The Kentucky Behavior Institute is a conference designed to give teachers the tools they need to manage student behavior in the classroom.

Educators learn how to build relationships, work with students experiencing trauma, and care for their own mental health.

Our Mackenzie Spink is back to tell us how these strategies have changed over time, and how these skills are being implemented in Kentucky classrooms.

More about this in tonight's Look at Education Matters.

When students act destructively in the classroom, learning is often put on pause for everyone in the room.

The Kentucky Council for children with Behavioral Disorders says giving students tools to handle their emotions before behavior happens is more effective than only training teachers on how to properly react.

For me, the mission of the conference is to respond skillfully to student behavior, responding, but then also the proactive piece of teaching.

How do we skillfully teach behavior just like we would reading, just like we would math?

You know, it's one thing to respond in the moment, and we absolutely do that.

But what we really want to do is empower our students and our families to have those strategies and resources so that they're successful from the outset.

Educators at the conference say they've seen an increase in behavior events in the classroom, particularly since the Covid 19 pandemic.

I've been in education on this actually year 24, behaviors of the student is not the same when I first started, when I was much younger.

I do think that all school systems are being faced with doing more with less resources, and that impacts the well-being of everyone.

However, they say the strategies to support students with behavioral issues have improved over time.

When I came into our district and started reviewing some behavior plans, I noticed we were heavily reliant on the same interventions or almost like a one size fits all response to student behavior.

In 2019, Kentucky received a federal grant called Project Aware, which helps to highlight the effect of trauma on children's brains and learning functions.

Organizers with the Behavior Institute say this was revolutionary in the student behavior space.

How do I support students that might have some significant, life events that have happened and they still need to come to school and be educated every day?

How can we support them and their families in the classroom?

So that trauma informed piece has been huge.

The proactive, trauma informed classroom management skills taught at the conference will ideally set up students for success not only in the classroom, but also in their relationships and eventually the job market.

They're really looking for things that we've kind of called soft skills in the past.

So the ability to disagree agreeably or the ability to communicate appropriately with other people, whether that's in the school or in their future in the workplace.

So making sure that they have these emotional regulation skills so that they can ultimately actualize it.

It all goes back to actualizing their full potential.

Teachers at the conference don't only learn tools for classroom management, but also self-care and coping tools.

According to the National Education Association, challenging student behavior is a common reason why teachers leave the profession.

The sessions that I've attended are all focused on things that we can do with the resources that we have to improve our environment.

I think society as a whole is realizing that being an educator is stressful.

This one thing I love about my job is being able to be a support for them, understanding the day to day stresses that they face.

This conference has done really well of saying, hey, this is hard.

What can we do to learn to do hard better?

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Mackenzie Spink.

Thank you again, Mackenzie.

The Kentucky Behavior Institute takes place every two years.

This year, there were more than 1300 attendees.