Don't miss this special no-cost retreat with expert facilitators, high-value content, and connections with other administrators! Attend one day or both.
Check back often for more details about this event!
Join us in beautiful Helena or attend virtually!
Why Attend?
Administrators have expressed the critical need to mitigate anxiety, stress, and trauma caused by the pandemic - especially for your students, but also to build resilience for yourselves and your staff.
This retreat will demonstrate how positive and dynamic student-adult support systems provide protective factors and optimize mental and behavioral health outcomes, both short-term and long-term.
Participants will learn a durable common language and stronger connectedness that instills lasting resilience. Join us for one day or both. Whether you attend in-person or virtually via Zoom, this workshop will be highly interactive (and fun!) in a safe environment that will allow you to explore & grow elements of your resilience through a holistic approach. Content complements and amplifies Montana’s Health Enhancement Standards and CASEL’s five Core Competencies. You will also walk away with a playbook of activities and strategies you can use with your staff and students to build regulation, relationships, and overall resilience school and district-wide. Expect high-value content, a meaningful experience, and quality connections! Detailed agenda coming soon.
Friday, June 4
Resilience & Self-Care
8:00-8:30am - Check-in
8:30am-12:00pm - It Can Be Lonely at the Top: What’s Your “Why” & Who Anchors Your Web of Support?
12:00-1:00pm - On-site Lunch & Freeform Networking (lunch provided)
1:00-4:30pm - Identifying & Amplifying Protective Factors for Students, Staff, and You.
Saturday, June 5
Brain Research & Trauma-Responsive Strategies
8:30am-12:00pm - Neuroscience You Can Use for Cultivating Regulation, Relationships, and Reasoning
12:00-1:00pm - On-site Lunch & Freeform Networking (lunch provided)
1:00-4:30pm - Balancing Our Brains: Strategies for Trauma-Responsiveness and Work-Life Balance
Engaging, Expert Facilitators
Amy McDonald
Amy McDonald has spent three decades in education in various roles, including administrator, lead teacher, and school counselor, largely serving in rural Alaskan schools. She has a bachelor’s degree in linguistics and a master’s in K-12 school counseling. Amy views schools from both the teacher and administrative perspectives, helping her see the “big picture” of situations and conditions, which has helped her co-develop and implement solutions throughout her school district and in supporting other districts. Amy especially loves advocating for and alongside her students, as well as her educator colleagues, understanding that the wellbeing of teachers and administrators models self-regulation for students and is the only authentic means of providing healthy support systems for the students they collectively serve. She is an outstanding and dynamic facilitator, and most recently presented multiple sessions at the National Youth at Risk Conference (newly named the National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference). Amy’s experiences, knowledge, and skills related to neuroscience, trauma-responsiveness, and social-emotional strategies that work individually and through the school and community systems are vital elements in her adept and valued support to her students and educator colleagues alike.
Lisa Kerscher
Lisa “Kersch” Kerscher leads Brightways Learning’s team of expert trainers, providing both group and one-on-one Professional Development virtually and on-site related to our nonprofit organization’s educational projects, software products, and supporting services. A resident of Montana for more than three decades, Kersch received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Montana. Over the last 15 years with Brightways Learning, Kersch has visited many schools, particularly across Montana and Alaska, supporting teachers and administrators in their varied learning and community environments. Those experiences drive her particular passion for schooling systems and the relationship dynamics between administration, staff, and students in shaping school climate, whole-student success, professional growth, and staff retention. Along those lines, Kersch worked with Associate Dean Daniel Lee of the University of Montana’s Department of Educational Leadership on a research project resulting in the publication, Rural schools, standards-based teacher evaluation and technology's Odyssean Promise (January 2020).
Lodging, Renewal Units, & Registration
Best Western Premier Hotel - Helena
In-Person Location:
Best Western Premier Hotel
835 Great Northern Blvd
Helena, MT 59601
Discounted rate of $115 per night plus taxes ($125 for double occupancy). Discounted rooms are limited so please book early. Click here to reserve (select dates at the top, press Update, and scroll down to select special rate). Includes a full breakfast. Lunch provided. This beautiful hotel is within walking distance to historic downtown Helena.
Can’t travel to Helena? You can join us virtually via Zoom and experience the same engagement and interactivity.
Renewal Units:
We know how important your time and brain power are! Certificates for OPI Renewal Units will be distributed at the end of the event. Administrators can earn 7 RUs each day.
Questions? Contact us!