TISHE 2010 Information 

1. What is TISHE?
2. What can I expect from TISHE?
3. Who should attend TISHE?
4. Who are TISHE Core staff for 2009?
5. How much does TISHE cost to attend?
6. What is a typical agenda for TISHE?
7. What are POS groups and POS group facilitators?
8. What is the philosophy of TISHE?
9. What topics does TISHE include?
10. Where is TISHE held and what about lodging?
11. How do I get to TISHE?
12. Will I earn professional development hours by attending TISHE?
13. What is the process to apply to TISHE?
14. Who sponsors TISHE?
15. Who can I contact for more information?

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 CD-ROM 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 how this impacts 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 2009?

Nora Gelperin, M.Ed.
Answer

Eva S. Goldfarb, Ph.D.
Montclair State University

Mark Huffman, M.A.T.
Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee

Kenya Masala
Source Consulting Group

Monica Rodriguez
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States

Trena Saunders
Professional Trainer/Consultant

How much does TISHE cost to attend?
$1200 which includes room and board, a notebook full of great materials and a CD which will include any handouts that will be distributed during the week.

What is a typical agenda for TISHE?
Click here for 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, nonexploitative, 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:

• 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
• Youth culture and cultural competence

Where is TISHE held and what about lodging?
TISHE will be held at Trinity Conference Center in West Cornwall, CT.  The Center is located on a bend in the Housatonic River, just a half-mile from the Birkshire Mountains, on 500 forested acres.  Its focus is to provide nonprofit groups with a safe and productive place to meet.  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 Trinity Conference Center.  Flights are available to Bradley International Airport, which is approximately one hour from the Center.  Please indicate if you need information about transportation form/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.

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 32 participants to attend in 2010.  We will wait-list other qualified applicants accepted after we are full.  Once your application is accepted, you must place a $500 nonrefundable deposit toward the registration fee within six weeks of your acceptance to guarantee your spot.  TISHE is made possible, in part, by generous support from the Mary Owen Borden Foundation.  The fee to attend is $1,200, which includes registration, lodging, all meals, a resource notebook and CD-ROM.  Any outstanding registration fees are due by July 24th.  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 through a partnership between Answer and SIECUS with generous funding from the Mary Owen Borden Foundation and the Educational Foundation of America.

Who can I contact for more information?
You can e-mail Nora Gelperin by clicking here or by calling her at 732-445-7929.