Slide 1

The Pillowcase ProjectPresenter TrainingAmerican Red CrossDisaster Services1Welcome!

Welcome to the Pillowcase Project presenter training! This online, self-paced module is a great place to start if you plan to present the Pillowcase Project for your local American Red Cross chapter! Before completing this training, be sure to check with your chapter and make sure youre aware of any additional training requirements. At the end of the training, you will complete a quiz that will verify for your chapter that youve completed this portion of the training.

This is a self paced training that will take approximately one and a half hours to complete, from beginning to end. You can pause this training at any time and return to it later. You can also use the back buttons on the bottom to navigate to previous slides. You cannot jump forward in slides or skip sections unless you have already gone through them once.

2Outline Page

Thank you for volunteering your time to educate 3rd through 5th graders about disaster preparedness in your community. Through the years, the American Red Cross and its chapters have designed and implemented many programs to educate youth and communities about emergency preparedness. The version of the Pillowcase Project you will learn about today and then present, is a unique combination of coping skills training and traditional disaster preparedness.

By volunteering to become a presenter for the Pillowcase Project, you are participating in an extended pilot testing of this new program! By 2015, Red Cross chapters will reach 500,000 3rd through 5th graders and their families through classroom & after-school presentations run by presenters like you, as well as through a mobile app currently in development. 2014 is the 2nd year of this process but the first in which a wider group of regions will be engaged in the presentation. This training will first give you an overview of the project and review some basic and important presentation tips and tools. You will then dive into the Pillowcase Project curriculum! It is important to understand the nuances and flow of this curriculum before moving on to presenting to students.

We will discuss how the Pillowcase Project curriculum is constructed and explore the Learn, Practice, Share framework. We will also discuss the connection between protective actions and coping skills and look at how this fits into the presentation. Other important pieces to the Pillowcase Project are its focus on interactive and experiential activities and the focus on the pillowcase itself as a central tool.

Through this training, you will learn each part of the presentation and see several examples of pilot presentations. We will discuss tips for presenting different pieces of the program and explore different ways that the presentation can be customized.

There will be several brief knowledge checks throughout this training. The training will culminate with a final quiz that youll need to pass in order to be further involved with the program at your chapter.3Pillowcase Project Overview4PP History and Background

The Pillowcase Project was begun by the New Orleans chapter after Hurricane Katrina. CEO Kay Wilkins and her team were inspired to work with survivors of Katrina on an art project while they lived in temporary housing in New Orleans. Wilkins had heard about local college students who carried their belongings in pillowcases while evacuating from the storm, so she worked with an art therapist to design a program for youth and families to decorate their own pillowcases. These pillowcases became emergency supply kit containers. As the program gained momentum, a preparedness education presentation was designed and included, growing into the model for today's Pillowcase Project.

After being successfully implemented in New Orleans, the program quickly spread. The Mississippi, Louisville, Kentucky, and Los Angeles, California chapters customized and implemented the program in their areas with the help of local donors.

In late 2012, the Red Cross team at headquarters was supported by Disney who wanted to fund a larger implementation of this program. Throughout 2013, staff members from several departments worked closely with several Red Cross chapters to create a state-of-the-art, evidence based program to not only educate students about preparedness and local hazards but also about how to better handle all kinds of emergencies.

Between September and November 2013, over 3,000 students in 19 Red Cross chapters were taught the new Pillowcase Project curriculum. These pilot chapters provided valuable insight and feedback about the new program's curriculum and implementation, which we used to modify the program before launching the 2014 expansion.

5Pillowcase Project Learning ObjectivesProvide students with basic knowledge of hazards and what to do to stay safe.

As you already know, the main objective of this program is to teach youth about emergency preparedness. This includes teaching them about a local hazard for which they should know how to prepare, and teaching them any necessary skills they need to stay as safe as possible during that emergency.

6Pillowcase Project Learning ObjectivesProvide students with basic knowledge of hazards and what to do to stay safe.

Equip students with preparedness tools that will motivate families to create an emergency communications plan and prepare an emergency supply kit.

Through the Pillowcase Project, we also want to reach the families or households of these students. By giving students tools and information that they can communicate to others, we seek to motivate families to make a plan and build a kit.7Pillowcase Project Learning ObjectivesProvide students with basic knowledge of hazards and what to do to stay safe.

Equip students with preparedness tools that will motivate families to create an emergency communications plan and prepare an emergency supply kit.

Engage students in preparing a Pillowcase Kit that will be a source of inner strength and resiliency in emergency situations, as well as a familiar, easy to find container for emergency supplies.

The centerpiece of this program is obviously the pillowcase itself. So a key learning objective is to teach students how to make a personal emergency supplies kit and motivate them to use their pillowcase to do so.8Pillowcase Project Learning ObjectivesProvide students with basic knowledge of hazards and what to do to stay safe.

Equip students with preparedness tools that will motivate families to create an emergency communications plan and prepare an emergency supply kit.

Engage students in preparing a Pillowcase Kit that will be a source of inner strength and resiliency in emergency situations, as well as a familiar, easy to find container for emergency supplies.

Empower students to make emergency preparedness a priority in their homes and communities.

Students at this age are particularly enthusiastic about bringing messages home and encouraging action within their households and families. A core goal of the Pillowcase Project is, therefore, to empower students to make emergency preparedness a priority in their homes and communities by communicating its importance to adults in their lives.9Pillowcase Project Learning ObjectivesProvide students with basic knowledge of hazards and what to do to stay safe.

Equip students with preparedness tools that will motivate families to create an emergency communications plan and prepare an emergency supply kit.

Engage students in preparing a Pillowcase Kit that will be a source of inner strength and resiliency in emergency situations, as well as a familiar, easy to find container for emergency supplies.

Empower students to make emergency preparedness a priority in their homes and communities.

Encourage students and teachers to explore the scientific, sociological, and cultural dimensions of emergency preparedness in the classroom.

Through the activities in the students My Preparedness Workbook and in the Teachers Packet, the Pillowcase Project is also a valuable tool to encourage further discovery in classrooms and educational programs for students to explore the scientific, sociological, and cultural dimensions of emergencies and emergency preparedness.10Pillowcase Project Learning ObjectivesProvide students with basic knowledge of hazards and what to do to stay safe.

Equip students with preparedness tools that will motivate families to create an emergency communications plan and prepare an emergency supply kit.

