2024 ACSA Leadership Summit

This is a capacity-building presentation for any administrator who oversees UTK on their campus. Participants will walk away with tangibles around play-based learning, the importance of the learning environment, and early learning foundations as a curriculum, instruction, and assessment in a play-based environment. Participants also learn what to look for in a high-quality UTK classroom to confidently observe and evaluate certificated staff in the UTK space.

Are the "Sunday Scaries" a regular part of your weekend plans? Do you avoid certain tasks or situations because of how you feel in those moments? These are all normal adaptations and habits we develop as school administrators in response to the exceptionally high level of daily stressors we experience. Just as they can be wired into your brain, they can be re-wired to be more manageable and less debilitating. A nationally representative survey conducted earlier this year by the RAND Corporation found that 85 percent of principals are experiencing job-related stress, 48 percent of principals are dealing with burnout, while 28 percent report symptoms of depression. Based on the research done by Dr. Judson Brewer and communicated in his book, "Unwinding Anxiety", Principal, Jeff Friedenberg, will provide an overview of the biological underpinnings of anxiety, and three concrete steps for participants to begin the work of navigating their own anxiety so that we can be our best selves for the students who need us now more than ever.

Keep your cool when the heat is on! So much of our job success depends on the strength of our communication. Join us for some immediately applicable skills and techniques that will live in your back pocket for the various communication opportunities coming your way! Help others catch your calm, learn communication strategies to de-escalate and diffuse potentially explosive situations. Additionally, we will explore practical and immediately applicable strategies to build and repair connection in these increasingly divisive times. We will learn specific techniques to increase our skill set and help navigate tricky conversations. Walk away from this session with powerful tools you need to build a culture of connection in your district where students and educators thrive.