Safe and Caring Workshops
See a schedule of Upcoming Workshops and Events
Schools, parent groups, student groups, and community groups can request SACSC workshop facilitators to schedule and deliver a workshop to their members. Please contact the SACSC office for more information.
Supporting a Safe and Caring School
Toward a Safe and Caring Curriculum
Supporting a Safe and Caring Teaching Profession
Toward a Safe and Caring Community
Leadership Institutes
Global Education Workshops
Workshops Offered by the Alberta teachers' Association relating to SACSC
SACSC Web-based Micro-workshops
SACSC Presentations
Workshop Statistics
96% of the participants rated the SACSC training institute or workshop they attended as Very Good or Excellent in terms of practical value.
92% of the participants rated the SACSC training institute or workshop they attended as Very Good or Excellent overall.
96% of the participants rated the SACSC materials and resources as Very Good or Excellent.
85% of the participants rated the SACSC facilitator(s) as Very Good or Excellent.
Supporting a Safe and Caring School
Overview of Safe and Caring Schools and Communities
Designed for teachers, support staff, parents and community members, this workshop provides an overview of the Society for Safe and Caring Schools and Communities (SACSC) programs and resources, information on how to use an assessment instrument to evaluate the school’s climate for students and advice on planning and implementing the programs.
Leadership in a Safe and Caring School -
SACSC Administrator's Institute
Section 45 (8) of the School Act reads:
"A Board shall ensure that each student enrolled in a school operated by the board is provided with a safe and caring environment that fosters and maintains respectful and responsible behaviours."
Research demonstrates that optimal student learning occurs in a safe and caring environment. For young people to do well in school, to learn to think critically and to apply new knowledge and skills, we must remove sources of threat, fear and anxiety. The SACSC training institute for administrators, or those aspiring to administrative positions, assists participants in building safe and caring school cultures for their students. This institute is an opportunity for administrators to share successes and challenges that they face in preventing bullying and violence in their schools. The institute will cover the following topics
- Assessing school culture
- Sharing research findings and promising practices
- Collaboration and consensus building
- Working with safe and caring curriculum leaders in the school.
- Fostering safe and caring learning teams within the school
- promoting parental involvement in the safe and caring community program
- Cultivating an effective SACAC leadership plan
Click here to view the SACSC events calendar which includes a workshop schedule.
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Toward a Safe and Caring Curriculum and
Supporting a Safe and Caring Teaching Profession
SACSC offers a number of professional development opportunities designed to help teachers and other staff members implement SACS resources, reflect on teaching practice and learn strategies that promote positive social behaviours and attitudes. The workshops, tailored to the needs of the staff, are intended to aid implementation through collaborative team processes and help teachers integrate SACSC principles into the Alberta curriculum. The inservices for the curriculum resources are designed to help teachers foster in students the skills and attitudes needed to develop self-esteem, respect diversity, avoid prejudice, manage anger, deal with bullying and work cooperatively to resolve conflict. The curriculum resources fully integrate violence prevention and character education into a government-mandated curriculum in all subjects and grades. Advanced training prepares lead teachers to deliver the workshops.
Teacher Inservices
Facilitator Training for Teacher Inservices
Curriculum Leadership Institutes
Web-based Micro-Workshops are available to download from the SACSC website.
Curriculum-writing workshops are also available throughout the year.
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Collaborative Tools for SACSC Implementation
This workshop helps the staff form collaborative implementation teams focused on supporting and reinforcing SACSC curriculum implementation. P articipants learn how to form and maintain successful SACSC implementation tams that meets weekly or biweekly. Implementation team meetings stimulate ongoing collective inquiry into teaching and learning and involve all adults working in the school environment. Team collaboration provides support to all members and provides them with increased resources to perform their roles effectively. Participants receive tools and strategies that they can apply to their collaborative implementation teams, and learn ways that their group can support one another and enhance the success of their SACSC implementation.