Engage students in preparing a Pillowcase Kit that will be a source of inner strength and resiliency in emergency situations, as well as a familiar, easy to find container for emergency supplies.

Empower students to make emergency preparedness a priority in their homes and communities.

Encourage students and teachers to explore the scientific, sociological, and cultural dimensions of emergency preparedness in the classroom.

Prepare students to develop the resiliency skills to cope with the psychological impact of past, present, and potential emergencies

Finally, through the Coping Skills and Sharing Activity pieces and follow-up activities, the Pillowcase Project will help students develop resiliency skills to cope with emergencies of all kinds.11

3rd-5th Graders

8-11 Years OldBefore we begin talking about the Pillowcase Project itself, lets talk about your audience!

The Pillowcase Project is designed for 3rd-5th graders who are usually between 8 and 11 years old. We focus on this age group for a variety of evidence-based reasons, including the success experienced by pilot chapters in 2013.

12

Good messengers to householdsLearn problem solvingServe as leadersReduce fears about hazards and disastersMany Red Cross programs have been designed for elementary and middle school students for many of these same reasons. Studies have found that households with children who have been involved in emergency preparedness education programs are more likely to discuss emergency preparedness at home and to take preparedness actions. Furthermore, interacting with their households and communities benefits childrens social capacities as they learn to problem solve, serve as leaders and teach peers by example. Emergency preparedness education programs for youth have been shown to reduce, rather than increase, childrens fears about hazards and disasters.

13

ExcitableEasy to engageWilling to participateIn addition to this evidence, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders are excitable, easy to engage in presentations, and willing to participate in group activities or demonstrations, making the program successfully interactive and fun. Students at this age also tend to be excited about what they learn and discover in school and to bring those lessons and messages home with enthusiasm.

14Presenting the Pillowcase ProjectPresentation Tips

The same presentation tips and tricks you may employ in other presentations, like meetings at work or public speaking events, should be used even when working with younger students! Practicing the presentation will help you feel more comfortable and will add to the organic nature of your delivery. When practicing, keep these tips in mind.

Take care to make eye contact with different students throughout the presentation to keep them, and yourself engaged.

Dont forget to smile, look excited, or focus quizzically on someone who is speaking. Students are more likely to focus on you if they feel you are engaged in what you or someone else is saying too.

There are a variety of props within this program-- including a Presenters Guide, the pillowcase, and the student workbook-- that you should practice using. Make sure to focus your energy on the materials and curriculum rather than on nervous habits like jangling keys or wringing your hands.

In a classroom, youll have a lot of space to move around students at desks, from the front to the back of the room, and to stand in different positions throughout. Students will be more engaged if they have to continuously focus their attention on a different area of the room. If you are presenting in a different environment, think beforehand about how you can use the space to your advantage. Remember, this is a FUN presentation, not a classroom lecture!

16HouseholdGrown-Ups, friends, and loved ones

Now lastly, lets talk a bit about vocabulary used. Youll notice that throughout this training and your materials, certain words appear multiple timeslike household and emergencies. We took special care to use youth-friendly, non-alienating words to describe common things we talk about a lot in disaster preparedness.

Regardless of where you present, there may be students in the audience who do not live in a traditional family structure or home. They may live with other relatives, foster parents, or in any variety of other situations. It is important to be inclusive of these scenarios with language that validates all living situations as equal.

Therefore, we use household or refer to friends and loved ones throughout the presentation rather than focus on homes, family, or parents. Similarly, we use grown-ups to refer to adults, parents, grandparents, or other authority figures rather than focusing on a specific relationship.

17HouseholdGrown-Ups, friends, and loved onesEmergenciesCoping Skills

Similarly, the word disaster usually triggers more fear and anxiety for children and adults alike than emergencies. If you think about it, the word emergency is used much more often. We see it on exit signs from all buildings, hear it in common announcements at movie theaters and on airplanes, and develop plans for what to do in case of an emergency. Disasters, however, are big, terrible, scary things that only sometimes happen. Sometimes we hear about them on the news, and sometimes they can happen to us or loved ones. This presentation is meant to be educational and empowering for students, not scary. By focusing your language away from more common adult concepts of natural hazards, like major disasters and disaster relief, we can teach students about these concepts without triggering fearful responses. Whether or not youve spent a lot of time with the Red Cross or in this field, the word disaster comes to mind for most of us when talking about things covered in this program, like tornadoes, hurricanes, or earthquakes. It may take some practice to train yourself to use emergency where you would normally use disaster, but the extra effort is very important for this context.

18

Quiet Symbol

Recent disaster and emergency experience

Learning disabilities or other emotional issues

Other classroom policies or proceduresVocabulary specific to the content of this presentation is only one important piece. Using vocabulary and symbols students are familiar with from day-to-day use in the classroom or program is equally important.

When you first talk with the teacher or staff member, whether during planning for the presentation or on the day of the presentation itself, you can tackle some of these issues with a brief conversation.

Ask the teacher what the quiet symbol or phrase is that the students are familiar with so you can use it. Maintaining consistency of this will allow you to seamlessly transition into controlling the classroom.

You should also ask the teacher or staff member to identify any student or students who may be of particular concern when discussing the topic of emergencies and natural disasters.

There are several reasons we suggest the teacher or staff member be strongly encouraged to remain in the room, including that they can provide an adequate support structure for any student who may respond negatively to the program, which is possible.

19

Considering your audience is filled with third, fourth, or fifth graders, you can expect some random questions. This can be hard to handle in the beginning but you will become accustomed to diverging from the off-topic question and circling back to the point.

Plan to use several different methods for quieting down and managing students. Hand claps, whistling, quietly saying If you can hear me, touch your head. If you can hear me, touch your nose are all examples of classroom management techniques. Changing up your management techniques can be helpful but its more important to feel comfortable in a teaching role.

Because the nature of this presentation may bring up several questions or stories from students that cannot be appropriately handled by volunteers in such a short time frame, you should be careful to redirect students to the topic without ignoring their comments.

If a student brings up a traumatic episode or fear, do not encourage them to be grateful for what they do have or encourage them to further tell the story to the class. Instead, work on ways to validate their feelings and connect them to the lesson and quickly redirect the conversation in a respectful but responsible way. Be ready for anything, children are sensitive, creative, funny, direct and occasionally less censored than adults.

