Tagged With "Cherokee Point Elementary"
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In Our Connected World, What If Empathy Is Learning? (kqed.org)
Information is everywhere, making it impossible to package. Collaboration and networking underpin life, and constant communication is the norm, even for plants . Each time you check your smart phone you tap into a global brain. And when you finally put down the phone, you shake your head: So much going on . In fact, the tightening weave in the global network means that never has there been an era in human history in which so many people learn together. What will replace the old model? There...
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Schools to take on 'emotional learning' (sandiegouniontribune.com)
At Cherokee Point Elementary School, first-grade teacher Hagit Patolai roams her classroom to asses student progress on a “fact versus opinion” writing assignment. She crouches down to read over the shoulder of a boy, asking him to point to the words (beautiful and cool) that indicate his illustrated story about a rainbow is based on his opinions. Why are people’s opinions important, she asks. It’s a question that gets at more than the lesson at hand. Patolai keeps detailed records on the...
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Schools to take on 'emotional learning' [SanDiegoUnionTribune.com]
t Cherokee Point Elementary School, first-grade teacher Hagit Patolai roams her classroom to asses student progress on a “fact versus opinion” writing assignment. She crouches down to read over the shoulder of a boy, asking him to point to the words (beautiful and cool) that indicate his illustrated story about a rainbow is based on his opinions. Why are people’s opinions important, she asks. It’s a question that gets at more than the lesson at hand. Patolai keeps detailed records on the...
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Sesame Street Resources for Families Coping After Natural Disasters
In the aftermath of recent hurricanes and wildfires, the Sesame Street in Communities team wanted to reach out to provide information on our available resources to help families cope in the aftermath of natural disasters, and other traumatic experiences. Bilingual videos, articles, printables and more, are all available for free on our website at www.sesamestreetincommunities.org . Here are the links to a few topic pages that may be most useful to you as you work with families in the...
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Setting the Wheels in Motion - Becoming a Trauma Informed and Trauma Sensitive School
I recently wrote a blog post about how to take the first step in creating a trauma informed care model (TIC) in your school. The first step, Establishing a Baseline, is necessary because it fuels future steps in the process. In the blog post "Is Your School Ready to be Trauma Informed and Trauma Sensitive," I also listed the key components of a TIC model. I am adding them here as well, because I don't want you to have to keep going back to the other blog as you are working on this process.
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Shootings & Suicides Past the Tipping-Point: ACEs Epidemic & Declining Lifespans in US
Re: Building community by facing collective trauma with hope I am writing from Broward county, Florida, the school district in which the MSD school shooting occurred and that gave rise to the March for Our Lives Movement sparked by our students. Mankind has developed solutions to deal with self-perpetuating waves and EPIDEMICS of BEHAVIORALLY TRANSMITTED Neuro-Toxic Stress, CPTSD Trauma & ACEs that cause FIXED-MINDSET reactive black and white Scarcity-based thinking to increase and...
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Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study; Expert on ACEs Science
Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...
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Someone San Diego Should Know: Educator’s emphasis is learning students’ needs (sandiegouniontribune.com)
The increase in hate- and discrimination-motivated incidents in the United States has a major impact on children and their learning journey. These traumatic incidents are the leading factors in childhood trauma, because they pose a threat to the child’s life or bodily integrity. Childhood trauma is also identified as one of the barriers to high academic achievement and success for students. Yet, this issue has largely been ignored by our education system. Godwin Higa is trying to change...
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Sonoma County Trauma-Informed Teaching: Knowing our Students' Stories and Fostering Resilience
Sonoma County Office of Education published this bulletin that provides an overview of ACEs science, trauma in Sonoma County, trauma-informed teaching strategies, and building resilience for teachers and students. It's attached to this post, and also available for download in this group's resources for download section.
