Little Talks that Make a Big Difference
for Teachers and Mental Health Professionals

Little Talks that Make a Big Difference for Teachers and Mental Health Professionalsis a self-study SEL culture-building course for teachers and mental health professionals. The Little Talks course is presented in six short podcasts with reflection experiences for each episode. Podcast episodes build upon each other, providing a baseline training curriculum that highlights infusion of social and emotional learning into all aspects of the learning experience.

Each podcast is conversational in tone and practical in application, focusing upon translating the literature on social and emotional learning and wellbeing into effective classroom and small group  culture-building practices. Little Talks seeks to create a consciousness or way of thinking about the role teachers and other adults play in the lives of their students. When teachers intentionally build trusting relationships as a cornerstone of their work, they are not only creating the conditions for emotional safety and resilience,  but are also transferring the pro-social skills of caring, compassion and empathy to their students through modeling, predictability and consistency.

Little Talks That Make a Big Difference
for Teaching Assistants

Teaching assistants are often the “go-to” people for many students and parents; something not often understood by others. With this in mind, Little Talks was designed in collaboration with a team of teaching assistants to make the content relevant, accessible and empowering.

Little Talks for TA’s is presented in 5 audio episodes, each building upon the other. Each episode is 7-10 minutes in length with reflective practice exercises and communication application suggestions to assist in integrating the content.

Each episode is conversational in tone and practical in application, focusing upon high-level communication, meeting a person’s emotional needs, and practicing empathy and compassion as tools for the teaching assistant.

Think of each episode as a chapter and the entire suite of five episodes as an audio book that focuses on the knowledge, skills and infusion strategies necessary for building healthy, emotionally safe relationships with students.