20Redirecting Stories Scenario

21Presenter Tools & ResourcesWe will now briefly review the tools you have at your disposal as a presenter to prepare for and successfully present this program. At this point, you may want to have hard copies of all curriculum materials possible. Especially any that your program manager gave you before taking this training.

After we review the tools, we will go on to the presentation itself.22Toolbox

There are many important tools youll use while preparing for and giving your presentations. In this section, well review each piece. Many of these can be downloaded and looked at from the Resources tab on the upper right of your training window. Remember, you can also find these materials on the program website.

The Presenters Guide is an 8 page guide that should serve as your primary tool during your presentation. It guides you through the presentation with core pieces to cover, reminders, and activities to lead. It is meant to serve as a quick glance refresher rather than the sole tool for preparing for the presentation.

You will also need to download your Hazard Guide, which will be inserted into the Presenters Guide mentioned just now. The Hazard Guide will be a two page document specific to the local hazard you choose and will contain all the information and activities associated with that hazard. Youll learn more about this tool and section later in this training.

The Hazard Resources contain more information than the brief Hazard Guide and should be used to learn the presentation, practice it in preparation for your first few presentations, and to note any desired adjustments. These documents contain suggested scripts for each section, bulleted pieces of information, and the longer description of each Practice and Share activity for the hazards. There is a substantial amount of information in all hazard-specific documents, far too much to present to students. As a presenter, it is your responsibility to learn and internalize this information so you can present key pieces in a youth-friendly way in the classroom, while keeping additional pieces of information in your back pocket to answer questions or engage in further discussion with students.

Each hazard has an associated student quiz that contains a hazard-specific question to gauge students' knowledge of the appropriate protective action or important fact covered in your presentation. Either you or your program manager should download and copy enough quizzes for the students in each of your presentations before you leave. Be sure to download the correct quiz for the hazard you will teach, and be sure you are educating students about the answers to questions asked in the quiz!

As part of your preparation and presentation, you should have your own My Preparedness Workbook. In most cases, you will get this from your contact at the chapter, but it can also be downloaded under the Resources tab and from the program website. This is the workbook that students will receive to follow along during the presentation and to complete at home or in class afterwards. You should go through the workbook and complete each page before your first presentation. Not only will this help you familiarize yourself with the activities and tools, but showing students completed pages will also inspire them to complete the workbook themselves.

The Be Prepared! Or Learn, Practice, Share Poster serves as the main program poster, containing our repetitive framework. The poster contains signature lines for students and teachers to use as they see fit. You can have students sign the poster at the end of your presentation to signify completion of the presentation, or ask teachers to assign something from the Workbook and have students sign the poster upon turning the assignment back in. The teacher's version of the poster can be used as a constant reminder of students' preparedness knowledge and efforts.

The Mapping Hazards Poster will primarily help you introduce your local hazards to students during the presentation. However, the poster is also reproduced in the student Workbook along with several geography questions. The teacher's version of the poster can be used in the additional provided lesson plans and to discuss United States geography in general.

The Coping Skills poster has a number of tips that you'll cover during one of the Coping Skills activities. You should encourage the teacher or staff member to hang this poster up in the classroom or activity room to reinforce these concepts and to help remind students of the tools they learned and have to cope with stressful situations.

This complete envelope contains a number of important tools and resources for the teacher, counselor, or staff member in charge of your audience. Designed mostly for teachers, but in a way that can be used by others too, it both explains and enhances the 60 minute presentation. In the envelope, teachers will receive their own set of the 3 posters you use, their own copy of the My Preparedness Workbook, an Education Standards report showing how the program connects to Common Core standards, 3 additional lesson plans that they can implement during the school year, and templates for student thank you notes back to the chapter.

23

All materials for The Pillowcase Project can be found on the program website shown here. As you can see, there are four categories of materials available. You should explore each category at length so you are familiar with all available resources for the program. However, you should pay special attention to materials for Presenters and for Sites.

The materials we discuss throughout this training can all be downloaded and printed from the Presenters section. Youll need to print a Presenters Guide, the page for your local hazard, the associated quiz for students, and, most likely, the longer hazard supplement to review all the key facts and activity descriptions. Your chapter may have already printed these materials for you, so be sure to ask before you do so.

You can visit this site and download additional materials from it at any time. Your program manager will also have access to this site and will be using a variety of other resources on here to reach out to sites and implement the program. Furthermore, the teachers site is explained in their package and can be used to download additional lesson plans and give feedback about the program.

From this slide, you can click on any part of the website and it will open a new window in your browser. We suggest doing so now, so you can bookmark the website to return to later.24The PresentationNow, lets jump into the Pillowcase Project presentation itself!

First, we will discuss the order in which the presentation flows and identify each individual component.

Then, you will learn about the presentation step by step!25Presentation Sequence

Though the presentation is flexible in several areas, there is a specific sequence of presentation components that works best for students. As you become more comfortable with the presentation, you may find that moving pieces around works better, which is fine. However, you should begin and practice with the sequence discussed today.

After the sequence is briefly discussed here, you will learn more about each section next in this training.

If you have it accessible, looking through your Presenter's Guide while taking this portion of the training may be helpful.

The first step is of course to introduce yourself and any accompanying presenters or guests to the students.

Next, youll briefly talk to them about the American Red Cross, what we do, and what you specifically do as a volunteer. Youll also review some home fire safety tips in this section. Well talk more about why and how later in this training.

Then, youll introduce what todays presentation will be about. You should start by telling the history of the Pillowcase Project, and then briefly explain what exactly youll learn and talk about during the program.

Before beginning with the first content, youll explain the framework of the presentation. This is the Learn, Practice, Share structure youve seen and read about. Because it is a new phrase for students and will continue to be important throughout the presentation, clearly explaining it as a framework at the beginning is key.

Once the framework is clear, you can start teaching the core content! The first lesson will be about the local hazard that you or your program manager selected from the ten available hazards. You should use the Hazard Map poster provided to focus students attention on your geographic location and show how geography can be tied to an important hazard.

Using the framework we discussed, youll start by helping students learn about the hazard. You can use the hazard page of your guide to reference mandatory and optional facts about the causes, characteristics, and outcomes of these hazards.

Next, you will get students out of their seats to practice the protective action associated with the hazard! There will be several activity options in your hazard resources to use that vary in complexity, time, and physical movement.

Following with the framework, youll lead students through a sharing activity next that will introduce them to the concept of Coping Skills.

