• Prepare your students to be global leaders who effectively use the 4 C’s of the 21st Century skills: collaboration, communication, creativity (and innovation), and critical thinking.
• Lead your students to become civically engaged and empathetic citizens inside and outside of the classroom.
• Learn the fundamentals of classroom democratic leadership in a step-by- step process beginning the first day of school.
• Shift your teaching style from one of autocratic management to one of democratic leadership.
• Increase youth engagement, responsibility, and achievement.

We offer a limited number of scholarships for many of our workshops, in exchange for volunteering prior to, during, and after our workshops. Please contact us to request a scholarship form.

Participants are eligible to earn clock hours from the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Clock hours are provided free of charge to all educators that attend. Please feel free to contact us for more information.

3 Ready-to-Use & Hands-On Strategies to implement tomorrow

Outcomes/Take-Aways:
Participants learn to build three basic building blocks of how to create a democratic classroom within which students learn the 4 C’s of 21st Century skills: collaboration, communication, creativity (and innovation), and critical thinking; students become civically engaged and empathetic global citizens inside and outside of the classroom. Educators learn how to use the following sequentially integrated strategies:

Class Agreements: Create class agreements in which youth collaborate to create learning community curriculum and assessment norms, classroom environment and management– a system which invites a deeper level of self and group accountability to performance and behavior.

Community Building Through a Social Justice Framework: Create a powerful team in which all students are integral to the whole; use group grades and theatre of liberation to build group integrity, cooperation, collaboration and compassion. Inside the context of building a powerfully collaborative learning community, address and discuss issues of identity and diversity effectively to raise awareness of how students can become active change agents for equity both within and outside the learning community.

Class Jobs: Share ownership and responsibility of class, teaching and community with students. Learn how to lead, not manage, students to become co-leader-teachers. The result is that students become more invested in the learning community and by extension, their own academic success and that of their classmates.

Outcomes/Takeaways

• Structures for a Culture of Equity & Inclusion
• Restorative Practices including:
• Class Agreements
• Class Meetings
• Community Building
• Class Jobs & Roles
• Student Leadership
• Understanding Behavior from Social Justice Frame

This interactive workshop engages administrators to explore hands-on strategies for building inclusive, democratic learning communities where students do not have to check their identity at the door.

The social-emotional learning foundation of democratic classroom leadership enables students to embrace their learning in unprecedented ways. Students strengthen the 4 C’s of 21st Century skills: collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking as well as create authentic relationships with classmates.

Design your classes to create engaged civic leaders and global citizens.

Outcomes/Takeaways

• Participate in a highly collaborative and engaging workshop for K-12 educators of public schools
• Count on workshop time to integrate new strategies into existing instructional plans and syllabi
• Become a part of an ongoing supportive learning community
• 30 free clock hours

Participants learn to build a democratic classroom within which students learn the 4 C’s of 21st Century skills: collaboration, communication, creativity (and innovation), and critical thinking; students become civically engaged and empathetic global citizens inside and outside of the classroom. Educators learn how to use the following sequentially integrated strategies:

Class Agreements: Create a process in which students collaborate to build curriculum and assessment norms, classroom environment and management. Build a reliable system which invites a deeper level of self and group accountability to performance and behavior.

Class Meeting: Establish a weekly forum in which students leaders and Educator leader work out all “behavioral”, performance, classroom climate issues as well as a space to build unprecedented authentic relationships (student to student as well as student to educator). The result of which is a return on investment for content and achievement in academic and affective domains.

Community Building: Create a powerful team in which all students are integral to the whole; use group grades and theatre of liberation to build group integrity, cooperation, collaboration and compassion.

Class Jobs: Share ownership and responsibility of class, teaching and community with students.

Peer Accountability Structure: Lead class to create a learning community in which students hold each other accountable and elicit the best from one another for behavior and learning outcomes.

Process for Mutual Respect: Move beyond reward & punishment; learn to use natural & logical consequences, encouragement rather than praise, and to build on the positive while minimizing mistakes– methodologies based on mutual respect (“power with” rather than “power over”).

Culture of Critical & Systems Thinking Essential for Interdependent Cooperation: Facilitate project-based learning in which students learn and practice leadership skills to address critical 21st global issues.

