Workshop Topics

Educators for Peaceful Classrooms and Communities (EPCC) customizes workshops, conference presentations, retreats and keynotes for a variety of groups including parent groups, family resource centers, private and
public schools, child care and education programs, child development and credential students and community groups. EPCC has prepared presentations in a variety of formats and can also work with you to create the subject and format that will best meet your group’s needs. Note regarding California Department of Education Desired Results – Revised (DRPD-R): All workshops listed below, when used as staff development, satisfy Desired Results Staff Development/Training requirements; and when used for parent meetings, satisfy Desired Results Parent Education requirements.

All Workshops

Social Problem Solving
School Success
Connection between Peace Education and Play
Resilience as a Path to Transcend the Violence Children Experience in the World
Creating Peaceable Environments for Children
Communication Skills
Cultural Competence
Early Childhood Educators Embracing Social Justice and Activism with Children
The Home/School Partnership in Raising Peaceful Children
Bullying: Prevention and Intervention
Tools for Families – Raising Peaceful Children
Grand Parenting– The Delicate Balance
Building a Classroom Community
Early Literacy through the Lens of Peace Education
Children and Media

Social Problem Solving

Helping children learn to manage social problems in new and constructive ways offers tremendous opportunities for growth and development. Participants will learn how to teach children conflict resolution skills and how to help children regulate their emotions, develop empathy, take on another’s perspective, and develop flexibility of thought, confidence and competence in peaceful problem solving. Participants will discover the link between social problem solving and academic problem solving.
Workshop meets Desired Result 1, Measures 1-11, 14, 15
Desired Result 2, Measures 16, 17, 19, 20
Desired Result 4, Measure 38

School Success

Participants will explore the factors contributing to children’s disposition toward an enthusiasm for lifelong learning. Topics will include how to develop scientific thinking, critical thinking, curiosity, risk
taking, and a passion for written and verbal language. We will explore questions such as; how children learn, what inhibits children’s learning, and what makes a child eager to learn.
Workshop meets Desired Result 1, Measure 1, 2, 12 – 15
Desired Result 2, Measure 16 – 33

Connection between Peace Education and Play

Play is essential to children’s optimum development. There is an alarming nationwide trend toward reducing unstructured playtime due to increased curriculum demands. Workshop participants will gain an understanding of early childhood education’s historical commitment to play and how literacy, problem solving, communication, physical health, cognitive, motor, social, and emotional development and a disposition toward lifelong learning are inextricably linked with play.
This workshop meets Desired Results 1 – 4 (all measures)

Resilience as a Path to Transcend the Violence Children Experience in the World

Violence and stress do not have to determine a child’s future emotional health and life success. This workshop will explore ways that adults can help young children develop emotional strength and resiliency in order to overcome adversity and develop to their optimum potential. Participants will gain an understanding of the effect of significant risk factors, stress and/or adversity as well as protective factors that contribute to children developing competence and autonomy.
This workshop meets Desired Results 1, Measures 1 – 3, 8, 9, 14, 15
Desired Results 2, Measures 19 – 21
Desired Results 4, Measures 38, 39

Creating Peaceable Environments for Children

Strategies that create nonviolent and productive homes, classrooms, and/or communities will be explored. Participants will learn tools such as developing conflict resolution skills, facilitating family and class meetings, developing communication skills, as well as learning about and appreciating diversity. We will explore ways for children to develop personal power and control. We will learn ways for adults to model respectful and cooperative relationships.
This workshop meets Desired Results 1, Measures 1 – 11
Desired Results 2, Measures 16 – 18
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Communication Skills

During the first five years of life children are forming their language and social/emotional competencies. Participants will learn how adults can model and support children’s successful communication. This workshop explores constructive forms of communication such as reflective listening, “I statements, and the components of intentionality of language. We shall also explore obstructive communication such as roadblocks and put downs.
This workshop meets Desired Results 1, Measures 1 – 8, 12 – 15
Desired Results 2, Measures 18 – 20, 30 – 32

Cultural Competence

Participants expand their cultural competence as they learn how cultural traits are more than traditional clothes, foods and celebrations. Participants will explore their own cultural perspective of values, preferences and what they perceive as “normal” patterns of human interaction. Participants will explore how different cultures influence the behavior of their members in a multitude of ways such as perception of time, personal space, eye contact, verbal and nonverbal communication, etc.
This workshop meets Desired Results 1, Measures 1 – 8, 12 – 15
Desired Results 2, Measures 16 – 21, 26

