It is hard to believe that the 2020-21 school year is coming to a close. I, like you, have probably worked harder than ever whether in person, virtual or hybrid. We've had to sort through collaboration in new ways, connecting with families more intensely and using technology, in ways we had not even considered before the pandemic. I've been pleasantly surprised at the ways we were able to innovate and serve and have been wading through recovery services to support lost skills. I think many of us took the right approach to advocate for intense activity to the extent our youth could given the restrictions and that many of my students will come back prepared for work opportunities in the community.
Post pandemic, new logo! If you have attended courses, we've talked a lot about how we have to promote total health, without which nothing else really matters. We must embrace population health and a workload model to be most effective. My new logo captures partnership and collaboration in the context of function, health and work. Course content will continue with these focuses.
I've been working on some other things behind the scenes this Spring. I spent a fair amount of time learning new teaching strategies via a higher education course and Liberating Structures as well as recurating my content so that people can access it remotely as well as working on a systematic review of how "work" is defined by people with disabilities and their stakeholders as well as community and societal supports. Its been an 18 month project I will be happy to wind...and will look forward to sharing that work via blog and lecture. Lastly, I'm working with DPT students on a new website where we will have free "curriculum style" activities that therapists can use to get teachers started on this journey of including more work preparation activities. I'll share when its ready, likely end of July!
If your school district is pondering continuing education opportunities for school teams including PT, OT and/or teachers, I've got a course proposal that includes Fit4Work books, 3 hours of asynchronous lecture that people can listen to ahead of time and 3 hours of online meeting times where we can work to problem solve and build your program. Email me and I can create a custom proposal for your school group!
I'll be unplugging this summer with a stack of books that includes The Art of Gathering, What Happened to You, newly published Trauma Treatment in Action and Hamnet. The pandemic has impacted in different ways and I'm expecting I'll gain some new tools from two of these. Art of Gathering is highly regarded for people to really consider the purpose of meetings and why we meet, something that has definitely been talked about a lot lately. I'll put reviews of the professionally relevant ones on Instagram.
I hope you have a restful summer and I'll be back in touch.
Best, Connie
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