Attending a Healthy Play Safer School / Smarter Student character
education training teaches all participants knowledge to successfully implement the
program on the following day at your school or organization. Faculty and parents will be
able to easily duplicate this process with their own students and children. We've worked
very hard to distill our concepts and information into a practical, elegant and simple
format.
| "I'll tell anyone that Healthy Play has made teaching for me
one of the easiest and most rewarding jobs I ever could have. I set the daily expectations
of the program with the students for the first month. After that, they run the process
smoothly all day long for the rest of the year. And, this was a class of 27 children that
had seven mainstreamed special education students attending. It made school a joy for all
of us." Kay Ann Well, Teacher, Warren
Elementary |
Healthy Play empowers you to manage your class by
creating an environment where students learn self-control and essential social skills. It
works because the core philosophy is simple enough for students to duplicate. It works
because our program is not a burden for teachers to implement. It works because the focus
is on education and removing obstacles that impede learning. It works because play is a
fundamental tool for learning where children practice again and again the skills necessary
to become successful adults. It works because students and teachers put joy back into
learning. It works because it is FUN and kids will do it!
Real Hands-On Training
Attending a Healthy Play workshop is about learning by doing. You will
participate in 20-25 educational activities that you will be able to duplicate the
following day in your class or setting. Be part of the step-by-step approach of how to set
up every aspect of this process with your students. Additionally, four brief lectures and
four planned discussion periods are provided. We also role-play several of the most common
behavior problems and demonstrated practical/realistic solutions that your students will
be able to learn from. Healthy Play uses all of the different multiple intelligences.
Finally, our 14-page handout frees you to experience the curriculum and not take notes.
Come Join Us!
This training has been developed for teachers, counselors, teacher aids,
youth service professional and parents working with elementary school age children. (A
special pre-school training is also available). Principals will find this is a perfect
opportunity to preview the quality of our program before bringing it to their whole
faculty.
| "Last year three people attended the Healthy Play training and
used what they learned with our students. It worked so well for them that we trained our
entire faculty. At one point this year we went 12 weeks without a single referral for
playground fighting." Janell Black,
Principal, Phoenix |
Healthy Play Dynamics Will Enable You To:
- Reduce and manage aggression in and out of the classroom
- Bring educational play curriculum into your existing academic subjects
- Build character
- Provide practical experiences that teach students compassion and
nurturing behaviors
- Promote problem solving
- Have more time for academics
Background on the Joy in Learning / Healthy Play Program
For 15 years while working in a mental health setting we had been called
on to provide play sessions for classes in our community. By 1992, the demand for our
services had become so frequent that we developed Creative Spirit and began sharing this
process with teachers, business leaders, parents and mental health professionals.
Since then, Healthy Play & Joy in Learning training programs have
been successfully implemented in hundreds of settings across the country. In the past nine
years we have worked directly in the classroom with 130,000 students. These extensive
practical experiences in schools have allowed us to develop Healthy Play’s workable
approach to classroom management, character education and making safer schools and smarter
students.
Essential in our approach has been our experience, which is supported by
research, that children learn by doing kinetic activities. Students improve all skills
with repetitive practice. Children want/need to be safe and their level of behavioral and
academic functioning mirrors the comfort that they feel. Our goal was to reduce the vast
amount of positive and supportive research about play into a concise, elegant and easy
program. Healthy Play has evolved into the format where students learn life skills by
doing them versus reading or talking about them. We have purposefully kept our approach
simple and have only two key philosophical points and two rules which students must learn
to master.
The Presenters
Charlie Steffens and Spencer Gorin, co-authors of Learning to
Play, Playing to Learn, met while working with children and adolescents in a
Tucson psychiatric hospital. Here we saw children challenged by the most serious problems
imaginable and learned about the therapeutic healing capacity of play. After 20 combined
years of mental health experience it was natural for us to move on with our mission and
develop Creative Spirit to help all children.
