Leadership Courses & Coaching | Team Outings & Workshops | Culture Assessment
Solutions for Educators.
As a school administrator, principal, or leader, you have a lot of lives in your care… students, parents, staff. You were called to this job because of your purpose and passion to serve your community. And yet, most days, you feel all you do is put out fires rather than making progress. You are far from alone. While deeply rewarding, leading people can be a draining endeavor. It is important to recognize that you cannot do it all on your own and its okay to ask for help.
At Thought Design, we walk alongside educators helping you to assess culture, provide actionable professional development for teachers, take your leadership team to new levels, and support families and students. Take a glimpse at the Thought Design approach.
You'll hear us talk a lot about psychological safety.
Psychological safety is the crux of everything we do at Thought Design. It’s a word that can be dismissed as psychobabble, but in reality, it simply means creating conditions where your team can do their best work. In other words, when your staff and students feel safe enough to try and fail, speak up with new ideas, and be vulnerable enough to ask for help, some amazing things happen. Barriers dissolve, learning is un-leashed, and employee satisfaction skyrockets.
Whether you know precisely what you need (perhaps a workshop, a leadership course, or support for families) or you can’t put your finger on it quite yet, we’d love to connect.
When you click “Start the Conversation” below, you’ll be invited to grab some time on our calendar where we can briefly discuss what’s on your mind and offer some creative solutions to help.
Let's connect.
Testimonials
– Jenna
Our Thought Design PD with our teachers was instrumental in helping our teachers develop psychologically safe classrooms! Teachers walked away with ideas to implement in their classrooms right away . . . Our facilitators were communicative throughout the process and helped us design professional development that was tailored to our needs.
– Libby
Thought Design worked with our administration to develop a series of professional development that would suit the needs of our staff from start to finish. They asked about current initiatives and worked to incorporate what we were working on as a staff into the session plans. . . The presenters asked for feedback throughout the session to ensure it was meeting the needs of the adult learners in real-time.
– Timisha
[The] presentation by Thought Design was informative and, dare I say, life-changing! Our team walked away with affirming interpersonal skills for work and home.
– Marianne
This workshop was helpful in understanding how to improve relationships between teachers and students, as well as in all other relationships.
– Megan
Loved the training. Very helpful and informational! Especially as a School Social Worker.
How we help.
We offer tailored support to leaders, teachers, students, and families.
School Leaders
Today’s principals are faced with complex problems — under pressure to perform at high levels while navigating a teacher shortage, mitigating the impact of a pandemic on children, empower children with strategic to manage their own social emotional needs, and dealing with unpredictable situations on a daily basis. The Empowered Principal Series was created with the busy principal in mind. You will participate in online learning sessions with a cohort of peers as well as asynchronous content and one-on-one coaching. This curriculum gives school leaders a fresh set of tools to help them lead effectively in a complex, ever-changing
environment.
MORE ABOUT THE COURSE
The Empowered Principal
This course takes key concepts like communicating effectively, navigating conflict, and creating an economy of feedback, and makes them applicable to today’s world. It helps principals create a culture where everyone can collaborate, problem solve, and do their best work.
This training is highly flexible. It is delivered virtually over two periods of four months each (Empowered Principal I and Empowered Principal II) and includes videos, readings, and small group experiences.
One-on-one coaching can be added to the Empowered Principal experience and is recommended for thorough implementation and application to each school’s unique situation.
Teachers
Teachers are committed to their craft and dedicated to their students…and sometimes that can be exhausting. We offer several interconnected trainings that help teachers become more aware of their own stressors, behaviors, triggers, and emotions, as well as implement strategies that build trust and create safe spaces for students and parents — even during disruptive events in the classroom.
MORE ABOUT THE COURSES
Here are the courses we offer teachers:
(1) Psychological Safety Series: Creating Optimal Conditions for Learning. This 3-part series is designed to help teachers create psychological safety and reinforce a school culture centered around learning, high engagement, and well-being. Designed by teachers for teachers, this series is full of quick and easy strategies that can be implemented in the classroom the very next day. It includes:
- A live, 6-hour back-to-school professional development aimed at helping teachers understand psychological safety and how it impacts the classroom culture and group learning.
- A live, 3-hour training that builds on the previous session and introduces strategies around managing conflict in the classroom, developing rapport with difficult students, and empowering student leaders.
- A follow-up live, 3-hour training that launches a learning community of teachers empowered to learn, grow, try new things, and share their experiences with their colleagues.
