UP teachers collaborate on wellness concerns at Harris conference

HARRIS, Mich. (WLUC) – Educators are working to tackle some of the tough issues teachers face in the classroom.

Teacher burnout and student mental health aren’t straight forward problems. That’s why teachers from across the U.P. met Thursday to collaborate on real solutions. The conference at the Island Resort and Casino will continue for a half-day Friday.

The Uplift ’25: Elevating Education with Well-Being conference brought together educators from all seven intermediate school districts in the U.P. The event is described as the culmination of the five-year mental health supporting grant Project Aware from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Project Aware Manager Dayna Browning says the idea was to allow for collaboration among educators.

“To connect with each other, to get ignited about this and actually experience some of the things that they might be teaching or leading or supporting students with themselves in the classroom,” Browning said.

Copper Country Intermediate School District Public Engagement Specialist David Sim says the roughly 25 sessions that make up the conference are workshop style.

“When you can talk through those in a way, it becomes sort of therapeutic and beneficial,” Sim said. “I think that was sort of our intent, is to get away from being lectured at for an hour and a half and to make it more interactive and therapeutic.”

This allows for teachers to share what they’ve seen working in their own classrooms. Like Lemmer Elementary Second Grade Teacher CJ Barron, who says he makes an effort every day to accommodate his students.

“We try to have daily check-ins with our students,” Barron said. “Just try to see if anything happened at home, how can we better support them.”

He has them circle an emotional state with a dry erase marker each morning to understand where they’re at.

“Because they’re trying to tell you something,” Barron said. “They may not be able to articulate it very well, so having them circle a little emotion check-in is really helpful for the rest of the day.”

All seven U.P. intermediate school districts worked together to make this conference possible. Other funding sources include the Michigan Department of Education, MiFamily Engagement Center and Project Aware.

Next year’s conference is scheduled for Aug. 6-7.

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