It would be my honor to work with you.  I welcome the opportunity to customize a keynote, workshop, retreat, coaching &/or strategic planning session for you.

The sample topics listed below are customizable and can be delivered in one, two, three or six hour sessions either face-to-face or online.  The longer the session, the more time we have to go in depth and engage in a variety of multi-sensory activities.

The Heart of Education – An Introduction to The Virtues Project:  The Virtues Project, honored by the United Nations and endorsed by the Dalai Lama, is a holistic approach to restorative practices which addresses the needs of the Whole Child/Whole Adult. It has SEL and character development as its foundation and is trauma and culturally responsive.  It is personal, professional and organizational development.  In this workshop you will learn how to:                                                                    

  • Balance academic rigor and accountability with supporting the needs of the Whole Child/Whole Educator.
  • Use Virtues Language to build trust and increase hope, engagement, and well-being.    
  • Recognize Teachable Moments to develop an individual’s inherent strengths, abilities and authentic self-esteem.
  • Utilize Virtues Based Boundaries and Restorative Justice to create safer schools and end the school to prison pipeline by building, strengthening, and repairing relationships with equity as the foundation.
  • Honor the Spirit by increasing joy, meaning, purpose and peace in a variety of creative ways and by creating a culture of mutual respect, equity and appreciation.
  • Listen with compassionate curiosity to empower others to find clarity and create their own solutions.

The Language of Hope,  Engagement & Wellbeing:  Language shapes character.  The way we speak and the words we use have great power to inspire or discourage.  The language of virtues empowers us to act on the best within us.  It is the main ingredient for creating a culture of character.  In this workshop you will learn how to:

  • Use language to build trust and increase hope, engagement, and wellbeing
  • Create a trauma responsive and inclusive culture of caring in your classroom
  • Utilize circles to build and strengthen relationships
  • Reach your fullest potential by identifying and strengthening your unique character qualities

Inspiring Greatness-Recognizing  Teachable Moments:  Virtues are the content of our character and teachable moments are the “lesson plans” for strengthening our virtues. In this workshop you will learn how to:

  • Recognize teachable moments to help others build resiliency and develop authentic self-esteem
  • Connect virtues in authentic ways to meaningful content
  • Help students recognize daily challenges without shaming and blaming
  • Turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones, helping students see when they are on the right path
  • Rename and reframe challenging behaviors into virtues
  • Balance strength virtues with complementary virtues for a positive outcome
  • Create an Act with Tact positivity sandwich to guide behavior in a supportive way

Beyond Coupons, Compliance and Criticism to Relationships, Resilience and Restorative Justice: Boundaries based on respect and Restorative Justice create a climate of peace, cooperation and safety in homes, schools and communities.   In this workshop you will learn how to:

  • Discern your own leadership style and use authority in service of character development
  • Apply ten guidelines for effective classroom boundaries
  • Set clear virtues based boundaries and establish logical and relevant consequences
  • Identify your core values and create a class promise with your students
  • Facilitate meaningful class meetings
  • Utilize Restorative Justice in disciplinary incidents & conflict resolution
  • Transform bullies into leaders by cultivating power plus responsibility and compassion
  • Leverage the PBIS framework and move beyond coupons to intrinsic rewards
  • Create a peace zone and transform detention into reflection.

Bringing Joy, Meaning and Purpose Back to Teaching and Learning:  The most empowering way to create a safe, caring and joyful learning environment is not only to require it but also to inspire it.   In this workshop you will learn how to:

  • De-escalate students and recognize what is underneath their behavior
  • Create a shared vision statement for your class and/or school
  • Use the power of shared stories to develop trust and strengthen unity
  • Facilitate a unity and/or healing circle
  • Do a virtues pick to connect deeply with one another
  • Use the power of affirmations and the arts to develop mastery and meaning in ways that honor cultural diversity
  • Utilize routines, celebrations and ceremonies to honor the spirit of individual, your class and the school community as a whole
  • Facilitate service learning projects to give students meaningful and authentic opportunities to use their gifts to be of service to the world
  • Ways to honor the whole child and the dignity of every individual

The Power of Listening for True Transformation:  The best present you can give is the gift of your presence – your undivided attention.  In this workshop you will learn how to:

  • Reduce power struggles and positively guide students to find their own solutions
  • Give meaningful counseling in less than a minute
  • Diffuse anger by hearing the feelings and justice issues involved
  • Utilize a 7 step process for problem solving and conflict resolution
  • Transform power struggles into teachable moments.
  • Strengthen rapport with students to gain their trust and respect by just listening.

 A Pace of Grace – Virtues for a Sustainable Life:  Let go of the “FOG” of fatigue, overwhelm and guilt and reclaim your power to thrive.  Learn to set limits that you – and everyone around you- can live with so you can be a better colleague, partner, parent and friend without losing yourself in the process. Discern when you are being driven by your ego or lead by your soul.  This experience is based on the book, A Pace of Grace by Linda Kavelin Popov, which contains a four-part program to help us live our best, most grace-filled life:

1.  Purify Your Life by practicing 10 Rules for Health. Replace the Internal Critic with a Gentle Observer. Overcome the needless pain and negativity in the “Troubled C’s” of relationships – Criticism, Control, Contempt and Contention with the healing virtues of Assertiveness, Acceptance, and Appreciation.

2.  Pace Yourself by slowing down to the pace of grace. Pause for Applause when you finish a project or reach a turning point.  Structure your life gracefully and consciously rather than reacting to the endless demands others place on you.

