Ready For Change

FOCUS is the summer conference hosted by Prairie Lakes AEA on the beautiful, lakeside campus of Buena Vista University. This learning experience blends a variety of inspiring and informative keynote speakers and breakout sessions. It’s an opportunity to catch your breath and reflect, but also a time to engage in learning, plan, and focus forward. FOCUS brings educators, counselors, administrators, and other education professionals together to engage in learning around the most current and pressing challenges that face us in today’s classrooms.

All attendees will register for FOCUS 2023 (Course #204740)

via the AEA Professional Registration System.

The developing brains of our children need to “feel” safe.

Children who carry chronic behavioral challenges are often met with reactive and punitive practices that can potentially reactivate the developing stress response systems. This book deeply addresses the need for co-regulatory and relational touch point practices, shifting student-focused behavior management protocols to adult regulated brain and body states which are brain aligned, preventive, and relational discipline protocols. This new lens for discipline benefits all students by reaching for sustainable behavioral changes through brain state awareness rather than compliance and obedience.

When you leave FOCUS 2023, we want to be sure you carry the affirmation of “READY FOR CHANGE” with you … literally!

Each attendee will be receiving a canvas tote this year to help hold your copy of Connections over Compliance, FOCUS journal, exhibitor handouts and more!

Attendees will receive a one-month subscription to keynote Tiffany Lanier's "A Moment to Breathe".

–A Mixed Media guide for reflection, grounding + future-casting.
–Mindful lessons, journaling prompts, and color pages for connection and expression
–Breathwork, Meditation, and Movement exercises to release and rejuvenate.
–Tools and suggestions for better morning routines and rituals for the month ahead
–Subscriber only access to special classes + resources throughout the year
–Early-bird announcements and discounts to any group programs, workshops, retreats, and new products we have available.

School teams of 5 or more will also receive copies of the latest book from Dr. Desautels - Intentional Neuroplasticity: Moving Our Nervous Systems and Educational System Toward Post-Traumatic Growth.

Educator fatigue and burnout are at an all-time high. Students are carrying their mental and emotional exhaustion into the classroom. Intentional Neuroplasticity explores the plasticity of the brain and nervous system, while learning how adversity and trauma impact a student's developing nervous system to affect behaviors--which ultimately changes the way educators approach discipline and engagement. Neuroplasticity is more than the latest and greatest buzzword-when educational practitioners are informed and encouraged to share this dynamic, miraculous superpower of human potentiality, both teachers and children understand why they feel the way they do, and how feelings and thoughts impact their mood, motivation, and engagement. When we empower and relieve our nervous systems with the language of science and deepened understanding of why we sense, feel, and behave the ways we do, we are preparing for a lifetime of possibility through the knowledge of brain and body architecture and plasticity.

With the growing body of research in relational and affective neuroscience, our schools can benefit and serve the whole student as we prioritize the nervous system by addressing the embodied experiences, generational and historical trauma, and the stories they hold. This book is an absolute must-read for educators.