Our medical background and training has given us unique insights into
the educational system. This perspective has allowed us to share tools that have not been
maximized in the classroom or playground setting. Likewise working with over 5,000
teachers has allowed us to learn the best qualities that educational professionals have to
offer.
"Being able to participate so
completely was exhilarating. Knowing that all the information would be provided in the
handout was a stress reduction factor."
Connie O’Dell, Teacher,
Tucson
|
| "I was introduced to Healthy Play as
the National Association of School Counselors Conference. I was so excited about the
concept that I brought the whole program to our school. It was the first inservice that
everybody in the entire faculty agreed was worth their time to attend." Trish Hatch, Counselor, Moreno
Valley, CA |
Open Training Dates & Locations
Call 1-800-742-0708
for more information.
Fee: $65 per person with lunch included.
Workshop Reservations
Call 1-800-742-0708 to phone in your
reservation. Confirmed workshop attendees will receive a
confirmation letter and a map to the site of their training.
Odds And Ends
Creative Spirit Joy in Learning workshops are designed for no more than
50 participants. We want to make this learning experience as personal and effective as
possible. This does mean that only the first 50 registered participants can attend the
session.
Seventy-five percent of the workshop is experiential. Please dress VERY
comfortably. Tennis shoes are a must. Feel free to join every
activity or choose to observe when that feels most comfortable for you.
Creative Spirit provides certificates of attendance for six hours of
in-service training.
Joy In Learning / Healthy Play Workshop Options
Attending a Joy in Learning / Healthy Play training teaches all
participants the necessary knowledge to successfully implement the program on the
following day at their school. We have worked very hard to distill our concepts and
information into a practical, elegant and simple format. Faculty and parents will be able
to easily duplicate this process with their own students and children.
Our step-by-step approach equips all participants with tools for using
Healthy Play as effective classroom and playground management. Your staff will be able to
support and enhance positive student social skills, reduce aggression, foster nurturing
behaviors, promote cooperation and maximize involvement via 25 quality activities.
Students will be able to learn and practice Healthy Play concepts daily. The training will
also instruct teachers how to create and modify additional curriculum material.
| * Classroom Consultation
We go into your classrooms! This alone, makes Creative
Spirit uniquely different from almost any other character education program. In fact, many
schools elect to have Creative Spirit staff immediately initiate the Healthy Play process
in your classes on the same day of your training. We gladly demonstrate our expertise in using this
process while modeling many useful techniques for your staff to learn.
Additionally, the healthy play training is a warm, relaxing and
stimulating team building retreat. Approximately 75% or more of your time at the training
will be spent doing "hands-on" activities with each other. You’ll all
appreciate this enjoyable time together filled with bonding and laughter.
Of special note is the fact that we use less than $25.00 in equipment.
Excess expenses to purchase equipment are either not necessary or very minimal should you
choose to duplicate our materials.
|
Individual School Training
Many schools like to implement the Healthy Play process as an entire
community. There are a number of different training programs we offer and can include the
direct classroom sessions with the students and the teachers. Prices vary depending on the
service. Please contact us for a fuller menu of these programs.
Program #1: Full Day training for an individual school
consisting of the Joy in Learning/Healthy Play Is A Solution Philosophy, Creative Play,
Compassionate Play, Soft Aggression concepts and over 25 hands-on activities. Full day
teacher training (6-8 hours) provided by two Creative Spirit staff. A maximum of 50
participants may attend. (Teachers, monitors and parents should be invited.) Ten pages of
notes on the Healthy Play philosophy, rules, play structure and activities have already
been prepared and will be distributed to all participants. All you have to do is play!
Program #2: Three day program of the Joy in
Learning/Healthy Play Is A Solution Philosophy, Creative Play, Compassionate Play, Soft
Aggression concepts and over 25 hands-on activities plus classroom consultations for an
individual school. Three 2-hour teacher-training sessions (6 hours) provided by two
Creative Spirit staff. This program also includes 18 one-hour classroom sessions with your
students and teachers in the morning of your training. A maximum of 50 participants may
attend. (Teachers, monitors and parents should be invited.) Ten pages of notes on the
Healthy Play philosophy, rules, play structure and activities have already been prepared
and will be distributed to all participants. All you have to do is play!