As youll learn later in the training, you will pick one of the two available Coping Skills to teach. First and foremost, youll need to explain to the students what a coping skill is and why it might be useful to them as a tool.

Then, you will lead them through the Coping Skill itself. Both Coping Skills are interactive and extremely dependent on practice and exercising the entire skill. As youll see, though, Breathing with Color requires more fine tuned practice whereas the Symbol of Strength skill is more of a flexible discussion.

After youve practiced the skill and answered any questions, youll briefly discuss with students how they can share this skill. Youll remind students that sharing can be about showing their skill or teaching it to someone and guide them towards the available tools in their workbooks to help with the Coping Skills.

After the Coping Skills section, youll switch topics to general preparedness. This section will cover things like family communications and evacuation planning, emergency contact cards, and emergency supplies kits. Youll wrap up this section by demonstrating and walking students through your own Pillowcase kit!

To wrap-up the presentation, students will first complete a short quiz.

Once they finish the quiz, you will hand out their certificates and lead them in the Pillowcase Pledge.

Finally, youll hand out their pillowcases and give them time to decorate them and chat while you clean-up, talk to the teacher or staff member, and say goodbye.26Presentation Sequence Review

27The Pillowcase Project

Hi, my name is Ms. Daniels!

I am a volunteer with the American Red Cross and I am excited to be here with you today for The Pillowcase Project!Now, lets go through the entire presentation piece by piece.

Once you and your fellow presenters are ready to begin, make sure youre energetic, excited, and clear about the presentation and material! Students will respond positively to your enthusiasm with enthusiasm of their own.

First, youll introduce yourself and your co-presenters or helpers. In most cases, you should introduce yourselves as Mr., Ms., or Mrs. So-and-so so students associate you with a teacher or counselor who also likely goes by this title.

Remember to introduce the name of todays presentation The Pillowcase Project and the American Red Cross right at the beginning along with your names so the context of the presentation is immediately clear to students. 28The Pillowcase Project

Have you heard about the American Red Cross before?From there, youll briefly talk with the students about the Red Cross and, as youll see, about home fire safety. 29The Pillowcase Project

Great!

So can someone raise their hand and tell me something the Red Cross does?Most students will have heard about the Red Cross before. Ask a few for suggestions of things the Red Cross does. Make sure to correct any wrong answers, but accept all correct answers as great ones remember, the Red Cross does many things, even if your local chapter does not.

If you or another Red Cross volunteer has been to this school or worked with these students before, feel free to adjust the introduction to personalize it to them. Remind them of a recent presentation or activity they did with you or with the Red Cross and explain that today is going to be another fun, interesting day!30The Pillowcase Project

Yes, we do all those things! There is a Red Cross responsible for every community in the United States and we help people donate blood, teach people how to swim and do CPR, respond to emergencies, and teach classes like I am today!Recap a few of the students suggestions about the Red Cross and explain how widespread and large the organization is. We want students to know that their family members or friends in other states or even countries also have access to the Red Cross and that they are part of a larger program by receiving this presentation.31The Pillowcase Project

I noticed you also mentioned that sometimes we help people after a fire. That is a wonderful answer.

The Red Cross actually responds to more home fires than any other emergency. We help people find a place to stay and continue going to work or school even if they had a fire.Here is where you will briefly cover home fire safety. During the pilot in 2013, we included a large home fire safety section in the core presentation. We found, however, that this confused students and took up a lot of valuable time. Furthermore, we learned that most students at this age have learned most fire safety messages through school fire safety drills and presentations and that it was therefore not the best use of time. But, since home fires are extremely prevalent and dangerous, we did not remove it entirely from the presentation.

Therefore, you will work the basic home fire safety tips into the introduction part of the presentation. As you see here, home fires are easily relatable to the Red Cross and the local chapter because of the frequency with which Red Cross staff and volunteers handle and respond to these types of emergencies.

32The Pillowcase Project

So, even though the main focus of our time together today is going to be about a different emergency hurricanes I want to spend a few moments talking about Home Fire Safety. We like to talk about Home Fire Safety whenever we can because it is very important to us that you know how you can help prevent a home fire, and what you should do in case one happens.So here you can easily explain to students that because your local Red Cross chapter spends so much time on home fires, its important to cover home fire safety in every presentation about preparedness we give. You should position this section as something that is important but not part of the core Pillowcase presentation. The reason for the nuanced differentiation here is that students are easily confused about what to do with their new pillowcases in the event of a home fire if we discuss home fires in too close connection with the pillowcase kits. So, instead, we need to clearly explain home fires as a different type of emergency than the local hazard youll discuss today hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, etcetera.

One thing to note is that Home Fires are offered as a local hazard supplement. As we briefly touched upon already, youll choose one local hazard to present. In most cases, your local hazard will be a natural disaster that threatens your community. However, we understand that in certain places home fires are in fact the most prominent and dangerous hazard. So, if your chapter asks you to present the Home Fire hazard, you should review the information and activities provided there and adjust this introduction accordingly. Obviously, you wont need to talk about home fires as a separate incident within the introduction if you will later cover Home Fires exclusively.

33Hilary: Fire SectionHere is a brief video of the introduction, including home fire safety tips.34Home Fire Safety Adults should test smoke alarms once a month Use My Preparedness Workbook to plan a family evacuation plan and schedule a time to practice it You should crawl in a fire because smoke rises Always test doors for heat before opening it If possible, identify 2 exits out of each room in your home and practice leaving from these during your family evacuation practiceAs you saw, for the purposes of the brief home fire introduction there are a few key facts you should focus on covering. The best way to cover these is likely to ask a question of the group and have a volunteer provide the correct answer. For example, does anyone know how often smoke alarms should be tested? Correct a wrong answer that is given but you should not spend time asking multiple students to answer the question until the right answer is said. Rather, this should be a brief review of facts.

On the quiz that students will take at the end of the program will ask them a question about how often smoke alarms should be tested. It will also ask them to circle all the things they should do in case of a fire. So it is important to cover smoke alarm testing, crawling under smoke, testing doors before opening them, and finding 2 exits out of each room while creating and practicing a Family evacuation plan.

If youve already handed out the My Preparedness Workbooks, you can ask the students to turn to the relevant Home Fire pages at the beginning and show them which tools are provided for their use in preparing for and preventing home fires. It is important to tell and frequently remind students that these workbooks are not to be completed during your presentation. Instead, you are showing them pages they should complete later with adults at home or by themselves.