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Speaking Up Without Tearing Down (tolerance.org)
A veteran human rights ed ucator explains the value of teaching students to call each other in rather than out. Most teachers look for opportunities to build a human rights culture and to counter hatred, bigotry, fear-mongering and intolerance. One way to do this, when students make a mistake, is to call them in rather than calling them out . Doing so prepares them for civic engagement by encouraging a sense of hope and possibility. In conversations and debates about social justice issues,...
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Strategies To Foster A Sense Of Belonging In Your Classroom (kqed.org)
When students feel they belong at school they also feel respected and ready to learn. That's why teachers work so hard to create a class environment where every student feels able to contribute and be heard. "As human beings, one of the most essential needs we have is the need to belong," said Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond, President and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute in an Edutopia video series on the science of learning. "When that sense of belonging is there, children throw themselves...
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Students Fill A Gap In Mental Health Care For Immigrants (npr.org)
(Image Credit: Gary Waters/Ikon Images/Getty Images ) Patricia Becerril comes to Bethesda Health Center in Charlotte, N.C., every other week . Becerril initially came to this free clinic for diabetes treatment. Director Wendy Pascual says primary care is often the starting point for patients here, most of whom are immigrants. "One thing we have been seeing year after year is that many patients came here with physical problems that really are mental health problems," Pascual says. Meanwhile,...
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Students with influence over peers reduce school bullying by 30 percent [ScienceDaily.com]
Curbing school bullying has been a focal point for educators, administrators, policymakers and parents, but the answer may not lie within rules set by adults, according to new research led by Princeton University. Instead, the solution might actually be to have the students themselves, particularly those most connected to their peers, promote conflict resolution in school. A team of researchers from Princeton, Rutgers University and Yale University engaged groups of influential students in...
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The Brain and Troubled Children and Youth
Troubled kids are distinguished by their regrettable ability to elicit from others exactly the opposite of what they really need. ( L. Tobin ) Connecting with troubled students is not easy work. Many of these young people come into our classrooms and schools on a daily bases depressed, hostile, discouraged, unmotivated and angry. Underneath their sometimes outrageous and provocative behaviors these young people's lives come up way short on joy and long on despair and hopelessness. Their...
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The Evolution of a Trauma-Informed School
Two years after Edutopia filmed trauma-informed practices at a Nashville school, we check in with the principal to see what has changed. By Alex Shevrin Venet September 13, 2019 There is no arrival at a perfect implementation of trauma-informed practices, and no one knows this better than Mathew Portell, principal of Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville. Portell has been leading Fall-Hamilton’s journey with trauma-informed practices for the past several years, and Edutopia profiled one...
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Mental Health Staff in Public Schools, by School Racial and Ethnic Composition [nces.ed.gov]
This Data Point uses data from the 2015–16 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) School Questionnaire. NTPS is a nationally representative sample survey of public K–12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. This Data Point compares levels of mental health staffing in schools in which more than half of the students are racial or ethnic minorities and schools in which at least half of the students are White and non-Hispanic. [To read this report...
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Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience Curriculum
With teaching High School Health, I began using this curriculum in the fall semester 2017. Students are responding to this; asking for it! This engages students and speaks to them at their level. https://www.dibbleinstitute.org/mind-matters-more-details/ How about we front load all students with coping skills for trauma... before trauma hits? We know that everyone will feel the affects of trauma at some point in their life: a car wreak, a divorce, or possibly a death. Happy to answer any...
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MO House Resolution would shine spotlight on youth violence as epidemic [MissouriNet.com]
State lawmakers are considering a measure to declare youth violence as a public health epidemic. The House Resolution sponsored by Democrat Bruce Franks Jr. of St. Louis calls for the establishment of statewide trauma-informed education. Franks contends PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – is a condition that afflicts kids who’ve experienced violence. “The fact that I am 33 and I have been to now 155 funerals, an average of seven funerals since the age of six is not normal” said Franks.
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New Guidance on Trauma Screening in Schools
In partnership with the Defending Childhood State Policy Initiative and the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice, new guidance has been released on trauma screening in schools. Importantly, this document lays out a series of important considerations when determining whether trauma screening is indicated in each context, and how to go about collecting and utilizing the data generated from the process. Please feel free to share input.
