This summer, the 91次元 offered the first-ever school safety course designed for pre-professional and practicing educators.
Montana Safe Schools Center develops first safety course of its kind
The course was a pipe dream of previous Director, Emily Sallee, and current Director, Nancy Berg, of the Montana Safe Schools Center (MSSC), who heard again and again from administrators and educators looking for a “one stop shop” for everything related to school safety. Sallee and Berg spent the past year developing the course, in collaboration with their MSSC colleagues, Tina Hayes and Tammy Tolleson Knee, with support from UM’s Canvas course development team.
The course covers everything from brain development and trauma to behavior management/modification and de-escalation to risk of harm to others (threat) and self (suicide) to preparing for crises. These topics are intentionally bookended with wellness practices like positive education, resiliency, and grit, as these components of emotional safety are extrinsically tied to physically safety in school communities. Plus, educator burnout is real.
Course participants have the opportunity to learn directly from experts within the MSSC as well as others across the state. MSSC staff boasts expertise in many of the content areas, which they draw from in their school trainings and related services. State-level experts include Karl Rosston, LCSW, Suicide Prevention Coordinator with Montana DPHHS, to Dr. John Sommers-Flanagan, previous Professor of Counseling and current Director of the Center for the Advancement of Positive Education (CAPE), to Andy Laue, LCSW, a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, and resiliency skills trainer. The intention is for participants to have a sense of who the experts are, so they can reach out to them later for more resources and support.
Since the course is designed to meet the needs of both pre-professional and practicing educators, there are various “credit” options depending on need and preference. UM students can take the course for three undergraduate or graduate credits, fulfilling an elective in their prospective course of study. Practicing educators (including classroom teachers, specialists, administrators, and classified staff) can either choose the credit option to help them move along their salary matrix or they can opt to receive 45 OPI CEUs to aid in re-licensure. This flexibility in combination with the five-week asynchronous learning format increases accessibility and applicability, ultimately increasing and improving the knowledge base of school safety in our educators across the state.
This summer’s students ranged from classroom teachers to specialists (in training and in practice). As the course wrapped up last week, participants were asked to reflect on their growth over the course of the last five, content-intensive weeks. One participant noted that:
Preparedness and a sense of control are powerful in reducing anxiety and fear. The practical strategies I learned gave me a framework to follow, which helped reduce that sense of unpredictability and fear.
Another said:
Entering this course, I felt anxiety, discomfort, and dread about what I might encounter with the content from the course. I knew there were many different components to school safety and emergency planning, and I felt heavily intimidated by the perceived complexity of it all… After engaging with the course content, I feel capable, informed, and empowered to discuss school safety and emergency preparedness in my district. I now have a clearer understanding of the components involved in creating and maintaining a safe school environment.
These reflections suggest that the goals for this course have been met, in terms of empowering educators to address school safety from a more holistic, informed perspective.
This course will run each summer. For more questions, contact Nancy Berg at nancy.berg@umontana.edu.