Capturing Kids’ Hearts training offers teachers an opportunity to connect with their students in an authentic way. According to its founder, Flip Flippen, “If you have a child’s heart, you have his head.” The three-day training model offers educators a chance to explore their relational capacity with students as well as learn the critical skills of building communities within their classrooms. These skills include the shared design of Social Contracts by students and teachers, developing an approach to communicating with people that consistently places engagement with a person as priority, and learning how to address inappropriate behaviors in the classroom under the guises of a Social Contract.
During the week of March 26th teachers, administrators, counselors, and support staff gathered for our 6th Capturing Kids’ Hearts training held at the Olean Center BOCES. On day two of a typical training participants get a chance to listen to students share from a video how Teen Leadership, a middle-high school curriculum available to teachers who have taken CKH, has impacted their lives. Unique to this training event in particular was the participation of twelve of our own students who traveled from the Cattaraugus-Little Valley campus to share how CKH & Teen Leadership has helped them adapt to the unique challenges in high school.
The power of this experience is evident from the responses that have been collected over the last six training experiences. Teachers and students are finding refreshment and rejuvenation following these three days of professional development. If you have thought about attending a Capturing Kids’ Hearts training there is another opportunity on July 31—August 2 at the Olean Center BOCES. Fall dates will be coming soon!
