by I spent today in Nonviolent Crisis Intervention training. Which was illuminating and built well on a number of other training types I have received over the years. I honestly wish that training had been a mandatory part of my teaching education as it would have helped manage a number of situations I have been in over the past few years better. I have never yet needed the physical defense training and honestly the hold breaks taught are inferior to Aikido anyway. The strategies for deescalation of crisis situations, avoiding trauma and supporting and being supported by other staff are definitely useful though.
I’m working tonight on the planning task sheet for a daily short speeches program. Normalising presentations and public speaking in the classroom. I have been using the first ten minutes of the day as a time for a morning meditation. Shortened to five minutes at the beginning of this week, but as I am still not getting full participation I plan to revisit that program later in the year. Starting late next week I will instead use the precious first ten minutes allowing two students to do a one minute presentation in the morning each day for the three weeks it will take for everyone to have a go. For the first round topic we have drawn countries from a hat.