Professional Development at Affect Academics
Learning Programs and Workshops for Teachers, Parents, and Students
Recent Presentation by Cristina Post
November 5, 2022 @ The Association of Educational Therapists: The Neural Correlates of Math Anxiety
Affect Academics helps teachers, educators, and parents meet a wider range of student needs through comprehensive professional development programs and public presentations.
Using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework as a base, Cristina Post, EdM, ET/P, combines her expertise in teaching with her knowledge of leading-edge cognitive research to provide teacher and faculty workshops, teacher mentoring, and user-friendly programs for parents and students.
Professional DevelopmentMentoring and Training for TeachersPublic Speaking & Presentations
Professional Development for Educators
Keeping up with the latest research is often a challenge for educators. With a Master’s degree in Mind, Brain, and Education from Harvard University, Affect Academics’ Cristina Post is up-to-date on the latest in educational neuroscience and strengths-based teaching. As an adjunct professor at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts, she facilitated a graduate-level course for public school teachers on Universal Design for Learning.
She offers in-service programs designed to keep your school current with crucial information. All programs provide background research as well as practical applications to the classroom, and can include parent community presentations as well as student workshops or observations. Each program is tailored to the needs of the school.
- Program 1—A comprehensive presentation on how the current research in neuroscience can help educators teach more effectively in all subjects, with an emphasis on stress and learning. Imagine a school with dramatically less stress, leading to fewer behavioral problems, higher academic achievement, and healthier, happier students.
- Program 2—How to incorporate teaching strategies designed to decrease math anxiety. Research shows that reducing math anxiety in the classroom results in as much as a twenty percentile point gain in math scores on standardized tests, even with no content remediation.
- Program 3—An orientation to Universal Design for Learning: how to implement incremental changes in our classrooms to help a wider range of student succeed within existing school curricula. The students in our classrooms are more neurodiverse than ever before. Learn how to view that as a positive and effect change that benefits ALL students.
Professional Development Topics
- The Cognitive Effects of Math Anxiety and Stereotype Threat
- Dyscalculia: Causes, Effects, and Remediation
- Universal Design for Learning
- Mindfulness in Math Education
- Neurodiversity in the Classroom
- Sleep and Learning
- Stress and Learning
- Reimagining High School
Individual Mentoring and Training for Teachers
Studies show that more than 90% of elementary and middle school teachers suffer from some degree of math anxiety, resulting in teachers modeling math avoidance and anxiety to children and spending fewer hours actually teaching math.
- Learn about research that can help break the cycle of math anxiety and stereotype threat
- Benefit from classroom observation and compassionate lesson critique
- Receive training and support for staging school-wide interventions
Mentoring can often make the difference between an adequate or an excellent teacher.
All teachers, whether experienced or novice, can also benefit from training in Universal Design for Learning, which can help them reach a greater percentage of students in every class, regardless of subject.
- Plan a lesson or critique a lesson using the lens of Universal Design for Learning
- Receive extensive written feedback at the checkpoint level
- Learn how to easily modify all lessons gradually over time
- Benefit from classroom observations and feedback on lessons given the constellation of learners in a given class
Presentations on Mind, Brain, and Education
Cristina Post, EdM, ET/P is an experienced math and science teacher and the first educational therapist in the state of Maine. Cristina is also an experienced public speaker who presents on a wide range of interrelated topics:
- Stress and learning
- Math anxiety
- Neurodiversity
- UDL classroom strategies
- Mindfulness in education
- Early reading development
- Teaching students with ADHD
- Other topics related to the mind, brain, and education
Cristina is especially skilled at making cognitive science research accessible to lay audiences of teachers and/or parents.
She has presented her research on the cognitive effects of math anxiety to the Association of Educational Therapists, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Association of Teachers of Mathematics in Maine, and the Association of Teachers of Mathematics in New England. She has also given talks and workshops at public and private schools throughout New England on the relevance of recent research in neuroscience to education, helping schools reimagine themselves as low-stress, high-learning environments. She has presented to audiences of middle and high school students, parent communities, graduate students, and whole school faculties.
