-reflection to ensure continued success and continual improvement.  This course explores what it takes to build classroom communities that support ALL students, providing practical tools to plan, or improve your classroom.  

*Participants in this course can pick and choose topics and complete specific sections to meet their needs.  PLU certificates are available on a section by section basis.

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This course is designed to provide a general introductory understanding of anxiety and the impact it has on children and teens. This is the initial course in a series of courses that will provide educators and other school professionals with skills for supporting students with anxiety across the tiers in a school setting. This introductory course is foundational for educators to understand the basics of anxiety. Subsequent course(s) will provide evidence-based interventions that can be utilized with students in the classroom.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn facts about anxiety
• Recognize what anxiety is and the physiology of anxiety
• Understand the relationship among thoughts, feelings and behavior
• Understand factors that impact and maintain anxiety (e.g., environment, influence of COVID-19 pandemic)

In this course you will learn about Social and Emotional Learning, (SEL) including how and why these skills are so important for our students to achieve success in school and adult life. In addition, resources and strategies will be shared that can be used immediately with your students. The content is intended to spark other new ideas on how SEL skills can enhance the instruction taking place in your classroom. This introduction to SEL is the first in a 5 part strand. Upon successful completion of this course you will have access to future courses in the strand via an enrollment key.

This is a location for previous participants who would like to access the content in their Connections Screener Survey course noted by school year.

How well do you know the importance of connections in school within the universal/core/Tier 1 setting for students and staff? Can you recognize how connectedness relates to different forms of prevention in schools as well as social-emotional learning? Are you interested in learning about a social-emotional screener that can be used for assessing connections in school?  This course is designed to build knowledge about the importance of connections, consider how it is addressed in your school and provide resources. For those who would like to learn more about the Connections Survey and its administration, this course is a prerequisite and required learning for anyone who is interested in the course Implementing an SEL Screener at the Secondary Level: Measuring Connections.

Learning Objectives: 

• Understand the significance of school connectedness
• Recognize the relationship between mental health/suicide prevention and perceived school connections 
• Recognize the role that school connectedness plays in social-emotional learning
• Learn about the relationship between connectedness and school culture/school safety
• Consider the possibility of measuring connections in your school as a form of social-emotional screening
• Assess the readiness of your school for implementation of a connections screener.

Many school-age children have been exposed to adverse childhood experiences – violence, abuse, neglect, and more.  The result can be psychological trauma, which can affect learning and behavior.  This course lays essential foundational knowledge to prepare educators for future coursework addressing trauma-informed supports for students.  Participants in this course will be able to:

• Describe the prevalence, characteristics and impact of trauma on children

• Recognize behavior for signs of toxic stress response
  

• Explain inter-relationships between adversity, toxic stress, trauma and illness

• Explain the current science on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) 

This course explores best practices in preventing and managing behavior escalations.  Specific attention is placed on the role of self-regulation in the prevention and management of escalations.  Participants will learn how to recognize where a student is along the dysregulation continuum, as well as strategies to promote successful return to a calm and engaged state, and develop a plan for supporting dysregulated students.

Coming Fall 2024! Looking for easy to implement, evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies to support students with anxiety in the classroom? In this course, we will address some of the most common types of anxiety seen in schools and strategies to focus on these areas. We will demonstrate through video modeling how to use these strategies and through a goal-setting and note-taking guide, you will select your own strategies to use with students in your classroom and determine what is needed for implementation. This course is still in development and is not open for enrollment.