Collaborative Problem Solving with Students and Check & Connect (School Mentoring Program)

Dr. Imad Zaheer

Summer Conference Afternoon Session

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

ZOOM

Registration is not required for this event. 

Please use this link to join the session on June 25th @ 1:00 PM:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2899676731?pwd=ckllVHgzVjdPbXRJOFcwWUwxWEZVZz09

Problem solving is a keystone skill that is the target of almost every aspect of education, from social emotional skills to academic development. It requires cultivating various cognitive and emotional skills that allows the individual to increasingly self-determine their own path through the various challenges and opportunities presented to them. Given the importance of problem solving, it’s important to learn how we can help create a context for students to develop this skill. This session will describe how to create this context for whole classrooms as well as how school professionals can work collaboratively with students one on one to help develop the skill in response to challenging situations. This will include brief problem-solving conversations for minor challenges to more intensive mentoring through programs such as Check and Connect, which helps students build problem solving skills in the context of a mentoring relationship.

Dr. Imad Zaheer is an Assistant Professor of School Psychology in the Department of Psychology, at St. John’s University. Dr. Zaheer is a pediatric school psychologist and has worked on numerous projects in clinics, hospitals, and public and alternative school settings that involve direct and indirect (consultation) services across individual, group (classrooms) and systems level. His areas of interest are in developing assessments and interventions for children with emotional and behavioral challenges and creating comprehensive school-based prevention programs by integrating school mental health (SMH), social emotional learning (SEL) and school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SW-PBIS). For his work in these areas, Dr. Zaheer was awarded the Council for Exceptional Children’s (CEC) Professional Performance Award in 2019. Additionally, Dr. Zaheer sits on the steering committee for the national group, Family School Community Alliance (FSCA), which is an organization dedicated to creating robust collaboration and engagement across schools and families/community settings. Dr. Zaheer is the co-founder of the Nurturing Environments Institute (NEI).