Fostering Mental & Emotional Wellbeing in Our Classrooms
Wednesday, March 10, 1-3pm

The reality of distance learning has impacted the mental and psychological well-being of CUNY students, faculty, and staff. In our post-2020 world, how can we as CUNY educators better support our students’ and our own emotional needs? What are some practical ways to promote mental and emotional well-being for our students and ourselves in our classrooms? How can we adopt some of the concepts of trauma-informed pedagogy in order to better serve ourselves and our students through another semester of distance learning?

In this workshop, we will briefly orient participants in some of the key theoretical concepts of trauma-informed pedagogy, and share techniques to help both students and ourselves develop emotional resilience and prevent emotional depletion. We’ll do so while remaining aware of the limits of our scope of practice as educators. We will carve out intentional space to practice wellness planning, as well as to give and receive feedback on teaching strategies that nurture mental and emotional well-being in CUNY classrooms. Participants will leave this workshop with a better understanding of why emotional and mental well-being matters in higher education, and with some actionable ideas to try out in their teaching.

Prior to the workshop, we will share some resources to help participants understand trauma-informed pedagogy. We ask that you bring to the workshop one classroom/teaching artifact (assignment, syllabus, policy, practice) that you would like to adapt to better support your & your students’ emotional wellbeing. We invite anyone interested in the relationship between mental/emotional well-being and pedagogy to attend, including participants in our previous Mid-Winter Institute workshops.

To register for this workshop, visit: http://cuny.is/tlc-spring-21.

An email with the Zoom link for the workshops will be sent on March 9.