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  • Creating Communities of Inclusion by Celebrating Grit and Resilience by Blake Mackesy and Ty Frederickson
Friday, 03 February 2017 12:08

Creating Communities of Inclusion by Celebrating Grit and Resilience by Blake Mackesy and Ty Frederickson

This workshop will offer participants a tangible way transform their classroom and school into a vibrant, inclusive community by fostering and celebrating grit and resilience.

Inclusion is critical, but how is it achieved? This workshop will demonstrate how any school can transform into vibrant, inclusive community by fostering and celebrating grit and resilience. Success and goal attainment are functions of a complex combination of dispositions, “mindsets”, identities, beliefs, values, attitudes, and skills. When these non-cognitive factors are fragile, learners struggle to achieve their potential and lack qualities such as intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and collaboration skills. However, when these factors are strong, students thrive and are prepared to meet future demands in the workplace and succeed in multiple spheres of life.

This presentation will explore current evidence related to grit and resilience and demonstrate how these essential attributes can be fostered and celebrated to help every child achieve his or her full potential. Specific strategies for creating a community of inclusion by promoting transformation, growth, and development in learners will be presented and discussed.

Blake Mackesy

blake mackesy

Dr. Blake Mackesy is a Assistant Professor at Wilkes University.

Dr. Mackesy has worked for over 20 years in various higher education institutions as both a practitioner and administrator, focused on programs and services that support student success.  Areas of expertise include: Academic Advising, Career Development, Disability Services and practices of inclusion, Academic Success/Support Programs, Orientation and First Year Experience, as well as strategic leadership and administration of student-centered services and initiatives.

Current research interests includes social-emotional learning, non-cognitive factors involved in individual and school performance, mindset, individual and collective self-efficacy, academic perseverance, and diversity/social justice/equity work. She lives in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. with her four children.

 

Ty Frederickson

ty frederickson

Dr. Ty Frederickson is a Visiting Instructor at Wilkes University and a Diploma Program International Baccalaureate educator.

Dr. Frederickson has extensive experience working in international education in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. He is an experienced advocate for the reduction of human trafficking and forced labor in the Middle East and works to build educational access programs, including technology integration, micro-financing, and livestock distribution, in rural Bangladesh to empower small communities and individuals. Dr. Frederickson has also spent the last fifteen years developing social justice, service learning, and leadership development programs for secondary students. His research interest is focused on the acquisition of leadership identities for students holding positional and non-positional leadership roles in a social justice organization. Additionally, he co-facilitates an International Student Leadership Symposium focusing on the United Nations Millennium Goals, and he conducts school-based diversity workshops designed to support student-led explorations of social justice issues. He currently lives in Kansas, U.S.A. with his wife and two sons..