CCEA Plus 2025 Surf's Up! Riding the Waves of Opportunity

A meta-study released the day last year's CCEA conference began reported that nearly 20% of California's K-12 students had significant experiences of childhood trauma (ACEs score of 4+). In continuing education, it is believed that this number may be even higher. During this session, you will learn from a teacher, administrator, and researcher how to design your classroom environment to support the emotional and developmental needs of your students while increasing the chance of active engagement and their desire to learn. We will discuss how to create a positive "home-court advantage" in your classroom or school, and how you can spark resilience in students who have been hurt. As a bonus, you will probably learn how to feel even better about your own work with students and improve your satisfaction and love of teaching! Get here early. This presenter's sessions were full last year.

Many students arrive in our classrooms with wounds and challenges we cannot easily see. For those of us in Alternative Education, the number of students with severe trauma exposure is over 20%.  And these students are often the hardest to reach and accommodate because most of our programs and initiatives cannot overcome the painful echoes they feel in their bodies and minds. This session will show you five powerful steps to promote resilience in all of your students whether they carry the deep scars of trauma, or are merely unmotivated in school. As educators, we may not be able to change what our students carry inside them every day, but we can definitely build safe spaces that prioritize learning when we master some simple habits. Come and join us to see how you can unleash the superpower of resilience that is already inside your students waiting to be activated!

Very few people will make it through life without experiencing trauma and loss. As leaders. it is imperative that we keep this in mind when we design programs, create initiatives, and especially when we interact with students and staff in our schools. This seminar will provide novice and veteran educational leaders with the tools and mindset needed to create a safe and efficient school site culture that fosters academic success and wellness for all. Participants will gain a greater understanding of the ways that trauma and loss impact our work and our outlook on life, and how simple, mindful habits can help us overcome the barriers that our built-in filters and schemas create. We will address ways to manage conflict and challenging conversations, and how to build an emotionally safe culture at the same time.