What is TISHE?

This five-and-a-half day training will feature modules on lifelong sexuality, learner diversity, values clarification, giving and receiving feedback and answering difficult questions. We will also provide smaller “how to teach about” and content-focused workshops.

In addition to the information that you receive throughout the training, you will get a valuable notebook and flash drive of supporting articles and resources to use when you return to your school or agency.

What can I expect from TISHE?

1. Enhance your understanding of sexuality and sexuality education in their broadest senses
2. Examine the diverse life experiences learners bring to the classroom and consider what impact this has on your teaching
3. Identify how values, attitudes and beliefs may influence your teaching
4. Assess your own learning and teaching styles
5. Increase your ability to assess learners’ needs and learn new strategies for creating a safe learning environment
6. Learn how to plan lessons based on sound learning theory using a variety of teaching methodologies
7. Enhance your skills in designing an effective lesson
8. Increase your skill at answering difficult questions
9. Learn and practice a model for giving and receiving concrete, useful feedback
10. Discover excellent collegial, written and technological resources
11. Explore the changing social, professional and political context for sexuality education and share strategies for surviving and thriving as you plan for your own ongoing professional development

Who should attend TISHE?

• Middle-and high-school health teachers
• Curriculum specialists
• Community educators
• Youth-serving professionals
• Administrators who supervise, support or implement sexuality education in any format

Who are TISHE Core Staff for 2012?

Kurt Conklin, M.P.H., M.C.H.E.S.
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States

Nora Gelperin, M.Ed.
Answer

Mark Huffman, M.T.S.
Independent Consultant/Trainer

Maureen Kelly, A.C.S.E., A.C.S.C., C.F.L.E.
Planned Parenthood of the Southern Finger Lakes

Kenya Masala
Independent Consultant/Trainer

Elizabeth Schroeder, Ed.D., M.S.W.
Answer

Learn more about TISHE Core Staff members.

How much does TISHE cost to attend?

$2,000 which includes room and board (except one dinner on your own) starting with dinner on Sunday and ending with lunch on Friday. The registration fee also includes a notebook full of great materials and a flash drive which will include the contents of the notebooks and any handouts that will be distributed during the week.

What is a typical agenda for TISHE?

View a tentative agenda.

What are POS groups and POS group facilitators?

Practice, Observation and Support (POS) groups are a unique and important feature of TISHE. You will be a part of a POS group (usually four to five individuals) in which you will do a short presentation for your peers. This small-group setting will give you an opportunity to receive feedback on your presentation and facilitation skills. It also offers you time to examine the relevancy of the training to your professional development, school and/or community.

What is the philosophy of TISHE?

While TISHE is designed to be relevant for health professionals with a wide range of family backgrounds, religious traditions and cultural/ethnic identities, it is not value free. The training gives the following clear messages about sexuality issues:

• Every person is entitled to dignity and his or her own attitudes and beliefs about sexuality.
• Knowledge about human sexuality is helpful, not harmful, and every individual has the right to accurate information about sexuality and have his or her questions answered.
• Sexual intercourse is only one of many ways of expressing sexual feelings with a partner.
• It is healthy for young adolescents to postpone sexual intercourse.
• All persons have the right and obligation to make responsible sexual choices.
• Being romantically and sexually attracted to both genders (bisexual), the same gender (homosexual), or another gender (heterosexual) are all natural in the range of human sexual experience.
• Healthy sexual relationships are consensual, non-exploitative, mutually pleasurable, safe, developmentally appropriate, based on mutual caring and respectful.
• We can enrich our lives by expressing sexuality in ways that enhance human wholeness and fulfillment and that express love, commitment and pleasure.

(Reprinted from the Our Whole Lives curriculum, Unitarian Universalist Association and Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education, 3rd Edition, SIECUS.)

What topics does TISHE include?

Workshops focus on teaching about the following:

• Abstinence with a sex-positive approach
• Sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS
• Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues, including homophobia
• Birth control and pregnancy prevention
• Models of behavior change
• Sexual values
• Sexual anatomy
• Technology and youth culture

Where is TISHE held and what about lodging?

TISHE will be held at Virden Conference Room on the Lewes Campus of the University of Delware.

All rooms are doubles and have a private bathroom. Roommates will be assigned unless you indicate a roommate preference on your application.

How do I get to TISHE?

You are responsible for your own travel arrangements to Virden Conference Center in Lewes, DE. Flights are available to either Philadelphia or Baltimore-Washington International Airport, both of which are approximately two hours from the Virden Center. Please indicate if you need information about transportation from or to the airport. We will distribute a list of participants prior to the conference; if you are driving, you can make your own carpool arrangements.

Will I earn Professional Development Hours by attending TISHE?

Answer is an approved provider of New Jersey Professional Development Hours. Participants will earn 40 hours of Professional Development by attending this training. Certificate of completion will be awarded at the end of TISHE and given ONLY to those participants who have attended the entire institute. Participants can also earn category 1 CHES credits and social work credits as well.

What is the process to apply to TISHE?

TISHE is geared for a specific audience and topic. It is not a good match for all professionals. Applications are considered on a rolling basis, and we have space for 34 participants to attend in 2012. We will wait-list other qualified applicants accepted after we are full. Once your application is accepted, you must place a $1,000 nonrefundable deposit toward the registration fee within six weeks of your acceptance to guarantee your spot. The fee to attend is $2,000, which includes registration, lodging, all meals (except one dinner on your own), a resource notebook and a flash drive. Any outstanding registration fees are due by July 6th. If you register and cannot attend, contact Answer immediately so your space can be offered to someone on the waiting list.

Who sponsors TISHE?

TISHE is coordinated and run by Answer and SIECUS.

Who can I contact for more information?

E-mail Nora Gelperin, or call her at 732-445-7929.