Elevate Spotlight: Meeting Educators Where They Are with Dr. Becky Bailey

Watching Dr. Becky Bailey facilitate an event is like watching a trained athlete complete a marathon; her skills are highlighted by her presence, preparation, practice, and ability to pivot to the needs of the moment. Becky’s humor and relatability reveal that she’s as down to earth as she is skilled, and there’s a good reason for that: Becky is a strong voice for Conscious Discipline because she created it and also because (as she will candidly tell you) she is continuously evolving in her own practice.

More than 25 years ago, Becky’s mission to improve the lives of educators, children and families coalesced into Conscious Discipline, a trauma-informed, neuroscience-based practice that unlocks the power of self-regulation for optimal living and learning. Since those early days, Conscious Discipline has expanded to a worldwide presence shown to be effectual in transforming school districts, Head Start centers, individual families, nonprofit organizations, counseling practices and many other settings. Each year, Becky headlines Elevate Conscious Discipline, a national conference she designed specifically to reach educators.

“Conscious Discipline provides events that are vastly different than most professional development offerings out there— Elevate especially,” she says. Professional development has garnered a reputation of being distant, inapplicable, and delivered by people who are out of touch with the real challenges educators face. In Elevate, Becky envisioned a conference for educators, by educators that cultivates connection and inspires implementation through the experiences, learning and practical application by those utilizing Conscious Discipline to fidelity in their workplaces.

“We provide our attendees with speakers who are relevant and current practitioners who are in the trenches alongside other teachers. Instead of listening to someone who may have never been in the classroom, you can hear directly from someone is experiencing the same things at the same time.” Elevate offers different tracks depending on content area, grade, specialty and age range so attendees learn from others who are working in the same area. “If you teach fifth grade,” Becky says, “You’ll hear from a fifth-grade teacher!”

As we sit together during a break at the week-long Conscious Discipline Institute Becky taught in June, she passionately describes how educators have been “through the ringer” the last few years, including how Covid-19 took an extreme toll and the ongoing recovery efforts perpetuate feelings of pressure, stress and frustration as student needs outpace traditional educator skillsets.

“Educators have been living in their survival and emotional states for years, and many have few tools to make it out,” Becky said. For educators to be effective in the classroom, they must learn to regulate themselves first. “We can’t operate from our lower brain states and think students are magically going to be in a higher state, ready to learn,” Becky said. “That’s why we provide practical application, not just theory. We hope to lift and renew you so that you can learn, and then apply that learning with your students.”

The Elevate conference occurs in October by design. By mid-fall, educators are in the thick of it, clearly able to see the needs of their students and often starting to feel the drag of daily pressures. Becky says whether you feel you’re at the top of your game or heading into this school year already exhausted from the last one, Elevate meets you where you are with the inspiration, connection, fresh perspective and practical application you need to thrive. “Elevate is exactly where you need to be— with other practitioners just like you, learning how to do it better. We are all in this together.”

Join Becky and other experienced practitioners at Elevate Conscious Discipline: Renew Your Passion and Purpose in Orlando, FL from Oct 12-14.

 

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