Conscious Discipline, a 25+ year leader in educational practices for self-regulation and resiliency, announced an impressive line-up of keynote speakers for their widely anticipated annual conference, Elevate Conscious Discipline 2024: Embrace Possibilities, October 15-17, Las Vegas, NV. Elevate is a teacher conference that empowers educators and administrators with meaningful connections, inspiration for a successful school year, and the mindset and skillset necessary to create learning environments where both adults and students thrive.
Meet Conscious Discipline’s exciting speakers for their 2024 education conference:
Dr. Becky Bailey is a powerful agent of transformational change. Her mission to improve the lives of educators, children and families coalesced into Conscious Discipline nearly 30 years ago. Conscious Discipline is a trauma-informed, neuroscience-based practice that unlocks the power of self-regulation for optimal living and learning. Each year, Dr. Bailey makes an appearance at Elevate Conscious Discipline, a national teacher conference she designed to inspire and celebrate educators.
“Year after year, we think this year will be better. Yet, we find ourselves exhausted with the trauma and burnout we are faced with. We are in the midst of chaos- not just in education, but in the nation and in the world at large. I created Conscious Discipline 26 years ago to lift ourselves with hope above the chaos.”
Dr. Bailey authored several books that are integral to the Conscious Discipline methodology including Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms, Creating the School Family, There’s Got To Be A Better Way: Discipline That Works, Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline and more.
Latoria Marcellus is a champion for education with 18+ years of experience in addition to her credentials as a non-profit founder, Conscious Discipline Certified Instructor, and equity coach. Latoria is passionate about having hard conversations concerning equity, language, and culture in the Conscious Discipline Family which made her the ideal facilitator for Conscious Discipline’s eCourse, “Engage with Equity”.
When we spoke to Latoria about the Elevate teacher conference, she was quick to share her enthusiasm. “It is so exciting to have people from all over the country—and some from out of the country— together in the same room,” she said. “From elementary school teachers to high school teachers to infant and toddler teachers, it’s not often you can gather everyone together!”
Latoria says the pull of Elevate for both educators and administrators is knowing your niche will be represented and spoken to directly by a professional working in a similar capacity while implementing Conscious Discipline. “The Elevate conference is truly an opportunity to elevate your personal practice at one place, at one time, with practitioners who are the real deal.”
Lety Valero is Conscious Discipline’s resident “Feeling Buddies” expert, a Certified Instructor and national presenter with an extensive background as a teacher, assistant principal and preschool director.
Lety’s gift of warmth and approachability creates an environment of safety and belonging at every event; leaning into the adult-first practice with an approach that’s deeply empathetic and thus, effective. She uses her personal experiences as examples of how Conscious Discipline’s powers, skills, structures and tools have powerfully transformed her life and relationship with her feelings first, and how that kind of self-regulation can be modeled and implemented in the lives of her students.
“Befriend your emotions,” she says emphatically. “They are communicating important messages. Feelings are not your enemy.” Conscious Discipline offers strategies to cope with big feelings and times of upset that can follow adults and students alike throughout their lives.
DJ Batiste is a powerful, nationally recognized relationship advocate and inspirational speaker who knows first-hand the transformational power of Conscious Discipline. With a history of gang associations, D.J. was certain he wouldn’t graduate high school. Then, he met a teacher who used Conscious Discipline practices. The way she implemented strategies and skills to manage conflict and times of upset changed his year, and the trajectory of his entire life.
“For a very long time I felt like the education system was failing me. Then, I met a teacher who was equipped with the skills of Conscious Discipline. She understood the importance of encouragement and knew how to reach her students in a different way. Because of that experience, I now get the chance to travel around the world speaking to teachers, administrators and students about how Conscious Discipline is the bridge from being unsuccessful to successful.”
D.J. now dedicates his career to inspiring educators using Conscious Discipline practices of self-regulation, perspective and mindset shifts and a better way to handle “classroom management”.
Dr. Lori Desautels is a respected voice in the field of neuroscience as a professor, author, speaker and founder of the Educational Neuroscience Symposium, and a vocal advocate of Conscious Discipline’s reach and effectiveness—especially when it comes to the power that noticing behavior and co-regulation have on executive functioning skills and student success.
“An adult’s nervous system is contagious to those around us,” she says. “People will pick up on the look on your face, the tone of your voice and the way you are gesturing and posturing. We carry the state of our nervous system on our bodies.” Dr. Desautels’ belief in the Skill of Positive Intent to set the stage for an executive brain state is evident. “We really need to be intentional about how we prepare the adult nervous system and the students’ nervous systems to access the executive functions and cognition they need in order to do school and life.”
When asked about why attendance at Elevate is so beneficial for educators, Dr. Desautels said this: “This has been a very challenging time for the educational community. Conscious Discipline addresses the stress and pain-based behaviors that many of our children and adults carry into our school buildings, organizations and communities.”
Conscious Discipline continues to strive toward adult-first self-regulation and embracing the possibilities that will lead to transformational change and an interconnected world. But this goal can be difficult to keep sight of when we don’t take the time to stop and refuel our tanks with other like-minded educators, moving toward a common goal.
The Elevate Conscious Discipline conference enables practitioners to gather with others who are committed to changing their perspective, shifting their attention, seeing behavior as an opportunity to teach new skills and approaching relationships with positive intent under the guidance of stellar experts in the field.
“Experience the power within Conscious Discipline at Elevate. Our brilliant instructors and exciting keynote speakers will show you how to see through the chaos, conflict by conflict, with the mindset and the skills necessary to find the true problem. Then, you’ll be able to address those issues to achieve academic success and wellness throughout your district, school classroom, and within yourself. Let’s embrace the possibilities.” Dr. Becky Bailey
Articles:
- Embrace All the Possibilities at Educator Event Elevate Conscious Discipline 2024
- From Shame on You to I Love You: Eliminating Punishments and Rewards Increases Motivation
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Jenny Shannon
Jenny Shannon has a B.A. in English, an M.A. in Educational Leadership, and an abiding commitment to believing that what you focus on, you get more of. With a strong background in education and communications and the love of a good story, she is thrilled to work on Conscious Discipline’s Marketing Team as copywriter. She lives in a 200-year-old home in northern New Jersey where she moonlights as chauffeur for her two daughters, can be caught singing showtunes in the kitchen and has strong opinions on the best place to grab a cup of coffee.
