Rate the Response: Deescalation PD Slides and Scenario Cards

Most scenario cards ask what the kid did. These ask what the adult did. Every card is a school moment plus the move one adult actually made, and your staff decides where it lands: missed it, let it ride, right sized, turned it up, or took the bait.

Who it is for: teachers, paras, and administrators at any grade level. It fits the first 10 minutes of a staff meeting, a PLC, or a para training.

Why I made this: I have trained teachers in crisis prevention and deescalation for 15 years. The thing I keep coming back to is that the adult is the secret to a calm room, and most of us lean one way under stress. We either underreact and let it ride, or overreact and turn it up. Talking about real adult moves, without naming anyone, is the fastest way I know to get a staff to see their own habits. Some of the adults on these cards got it right. Most of us will recognize ourselves in the ones who didn't.

What's included (a 45 slide deck plus a 6 page PDF):

• 45 slide deck (PowerPoint, 16:9) with speaker notes: each moment gets a question slide for the vote and a reveal slide with the right sized move

• 20 printable scenario cards, all new moments: art, music, the library, carpool, picture day, the science fair, field day, choir, a community outing, and more

• The five landings, with a quick finger vote so every adult in the room commits to an answer

• A facilitator answer guide for every card

• Two ways to run it: 10 minutes at the start of a staff meeting, or 30 minutes in a PLC or para training

• Steps to open the deck in Google Slides

How I use it: I put up the question slide, everyone votes with fingers from one to five, and we argue about it for two minutes before I click to the reveal. Three moments in ten minutes is plenty. Ground rule: talk about the move, not the person. Everybody in the room has made every one of these mistakes, me included. The deck is plain on purpose, with big text and one moment per slide, so you can run it from a laptop with no prep.

What you download: one zip with a 6 page printable PDF (US Letter) and the 45 slide PowerPoint deck with speaker notes, which also opens in Google Slides.

Scope: this is everyday calm support, not emergency or restraint protocol training. It does not replace your school's crisis plan. Follow your district's crisis procedures. All student names and stories are made up.

Made by Jeremy D. Gooch, special education teacher and transition coordinator. Drafting and layout had AI assistance; every page was checked by me.