Early Childhood Educators Embracing Social Justice and Activism with Children

What are developmentally and age appropriate ways that young children can begin to experience a sense of their position in the world and the taking of responsibility for making it a better place? We will begin with the development of empathy and compassion and then discuss how to transform traditionally passive modes of learning to ones of responsibility and action. We will then share activities that parents and teachers can engage in with young children to create positive change. An example might be when children learn that there are homeless in their community; they can develop a plan to gather food for the local homeless shelter.
This workshop meets Desired Results 1, Measures 1 – 8, 12 – 15
Desired Results 2, Measures 16 – 18

The Home/School Partnership in Raising Peaceful Children

Children benefit from families and teachers working together to support their optimum development. Participants will take away ideas to involve parents in their children’s early childhood experiences. Proven successful strategies include ways to involve parents in the classroom, the use of various forms of communication such as newsletters, daily notes, parent conferences, parent meetings and parent education.
This workshop meets Desired Results 1, Measures 1, 3 – 5, 8
Desired Results 2, Measures 16
This workshop also satisfies Desired Results Parent Education Requirements.

Bullying: Prevention and Intervention

Participants will take away an understanding of the motivations and needs of the bully, the bullied and the bystanders. Bullying can take physical, verbal and/or relational forms. We will explore how to help children find pro-social ways to meet their needs thereby eliminating teasing and bullying behaviors. We will discuss ways to empower children who are the object of teasing and help bystanders become their allies. We will look at techniques to empower children such as building a sense of community, opportunities for personal power, and communication skills so as to prevent the need for the use of bullying behaviors.
This workshop meets Desired Results 1, Measures 1 – 15
Desired Results 2, Measures 16 – 20
Desired Results 4, Measure 38
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Tools for Families – Raising Peaceful Children

Nonviolence in the Lives of Children Project can provide parent workshops on a variety of topics. Our emphasis is on helping adults learn how to engage children in developing independence, inter-dependence, responsibility, pro-social behaviors and ownership of their own behaviors. Some examples: Children’s Brain Development, Appropriate Expectations of Children, Social/Emotional Development, Developing Family Ethics and Values, Discipline, Sibling Rivalry, Rewards and Punishment, Praise vs. Encouragement, Creating a “Yes” Environment, Peaceful Problem Solving and Conflict Resolution, Thoughts and Feelings, Parent-Child Relationship Building.
These workshops meet Desired Results 1, Measures 1 – 15
Desired Results 2, Measures 16 – 21
Desired Results 4, Measures 22 – 39

Grand Parenting– The Delicate Balance

How do grandparents maintain the delicate balance between their own parenting style and their adult children’s? Participants will address issues of children’s exposure to media, family discipline styles, ways of communication with children and, finally, ways of discussing these delicate issues. How do we effectively express our feelings and maintain our integrity while at the same time, protecting our bond with our adult children?
This can also be offered as a grandparent/adult children workshop.

Building a Classroom Community

Participants will explore ways to intentionally create peaceful classroom community. The objective is a classroom culture that creates a sense of belonging, safety and responsibility. Some of the strategies covered will include classroom agreements, team building through cooperative projects, social problem solving, class meetings, building empowerment through real classroom responsibilities, and the teacher as role model. Participants will have the opportunity, in facilitated small groups, to share the issues they have in their own classroom and evaluate which of the strategies presented have the most potential to positively affect their classroom.
This workshop meets Desired Results 1, Measures 1 – 11
Desired Results 2, Measures 16 – 18

Early Literacy through the Lens of Peace Education

Adults can inspire children to become lifelong readers by thoughtfully exposing them to quality literary experiences at the earliest ages. We will explore children’s characteristic way of learning and how to engage children’s minds, senses and emotions in the literary experience. The most important factors of literacy development are daily story telling and/or reading and the quality of interaction between the adult and the child. To facilitate book selection for those who wish to read to children, a wide range of high quality children’s literature and stories will be shared. Participants will have the opportunity
to evaluate stories and picture books by using criteria of high quality literature and peace education values such as compassion, peaceful problem solving, diversity, respect and equality.
This workshop meets Desired Results 1, Measures 1 – 15
Desired Results 2, Measures 16 – 21, 29 – 33

Children and Media

Media has become an integral part of most children’s everyday lives. Children are active and skilled media users, while parents and educators ponder the beneficial as well as detrimental potential of the media. This workshop will explore how media affects the thinking, actions and feelings of children at various stages of development. Topics such as media violence, exposure to news, entertainment, advertising, and computer games will be addressed. Practical strategies for parents and educators will be shared by examining how children can benefit from developmentally appropriate media and enjoy beneficial alternatives to media.
This workshop meets Desired Results 1, Measures 1 – 9, 12 – 15
Desired Results 2, Measures 16 – 21, 29 – 33
Desired Results 4, Measures 38, 39
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