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New Resource Guide for Child Sexual Abuse/Exploitation Prevention
Greetings, ACN Community! I wanted to share this fantastic new resource guide developed by one of the work groups from the Georgia Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force. This guide provides background on best practice, principles of prevention, identifying resources for the classroom, developing a prevention plan, age appropriate teaching suggestions, analysis of specific programs, and guidelines for implementation and evaluation. It is really quite thorough and is full of excellent ideas...
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New study pushes Pa. to embrace trauma-informed education (whyy.org)
Even as school districts across the country become more aware of how these traumas can affect learning, there’s been little concrete policy on the state or federal level for how schools should prepare. A new study from the nonprofit Research for Action highlights “promising models” nationwide and calls on state lawmakers to implement a comprehensive approach in Pennsylvania. The study recommends that schools provide professional development that reflects the complexity and sensitivity of...
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Not All Fun And Games: New Guidelines Urge Schools To Rethink Recess [NPR.org]
What's the best time for students to have recess? Before lunch, or after? What happens if it rains? If students are misbehaving, is it a good idea to punish them by making them sit out recess? Those are just a few of the issues addressed in new guidelines designed to help schools have good recess. The recommendations come from a group called SHAPE (Society of Health and Physical Educators) America and from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Recess might seem simple — just open...
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Number of Homeless Students Rises to New High, Report Says [nytimes.com]
By Mihir Zaveri, The New York Times, February 3, 2020 Some children lost a stable home when a parent succumbed to opioid addiction. Others were forced to stay in hotels after hurricanes or fires destroyed their homes. Still others fled abuse or neglect. More than 1.5 million public school students nationwide said they were homeless at some point during the 2017-18 school year, the most recent data available, according to a report from the National Center for Homeless Education released last...
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Be part of a breathtaking tipping point !
. Education Equity for trauma-impacted children: from failing funding to fair funding. Be part of the solution! Background A heartfelt tip of the hat to the Basic Education Funding Commission...
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Big data for social good: Tri-county initiative will benefit K-12 students (news.ucsc.edu)
As a professor of education, Rod Ogawa spent 30 years studying public schools, trying to figure out how to improve student performance. In retirement, Ogawa is getting high marks for a new approach. The answer lies in sharing information among educators and social service agencies, said Ogawa, now a research professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the higher-education leader of a major new data-sharing initiative called the Silicon Valley Regional Data Trust (SVRDT). The...
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Brain Development and Academic Achievement
"As much as 20% of the gap in test scores could be explained by maturational lags in the frontal and temporal lobes. ... The influence of poverty on children’s learning and achievement is mediated by structural brain development. To avoid...
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Can Love Close the Achievement Gap? [TheAtlantic.com]
Seat-belt use in the United States rose from 14 percent in 1985 to 84 percent in 2011 thanks, in large part, to a massive ad campaign promoting the practice. Even now, with “buckle up” warnings far less prominent, seat-belt use continues to rise . Ronald Ferguson wants to see a similar trend with the use of five evidence-based parenting principles dubbed the Boston Basics : maximize love, manage stress; talk, sing, and point; count, group, and compare; explore through movement and play; and...
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Can Yoga Turn Around East Palo Alto Schools’ Drop-Out Rate? [SanFrancisco.CBSLocal.com]
A school district in a low-income area of East Palo Alto [California] is hoping to lower dropout rates by launching a health and wellness program that includes yoga. The Ravenswood School District is launching the program in partnership with the Sonima Foundation. “What we’re going to do here in Ravenswood is we’re going to provide 3,400 children with a curriculum in health and wellness. The benefits are basically higher attendance, less bullying and violence, higher...