This introduction section should not take longer than 5 minutes. There are many other important topics you have to present next!35The Pillowcase Project

Great, thank you for reviewing Home Fire Safety with me!

Now let me tell you more about what were going to talk about today: The Pillowcase Project.

Once youve reviewed the necessary Home Fire facts, you should bridge into the Pillowcase Project. 36The Pillowcase Project

We are going to learn about hurricanes and what you and your family and friends can do to prepare and handle an earthquake if it ever happens here. At the end, youll get your very own Disney Pillowcase to decorate and keep with all your supplies!To introduce todays presentation, give the students a brief run through of how it will go so they have an idea of what will happen after each piece. Remember to keep the energy up!37The Pillowcase Project

So what is the Pillowcase Project?

Let me tell you a story about how it all started..

First, youll begin by telling the story of the Pillowcase Projects origins. The important parts of the story for the presentation is to relate it to students. So remember to talk about how students like them were the inspiration and that this program has been taught to thousands of students across the country. Be excited and make students feel special to be a part of it.38History of the Pillowcase Project

39Learn, Practice, Share!

The entire curriculum is set up within a Learn, Practice, Share framework. Using these three buckets, we can separate the different aspects of preparing in a youth-friendly way. Every section has the Learn, Practice, Share framework and it is important to continuously emphasize the structure. The structure will help students remember what theyve learned, and follow along once they realize that the steps repeat and are sequential.

Students will first learn facts or concepts about each section.The learn section will vary in length depending on the topic. For example, there is a variety of facts you should cover in the local hazard section. The Coping Skills section, however, relies more heavily on practice than on learn.

By leading students through a practice activity, they will learn more about the topic through experiential learning. These sections are also great ways to break the presentation up with interactive pieces to keep students engaged and from being antsy. Be sure to read carefully through the practice activities available for each section prior to your first presentation. If your chapter has a different activity that accomplishes the same objective for a certain section, feel free to substitute it where appropriate.

Sharing, the last piece, is related to encouraging students to talk about emergencies and preparedness with others. The sharing sections are important both because they will encourage students to continue carrying these messages on, but also because they encourage students to be mindful and open about their own thoughts and feelings, which is an important piece of resiliency.

40Learn, Practice, Share

Who here plays a sport or an instrument?

When you started, did someone first teach you a skill so you could learn your sport or instrument?Relate the steps learn, practice, and share to students lives. Use examples of instruments, sports, or any other skill that requires practice. 41Learn, Practice, Share

Right! Thats an important first step for any new skill.

Then, you practiced your sport or instrument a lot so you could learn it better and get better at it, right?Remember to provide a variety of examples. If not an instrument and a sport, two other activities or skills that can appeal to as many of the students present as possible. For example, talking only about an instrument may alienate the majority of students in the classroom if they do not play an instrument. 42Learn, Practice, Share

Practice does make perfect, thats for sure.

So once you got pretty good at your instrument or sport, did you ever share it with someone? You probably had a family member or friend come watch you play in a game or at a rehearsal? Maybe you even taught a friend or a younger sibling how to shoot a basketball or play drums? The sharing portion of Learn, Practice, Share is the least tangible and therefore the most difficult piece for students to grasp. For our purposes, sharing can mean many things. It is not only important for students to share their knowledge with others, but it is also important for them to share skills, like knowing how to drop, cover, and hold on, or, later, teaching someone how to use Breathing with Color. Try to use real-life examples to show these different meanings of share so it makes more sense later in the presentation.43Learn, Practice, Share

Good for you!

So learning about preparing for and handling emergencies is kind of the same. Today, were going to learn, practice, and then talk about how to share what we learned and practiced so you can help prepare other people too! Sound good?Now, relate learn, practice, share back to today and to emergency preparedness. Be sure to use language that empowers students without placing large amounts of responsibility on them. For instance, learning today will help students share information to help people prepare. After today, students will not be able to keep their families safe from emergencies or single-handedly prepare their households. This fine line is important to practice and keep in mind when communicating these types of messages with young students. 44Hilary: Learn, Practice, ShareHere is a brief example of the Learn, Practice, Share portion of the presentation.45

How does an earthquake happen?Santa Ana, CAFollowing your Learn, Practice, Share explanation, youll begin teaching students about your selected local hazard.

Before your presentation, your chapter will tell you which additional hazard supplements youll be teaching. These are designed to fit into the 15 minute slot between coping skills and family preparedness and the hazard selected should be relevant to your location. If you are given a longer time slot by your site, your chapter should consider choosing two hazard supplements to maximize the value of your presentation.

The hazard we are discussing as an example during this training is earthquakes.

46

As you can see via the Program Website, your options are Earthquakes, Floods, Home Fires, Hurricanes, Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, Tsunamis, Wildfires, Winter Storms, and Volcanoes47The Pillowcase Project

So today, as I mentioned before, we are going to learn about earthquakes.

As you can see on this map, California is at risk for earthquakes. Youve probably even heard about them on the news, right?

As part of your package, you will have a hazard map to put up and leave behind in the classroom which mirrors a map found in the students workbook. You should use this map, per the directions, to orient students to what a local hazard may mean.

Work with your chapter staff during training to learn ways to communicate that different hazards happen in different places without scaring students into thinking hazards happen all the time everywhere (the map may be difficult for some to see the difference without explanation).

The map should be used mainly to bridge the big picture lessons of fire preparedness and the Red Cross to a local community focus We live in Miami and therefore are most concerned about hurricanes, so today well learn about hurricanes and some things you can do to protect yourselves in case one happens.

48

As you can see, the hazard map is a generalization of hazards in each state in order to make it clear for students of this age.

Be sure to clarify with them the block at the bottom that home fires, floods, and winter storms can happen just about anywhere and that some of the other hazards can cross borders that arent pictured. But, emphasize that the hazard you are discussing today is one of the most important for your area. Also tell students that this map is in their My Preparedness Workbook and they can learn about the other 9 hazards in their workbook at home or later in class as well. Remind students that while you live in your state, they may have friends or family who live in a different state, or may later in their lives move to a different state. So learning about the geography of hazards through the map and workbook is important.49

Remember, each hazard guide will list several learning objectives and key facts before diving into the script to lead you through teaching students about earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, etc.