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Elementary Teacher Inservice for Toward a Safe and Caring
Curriculum—Resources for Integration: Kindergarten to Gr. 6
This workshop will save teachers who will be implementing the SACSC curriculum resources a lot of preparation time. Participants will review SACSC teaching strategies and learning activities that integrate into all elementary subject areas as well as develop a lesson plan matrix. The content of the workshop covers the five SACSC topics:
- Building a Safe and Caring Classroom
- Developing Self-Esteem
- Respecting Diversity and Preventing Prejudice
- Managing Anger and Dealing with Bullying and Harassment
- Working it Out Together
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Secondary Curriculum Workshop for Toward a Safe and Caring Secondary Curriculum—Approaches to Integration
This workshop includes approaches and instructional strategies for all subject areas for grades 7 to 12. Participants will examine teaching strategies, learning activities, and curriculum links that can aid integration of safe and caring knowledge, skills, and attitudes into the high school curriculum. Teachers will apply content from the workshop, into lessons from their respective subject areas. The content of the workshop covers the five SACSC topics:
- Living Respectfully
- Developing Self-Esteem
- Respecting Diversity and Preventing Prejudice
- Managing Anger and Dealing with Bullying and Harassment
- Resolving Conflicts Peacefully
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Facilitator Training for Toward a Safe and Caring Curriculum—Resources for Integration: Kindergarten to Gr. 6
This workshop session is designed to prepare “lead teachers” to deliver the SACSC Elementary Teacher Inservice to their colleagues. Ideally, every school district will have trained lead teachers to deliver the workshop to other teachers in their district. Candidates for this workshop training must be experienced certificated teachers with excellent knowledge of the elementary curriculum and proficiency in facilitating adult workshops.
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Facilitator Training for Toward a Safe and Caring Secondary Curriculum—Approaches to Integration
This training will prepare two-person teams of “lead teachers” to deliver the Secondary Curriculum Workshop to their colleagues. Ideally, every school district will have trained secondary lead teams to deliver the workshop to other teachers in their district. Candidates for this workshop training must be experienced certificated teachers with excellent knowledge of the elementary curriculum and proficiency in facilitating adult workshops.
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Elementary SACSC Curriculum Leadership Institute
The Curriculum Leadership Institutes for Elementary School teachers present three practical approaches to integrating SACS into teaching practice and examine the attributes of a curriculum leader. Participants learn to facilitate in-school professional development for SACS curriculum integration, to support collaborative SACS Implementation Teams within their school and to use action research as a tool in facilitating SACS curriculum integration.
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Secondary SACSC Curriculum Leadership Institute
The Curriculum Leadership Institutes for Secondary School teachers present three practical approaches to integrating SACS into teaching practice and examine the attributes of a curriculum leader. Participants learn to facilitate in-school professional development for SACS curriculum integration, to support collaborative SACS Implementation Teams within their school and to use action research as a tool in facilitating SACS curriculum integration.
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Click here to view the SACSC events calendar which includes a workshop schedule.
Toward a Safe and Caring Community
The SACSC adult workshops are based on two premises: (1) that non-violent values and behaviours must be taught, modeled and reinforced by all the adults in a child's life and (2) that children are the responsibility of all adults in the community. These workshops are designed to help parents and other adults who work with children and teens model and reinforce positive social behaviour at school, at home and in the community. Research indicates that integrating behavioural objectives with knowledge, skill and attitude outcomes is the most effective way to teach prosocial behaviour. If violence-prevention messages and behaviours are modelled and reinforced by all of the important adults in a child’s life, children’s ability to generalize positive social behaviour to real-life situations increases. These community workshops are designed to complement the school SACSC programs.
Each Topic is comprised of five hours of workshop instruction time, presented as either five one-hour or three two-hour workshops.
Materials are available in 1 or 2.5 hour session formats from the SACSC office.
- Living Respectfully
- Developing Self-Esteem
- Respecting Diversity and Preventing Prejudice
- (A)Managing Anger and (B) Dealing with Bullying
- Working It Out Together: Managing Conflict
Facilitator Training
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Workshop 1: Living Respectfully
Adults will learn how to inspire, model and reinforce respectful behaviour in children and youth. This workshop engages participants in a number of activities to practice the skills of living respectfully: creating a vision of a safe and caring community, using techniques to move from blaming to taking responsibility for one’s own actions and needs, and identifying and practicing the tools of respect. Topics include respect for self, other people, other living things, the environment and property.
Workshop 2: Developing Self-Esteem
Adults will form an understanding, model and reinforce behaviours that enhance self- esteem in children and youth. Participants practice strategies that create an environment in which young people can succeed and learn to recognize their abilities and the role effort plays in success.