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‘Change in culture’: New California guidelines aim to help teach social, emotional skills [Press Democrat]
The nation’s schools long ago broadened their missions beyond the teaching of academic subjects and participation in extracurricular activities. Educators have for decades been entrusted to teach students a wider range of life skills, including those that touch on emotions, empathy and relationships with other people. Now, a new state guide , released Wednesday, offers a slew of resources for teachers and administrators seeking to bolster kids’ social and emotional development. “Science...
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Cherokee Point Youth Leaders Educate Community on Child Abuse Prevention
It’s not every day I get to bring an entire pizza party to 30 kids, but a few weeks ago, that’s exactly what I got to do. I went to visit the youth leaders at Cherokee Point Elementary School , San Diego’s first trauma-informed elementary school. We were celebrating a major accomplishment. A few months ago, I wrote about my visit to Cherokee Point to visit youth leaders and talk about Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) Month, which occurs every April. During my initial visit in March, youth...
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Cherokee Point Youth Leaders learn about Child Abuse Prevention month
Some days at work are better than others. Yesterday was one of the best days I've had in awhile! I had the chance to speak to a small group of youth leaders from Cherokee Point Elementary School on Wednesday. As a representative of the Chadwick Center for Children & Families, I came to talk with them about Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) month, which is coming up in April. We are collaborating with Cherokee Point in an effort to bring awareness to the community about CAP month, resilience,...
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Chicago schools chief asks Congress for more federal help to address childhood trauma (chalkbeat.org)
Chicago schools chief Janice Jackson traveled to Washington, D.C., Wednesday to deliver a testimony to a House committee about the district’s struggle against forces like poverty and gun violence that affect how students learn and behave in the classroom. The latest police statistics show Chicago crime is down compared with last year, including shootings and murders. But despite the trend, violence still wracks the lives of many Chicagoans, especially youth. Jackson made the point, as did...
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Child Trauma and the Challenge of Inclusive Education
Picture this. Its 10:00 am and you have had to evacuate students from your class. There are posters on the floor, several of them ripped up. Pens and markers thrown across the room. You have one student, Carly, standing in front of you, with a chair raised over her head, threatening to throw it at you. Carly’s eyes are glazed over, she keeps calling you “mum” and you’re worried she is going to step onto a shard of your favourite coffee mug she broke a few minutes back. What are you going to...
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Is your school a buffer zone against toxic stress?
The challenge of the fast pace and the strain of living in the 21 st century is the chronic stress of keeping up with volume of information, expectations and adverse experiences that leads to stressors of daily living. Adults have become good at adjusting to and compartmentalizing these stressors. Children and adolescents however are struggling to keep up and are in fact caving under the weight of the stresses. In addition, many children lack adequate nurturing and supports needed to give...
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James Baldwin’s Lesson for Teachers in a Time of Turmoil [newyorker.com]
“Let’s begin by saying that we are living through a very dangerous time.” So opens “A Talk to Teachers,” which James Baldwin delivered to a group of educators in October, 1963. (He published it in the Saturday Review the following December.) That year, Medgar Evers, a leading civil-rights figure and N.A.A.C.P. state field director, was murdered in his driveway by a white supremacist in Jackson, Mississippi. That year, four young girls—Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and...
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journal article: Responding to Students with PTSD in Schools
Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am . 2012 January Responding to Students with PTSD in Schools Sheryl Kataoka, MD, MSHS, Audra Langley, PhD, Marleen Wong, PhD, Shilpa Baweja, MA, and Bradley Stein, MD, PhD The prevalence of trauma exposure among youth is a major public health concern, with a third of adolescents nationally reporting that they have been in a physical fight in the past twelve months and 9% having been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property. Studies have...
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Knowledge & Awareness of ACE's itself AS the Most Powerful Therapeutic Healing Agent
Thesis; ACE's Knowledge and Awareness is a POWERFUL Therapy that delivers proven effective Therapeutic Healing in and of Itself. Simply knowing of ACE's and of one's own score is healing above any therapeutic intervention currently in use, to the best of my knowledge - odd as this might sound to those whose livings are made providing such therapies - not that these are not also beneficial - but the numbers speak for themselves I think. Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris has published some crude data on...
