To help address growing burnout among school and district leadership, COSA has partnered with Wayfinder to provide members with a unique learning opportunity designed to provide leaders with the tools and skills they need to flourish and successfully lead their schools in the face of adversity. This three-session, research-based series provides access to world-class resources and space to foster connection, community and actionable insights that support personal wellbeing and enhance school culture.

SEL for School Leaders
Wayfinder’s SEL for School Administrators consists of 1 final workshop (Dec. 6) facilitated by experienced Wayfinder staff members. The workshop will be 180 minutes (3 hours).

Our curriculum was developed in partnership with Aneel Chima, Director of Health and Human Performance at the Stanford Flourishing Project at Stanford University. The curriculum began as a college course and has been taught at Stanford University, University of California Berkeley, and Brown University. At the time, the curriculum was focused on the art and science of purpose-creation and how living with purpose can help students live more flourishing lives. It has since been adapted by our world-class team of curriculum designers to focus explicitly on supporting K-12 educators and administrators. Based on extensive research by Dr. Bill Damon, Dr. Kendall Cotton Bronk, and Dr. Heather Malin (among others), our curriculum draws from disciplines as diverse as art, storytelling, design, and positive psychology to create and utilize tools that promote educator well-being. This curricula has also been taught in part to the Distinguished Careers Institute at Stanford.

Support Morale and Efficacy through Wayfinder’s SEL for School Administrators
Through our blend of thoughtful activities and live touchpoints with Wayfinder staff, our goal is to provide administrators with the resources and space to build community, reconnect to their sense of purpose, and improve morale and well-being, while also generating ideas and actions to take with them between sessions, and after the course, to apply in their work.

At the heart of our program is the idea that by helping educators reconnect to their “why” as educators, they will be able to manage stress more effectively, enhance overall well-being, improve their ability to support their staff morale, and navigate complexity of leadership in uncertain times with purpose and agency.

Implementation Summary
Wayfinder’s SEL for School Administrators consists of 1 workshop facilitated by experienced Wayfinder staff members. The workshop will be 180 minutes (3 hours). These workshops combine the absolute best research on purpose development with practical action steps developed by education practitioners into a world-class professional development experience that supports administrators to feel purposeful and motivated in their careers, even when dealing with the adversity that will inevitably occur throughout the year.

Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, participants will:

• Understand the key emotional, psychological, social, and contemplative factors that support purpose finding and wellbeing, which form the basis for living a meaningful life and career.
• Apply the tools and skills presented in service of increasing a sense of lived purpose, managing stress more effectively, and enhancing overall wellbeing, while support their staff culture
• Analyze and reflect on the core components of constructing meaning and purpose in one’s career and develop actionable tools and strategies to enhance overall wellbeing and culture at one’s respective school

Workshop Overview
One last 3-hour session led by expert facilitators will engage administrators with storytelling, design, experiential learning, and reflection to deepen purpose and craft tools to help navigate the complexity of leadership with purpose and agency.

• Dec. 6: Designing and Sustaining School Environments of Belonging and Purpose (Oregon School Law Conference, Dec 6-8) Analyze the research behind belonging and purpose, and develop strategies to improve belonging in your school community.

For $195, each participant will receive:

• Two half-day PD sessions
• A printed workbook to accompany the sessions
• Year-long access to our responsive Activity Library of 1000+ PK-12 activities