Workshop 3: Respecting Diversity and Preventing Prejudice
Participants will examine the issues that arise from a culturally diverse population and will examine teaching strategies that build understanding and respect while diminishing prejudice. The emphasis is on the important role adults play in modelling and reinforcing respectful and responsible behaviour that enhances peacefulness and cooperation.
Workshop 4: (A) Managing Anger and (B) Dealing with Bullying
These two topics can be separated into two workshops sessions. Workshop A examines the negative and positive aspects of anger and outlines a process for managing anger. Workshop B defines the roles of those involved in bullying behaviour and proposes strategies for eliminating bulling.
Workshop 5: Working It Out Together: Managing Conflict
This workshop proposes a conflict resolution strategy for solving problems when conflicts arise. Participants will practice the DISARM strategy (Define the problem, Identify alternate solutions, Select a solution, Agree on a time line, Revisit the problem to check progress, and Meet regularly to be proactive in problem solving) and apply it to common areas of conflict in communities, homes and schools.
Facilitator Training for Toward a Safe and Caring Community Workshops
This workshop is designed to prepare facilitators who will deliver the Toward a Safe and Caring Community series to adults and older youth who work with children and teens (for example, parents, teachers, coaches, extra-curricular activity leaders, youth-group leaders and youth agency workers. The five workshops are each comprised of four to five hours of instruction time, depending the format that the facilitator chooses. Materials are available in 1 or 1.5 hour session formats from the SACSC office.
The facilitator workshop provides general training in the delivery of the Toward a Safe and Caring Community series and tips on making presentations to adults, and prepares participants to present the workshops. Candidates for this workshop should have facilitation skills and a desire to present these workshops in their community. They do not, however, need to be teachers.
Advanced Community Facilitator Training
This workshop is designed to assist SACSC Community Facilitators to develop superior facilitation skills, and to assist in SACSC Toward a Safe and Caring Community implementation. This training covers the following subjects:
- What does a Safe ad Caring School and Community Look, Sound, Feel like?
- SACSC approach to Discipline
- Implementation using Action Research to Drive Decision
- Promoting Parental Involvement
- Identifying and Dealing with Change
- Creating Asset-Rich Communities
- Improving facilitation skills
- Planning and Promotion for Community workshops
- Team building
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Leadership Institutes
Leadership in a Safe and Caring School - SACSC Administrator's Institute
Elementary SACSC Curriculum Leadership Institute
Secondary SACSC Curriculum Leadership Institute
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Global Education Workshops
The following Global Education workshops are available through the Society for Safe and Caring Schools and Communities:
Youth Action—Global Education Focus
These half-day workshops prepare students and their teacher/supervisor to implement the Youth Action program with a focus on the Millenium Development Goals. Both Workshops 1 and 2 include a manual for teacher/supervisors as well as students. Click here for more information on the Youth Action program.
- Workshop 1- Millennium Development Goals-Action Research
Workshop 1 helps students become familiar with various aspects of Action Research. This includes information on conducting focus groups as a means of data collection. After taking this workshop, the students conduct their research and prepare for workshop 2.
- Workshop 2- Millennium Development Goals-The Next Steps: Student-led Action
Workshop 2 teaches participants to develop an action plan that addresses the themes identified in their research and implement and evaluate their plan. Once completed, the students report on their findings.
Addressing Global Issues Through Youth Action
This workshop will introduce secondary teachers to SACSC Youth Action and provide an overview of the student and teacher resources that could be used to promote a global perspective in their school.
Non-Government Organizations
This workshop introduces secondary teachers to the Millennium Development Goals and to Canada 's and Alberta 's non-government organizations. By completing a Web-Quest, participants will research non-government organizations and their role pertaining to issues of governance, rights, citizenship and identity.
Web-based Microworkshops
- Becoming the Change We Want to See Web Quest
The focus of this micro workshop is to develop a critical dialogue that examines teacher and school community knowledge, skills and attitudes about global citizenship and the importance of taking an active role toward a preferred future.
The following SACSC Global Education workshops are available through the Alberta Teachers' Association:
Other Global Education ATA Workshops
Workshops Offered by the Alberta teachers' Association relating to SACSC
The Alberta Teachers' Association offers the following workshops which were either developed in collaboration with the Society for SACSC, or relate to SACSC topics:
Respect for Diversity
Action for Citizenship
Healthy Interactions
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Click here to view the SACSC events calendar which includes a workshop schedule.
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