Supporting Child and Parent Well Being

Schools That Heal support child well being by recognizing and responding to children's developmental issues as well as acknowleding and honoring their life experiences. Member schools send teachers to professional development seminars in Emotionally Responsive Practice that promote practices that nurture child well-being in the clsasroom.

Level 1 seminars will take place 5 times throughout the school year at the West Side Montessori School on W.92nd Street.. Currently, these half day sessions take place in:

Session 1- October

Session 2- November

Session 3- January

Session 4- February

Session 5- May

( Exact dates will be made available in the spring.)

Schools That Heal Level 1 seminar  topics include:

• Supporting Child Development in the School Setting

• Being a “Good Mirror” for Young Children

• Using Inviting and Containing Techniques for an Emotionally Balanced Classroom

• Transition Objects to Promote Connect to Self and Empathy for Others

• Understanding and Working with End of Year Issues

Schools That Heal Level 2 seminars meet 3 times during the school year. 

 Level 2 seminars involve in-depth study of a single topic. Prior years have included: Trauma and Loss in Children,  Working with Spectrum Issues, and The Value of Play and Metaphor

In the  2024-25 school year, Level 2 participants are studying: 

Public School Classrooms: Same or Different In the 2025-26 school year, Level 2 participants will look at the ways that Politics Come to School: Observing Language, Play, Drawing and Writing.

Directors have found that Schools That Heal seminars have been a powerful source of professional development, fostering practice changes that support child well being in good times and bad. Feel free to check in with school leaders of  current member schools!