by Ben Springer, PhD | Jan 13, 2021 | Behavior Management, Mental Health, Professional Development, Resilience, social justice
Dear Totem Community! I hope each of you are safe and well in these first few weeks of January 2021. (It’s also okay if you are feeling a little anxious, overwhelmed, and even depressed. It happens to all of us! Remember to reach out to friends, family, and even...
by Ben Springer, PhD | Jun 4, 2020 | Mental Health, Resilience, social justice
Every child deserves to be happy. We work within systems to make it happen. This is the belief and mission of Totem PD. Totem PD was created by three white guys with Ph.D.s from universities founded by white guys. The textbooks and papers we read (for the most part),...
by Ben Springer, PhD | Mar 31, 2020 | Behavior Management, Classroom Management, Mental Health, Parent Training, Resilience
As I sit to write this message, we’ve endured 16 days (or so) of the official COVID-19 school closures. In my role as manager for Totem PD, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in our online course completions, (like, 913% increase). The dedication to learning...
by Ben Springer, PhD | Sep 3, 2019 | Behavior Management, Classroom Management, Implementation, Mental Health, Professional Development, Resilience
When you see it, you can feel it. You’re drawn to it. It’s almost hypnotizing. What is it? It’s quality implementation and it’s irresistible. Once you’ve fallen under the spell of quality implementation, it will make you do things you...
by Ben Springer, PhD | Apr 15, 2019 | Autism, Parent Training, Professional Development, Resilience
Dear Autism, My name is Ben Springer and I wanted to drop you a note, to tell you why I’m grateful for you. We first met in a textbook. You were surrounded by a lot of medical-sounding words that made you feel like something broken. The second time I met you, was in...
by Ben Springer, PhD | Mar 19, 2019 | Behavior Management, Mental Health, Professional Development, Resilience
Resilience is a big deal, but it’s mostly misunderstood. Here are three things you need to know about resilience before we get to the unicorns and horse crap: Resilience (or lack thereof) is not something new–it’s always been an issue. Also, start...