SOS to Spring – Social Emotional Intelligence Series for Maine’s Education Workforce

The Maine Department of Education’s Office of School and Student Supports invites ALL educators to SOS to Spring starting Feb. 3rd. Our SOS (Supporting our Staff) Platform was first introduced in November 2021, and if educators have not had the opportunity to explore its modules, we’re here to spring you forward and to reignite your own Adult SEL (Social Emotional Learning) skills. Educators are invited to chart their own course and to choose modules from the Adult, Social Emotional Intelligence site, OR our SEL Specialist Kellie Bailey has selected six high-leverage modules for interested participants. Those selected modules are as follows:

Feb. 3rd – I Wasn’t Trained for This!
Feb. 17th – Up Against the Clock Adult Wellness
March 3rd – De-Stress for Success
March 17th – What is Compassion Fatigue, and Do I Have It?
April 7th – A Mental Balancing Act
April 28th – Choosing to Be Grateful and Optimistic: A Lesson in Mindfulness

SEL Specialist Kellie Bailey will lead the six-part series – focused on reflection of the assigned module and applying the learning. Sessions will run from 4:00-4:45; HOWEVER, if you do not have time to watch the module ahead of time, log onto the zoom at 3:45pm for each session and watch it with our DOE team!

If educators choose to chart their own course, simply track your modules and send your documentation to us – kellie.bailey@maine.gov. We’re all in this together – make the time to tend to YOU!

Registration link

Participants do need to register on the SOS page if educators are not already registered for SEL4ME (takes two seconds!): SOS/SEL4ME Registration

For more information contact Kellie D. Bailey, Maine DOE Social Emotional Behavioral Learning Specialist at Kellie.Bailey@maine.gov.

FORUM: Emotional Well-Being During a Pandemic

Sponsored by Maine Community Action Partnership (MeCAP), this is a forum, open to all and at no charge, to connect and explore coping strategies.

Panelists:

Dr. Nirav Shah, Director of Maine Centers for disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Eric Eisele, E-COVID Project Director, Office of Behavioral Health, Maine Department for Health and Human Services (DHHS)
Arabella Pares, Trauma Informed Certificate Coordinator, University of New England (UNE)
Abigail Young, Junior at Ellsworth High School

Thursday, January 27, 6:00pm – 7:15pm

For more information, contact MeCAP: https://mecap.org

Maine Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) Traffic Safety Programming

Students Against Destructive Decisions in Maine is offering educators across the state free access to mental health, prevention and mobility safety resources through a partnership with the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety.

Schools that become SADD chapters can not only implement any or all of SADD’s programming, they also can take advantage of SADD’s roster of local and national partners, as well as our engaging expert speakers.

SADD chapters offer unique opportunities to your students including attendance at national conferences and webinars; access to scholarship opportunities; new ways to connect with peers across the country; and some great things to put on their college applications.

Becoming a SADD chapter is completely free, and there are no requirements for participation. Your chapter can do as little or as much as works for your school. If you are interested in finding out more, please reach out to Christina Schechtman, Maine SADD State Coordinator, at cschechtman@sadd.org or visit linktr.ee/saddmaine.

Webinar Regarding Education and Afghan Newcomers: Keeping the Promise

The U.S. Department’s Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) in collaboration with the Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) invites you to a webinar that will provide information about ORR’s process for placing and supporting Afghan refugees in the context of the U.S. educational system.

The webinar will also feature representatives from the Office for Civil Rights, (OCR) and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE). The panelists will discuss how to coordinate resources to provide wrap-around services and offer information about Federal support that will be explained in a forthcoming Dear Colleague Letter.

All state and local education personnel including superintendents, Title III Directors, teachers, and others who are involved in the work of welcoming our Afghan newcomers are invited to join on January 24, 2022, for an engaging and informative session.

Date: January 24, 2022,

Time: 4:00 pm Eastern Time

Digital Forum on Prevention: Digital Ecosystems for Student Security, Safety, and Well-Being

Co-hosted with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) School Safety Task Force and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology (OET).

When:

Tuesday, January 25: 11:00 a.m. ET to 3:30 p.m. ET and;
Wednesday, January 26: 11:00 a.m. ET to 3:30 p.m. ET.

Where: Zoom

This forum will feature two days of online panels and workshops of experts, researchers, technology experts and practitioners. Attendees will learn about a public health-informed strategy to prevention, online safety, multidisciplinary approaches to student and educator well-being, and learn about solutions that support prevention, including how to improve digital literacy and critical thinking skills and cybersecurity resources to build resilience.

School administrators, educators, school safety stakeholders, prevention practitioners, including threat assessment and management professionals, state and local agencies, law enforcement, mental and behavioral health services, social services, technology companies, civil society organizations, cybersecurity experts, and all federal and international partners that have an interest and benefit in learning more about navigating student safety online are encouraged to register.

Full agenda and link to registration

Professional Development Series with Liz Kleinrock, nationally-recognized author with Teaching Tolerance on Anti-racist and Anti-bias Education.

Are you interested in learning about anti-racist and anti-bias education? If so, register for this no-cost training with Liz Kleinrock, the anti-racist and anti-bias educator who won the 2018 Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Equity. She will share her expertise about having difficult conversations in the classroom about race and ethnicity. Don’t miss this three-part professional development series, to how “Education is Everywhere” (2019 Ted Talk).

Sponsored by the Maine County and State Teachers of the Year Association, this series is offered at no cost.

When:

Session 1: February 8, 2022, 7-8:15 pm
Session 2: March 15, 2022, 7-8:15 pm
Session 3: April 5th, 2022, 7-8 pm.

Where: Zoom (a link will be sent to registrants prior to sessions).

