Join Ginger and Julie as they talk to Mathew Portell. Mathew has dedicated a decade and a half to education in his role as a teacher, instructional coach, teacher mentor, and school administrator before joining PACES Connection as the director of communities in March 2022. He spent seven years as principal of Fall-Hamilton Elementary, an internationally recognized innovative model school for trauma-informed practices in Metro Nashville Public Schools. Mathew is now back in the building as a principal and has written a book along with Ingrid Cockrhen, Julie Kirtz, Julie Nicholson, and Tyesha Noise entitled Reducing Stress in Schools.

Check out Mathew’s book: Reducing Stress in Schools: Restoring Connection and Community

Mathew gives the following advice: Don’t get caught up in the job and forget about the work. Get back to the basics and listen for what the fundamental truths are in trauma-informed educational environments.

Mathew tells us that “Kids can’t achieve academics if their social and emotional health needs aren’t met.”

He also says, “We have to base all our decisions on what we say and who we say we are. If we say we are student-focused and adult-supported, then the decision we make has to mirror that. It’s huge when developing a school culture that is looking to reduce stress. You gotta know who you are first, establish your identity as an individual school then document it. Create your core values and then as you make decisions align them with who you say you are.”

Be sure to view the "Every student Known" video.

In this episode Ginger and Julie talk to Dafna Lender who is an international trainer, EMDR therapist, and supervisor for practitioners who work with children and families. She is a certified trainer and supervisor/consultant in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and Theraplay. Dafna’s expertise is drawn from 25 years working with families with attachment issues in many settings. She is a leader in family therapy from an attachment perspective and is passionate about her work and regularly co-trains with Bessel van der Kolk, Peter Levine, Ed Tronick, and Dan Hughes. She is the author of Integrative Attachment Family Therapy and Theraplay: The Practitioner’s Guide.

https://www.dafnalender.com/

Listen in as Julie and Ginger talk with Dafna about therapeutic parenting, attachment, and more!

Listen in as Julie and Ginger talk to Ginger Lewman about Bullying.

Ginger Lewman is a national consultant & keynote speaker with ESSDACK, a non-profit education service center based in Hutchinson Kansas. She holds a Master of Science in Psychology and Special Education and Gifted Education, With 30 years in education, she inspires and helps all levels of educators figure out the hard hurdles for innovative teaching and learning.

Why do people bully? There are many reasons but Ginger boils it down to the messages we hear as kids and feeling a lack of safety, dignity and/or belonging.

Ginger encourages us to get upstream and gives great strategies and tools and states that these and other tools are best utilized in an environment steeped daily in the foundation of the science of trauma and resilience-building and utilizing restorative practices whenever conflict arises anywhere.

“Once we become unafraid of our own stories, we all become safer.” ~ Steve Halley

Resources:

www.stopbullying.gov

https://www.essdack.org/

Peaceful Schools and Families: https://www.essdack.org/psf

Favorite takeaways:

It is difficult work for someone who is hurt, for someone who has hurt other people to move toward conflict. They’ve got to listen to them and they can only do that if I feel safe.

When we’re talking about bringing people into circle toward conflict this is an opportunity for each person to examine what their role has been. It’s not just “you did it”, it’s “we are experiencing this and this is not good for any of us in our community, this isn’t about you just cleaning up what you did wrong”. It’s all of us.