{"id":5479,"date":"2020-02-22T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2020-02-22T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=5479"},"modified":"2020-02-21T16:58:27","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T21:58:27","slug":"revisiting-our-san-francisco-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/revisiting-our-san-francisco-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting Our San Francisco Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had planned to write a post describing our most recent conference, last weekend in San Francisco (“where every<\/em> day is cardio day”).<\/p>\n

However, one of our attendees — Mark Barrett — got there first<\/a>. I thought he did such a good job of summarizing so many of the speakers that you’d enjoy reading his words.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, Mark agreed to let me copy his post here. I also encourage you to check out his blog<\/a>, “Education Rumination.”<\/p>\n

\n

This past Family Day long weekend, my admin partner, Rupi and I headed down to San Francisco for the\u00a0Learning and the Brain Conference<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 This 55th<\/sup>\u00a0edition of the Conference was themed,\u00a0Educating Anxious Minds<\/em>, and had a record-setting 2500 participants attend from around North America and beyond.\u00a0 The inspiration for the conference came as a result of recent reports finding that many children and teens are experience significant stress, anxiety, and mental health issues.\u00a0 The purpose was to help education professionals reduce anxiety and stress in schools; address teen depression and challenging classroom behaviours; foster coping skills and mindful practices; create trauma-sensitive schools; and improve school success by prompting positive teacher-student relationships.<\/p>\n

As the Professional Development Chair for the North Vancouver Administrators Association, this conference was particularly relevant for me on a couple of fronts. Firstly, I am in the midst of organizing our annual Administrators Conference in Whistler, and our theme for 2020 is the\u00a0BCPVPA domain<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Relational Leadership<\/em>.\u00a0 Many of the speakers touched on how school-based administrators can positively impact school climate, culture and student anxiety through instructional care models that support staff.\u00a0 High relational leadership capacity is certainly an integral aspect of any successful care model.\u00a0 Secondly, in my same role as NovA Pro-D Chair, I\u2019ve created a network of 5 different book clubs for my colleagues.\u00a0 One of the books being read,\u00a0The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog<\/a>, was authored by the first keynote speaker,\u00a0Dr. Bruce Perry<\/a>, and it was enlightening to hear his behavioural science-based approach to understanding anxious students.<\/p>\n

Bruce Perry<\/h2>\n

Throughout the conference I attempted to live-Tweet to my professional network some of the best sound bites.\u00a0 Many of my favourite take-aways were from one of the first keynotes, By Dr. Perry. \u00a0Among them included:<\/p>\n