50

Therefore, it is important that you are familiar with the mandatory facts as listed on your Guide. Additional optional facts and information are given in case you have extra time or have particularly knowledgeable students who get through the mandatory section quickly.

52

The information given on these supplements has been written with the most up-to-date hazard preparedness information from agencies and specialists at FEMA, NOAA, and the USGS in addition to the Red Cross. Some of the information may be newer or different from the last time you presented on the hazard or learned about it. For example, the Red Cross and other practitioners no longer advise that people get in ditches if caught outside during a tornado. Similarly, we never tell people to stand under a doorway in an earthquake. The supplements are also written to cover age-appropriate information for these students. So, it is vital that you review the information given in this curriculum before presenting, rather than drawing primarily from memory or previous experiences.

53

In addition to the brief guide you should use during the presentation, longer Hazard Supplements are available online which contain suggested scripted sections of the hazard supplements, additional facts, and resources. You should review these as well to familiarize yourself with more information about your selected hazard and for creative suggestions to teach the hazard.

54

Home Fire Crawling RacePhoenix, AZ If youve already been trained to present on emergency preparedness, you probably know a lot about protective actions! But even if you havent, you probably already know things like what to do during a tornado or earthquake to protect yourself or your family from the disaster. We call these action steps protective actions, and there are specific ones for each natural hazard offered in this program. Teaching students protective actions is vital to the learning objectives we discussed earlier. Protective actions will primarily be taught during the practice activities during each hazard section.

55

On your Presenter Guide, one or more Practice Activities are listed. These activities are designed to teach students a valuable protective action related to the hazard youve chosen to teach. Some of these activities are simple and straightforward, and some are longer and more time-consuming.

56

In that hazards Resource, Each activity is described with great detail and discusses materials needed and steps to take to lead the activity. You should review these activities and be comfortable leading them with students. If your chapter has different activities that engage students in learning the appropriate protective action, feel free to swap this activity for one you know. It is simply vital that you cover the protective action!

57

Home Fire Sharing ActivityOrange County, CAThe other important and innovative piece of the new Pillowcase Project curriculum is the Coping Skills section. This section, which ties directly to the Sharing bucket we discussed earlier, includes two activities for you to lead students through. Both activities teach students valuable skills they can use to handle the emotions associated with emergencies and other stressful situations, even things as simple as being nervous for a test. You have the option of choosing which Coping Skills activity you teach, and will be trained on both later in this training.

The sharing activity is structured as a story about 2 fictional characters, one of whom fears the relevant emergency and the other of whom knows what to do to prepare for the emergency. Students are asked to brainstorm what they could tell the fearful character. The activities can be done either as the large classroom, with students raising their hands to suggest answers, or in small table groups or partners. This decision is yours and should be based on if you think the classroom can handle autonomous discussion in small groups or not. Typically, older students in 4th or 5th grade will likely do better with small group or partner activities, whereas younger students in 3rd grade may need the structure of the classroom to be productive.

58

Per the instructions in the Presenters Guide, you should accept as many logical answers as are given since there are many right answers to this question. Recall the activity earlier in this training about redirecting students if they go off topic or share an emotional or negative story. This scenario is most likely to occur during the Sharing Activity section of this presentation.

Dont forget to touch base with the counselor or teacher to identify any student who may have an emotional response to the hazard discussion, and remind the teacher or counselor that its important they remain in the room especially for this reason!

The Sharing Activity will serve as the first introduction to the next section, the Coping Skill.

59Hilary: Sharing ActivityHere you can see an example of the earthquake Sharing Activity in action.60Coping Skills

So we just talked my friend, Bob, and you suggested some great things that I could tell him to help him through his frustration about the earthquake messing up his belongings.

At the end of the last section, talking about your local hazard, you talked with the students about two friends helping each other remember coping skills to use when they are afraid or upset. In the Coping Skills section, you will build upon those blocks to teach the students some simple but valuable coping skills that can be used before, during, and after an emergency as well as during an everyday stressful event. When discussing this section, be sure to talk about thoughts and feelings rather than just feelings.

61Coping Skills

Now, lets talk specifically about Coping Skills. Coping Skills is just a big term we use that includes things you just mentioned, like breathing deeply or knowing what to do in an emergency.

It is important here to define Coping Skills in a way that makes sense to students. There is a poster that you can reference during the presentation and that you will leave behind with the teacher or counselor to hopefully be hung in the room. This poster is titled Coping Skills, so relating what youll talk about next to the poster is important.

Be careful throughout this section to use language that makes it okay for students to be scared, upset, angry or feel other emotions. These skills will not help them not feel these things. Rather, they will help them handle or manage those feelings and emotions. It is healthy and normal to feel scared during an emergency and we do not intend to make them not feel that way. We simply want to help them face those feelings.

62Coping Skills

The Coping Skills Poster summarizes some of the stressful thoughts and feelings that can come up for children before, during, and after an emergency, and lists some of the coping skills they can use to manage or reduce this stress and build up resilience.

Youll cover these points extensively during the presentation but you should use this poster to visually reference what youre discussing as much as possible so the students recognize it long after the presentation. The poster is meant to serve as a reminder in the classroom (or other setting) that even during more day-to-day stressful events, the same coping skills can come in handy and can help students feel better.

63Coping Skills

Today, were going to learn one specific Coping Skill that may be new for everybody.

Youll be able to use this skill any time you are scared or stressed out. Later, you can even teach it to your friends , siblings, and family to help them too!

You will choose one of the two Coping Skills to teach during your presentation. While both are valuable to students, a typical 45 minute or one hour presentation is not enough time to cover both in a meaningful way.

Remember to reiterate that this is a skill they can and should practice and share by teaching to or demonstrating for others! 64Coping SkillsBreathing with Color: This activity leads students through a 5 minute deep breathing exercise. Colors are used as a way for younger students to visualize good air coming in, and bad air going out. This activity takes a lot of practice to be comfortable with and calm enough during leading to make it successful. Symbol of Strength: This activity teaches students about intangible inner strength and guides them in identifying, picturing, remembering, and using their inner strength. This item, person, memory, or idea can be brought to mind and used to help them feel better in times of fear or stress.You may also not need to or want to do the same coping skills activity for every presentation you give. You should make sure to discuss this with your Program Manager, but if possible, should learn and become comfortable with both activities so that you can alternate between them when necessary or applicable with different audiences.

