Safe and Supportive Learning
Environments Essentials
Virtual Professional Learning Series
The California Center for School Climate (CCSC), a California Department of Education initiative operated by WestEd, provides free support and trainings on school climate and data use to local education agencies in California. CCSC is currently offering Safe and Supportive Learning Environments (SSLE) Essentials, a virtual professional learning series for K-12 educators and education leaders. The series focuses on many topics that may be familiar, such as trauma-informed, restorative, and culturally responsive practices; social and emotional learning (SEL); school climate; and related whole-person topics, with attention to equity throughout.
The SSLE Essentials lead educators and education leaders to integrate a broad cluster of research-based content and culturally responsive practices that inherently work together to foster safe and supportive learning environments. Participants work closely with SSLE facilitators and fellow participants as they develop the mindsets, knowledge, and capacity needed to infuse these practices into the everyday instruction and experiences of their schools, districts, and agencies.
What You Will Learn
With the facilitation, coaching, and technical assistance from our multidisciplinary team, self-reflection, and close collaboration with fellow participants, you learn how to:
- Reflect on and adapt practices to shift values, attitudes, mindsets, biases and beliefs on personal/individual, interpersonal/collective and structural/systemic levels.
- Understand sustainable systems and structures to promote effective implementation, scale-up, and ongoing improvement.
- Lead improvement efforts that meaningfully engage staff, students, and families as equal partners to co-create equitable conditions for learning.
Who Will Benefit
- K-12 school district superintendents and administrators
- Principals and site administrators
- Teacher leaders, behavior specialists, intervention coordinators
- Counselors, school psychologists, and mental health professionals
Principles and Elements
Comprising a practical and manageable scope and sequence for learning and application, the SSLE Essentials series includes the following principles and elements:
- Offers collaborative and experiential learning with weekly opportunities for practice and self-reflection
- Fosters a safe and engaged learning community in which to learn and grow with education peers across CA
- Provides educator-friendly language that removes stigma and simplifies similar or overlapping concepts
- Brings together the most important or “essential” pieces of the research, frameworks, practices, and lenses that help create and sustain safe and supportive learning environments
SSLE Essentials participants choose to join one of two role-based learning journeys: Educator Track or Education Leader Track
| Educator Track | Education Leader Track | |
| Participants: |
K-12 school, district, and education agency staff, including teachers, school counselors, intervention specialists, mental health professionals, and other education staff. |
K-12 school, district, and education agency administrators, teacher leaders, program coordinators, and other education leaders. |
| Sessions: |
CCSC SSLE Essentials 1-8 |
CCSC SSLE Essentials 1-10 |
| Time Commitment: |
16 hours (8 sessions) synchronous learning time. Approximately 1 hour of practice and reflection between sessions. |
20 hours (10 sessions) synchronous learning time.
|
| Focus: |
Mindsets, individual practices, self-reflection, personal and collective change. |
Mindsets, individual practices, self-reflection, personal and collective change.
|
Synchronous learning occurs via Zoom. Asynchronous practice and reflection occurs via Canvas Learning Management System between sessions.
Learning Sequence
The SSLE Essentials Virtual Professional Learning Series contains 8 Essentials for educators (SSLE Essentials 1–8) and an additional 2 Essentials (SSLE Essentials 9–10) for education leaders.
| Session | Themes/Topics/Focus |
|---|---|
| Essential 1 – Together We Will: Placing Our Work Into Context | Understanding the SSLE Essentials; education paradigms; technical vs. adaptive work; systems and context |
| Essential 2 – How Brain Science Informs Teaching and Learning | Brain architecture and emotional regulation; window of tolerance; behavior as communication |
| Essential 3 – The Role of Self-Care and Bringing Our Whole Selves to Work | Signs of dysregulation in ourselves; self-care and brain science; getting and staying regulated; connection and belonging; mindsets |
| Essential 4 – Person–Context Interactions | Physical environments for student success; relationships; responding vs. reacting |
| Essential 5 – Person–Context Interactions, continued | Teaching and modeling SEL skills and strategies; building trust and safety |
| Essential 6 – Power, Culture, and Social Context | Culture and context; culturally responsive brain rules; social discipline window |
| Essential 7 – Voice, Agency, and Co-Creation | Student, staff, and family engagement; developmental assets; agency and shared decision-making |
| Essential 8 – Revisiting Our Journey and Looking Ahead | Personal and collective reflection; action planning; next steps and commitments |
| Essential 9 – Leadership and Systems Supports | Administrators/Leaders ONLY Adaptive leadership; implementation drivers (leadership); personal leadership goals |
| Essential 10 – Sustainability | Administrators/Leaders ONLY Implementation drivers (competency and organization); prioritizing actions and strategies; bringing the SSLE Essentials back to your site; next steps and commitments |
For more information, email us at schoolclimate@wested.org.
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