To receive four contact hours, please commit to all three sessions.

Register here

Register Now: Maine Collaborative Child Abuse Prevention Online Conference February 2-4

This event is co-sponsored by Cumberland County Children’s Advocacy Center, Maine Department of Education’s Office of School and Student Supports, Trauma-informed Prosecutor Project (TiPP), and Portland Pump Company.

Trainings are designed to provide cross disciplinary education, advocacy for systemic legal change, guidance for survivor support and leadership on emerging technologies, education and training around how to recognize and address the intersecting forms of child maltreatment in connection with child sexual abuse is the focus of all.

FEBRUARY 2-4, 2022 – 8:30AM TO 4PM

Day 1:

Essentials of Trauma-Informed Care
Essentials of Adverse Childhood Experiences
Empowering Survivors To Understand The Impact of Childhood Trauma… Getting Through, Not Over
Vicarious Trauma & Self-Care Strategies

Day 2:

Understanding the Impact Of Trauma On Boys
Strategies, Tips, & Activities for The Classroom: Building Connections & Developing Empathy
Personal Safety Building Blocks: Consent, & Empathy for Parents
Personal Safety Building Blocks: Consent, & Empathy for Professionals

Day 3:

Trauma-Informed Approaches to Victims of Technology-Facilitated
Abuse No Perfect Victim: Combating Issues & Overcoming Jury Bias in Cases with Difficult Kids
Smoke & Fire: Trauma, ACEs, How They Impact Child Abuse Investigation & Prosecution
Creating Trauma-Informed Spaces for Victims & Families Throughout the Justice System

REGISTER HERE.

Help promote this event – Download the flyer.

Input Sought Related to Bus Routing Software Needs

The Maine Department of Education (Maine DOE) is in the process of drafting an RFP to seek proposals to provide interested SAUs with comprehensive school bus routing and transportation management systems, including system implementation, software licensing, hosting, maintenance, support, and training.

Maine DOE is seeking SAU input on features and functionality that are needed in this system to make it most usable and productive for SAUs. Thank you for providing us with input, through this brief survey. Responses requested by January 30, 2022.

For questions regarding this survey, please contact Charlotte Ellis charlotte.ellis@maine.gov

MLTI Virtual Student Conference Slated for May 26th

The Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) team is excited to announce that the 19th annual MLTI Student Conference will take place virtually on Thursday, May 26, 2022. Though this is our third year holding the MLTI Student Conference virtually, we are dedicated to making this year an innovative virtual conference experience like never before! The conference will be open to all MLTI 7th and 8th grade students and their teachers and will include interactive and hands on workshops where participants will be engaging and creating both digitally and in-person with provided materials.

This year the MLTI team is partnering with the University of Maine System and their Maine College of Engineering, Computing, and Information Science (MCECIS). By the time today’s middle schoolers are ready to enter college, they will have access through the University of Maine system to expanded educational opportunities and state of the art classrooms and labs for engineering, computing, and information science.

Please save the date for the 2022 MLTI Student Conference and check our website for more announcements coming soon, including a call for proposals, t-shirt design contest, a surprise guest announcement, presenters, and session information.

We look forward to seeing all of you on Thursday, May 26, 2022 and sharing an exciting and innovative day with you and MLTI students!

Download the Flyer

For more information reach out to Brandi Cota, Maine DOE MLTI Project Manager at Brandi.M.Cota@Maine.Gov

Maine DOE Child Nutrition’s First VISTA Member Paves the Way for Future Work

Caroline Bennett, a Volunteer In Service to America (VISTA) member of AmeriCorps joined the Maine Department of Education (DOE) Child Nutrition team in January 2021 to build capacity and resources related to alleviating food insecurity among Maine students, with a focus on school meal programs.

As Caroline’s one-year stay with the Maine DOE comes to a conclusion this month, we are celebrating the impact she has made as one of the first VISTA members to join our team. She is the first of a cohort that is focused on ending hunger in Maine by 2030.

Caroline’s projects supported the overall goal of improving access to healthy food, through the federal school meals programs. Her projects focused on three main areas:

Determining barriers and best practices of increasing student participation in federal school meal programs by surveying both food service directors and parents. As a result of her work, a toolkit of information, tips, and social media templates has been created for school nutrition programs across the State to use. The toolkit can be found on the Maine DOE Student Eligibility & Applications webpage under the “Free and Reduced Applications” tab, then Resource Materials.
Developing a foundation of resources to move towards all meals at no charge for Maine students. As a result of LD 1679, “An Act to Address Student Hunger through Expanding Access to Free School Meals,” she assisted with the cost analysis of the bill and collaborating with other partners such as Full Plates Full Potential.
Creating a positive media campaign for completing the student meal benefit application. A toolkit was created to educate families on the importance of completing the confidential meal benefit application, including translated materials to help reach all Maine communities. Find the toolkit here.

Other focus areas included promoting the meal benefit application for families who are eligible for pandemic EBT benefits, and building resources for cultural diversity in school menus that can be used by school nutrition professionals. As a result of her work, 218 school districts that participate in the school meals programs have access to these resources, and 91,413 new pandemic EBT issuances were made.

Caroline’s work laid a great foundation for the Department’s future work to continue providing meals at no charge for public schools in School Year 2023. School districts are urged to educate families on the importance of completing the confidential meal benefit application as it informs key funding for schools, as well as connects families to important resources and benefits.

This important work will continue in future years as Child Nutrition looks to host another VISTA member in SY 2023.

Caroline’s future plans include attending the University of New England Master of Science in Applied Nutrition. We wish her the best in her future endeavors!

For further information contact the Maine DOE Child Nutrition Team.