(2) The Drama-Free Classroom. Reducing drama isn’t just about the big blow-up moments or changing what you do when things start to go wrong. It’s the small moments that make the biggest shifts. Everyday classroom drama stems from patterns that develop over time and are rooted in the unconscious ways we relate to each other. This 8-hour, live or virtual course helps teachers overcome tired patterns and the challenges they produce. Teachers will:
- Become aware of behavioral habits and thinking patterns.
- Identify patterns that keep the drama cycle going.
- Learn when and how to shift into “Creator Mode.”
- Break the “Hero Habit."
- Create healthy mental habits and patterns.
- Build resilience in themselves and their students.
- Gain perspective on situations causing frustration & overwhelm.
(3) Mind of a Student. Using a framework of bias training, the brain science behind cognitive empathy, and student perspective-gathering, this interactive, 4-6 hour, live or virtual learning experience helps teachers facilitate breakthroughs. In it, teachers will gain practical, science-based knowledge about their thinking patterns and a new, self-reflective mindset that will:
- Enhance day-to-day interactions with students.
- Encourage better conflict resolution.
- Build school culture.
- Improve student participation, attendance, and performance.
Students
Peer pressure, academic challenges, others’ expectations, and a myriad of competing stressors can easily overwhelm students with negative emotions. The Path To Resilience course helps students build self-awareness and understand their experiences from a neurobiological framework so they can face challenges with resilience. Aligned with the CASEL framework, the course is compromised of 6 modules, each including a 5-minute video and 20 minutes of activities facilitated by the teacher.
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Path to Resilience
This course helps students make sense of failure and rewire their relationship with it. Aligned with the CASEL framework, the course is comprised of 6 modules, each including a 5-minute video and 20-30 minutes of activities that can be facilitated by teachers. A full facilitator guide is included.
As students participate, they will:
- Understand the term “resilience.”
- Identify how resilient behaviors are helpful in life.
- Embrace the brain science behind threat and reward states.
- Increase self-awareness of behaviors & self-management.
- Explore how the brain processes and uses failure.
- Practice strategies to climb out of "fear traps."
- Adopt “To Me” and “By Me” thinking and mindsets.
Families
Family drama isn’t about parents lacking intelligence, abilities, or love; it’s often a result of habits and patterns that develop from the unconscious ways we relate to each other. The Empowered Family course equips families to make small shifts in everyday moments, which leads to reduced drama and improved family dynamics. Virtual modules can be accessed by parents on their own or delivered at family learnng nights.
MORE ABOUT THE COURSE
The Empowered Family
This course helps families transform the daily challenges of home life. Modules can be accessed by parents on their own time or
facilitated by school staff through a series of parent learning nights. A facilitator’s guide, worksheets, and videos will all be provided.
As families participate, they will:
- Become aware of behavioral habits and thinking patterns.
- Identify patterns that keep the drama cycle going.
- Learn when and how to shift into “Creator Mode.”
- Break the “Hero Habit."
- Create healthy mental habits and patterns.
- Build resilience in themselves and their children.
- Gain perspective on situations causing frustration & overwhelm.
Not sure which program is best? Let's talk about it.
We're honored to be trusted by incredible educators.
You may still be wondering...
Who teaches Thought Design educator programs?
All workshops are taught by experienced educators: Thought Design founder, Denise McClennen, business partner, Tara Colvin, and educator specialist, Cathy Henkenberns. You can read about the extensive experience of our instructors in their bios.
How much does it cost?
As you can imagine, program costs vary based on the teaching, the length of time, and the number of attendees. We're happy to discuss specific details when you reach out.
Can you come deliver trainings at my school or district?
Yes, we travel around the country to offer workshops & training.
What if we are just looking for fun… no heavy training?
We love facilitating fun! Head over to our team outings page. You're going to love what we have cooking over there!
What’s your cancellation policy?
The success of your experience is incredibly important to us, so we do a lot to prepare for your program. For this reason, we require a 25% deposit. If you cancel your plans at least 21 days in advance, we're happy to apply the deposit to a new event/date.
Bottom line?
Time spent
preparing to be in the classroom,
thinking in new ways
while bonding as humans,
is time that gives back hundreds of times over.
It’d be an honor to partner with you.
Request a training.
Whether you know just which program you want or you’d rather figure it out together, getting started is simple:
Sign up.
Complete this form and we’ll respond to make a plan.
Show up.
We’ll take it from there, so all you have to do is show up!
Level up.
Embrace learning experiences that take your team to the next level.