One of the things that makes TEC so special is our ability to tap into what our member districts truly need and do whatever we can to make their lives and jobs just a tiny bit easier.

A great example of this is a Professional Development (PD) workshop that we are hosting next month, which came to fruition after conversations between our PD department and our Higher Education Job Alike group, part of our Internship & Career Exploration Program. This particular group has met monthly for years upon years, and is comprised of counselors from several local high schools. The group’s main goal is to troubleshoot and bounce ideas and strategies off of one other, in hopes of effectively serving their own student population. A tireless group, they never seem to run out questions to ask each other when it comes to comparing how each counselor’s individual school is handing similar situations.

That brings us to today, and the current state of the world which has many of our group’s students struggling with severe cases of anxiety, depression, eating disorders and the like. In addition to the added stress on teachers, students and their counselors, it is such a time of uncertainty that our counselors expressed that these situations have become so prevalent right now, that they would greatly benefit from the advice of outside professionals on how best to help these understandably struggling students.

While TEC’s PD department has plans to cover all aforementioned topics in future PD offerings, our first session is planned for January 20th from 9 – 10:30am. This session, Cultivating Safe Schools for our LGBTQ+ Students, will be hosted by Rene’ Rives of PFLAG. The first of its kind, PFLAG is the largest organization for the LGBTQ+ community, families and allies. The audience we are hoping to welcome for this presentation includes K-12 administrators and educators, counselors, nurses, psychologists and social workers. The goal is to provide them with the opportunity to learn how they can best provide a safe, supportive and inclusive learning environment.

The cost to attend this 90-minute workshop is $25 for TEC-member districts and $35 for non-members. Anyone who could benefit from such a valuable session is encouraged to attend (and spread the word!). We hope to see you there!

You may register here.