The VTRAC started monthly Lunch and Learn’s to bring together this Community of Practice to meaningfully share about their work. Below are the resources contributed by members to meet the moment from the current academic year.
2026 Lunch & Learns
March Lunch and Learn:
- Sample Needs and Strategies for a Working Team
- Needs and Strategies Facilitators Guide.pdf
- Working Agreements
- Circle Forward “Establishing Guidelines for Staff Circle” 7.1
- Brave Space
- Grok Cards
- UP Activity: “I Matter” (time when a decision was made when they had input but were NOT asked. And then a time when they WERE asked. And how both of those things felt. Agreements come out of that. (credit: Helen Beattie)
- Creating Brave Spaces with Needs and Strategies Process
February Lunch and Learn:
- VTRAC Vision and Purpose
- Act 35: Final Report
- RP Modules
- RP Videos from VT Schools
- RISE VT Final Report
- TIRC and “Our Brains on Stress” reflection from Starling Collaborative
2025 Lunch & Learns
December Lunch and Learn:
- Middlebury Conflict Transformation Collaborative (CTC) Overview:
https://www.middlebury.edu/conflict-transformation - CTC Who, What, Why, How?
https://www.middlebury.edu/sites/default/files/2025-10/CTC%20Overview%20and%20Learning%20Goals.pdf?fv=-pRVY65e - CTC Media and Resources:
https://www.middlebury.edu/conflict-transformation/media-and-resources - CTC Newsletters and Annual Reports:
https://www.middlebury.edu/conflict-transformation/newsletters-and-annual-reports - CTC Build Your Skills:
https://www.middlebury.edu/conflict-transformation/build-your-skills - “Omnipartality — A Bias in Favor of Everyone:
https://www.duncanautrey.com/fractalfriends/omnipartiality
November Lunch and Learn:
- Use of restorative processes and conversations between members and thinking about how to apply meaningful support to NEA members with a restorative lens –Burlington School District leaders reflect on a racial equity success – VTDigger
- How to Citizen to encourage citizenship as a means of “contribut[ing] meaningfully to workplaces, communities, and society.” https://www.baratunde.com/
May Lunch and Learn:
- Windows and Mirrors – and why we need both
- Personal Storytelling as Restorative Practice + Pathway: common language as a restorative practice, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story | TED, and the social identity wheel.
April Lunch and Learn:
- Demoralized Why Teachers Leave the Profession They Love and How They Can Stay (Santoro)
- Street Data A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation (Safir, Dugan)
March Lunch and Learn:
- Teaching Hope in Hard Times – Erin Robinson
- Listening 4 Justice
- McArthur-Blair, J., & Cockell, J. (2018). Building resilience with appreciative inquiry: a leadership journey through hope, despair, and forgiveness.
- Berrett-Koehler.Thatchenkery, T. & Metzker, C. (2006). Appreciative intelligence: seeing the mighty oak in the acorn. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc
- Pleasure Activism – adrienne maree brown
February Lunch and Learn:
- Creating a Community of Care – Chapter by Annie O (shareable)
- Communities of Care Games and Activities Guide (shareable)
January Lunch and Learn:
- Grounding and Self-Soothing Resources – Eddins Counseling
- Window of Tolerance Reflection – activity to do solo or with a school group or team
- Emotional Regulation-Mindfulness by Starling Collaborative
- Free Downloads: Tiny Survival Guide (PDF), Map for Managing One’s Day (PDF), Gratitude Log (PDF), When Experiencing Overwhelm & Trauma (PDF)
- Balance in the Process – an example of how to bring a slow down/pause, relationship-building, and closing out
- Educator Wellness: A Whole School Approach to Improve Staff Stress and Retention and Student Achievement