Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Hello, teacher education department.
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My name is Daniela Via
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Boni
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and I am here to tell you about my master's project which
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looked at the most effective practices
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used in successful alternative education programs.
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In this project.
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I first delved into what sets alternative learning
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programs apart from a traditional educational setting.
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I found that alternative education programs began in the 19
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sixties when it was determined that there was a need
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for an educational setting for students who don't fit
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into the typical classroom setting.
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Students that would be referred to
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in alternative setting may have learning disabilities
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exhibit this regulated emotional or behavioral issues
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or engage in activities that can lead to suspension or dropping out
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alternative education programs have a much smaller teacher to student ratio
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striving to be 15 to 1 or less
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many times.
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There will also be at least one other support staff in the classroom as well.
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Other characteristics of alternative learning
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programs include a supportive environment
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with a student centered curriculum, flexibility and structure
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and students having opportunities for participation in decision making.
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I then researched different strategies that
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have been used in educational settings
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and determined that for successful alternative education programs.
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The top three strategies used are restorative practices,
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student centered culture and trauma informed care
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for the purpose of this project. I am defining success as
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an environment with high expectations
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where both students and staff feel welcomed, challenged, safe
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and supported,
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socially, emotionally and economically.
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With the information I gathered for my research,
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I created a 90 minute professional development presentation
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to educate school staff on what these three practices are
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and some universal strategies that can be used
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to implement them in either a classroom setting
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or a larger program wide setting.
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Restorative practices were first used in the criminal justice system
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but are increasing in popularity in other settings.
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Due to the effectiveness of meeting the needs of the victims
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and having offenders take accountability for their actions.
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Restorative practices also seek to
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create preventative measures against misbehaviors to
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ensure that all those involved in the community feel safe.
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A key concept of restorative practices are community circles.
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During the presentation,
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I explain the different types of circles
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that could be used for different situations
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and have the participants engage in a small group activity to have them practice.
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This concept.
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Student centered culture refers to an environment that provides a self, a safe
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and welcoming space that leads to behavioral success.
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There's a high level support in a setting
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that focuses on academic innovation
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and student choice.
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Students are provided with an opportunity to engage with the local community
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which fosters a sense of belonging and servitude.
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During the presentation,
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participants are asked to engage in a discussion with their peers to
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collaborate on how they can make their school community more student centered
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trauma informed care is honestly a lot of information to take in.
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During my presentation, I go through the six guiding principles of the
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of the implementation of trauma informed care created by
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the substance abuse and mental health services administration.
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I also discussed some universal strategies that can be used as
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a tier one approach to being a more trauma informed educator.
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And
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if interested in learning more,
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I provide a few different resources,
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resources and training opportunities that participants can
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look into on their own time.
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I presented a condensed version of the professional
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development to a small group of educational professionals
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and provided them with a short questionnaire to gather
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their feedback on the information given during the professional development
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and whether the information presented
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aligned with what they have experienced throughout their careers in education.
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They agreed that restorative practices, student centered culture
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and trauma informed care are three comprehensive and effective strategies
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that lead to the success of alternative education programs.
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Since this was such a small sample group,
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it would be imperative to conduct another survey
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after the presentation is given in its entirety
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to a larger group of educational professionals.
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Future research on the findings for my
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study should include statistics of student success
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in terms of graduation rates,
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behaviors,
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and students,
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student satisfaction in alternative learning programs that implement the
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three practices studied versus programs that do not.
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Now, I would like to show you
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a brief rundown of my presentation.
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This is the title screen that participants would see as they enter in.
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I would then do an introduction about myself and my background in education
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and then give participants a chance to get up and move around and talk to
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people that they have never interacted with before
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and introduce themselves.
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Next, I would go into why we're here, make sure that everybody's in the right place
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and talk about um just an overview of the three practices.
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We'd be learning about restorative justice, trauma,
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informed care and student centered culture.
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Following that is a brief description of what alternative learning programs are
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and then we'll delve into restorative justice.
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First beginning with the description of it
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talking about a um
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practice called Life Space interviews that the
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therapeutic crisis intervention student workbook uses.
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This chart was taken from a survey that I conducted in
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the alternative education program that I worked in work in currently.
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Um And
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these charts are used throughout
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the presentation to kind of um make my points about certain topics
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from here. We would have a group wide discussion about
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what exclusionary discipline practices really do achieve
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kind of eye opening
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and then watch a brief video about the practice being used in another school
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from here. We would talk about the different types of circles
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that are used in restorative practices.
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And then the group would have time to practice in a smaller group of 4 to 5 people.
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Um In my
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paper at
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the end of the paper, there is an appendix. Um figure two A
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are the different scenarios that can be printed and cut out and used for this.
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Um
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For this activity,
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there is our 10 minute timer.
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After that, we would jump into student center culture again with the description,
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some of the survey result
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and then talking about what it looks like in practice,
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these are some pictures from the program that I work in,
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talking about the different community building activities
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and community service activities that we participate in.
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Talking about the integrated system of support services,
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the alternative programs implement
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that are very successful and very beneficial to students.
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And then the group would have a chance to discuss
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um what student centered practices they currently use or have seen used
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and how they would implement some of these
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practices in their classroom or in their program
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with just a small group of people
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moving on to the third practice, which is trauma informed care.
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Another description of it,
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talking about what it means to be trauma informed
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on a spectrum from trauma inducing to trauma invested.
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And then these are the six guiding principles produced by Samsa
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um for the implementation of trauma informed care
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in any program.
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And then we dive into each of the guiding principles, safety,
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trustworthiness and transparency,
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peer support,
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collaboration of mutuality,
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empowerment, voice and choice,
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cultural, historical and gender issues.
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From here, we talk about relationships, responsibility and regulation.
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And these are just some universal approaches that can be used as a tier one approach
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to being more trauma informed.
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And again, another um
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survey results,
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this one just talks about um
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how important it is to be greeted by name every morning at school.
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And since there is so much information
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surrounding trauma informed care and trainings,
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I decided to um provide
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some different professional development opportunities
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that a school or district may
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pre may provide for their educators
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and also some different books that I found helpful um throughout this research
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that I thought that other educators might also find helpful
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and then we would have another discussion um with one other person,
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I would have the participants just discuss something that
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either stuck out to them regarding trauma informed care
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or something that they would be implementing from this training
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that would make them a more trauma informed educator.
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And these are just four quotes from some of
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the staff and students that I work with currently
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um based from that survey that I
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that I got from them
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um that I thought really stood out about how
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these practices affected them in our alternative school setting.
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Then wrapping up talking about how we are creating that unified approach.
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Um It's really a mindset shift in order to implement
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any of these practices and really requires collaboration from everyone,
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staff and students.
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This youtube video is just a song that I think the lyrics
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really resonate well with anybody that works in a school setting,
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especially one
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that has um such great relationships
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and focuses on fostering those relationships with people.
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So I thought that it would be really fun to
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um end the presentation that way
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along with a brief little conclusion about the three best best practices and how um
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in order to implement these practices,
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it really requires complete staff buy in and ongoing professional development.
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And that is it for my presentation.
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I really appreciate you watching and taking time to consider using this
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in your classrooms or in any kind of future um setting.
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Thank you so much for watching. Bye bye.