Program #3: Two day program consisting of the Joy in
Learning/Healthy Play Is A Solution Philosophy, Creative Play, Compassionate Play concepts
and over 20 hands-on activities plus classroom consultations for an individual school. Two
2-hour teacher-training sessions (4 hours) provided by two Creative Spirit staff. This
program also includes 12 one-hour classroom sessions with your students and teachers in
the morning of your training. A maximum of 50 participants may attend. (Teachers, monitors
and parents should be invited.) Ten pages of notes on the Healthy Play philosophy, rules,
play structure and activities have already been prepared and will be distributed to all
participants. All you have to do is play!
Program #4: One-half day training consisting of the Joy
in Learning/Healthy Play Is A Solution Philosophy, Creative Play concepts for an
individual school and over 15 hands-on activities. Half-day teacher-training (2-3 hours)
session provided by two Creative Spirit staff. This program also includes 6 one-hour
classroom sessions with your students and teachers in the morning of your training. A
maximum of 50 participants may attend. (Teachers, monitors and parents should be invited.)
Ten pages of notes on the Healthy Play philosophy, rules, play structure and activities
have already been prepared and will be distributed to all participants. All you have to do
is play!
Open Training
Often, districts like sponsoring a Healthy Play seminar so that many
teachers, counselors, and monitors from different schools can attend. This is a very
useful way to view and begin implementing the Creative Spirit approach by the widest
possible audience. It is also an effective means to determine if specific schools in your
district would desire a full training for their whole faculty. The program is designed for
a maximum of 50 participants and may be held any day of the week. Classroom consultations
with students can be added if desired in six to eight hour sections on the day(s)
preceding or following the training.
Follow-Up Training
Upon completion and usage of a Healthy Play Is A Solution program your
school will soon be ready for a shorter (2-4 hour) follow-up Joy in Learning / Safer
School – Smarter Student training. Tighten up the behavioral gains of utilizing the
program as well as delving deeper into utilizing play to bring the joy in learning math,
spelling, geography and other academic skills.
Train The Trainers
The train the trainer program is a 12 hour format designed for 4 faculty
members to attend from each participating school. This is an intensive two-day program
where the philosophy, activity structure and over forty indoor and outdoor curriculum
activities will be taught. The focus will be on preparing each team of four participants
on how to present a Healthy Play training at their school.
The first day will consist primarily of our basic six-hour seminar. On
the second day, participants will be divided into the four sections of the Healthy Play
program. They will practice leading their specific section of the material and be
positively critiqued by the Creative Spirit staff and their peers. Each group of four
members will then be able as a team to teach the complete Healthy Play program to their
entire faculty, student mentors, parents or other community groups.
Planning Your Healthy Play is a Solution Program at Your
Own Site
We require that you provide a large indoor space, (a cafeteria or
gymnasium is ideal). The area should be free from furniture, etc. except for chairs for
the participants. Access to a grassy outdoor area or basketball court is necessary,
weather permitting. An amplifier will also be needed.
Participants should bring their sense of humor, and willingness to have
fun. Comfortable casual clothing should be worn. Tennis shoes are highly recommended.
Skirts and dresses may be sometimes awkward. Although there are many kinetic activities,
our program is designed so that EVERYONE can participate to their own individual ability.
You are welcome to plan some sort of snacks or beverages but we
encourage you to keep it simple. If planning a 6-8 hour single day training we encourage
that everyone bring a lunch or that arrangements be made so that people can eat at the
training site.
We are creative and flexible so please feel free to postulate your
specific school’s needs. We may be able to develop something special if we know what
you are looking to achieve. In some small school districts it may be possible to merge two
schools together for a training.
Want to bring a Joy in Learning / Healthy Play training to your school? Contact us today!