Recent & Upcoming EventsToo Afraid to Learn (free manual)
Past Presentations by Cristina Post
- Association of Educational Therapists National Conference: The Neural Correlates of Math Anxiety
- Bridging Talents, Singapore: Universal Design for Learning in Math
- Association of Educational Therapists East Coast Regional Workshop: The Cognitive Effects of Threat and Anxiety on Math Learning and Strategies for Remediation
- Association of Teachers of Math in New England Annual Conference: Mindfulness in Math Learning
- Fenway High School: Threat and Anxiety in Math Learning (and what to do about it)
- Seacoast Waldorf School: Neuroscience and Waldorf Education
- Willowind Therapeutic Riding Stables: Harnessing Positive Emotion in Equine Therapy
- Association of Teachers of Math in Maine Spring Conference: UDL in Math Learning
- Association of Teachers of Math in New England Annual Conference: Anxiety and Threat in Math Learning
- YFinnovate: Emotion and Cognition – Applied research in high schools
- Falmouth High School: Reimagining High School – Stress and Learning
- Mind, Brain, and Education Conference at Harvard Graduate School of Education: Affect in Learning
- Maine Coast Waldorf School: Sleep and Cognition
- Association of Teachers of Math in Maine: Math Anxiety
- Maine Coast Waldorf School: Neuroscience and Waldorf Education
- Greely High School: The Effect of Drugs on the Brain
Words of praise for Cristina Post
“After 29 years in the classroom, I am continually looking for specific strategies and ideas to add to my instructional planning … Cristina provided that and then some. I truly appreciated her knowledge and guidance.”
(JD, public school teacher)
“I have been thoroughly impressed with Cristina's ability to apply research and knowledge with sensitivity and practical strategies to help alleviate barriers that inhibit students’ understanding of math.”
(ER, disabilities services specialist)
“Cristina is a thoughtful and well-informed expert in the area of mind, brain, and education with particular expertise in numeracy and pedagogy. While at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, I found her work to be authentically concerned with applying the latest knowledge to real world settings and to working with children to improve their educational experiences and outcomes.”
(JW, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Transform Ed)
“Cristina has a real gift for helping students understand math concepts and for making them feel comfortable and competent in their work. She has a sense of humor and connects very well with young people.”
(SS, colleague)
"Cristina Post was inspiring to me, and taught me ways to reach each individual student in a whole-class setting. She gets right to the heart of how each child learns. Her sense of humor and interest in teaching put both child and parent at ease."
(MR, private school teacher)
"I feel that the guest speaker was exceptional. This research and her strategies come as a relief. I feel a bit more informed and empowered to chip away at making learning possible for my students that yield academic gains... I do hope Cristina is able to join us for expansion topics in the future."
(BC, public school teacher)
"Recently, I attended a wellness workshop presented by Cristina Post which was sponsored by our school system. As cliche as it sounds, Cristina had all of us hooked immediately with her packed and informative introduction. She is engaging, to say the least, but combine that fact with her impressive credentials, and what we experienced that day was a very quick afternoon, which we all wished could have lasted longer regardless of our teaching discipline. ...
Cristina’s work with the mind, body, brain, and mindfulness connections is cutting edge, well backed up with hard science, and presented in a way that even hard core nay-sayers will listen. I recommend her highly for any demographic and age group, but especially teachers, who have the opportunity to share this information with many young people everyday, possibly affecting them for a lifetime. I can’t wait to hear her again!"
(WN, public school teacher)
"This [presentation was] a perfect example of of the best of ET Conferences. Lots of deep research, brain science, clear connections to the students we actually work within an ET format, great slides to follow, and time for questions. Thank you to Cristina."
(Jennifer, educational therapist)
Free Download of Too Afraid to Learn by Cristina Post
Cristina’s research on the role of anxiety in math learning led her to write Too Afraid to Learn: The Role of Math Anxiety in Cognition and What You Can Do about It for teachers and parents who want to understand the mechanisms by which math anxiety can affect learning and how Affect Academics can help.
→ Download Too Afraid to Learn by Cristina Post (PDF)
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