This workshop will help sex education instructors use research on adolescent social, cognitive, and biological development to improve the way they communicate with adolescents. Participants will learn techniques for engaging with adolescents and building buy-in to messages about behavior.
Training Hub
The Sex Education Collaborative Training Hub lists trainings for sex educators, facilitators, and other professionals on best practices for sharing important information with clients and the public. From teaching anatomy inclusively to effectively addressing bias in the classroom to addressing racial justice and equity in sex education, the Training Hub includes trainings, technical assistance, and policy support from state, regional, and national leaders in the field of sex education.
Please note: The Training Hub includes both in-person and online professional trainings. If you see a training you are interested in and it isn’t listed as virtual, please reach out directly to any of our members to find out what's possible!
Trainings Offered by State-Based and National Organizations
Displaying results 66 - 70 of 154Working Effectively with Adolescents
- Indicator 1 (K-12): Demonstrate three techniques to create an inclusive and affirming learning environment. (S)
- Indicator 1 (K-12): Demonstrate the ability to build rapport with students. (S)
- Indicator 3 (K-12): Explain the differences between positive vs. shaming approaches to teaching sex education.
- Indicator 6 (K-12): Describe three strategies for actively involving parents, caregivers, and other trusted adults in a sex education program.
- Indicator 2 (K-12): List three physical, three social, and three emotional changes that occur during puberty.
- Indicator 1 (K-12): Explain three reasons why it is important to respond to every question students ask when teaching sex education.
- Indicator 2 (K-12): Demonstrate the ability to effectively respond to three different types of challenging questions. (S)
Cultural Humility
As youth-serving professionals, we play a critical role in empowering young people by ensuring that they are equipped with the education, skills, support, agency, and resources needed to live healthy lives. To foster such empowerment, it is essential to create safe and inclusive environments for the diverse youth with whom we work. By engaging in the practice of cultural humility, which incorporates openness, self-awareness, and self-reflection in interactions with diverse individuals, youth-serving professionals can increase their self-awareness, examine personal biases, and enhance their communication skills, thereby strengthening their ability to provide culturally appropriate services for diverse and vulnerable youth.
Objectives of this training:
- Describe the tenets of cultural humility at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational levels.
- Apply communication strategies to reduce assumptions and stereotyping at the interpersonal level.
- Identify language and behaviors that contribute to or detract from actualizing the principles of cultural humility.
- Indicator 2 (K-12): Describe three impacts that conscious and unconscious bias could have on cross-cultural interactions when teaching sex education.
- Indicator 4 (K-12): Describe three strategies to reduce the impact of conscious and unconscious bias and enhance cross-cultural interactions in the classroom when teaching sex education.
- Indicator 2 (K-12): Demonstrate three strategies for creating culturally responsive classrooms. (S)
Understanding the Adolescent Brain
During this session, participants will learn about neuro-biological findings from adolescent brain research as they apply to cognitive and behavioral changes, such as risk taking, relationship building and social development. The facilitators will describe findings in emerging fields informed by neuroscience, such as the effects of sleep, technology and stress on the developing brain. Based on the findings outlined, participants will explore some unique teaching and learning strategies for reaching adolescents, all linked to cognitive engagement, impulse control, and decision making. They will identify a set of adult behaviors and attitudes that might best engage, influence, and motivate teens, and are strongly encouraged to make a shift in how they think about and approach the adolescent learner.
Objectives of this course:
- Describe the unique developmental features of the adolescent brain and the implications for adolescent cognition and behavior.
- Describe current research on factors that influence the developing adolescent brain, including sleep, substances, stress, and technology.
- Identify strategies that draw upon brain research to engage the adolescent learner in avoiding risk behaviors.
- Implement a personal plan of action for refining their skills in effectively engaging adolescent learners.
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- Indicator 2 (K-12): Demonstrate three student-centered instructional approaches that support a variety of learning styles. (S)
- Indicator 5 (K-12): Describe three effective strategies for practicing skills with students.
- Indicator 7 (K-12): Demonstrate the ability to analyze and tailor lesson plans to match the age, developmental stages, cultural backgrounds, and other identities of students. (S)
- Indicator 2 (K-12): List three physical, three social, and three emotional changes that occur during puberty.
SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change has provided trainings to thousands of individuals and nonprofit organizations across the country. SIECUS’ policy team is uniquely positioned to offer trainings for all types of policy activity and engagement at all levels of government–federal, state, and local. Our trainings our developed to enhance participant understanding of influencing public policy, learn what it takes to engage in effective advocacy, and strategically mobilize to advance sex education laws and policy.
Our trainings are designed for advocates, educators, policymakers, health care providers, parents, and youth to aid in efforts to advance sex education in every community across the country.
Trainings and workshops can be customized and combined depending on your organization’s or community’s specific needs and the intended audience.
After your training, you can follow up with any questions you may have as part of our free technical assistance program. Please email us at info@siecus.org.
- Indicator 2 (K-12): Describe state and/or district laws, policies, and standards that relate to sex education where one teaches.
Virtual PD - Managing Students' Values When Teaching Sex Ed
Virtual Professional Development is a simulated classroom where teachers can practice teaching student avatars using short scenarios and support from an instructional coach, so they can quickly learn and master the skills they most need to be effective. With upper elementary, middle and high school classrooms, Virtual PD has scenarios for teachers of all grade levels across a wide range of topics aligned with the Professional Learning Standards for Sex Education (PLSSE). You can watch the video here (link is external) to learn more about Virtual PD.
Using the Virtual Professional Development simulated classroom, the educator will practice Managing Students' Values When Teaching Sex Ed with the student avatars. In this VPD scenario, the participant will conduct a values continuum activity with an established classroom community. In this simulation with the five students, the educator will ask students to respond to the statement: “It’s OK for students our age to have sex, as long as they use protection.” The participant will need to demonstrate the ability to respond to students’ conversations and questions regarding personal values when teaching about sexuality.
- Indicator 4 (K-12): Demonstrate the ability to respond effectively to students’ values-based comments and questions. (S)
Additional Trainings offered by out-of-state organizations
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What's Up With Teens These Days?: Classroom Management Edition
Participants will be reminded of normal patterns of development during adolescence and discuss strategies for maintaining professionalism with adolescent students.
This training is designed for:
- Teachers
- Substitute Teachers
- Counselors
- Coaches
- Educators
- Indicator 1 (K-12): Describe how puberty prepares the human body for the potential to reproduce.
- Indicator 2 (K-12): List three physical, three social, and three emotional changes that occur during puberty.
- Indicator 3 (K-12): Identify three practices that students can adopt for maintaining healthy habits beginning during puberty.