Structures for a Culture of Equity: Inside the context of building a powerfully collaborative learning community, address and discuss issues of identity and diversity effectively to raise awareness of how students can become active change agents for equity both within and outside the learning community.

• Class Agreements: Create class agreements in which youth collaborate to create learning community curriculum and assessment norms, classroom environment and management—a system which invites a deeper level of self and group accountability to performance and behavior.
• Class Meetings: Establish a weekly forum in which student leaders and Educator leader work out all “behavioral”, performance, classroom climate issues as well as a space to build unprecedented authentic relationships (student to student as well as student to educator). The result of which is a return on investment for content and achievement in academic and affective domains.
• Community Building: Create a powerful team in which all students are integral to the whole; use group grades and theatre of liberation to build group integrity, cooperation, collaboration and compassion.
• Class Jobs: Share ownership and responsibility of class, teaching and community with students.
• Peer Accountability Structures: Lead class to create a learning community in which students hold each other accountable and elicit the best from one another for both behavior and learning outcomes.

4 Hands-On Strategies for K-12 Educators Developing Democratic Classrooms

Outcomes/Take-Aways:
Participants learn to build the basic building blocks of how to create a democratic classroom within which students learn the 4 C’s of 21st Century skills: collaboration, communication, creativity (and innovation), and critical thinking; students become civically engaged and empathetic global citizens inside and outside of the classroom. Educators learn how to use the following sequentially integrated strategies:

Class Agreements: Create class agreements in which youth collaborate to create learning community curriculum and assessment norms, classroom environment and management– a system which invites a deeper level of self and group accountability to performance and behavior.

Class Meeting: Establish a weekly forum in which student leaders and Educator leader work out all “behavioral”, performance, classroom climate issues as well as a space to build unprecedented authentic relationships (students to student as well as student to educator). The result of which is a return on investment for content and achievement in academic and affective domains.

Community Building: Create a powerful team in which all students are integral to the whole; use group grades and theatre of liberation to build group integrity, cooperation, collaboration and compassion.

Class Jobs: Share ownership and responsibility of class, teaching and community with students.

Gain the basic understanding of all negative human behavior and how to work with each student who seems out of reach — whether it is the student who demands your undue attention, the student who likes to show their power over you, who goes as far as taking revenge out on you, or the student who seems hopelessly withdrawn and unwilling to do any work or participate at all.

Understand the fundamental differences between praise and encouragement. Praise is disempowering yet prevalent in our homes and schools. Learn to build on positive and to minimize mistakes. Our society is obsessed with pointing out mistakes which leads to discouragement and disengagement.

This workshop builds upon concepts learned in the week-long summer institute and focus on refining teachers’ skill in building effective class meetings and class jobs as well as build a deeper understanding of Adlerian principles in order to improve the way teachers react “in the moment.”

Principles covered include, 4 mistaken goals, logical & natural consequences, putting them in the same boat, and other Adlerian concepts that participants bring up. The workshop will include minimal presentation time and instead, provide ample time for role playing, practical discussion, and hands on application of the tools and concepts covered in the workshop.

Prerequisite: Participants from previous Summer Institutes are invited to this 2-day workshop to deepen their understanding of the theory and implementation of democratic classroom leadership practices.

Educators will gain:
A deeper understanding of behavior – including: using family constellation; decoding the child’s private logic; employing the class meeting to solve all conflicts effectively; winning over traumatized or withdrawn students by addressing mistaken goals.

More hands-on skills to empower classes to “make sure that everyone gets it” resulting in a close-knit learning community.

Greater depth and fluidity with restorative practices.

See student (and human) behavior through an entirely new lease. Learn how you can turn negative behavior into positive outcomes and how to understand the student’s belief behind the behavior so that your interventions can be more effective.

Outcomes/Take Aways:

Participants learn to identify the four mistaken goals of behavior and how we co-create conflicts. Participants learn how: 

• to address students needing undue attention
• to side-step the struggle for power
• to defuse the anger on both sides, and
• to get withdrawn, “hopeless” students re-engaged.

FCLC will design a tailor made workshop to suit the needs of your staff and/or school community.
Learn More

This ongoing and availed to all educators who complete at least a one-day workshop. There is a once a month call-in meeting during which teachers work through classroom problems and opportunities.