3.  Practice the Presence through honoring your spiritual needs every day. Embrace the RPMS of a routine of reverence, which include reading, prayer, meditation and service. Be the presence of grace to others through daily acts of kindness and the Art of Companioning – listening from the heart.

4.  Plan a Sustainable Life by discerning “What is Your Yes?”  Put Your First Passion First, placing joy and meaning at the center of your life.  Organize and prioritize your day, your month, and your year to balance mind, body and spirit. Find your true calling and do what gives you joy and makes a difference in the world.

“A Pace of Grace contains vivid examples of how to make our daily lives meaningful.  I offer my prayers that those readers who sincerely put them into practice will achieve the inner peace that is the key to lasting happiness.” ~The Dalai Lama

Virtues Project Facilitator Training:  In this workshop you will…

  • Deepening in your understanding of the 5 Strategies of The Virtues Project
  • Learn how to facilitate the 2 Day Introduction to The Virtues Project
  • Utilize tools for excellent experiential group facilitation

You will receive…

  • A copy of The Virtues Project Leader’s Manual, which includes more than 200 pages of sample workshops, activities, presentation and handouts
  • A certificate of completion and permission to facilitate Virtues Project workshops
  • An invitation to join The Virtues Project Facilitator Google Group, connecting you with other facilitators around the world
  • A 20% discount on Virtues Project materials
  • An opportunity to have your own Virtues Project Affiliate Website
  • An opportunity to create your own Virtues Project Connection for ongoing mentoring and support

CEP’s 11Principles of Effective Character Education: Focus on the foundational steps for systemic change to create a culture of character.  In this workshop you will explore and assess the following principles:

  • Principle 1: Promotes core ethical values as the basis of good character.
  • Principle 2: Defines “character” comprehensively to include thinking, feeling, and behavior.
  • Principle 3: Uses a comprehensive, intentional, proactive, and effective approach to character development.
  • Principle 4: Creates a caring school community.
  • Principle 5: Provides students with opportunities for moral action.
  • Principle 6: Includes a meaningful and challenging academic curriculum that respects all learners, develops their character, and helps them to succeed.
  • Principle 7: Strives to foster students’ self-motivation.
  • Principle 8: Engages the school staff as a learning and moral community that shares responsibility for character education and attempts to adhere to the same core values that guide the education of students.
  • Principle 9: Fosters shared moral leadership and long-range support of the character education initiative.
  • Principle 10: Engages families and community members as partners in the character-building effort.
  • Principle 11: Evaluates the character of the school, the school staff’s functioning as character educators, and the extent to which students manifest good character.

Strategies for Success:  Based on best selling author Jack Canfield’s, The Success Principles, you will learn results –oriented strategies required for success in all areas of your life. These strategies spell out the timeless ideas used by successful men and women throughout history.  Taken together and practiced every day, these principles will transform your life and help you get from where you are to where you want to be.  In this workshop you will learn the following Principles of Success:

  • Take 100 % Responsibility for Your Life
  • Be Clear Why You Are Here
  • Decide What You Want
  • Believe It’s Possible
  • Believe in Yourself
  • Become an Inverse Paranoid
  • Unleash the Power of Goal-Setting
  • Chunk It Down
  • Release the Breaks
  • Use the Power of Visualization
  • Experience Your Fear and Take Action Anyway
  • Ask, Ask, Ask
  • Reject Rejection
  • Ask for a Respond to Feedback
  • Practice Persistence

Gifts of Character:  Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “lntelligence plus character, that is the goal of true education.” In this workshop you learn about:

  • Character Education and its impact on learning, living and the society
  • The importance of Social Emotional Learning and 21st Century Skills
  • The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development’s Whole Child Compact for a well rounded education
  • Positive Psychology and the importance of a growth mindset
  • Brain based learning for creating a culture of hope, engagement and wellbeing
  • The importance and practice of mindfulness in education

A Restorative Approach to Classroom Management – An Introduction to Restorative Practices in Schools:  This workshop will give you the big picture of Restorative Practices and help you gain an understanding of the conceptual framework of Restorative Practices and empower you to end the School-to-Prison Pipeline.  “The underlying premise of restorative practices is that people are happier, more cooperative, more productive and more likely to make positive changes when those in positions of authority do things WITH them rather than TO them or FOR them” ~ Ted Wachtel.  In this workshop you will:

  • Learn strategies for strengthening relationships with students, colleagues, families and the community
  • Gain an understanding of the following key features and benefits of restorative practices and know how apply them in schools:
    • Restorative Conferences Continuum
      • Affective Statements
      • Affective Questions
      • Small Impromptu Conference
      • Large Group or Circle
      • Formal Conference
  • Re-integrative Shaming – Separating the Deed from the Doer
  • The Social Discipline Window
  • Compass of Shame
  • 9 Affects
  • Fair Process
  • Circles

Introduction to Circles:  “Intentionally creating a space that lifts barriers between people, circles open the possibility for connection, collaboration, problem solving and mutual understanding” ~SFUSD Restorative Practices.  In this workshop you will learn:

  • The purpose and benefits of circles
  • How to create and facilitate various types of circles to:
    • Build and strengthen relationships
    • Gain a deeper understanding of academic content
    • Develop social and emotional skills and character strengths
    • Enhance students’ authentic self esteem
    • Explore conflict and solve problems