Month: April 2022

Categories
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion General Professional Development

NYS/UUP JLMC Professional Development Workshops

Professional development workshops are being offered by New York State/United University Professions Joint Labor-Management Committees (NYS/UUP JLMC).

All workshops will be held virtually via Zoom, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The application deadline is one week before the workshop.

Send the completed Workshop Application to nysuuplmc@oer.ny.gov.

For more information contact NYS/UUP JLMC:

Email: nysuuplmc@oer.ny.gov
Phone: 518.486.4666
Mail: Agency Building 2, 8th Fl
Empire State Plaza
Albany, NY 12223

The workshops and dates are listed below.

Workplace Civility

In this one-day workshop participants will acquire knowledge and awareness of the benefits of a positive, respectful workplace environment. Participants will, through a combination of facilitator presentation, small group discussion, and interactive exercises, acquire an understanding of how to contribute to a respectful, collegial, positive workplace and how to co-create the type of workplace that brings out the best in people so that they can flourish in their careers.

Dates:

May 17
May 20

Connect and Compromise: How to Navigate Workplace Conflict

In this workshop, you will learn to effectively manage conflict by building on the positive aspects of your communication style while balancing the personalities and preferences of your co-workers. Through interactive exercises and role-playing opportunities, you will deepen your understanding of functional communication and help others feel more supported at work. Upon conclusion of this training, you will gain the ability to re-frame responses and attitudes to resolve differences in a more collaborative manner because when people can honestly express their ideas and opinions, they feel more supported and satisfied in their work environment.

Dates

May 4, 2022
June 1, 2022

Developing the Leader Within

This one-day workshop is intended to provide participants with an opportunity to acquire knowledge about models of leadership and acquire insights about their own strengths and areas for development. Participants will gain knowledge of models of leadership, and they will be able to interactively reflect on their own leadership style and consider ways that they can leverage the strengths of their style, as well as to develop and refine areas that might be less familiar for them. Participants will learn about leadership as a process of influence, and they will learn about the different roles of a leader. After this workshop participants will be able to reflect and plan what
they want to work on as leaders within their organizations.

Dates:

May 10
May 24
June 14

Diversity: Learning How to Leverage Difference at Work

This one-day workshop will provide participants with the opportunity to learn about different models of diversity which include primary and secondary types of diversity. Participants will acquire awareness and understanding of a variety of dimensions of diversity including but not limited to demographics. Topics in this workshop include cross cultural diversity, generational diversity, education, social class, race, age, gender, religion, and other ways that diversity manifests and is also tacit in the workplace.
Participants will come away from this workshop with an increased level of sophistication about difference and they will acquire skills in recognizing and valuing diversity

Dates:

May 11
June 8
June 10

Global Cultural Diversity and Inclusion: Communicating Effectively in a World of Difference

In this survey-level workshop, participants will develop a practical understanding of the complexity of effective communication in organizational settings where they need to work every day with  colleagues, students, and other stakeholders who are culturally diverse and come from various international backgrounds and all walks of life. Participants will learn about the differences and  similarities in key national cultural systems represented in our increasingly global workplace. They will acquire skills in effective  communication including attentive listening, effective messaging, empathy, and ways to identify the meaning and intention of verbal and non-verbal communication with the purpose of creating a  meaningful sense of inclusion in the workplace. The participants will engage in several interactive critical incident analysis sessions in  which they can explore and evaluate their own communication  styles and take appropriate action for a meaningful intervention. They will also work on an action plan for ongoing refinement of their global communication skills and for sustaining an inclusive  productive relationship with key stakeholders. 

Dates:

May 13

Categories
Advocacy and Action Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Say Gay Anyway – Call To Action

This week in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his hateful and mislabeled Parental Rights in Education bill, also known as “Don’t Say Gay/Don’t Say Trans,” into law. AFT member and Manatee County kindergarten teacher Cory Bernaert felt its real-world effects even before the bill was signed.

As you well know, building relationships with our students is a vital part of our work. To build those relationships, we often talk about our lives and our shared experiences―spouses, kids, pets, what we did over the holidays and so on. This bill makes it nearly impossible for LGBTQIA+ educators and students alike to share and be who they are in their workplaces and schools. Cory is happily partnered, but if students ask what he did on the weekend, he can’t say he and his partner went paddleboarding. He can’t even explain what the word partner means. He can’t answer any questions about himself. His students who have LGBTQIA+ parents aren’t able to share their home life with their peers and their teacher. The safe and welcoming environment Cory has cultivated in his classroom has been put significantly at risk.

Like any educator, or American for that matter, has the right, Cory voiced his concerns. He spoke out eloquently against how this harmful legislation will impact his ability to teach and his students’ ability to learn. He was met almost immediately with abuse from some people on the right wing, who are trying to paint him as some monster. Fox News even included him by name in a segment attacking gay teachers. Anyone who knows Cory knows he is a gifted, wonderful teacher and human being.

Why are his detractors doing this? The same reason as DeSantis. They think fearmongering helps them politically. Cory is just one of many Floridians who have experienced these kinds of attacks since the bill has been put into effect. This abuse and bullying is hateful and threatens the safety and well-being of educators like Cory.

Educators are trusted as professionals who should be able to focus on teaching and creating an environment where all students feel safe to learn, thrive and recover from the disruptions of the pandemic. And rather than undermining LGBTQIA+ educators, politicians should be working to make sure our public schools are provided with the resources and supports they need, from academics to mental health services.

Parents and educators agree: We will not stand for this kind of hate and discrimination. That is why, in partnership with PFLAG, the AFT has started a petition to voice our strong opposition to DeSantis’ harmful bill that will affect one of the most important parts of teaching: the link between teachers and students. That is unacceptable, and we will continue to fight against it.

Let’s show them that people across the country―whether parents, educators, healthcare workers or allies―support all families and all teachers, including LGBTQIA+ teachers. Let’s make sure every LGBTQIA+ educator and student in Florida hears us today.

Solidarity is an action word. This is our moment to stand with Cory and every LGBTQIA+ educator in Florida.