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Mark Glat is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology. In addition to teaching Educational Psychology, he has also taught Models of Psychotherapy and Controversies in Clinical Psychology. Most recently he has taught a Freshman Seminar entitled “Pandemic Pedagogy: School and Society in a Time of Trauma and Disruption.”
Dr. Glat holds doctorate degrees in both political science and psychology. He is a licensed professional psychologist and a Certified School Psychologist in the State of New Jersey. He was the first Clinical Director of The Beadleston School; a hospital based educational program for special needs students in Elizabeth, NJ. He has also been a consultant to the Carrier Clinic in Belle Meade, NJ.
He has served as Member and Chair of the New Jersey Board of Psychological Examiners. Dr. Glat has published in both the fields of political science and psychology, and is the author of numerous scholarly reviews. He currently has a private practice in Princeton, NJ.
Whether the issue is the emotional and behavioral wellbeing of students, pandemic learning loss, the need for trauma informed teaching, or how to reconcile education, excellence, and equity; it is clear we are having a “therapeutic moment” in post-pandemic American schools.
Understandably, educators have focused on the needs of their students first and foremost. We see our students in crisis and rush to meet their needs and fulfill our responsibilities to them. If our well-being as “the adults in the room” is considered at all, it is usually as an afterthought or footnote.
In our workshop we will put teachers first! We will begin with a brief overview of trauma related research. How do we understand trauma and its etiologies? Also do we need to distinguish trauma from depression and anxiety and what happens we do?
We will then explore our “multiple identities” as individuals, educators, change agents, caregivers, and citizens. Our focus here will be how our “intersectionality” impacts our relationships with our students in the classroom. We will be guided by the principle that if we cannot understand and manage our own thoughts, feelings, and actions at this critical juncture, we will certainly be less able to help our students do the same.
Using our experiential knowledge and professional expertise as a foundation, we will then scaffold our experiential knowledge and understanding with several psychotherapies, principles, and practices from the behavioral and social sciences. They will help us create a clinical toolbox of practices to support both the educator and the student during these challenging times.
Finally, we will put our tools to work in helping by considering how a better understanding of the “narratives” we construct to make sense of things like generational change, equity and diversity, and culture and politics can help us become “clinically informed” and more effective as educators. citizens, and human beings.