Therefore, the next few sections will train you on both these activities.65

Breathing with ColorPhoenix, AZThe Breathing with Color activity is a simple way to teach younger students about deep breathing, a key skill used by all ages to handle stress, fear, and anxiety. By adding colors to the process, students can better visualize and focus on deep breathing.

66

Directions for Breathing with Color are on page 3 of your Presenters Guide.

Watch the following video that exemplifies how Breathing with Color could be taught to a group of third, fourth, or fifth graders. Though there are specific directions associated with this activity, there is some degree of flexibility and creativity that can make the activity your own once you are comfortable. For example, you can change the colors with which you breathe in and out or ask students to choose their own. As you practice this activity more, it will start to sound more natural and conversational rather than like a rigid script, so practice is key!

6768

The second Coping Skill is called Symbol of Strength. This skill differs from Breathing with Color in that it is not as much a physical skill that requires time. Rather, it is a visualization exercise that replicates, for much younger students, a feeling of confidence and centering that adults experience when focusing, meditating, or similarly visualizing key concepts.

By asking students to think about tangible concepts or objects that make them feel confidence or strong, you can instill in them the sense that they always have the ability to make themselves feel strong, especially in tough situations.

Directions for leading Symbol of Strength are on page 4 of your Presenters Guide.

Watch this video to see one example of how this can be taught.6970Coping Skills

Remember Speak slowly and clearly. Relate ambiguous concepts, like coping or strength, to real, concrete experiences or objects that students can relate to. Acknowledge any ideas, stories, or thoughts that students offer but redirect them to the activity at hand if they are concerning or off-topic. Use the classroom quiet signal students are familiar with to regain composure and attention.You should now pause this presentation and take some time to practice the two previous activities we discussed, Breathing with Color and Symbol of Strength. Though the presentation asks you to lead students in only one of these, you should be familiar and comfortable with both as you will likely lead both at some point during your presenter career.

You can use the back buttons to watch the videos about each activity again. If you have video or voice recording capabilities on your computer or cell phone, record yourself practicing the activity so you can review your performance. Later, practice again with family or friends even adults can use these tips! Ask your practice audience to give feedback. You should eventually become comfortable enough with these activities that you can lead students in them without using your Presenters Guide for reference.

While you practice these activities, remember to speak slowly and clearly.

When leading these activities, and the rest of the Pillowcase presentation in the classroom, remember to Relate ambiguous concepts, like coping or strength, to real, concrete experiences or objects that students can relate to. Acknowledge any ideas, stories, or thoughts that students offer but redirect them to the activity at hand if they are concerning or off-topic. And use the classroom quiet signal students are familiar with to regain composure and attention.

71

Gabrielle YarraSan Francisco, CAAfter you wrap up the Coping Skills section, youll guide students towards general preparedness and emergency planning. A good bridge is usually to explain that there are other steps students can take to be ready for an emergency, and to handle one if one happens.

The focus for this section will be on the students ability and responsibility to prepare themselves for an emergency. There is only a secondary focus on family preparedness. Though we at the Red Cross would like every student to return home and prepare their families, the assumption that students have a family to go home to and that the family is willing to listen and take action is unrealistic. To avoid placing any unnecessary burden on the student to be responsible for the family or in charge of bringing messages home, we have worked hard to shift the tone of this section to address the students capacities and available actions.

In practicing and giving the presentation, you should be weary of placing too much responsibility on the student for anything other than themselves. You should also keep in mind that even the word family may be limiting to some students and we should balance terms like household members or those important to you with the term family.

72Workbook Pages

To address this balance and focus, the section starts by simply bringing the students attention to pages in the My Preparedness Workbook that are designed specifically for preparedness planning, preferably with their family or household members but also possible to complete without that network.

As we walk through this section, you should follow along in your copy of the My Preparedness Workbook if you have received it from your program manager already.

The first page that students are directed to is the Emergency Communications Plan on page 8. You should focus on explaining why it is important to stay in contact with someone whether it is a parent, grandparent, teacher, or other adult during an emergency or in preparation for an emergency. Having an in-state and out of state contact is important so that regardless of what happens, someone knows where you are. Working on a plan will make you feel better if you need to use it because youll already have the plan ready!

Similarly, the Emergency Contact cards on pages 11-12 should be carried with the student at all times. Let the students know that more than one are provided so they can cut them out and give them to their family members or friends to make sure those important to them are also prepared. Also make sure to tell them that anyone can make a card, even if they dont have enough in their book, by simply writing the information on the card on a piece of paper and carrying it in their wallet, backpack, or other container.

After discussing emergency communications planning and contact cards, you will shift to discuss supplies kits. For the purposes of this age group, please refer to the kits as emergency supplies kits, rather than disaster supplies kits. The term emergency was chosen to use universally throughout the presentation for a number of reasons, including the fact that the term disaster implies an event that is often far more drastic than what they should be prepared for.

Briefly direct students attention to page 11 of their workbooks where a checklist for items their families or households should put in an emergency supplies kit. Explain to students that each house should have one and that most of these items can be found around the house or bought for very little money at the grocery store. Focus on food, water, medicine, and a flashlight but elaborate upon additional items if you have time. Be careful to be sensitive to students of low-income backgrounds when discussing items that require purchase (like a radio).

73

Dr. Sonia BhatiaOrlando, FLHaving a few examples of items that students could put in their own kits gives them a good idea for where to start when they get home. You should have a decorated and stuffed pillowcase kit ready and with you to demonstrate to students as you walk through some of the items they may want to put in their own kits.

Be conscious to show items that are cost sensitive, easy to carry and be sure to let students know that there are many other great examples of what to put in a kit and they can use page 11 to help them create their own.

74

Youll notice that a special item is listed as an item to include in the personal Emergency Supplies Kit, both on the pillowcase and in many red Cross checklists. Some lists describe this as being a stuffed animal or family photo, and some are more general. Consider including a special item of some sort in your kit to showcase to students.

Common areas for questions include asking, what is the Special Item?, so showing yours and providing an explanation would be helpful to the group as they think about what they want to include. Explain to them that a special item can be helpful if they have to evacuate or dont have access to the rest of their things because it can help them stay comfortable. Here is an example of how one presenter explained his.

7576

After you demonstrate your pillowcase, there are only a few steps remaining until students get their own pillowcases to decorate and finish the program!

