Essentials for Education Support Staff

This one-and-a-half-hour session is designed for educational support professionals (ESPs). With training and support, your ESPs…your school secretaries, custodians, classroom aids, food service workers and nurses…can form the backbone of your family engagement and communication. The session can be delivered in person or virtually. Patricia can customize the training for each of your employee groups and work with those groups one at a time, or she can deliver the session one time to your entire ESP team.

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Essentials for Education Support Staff

ESPs could be a school district’s most powerful communication highway! School secretaries, bus drivers, nurses, custodians, and classroom aides play a unique and crucial role in school-home communications. They know the families in your school. And they know how your school works. They could help you better understand what’s going on in the lives of your families, and answer families’ questions about school processes in an approachable, non-judgmental way. But ESPs can only fulfill this role if schools make the most of their ESPs’ expertise by giving them the right training! Patricia designed this unique, 90-minute workshop specifically to help schools utilize one of their greatest assets—ESPs—by providing them with the tips, tools, and techniques ESPs need to become super-communicators.

Learning goals:

Create an understanding of the critical role ESPs can play in family engagement.
Create an understanding of why it’s important to engage families and communicate effectively.
Recognize and identify both effective and ineffective communication by analyzing examples.
Understand communication tips and techniques around words, information, tone, and body language.
Apply learning by drawing on the knowledge of families to compose and design communications.
Explain and advocate for the value and importance of crafting communications with parents and caregivers.

What people are saying about the presentations

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ESC of Northeast Ohio
“I loved this class! Patricia was super engaging and I feel like I really gained a lot of knowledge and insight from these classes. The group we had was open and honest and I believe we all gained a lot of communication skills that will be put to good use!”

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Maria Ovalle-LopezDirector Family Engagement, Klein ISD
“Patricia Weinzapfel delivered powerful content empowering family facing professionals to refine their communication skills and positively engage families in education. She shared real examples of best communication practices that gave participants the opportunity to problem- solve and apply the content immediately!”

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Charlene PaparizosDirector of Communications, Chagrin Falls Schools
“Patricia's work will enhance your overall communication skills. In our District, our goal is to build trust, foster collaboration, and ensure that our messages are clearly understood. Patricia's master class and year-long coaching with our administrators and staff is leading us even closer to accomplishing this goal. We use Patricia's tips and tools to communicate with families, as well as internally with staff. I even find myself remembering her advice in conversations with friends and family. For me, her work is not only professional development, but personal development. That combination is hard to find.”

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IEL 2021 Conference Attendee
“Patricia was amazing!!!!! She was very knowledgeable and her examples were great!”

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NSPRA 2021 Conference Attendee
“I’ve already implemented some of these strategies into my district communications.”

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ESC of Northeast Ohio
“The series was set up with discussions, hands on applications, time to ask questions and plan ahead. From the beginning to end it was worthwhile time spent spent focusing on specifically on communication to families.”

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NSPRA 2021 Conference Attendee
“Best virtual session, in my opinion. Excellent and engaging presentation.”

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NSPRA 2021 Conference Attendee via Twitter
“Your tips are already impacting my work this morning as I craft a parent communication. Your work truly makes a difference.”

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Kids Count Conference 2019 Attendee
“Great Examples of real-life situations and fun activities that get the points across in a memorable way.”

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ESC of Northeast Ohio
“The Masterclass is beneficial to groom and grow your ability to effectively communicate to all stakeholders. It diminishes many preconceived ideas and replaces them with new simple innovative ways to communicate across all forms of media. This class is a must take if you are an intricate part of the communications team within your District.”