The first of these steps is to have students complete a quiz. This is a brief assessment to gauge what they learned during the presentation. Data from these quizzes is very important to local chapter reporting, National Headquarters records, and for reports back to our donors.

77

Student QuizPhoenix, AZYou should emphasize to students that while this is not a graded quiz and they do not have to put their names on it, it is important to answer honestly and to the best of their ability. During the pilot, presenters found that the quiz was most successful when each question was read out loud and the presenter clarified instructions like circle all that apply to the entire class. While the quiz is at an appropriate reading level for your students, they may have trouble reading and comprehending the quiz and answers quickly enough for you to wrap up the presentation, so reading the questions aloud will help. The quiz should only take five or so minutes and should be collected immediately after all students are finished.78Student Quiz

Lets see how you do on the student quiz for earthquakes!79

Congratulations! Youve completed the quiz.

When students complete their post-quiz, they should return it to you and, in exchange, receive their own personal pillowcase, a few Crayola markers, and a Certificate.

The Certificate will remind them that they participated in the lesson and learned about how to be prepare; encourage students to show their certificates to their parents and hang them somewhere in their house. The certificate will be a natural opening for family members to ask what they learned in school today and give students an opportunity to share valuable preparedness information with their families.

You or your chapter contact person should sign the certificates prior to your presentation so they can be handed out quickly. You can write the name of each student as they complete their quiz, or have the students write their own names once they receive it making it more of a Signed Pledge. Another option may be asking teachers or counselors to fill out the names of students while you give the presentation so they are ready at the end.

You should also leave extra certificates with teachers at the end of the presentation so they can distribute them and the other materials to any students who missed the lesson we dont want to leave anyone out!

80

After handing out the certificates, you should lead students in the pledge written on the certificate, to reinforce the presentations lessons and the students ability to impact preparedness in their homes and communities. You may also want to lead the presentation off with the pledge, before handing out certificates or moving into any of the curriculum, to set students on the right track. Many presenters start and end the presentation with the pledge, which engages students from the beginning and once they are losing focus at the end, and provides a nice closing of the session.81

Once students have completed their quizzes and received their certificates, it is time to finally hand out the pillowcases and markers!

This will by far be the most exciting part of the presentation for students, who love creative activities and receiving things of their own. Try to maintain relative calm in the classroom or activity space while handing materials out but let students be excited about this culmination project.

Remind students that, like you decorated your pillowcase, they should customize their pillowcases with things special to them. Important things to include may be their name, address, and phone number and the phone number of any important adults like parents, grandparents, or others.

Remind them that they may want to include something about their Coping Skill on the pillowcase as well if you taught Symbol of Strength, suggest that they draw their symbol or make their pillowcase into a cape or shield of strength. If you taught Breathing with Color, suggest that they write directions to remind themselves of how to breathe deeply, or simply to draw with or write the good color they chose to use.

Students should be able to decorate their pillowcases for the remainder of your presentation time, including while you clean up the remaining materials and thank the teacher. If you have enough time or enough helpers, walk around and chat with students about their pillowcases and how they felt about the presentation. 82Teacher, Counselor, or Staff Engagement & ResourcesEngaging the staff person, whether a teacher, counselor, or troop leader, in your presentation is also important. During the presentation, try to ask the adult present to help with passing materials out or collecting things like quizzes. The more engaged they are in your presentation, the more likely they are to continue using the resources afterwards. Plus, having the teacher present and engaged will help you maintain control of the classroom.

83

Before leaving, remember to thank the teacher or staff person whose class or group you presented to! Also remember to give them the educator package and explain to them what is inside.

Youll see the front of this package is a letter explaining to the teacher, counselor, or staff person what the package is, reminding them of your presentation, and encouraging them to explore the materials. You should try to hand this package out to the staff person in your presentation at the beginning, but if you cant, leave it at the end.

84

Inside, they will find their own copy of the student workbook so they can assign pages as homework or classwork or simply learn more about the program. There are also 3 additional lesson plans that meet different education standards that teachers can use to continue teaching students about preparedness while meeting science and math goals. To further explain how the presentation, workbook, and lesson plans meet standards, there is also an Education Standards Report within this envelope. The Report matches different pieces of the curriculum with grade-specific Common Core Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. This report is also available online and can be used to enhance outreach to potential sites or given out to additional staff people or parents at the presentation itself. Lastly, within the educator package, is a copy of 3 posters: the Pillowcase Project Poster, Coping Skills Poster, and Mapping Emergencies Poster.

85

Another tool you should leave with the teacher or site staff is the Student Thank You. This can be downloaded from the materials website we went through earlier within the Presenter section.

It is a simple template that echoes the design of the pillowcase and gives students a place to thank the Red Cross and Disney. Teachers or program staff like having this tool as a filler activity during their day or program and often return the notes to the Red Cross volunteers. These Thank Yous are very exciting for our donor! You should copy enough for the number of students in your presentation ahead of time and leave them with the teacher afterward.

86Presentation Knowledge Check!You have now seen how the Pillowcase Project presentation will work from beginning to end.

Before briefly talking about what to do after your presentation, lets take another quiz to ensure youre comfortable with the presentation sequence.87Presentation Sequence Review

88Toolbox ReviewBefore we discussed the curriculum, we took some time to go through the various tools you have either from your Program Manager or that you can download off our website.

While learning about each part of the curriculum, we discussed when you should use each of these materials. Some of these were for you, some for your students, and some for the staff member.

Lets review briefly the materials youll need to bring with you to the presentation, those youll leave behind with the class, and those you will use before your presentation on your own. There are a lot of pieces here, so you can review this section as many times as you need. You should also spend some time navigating the materials website to become more familiar with the tools.89Toolbox Review

90Completion Quiz

To complete this training, please take the following quiz.

You will have 3 attempts to pass the quiz. Before starting the quiz, you are welcome to return to any part of the training and review sections as needed.

Once youve passed the quiz, you will be given a confirmation code to report back to your chapter contact. The code will verify for them that you completed this training and are ready for the next step of becoming a Pillowcase Project presenter!91

Congratulations!Completion Code: Congratulations! Youve completed the Pillowcase Project Presenter Training.

Write down this code to return to your Red Cross contact or manager to verify your completion of this training.

Thank you again for volunteering to become a presenter for this program. The Red Cross greatly appreciates your service and commitment to disaster preparedness!92