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Let Her Learn: Stopping School Pushout: Overview and Key Findings (National Women's Law Center)
The National Women’s Law Center’s 2017 Let Her Learn Survey2 of 1,003 girls ages 14-18 shows that being called a racial slur is a common experience shared by all girls of color, with one third to more than two in five of them saying they have had this experience (Asian and Pacific Islander girls reported the highest rates), compared to just over one eighth of white girls.3 The Let Her Learn Survey also reveals that more than 1 in 5 girls (21 percent) have been sexually assaulted,4 with LGBTQ...
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The Real Crisis in Education: An Open Letter to the Department of Education by Krista Taylor
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos U.S. Department of Education 400 Maryland Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. 20202 Governor John Kasich Riffe Center, 30th Floor 77 South High Street Columbus, OH 43215-6117 Superintendent of Public Instruction Paolo DeMaria Ohio Department of Education 25 South Front Street Columbus, OH 43215-4183 Dear Secretary DeVos, Governor Kasich, and Superintendent DeMaria: I write to each of you, in my position as a teacher in the Cincinnati Public Schools, to ask for...
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The Relentless School Nurse: I Can't Be the Only Nurse at the Table
The power of social media connected me to the work of AFFIRM Research and Dr. Megan Ranney . Through months of tweeting and sharing resources, a relationship was forged that somehow broke through the anonymity of the internet and created a professional and also a personal connection. In the spring of 2018, I was asked to contribute a guest blog to the AFFIRM Research site. Here is a link to the blog: No More Empty Desks I am a school nurse being welcomed into a physician-driven organization.
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The Relentless School Nurse: The Text Message No Parent Wants to Get - An Active Shooter is at School
Many blog readers know that my niece Carly is a survivor of the Parkland shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. You may know that my father also survived a mass murder, and like Carly, hid in a closet until the police arrived. Almost 70 years separated the two tragedies. Our guest blogger this week is my sister Merri, Carly's mom. Merri shares her first-hand account of what happened the afternoon of February 14, 2018, when Carly sent this text, “Mom don’t freak out but we are on...
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The Trauma-Informed School 2.0: Training for the "Now What?"
This fall, Lara Kain and I will co-present a 3 night / 4 day retreat-style training - The Trauma-Informed School 2.0 - in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire. The format and content of this training promises to be unlike most. Lara and I purposely embedded in the training format experiences that reflect the principles of trauma-informed care (i.e. exercises and activities that cultivate psychological safety, connection among participants, and emotional regulation). Participants will learn...
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These teens saw how poor mental health hurt their peers. So they got a law passed. [washingtonpost.com]
Lucas Johnson’s résumé is characteristic of any high-achieving high school senior. There’s the raft of Advanced Placement classes, a dozen during his four years at Monticello High School in Virginia’s Albemarle County. There are the extracurriculars — tutoring and Model United Nations and student council and cross-country. During his junior year, there was the stress that accompanied all of it — stress that, at times, made him ask: “What is the point of all of this?” The 18-year-old...
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Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz: Solving Poverty in Your Local Community (www.betterleadersbetterschools.com) & Commentary
Cissy's note: This is a great podcast for parents, educators, and community organizers and change makers. It is an interview with @Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz interviewed by Danny Bowers "Sunshine" of Better Leaders Better Schools . Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz says things like, " We all need each other. Everyone here is important," and " The community is who we are," but they aren't inclusive-sounding platitudes. She is a tireless optimist but also understands, personally and professionally, how...
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Resource list - Articles on ACEs/trauma-informed schools
Articles about how schools integrate trauma-informed practices, and the outcomes of doing so. If you recommend any others besides those listed here, please leave a comment with a link and/or information.
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Restoring pride: Coos County residents want to make a better first impression [Street Roots News]
An aging population, economic decline and generational poverty have contributed to Coos Bay-area housing issues Charles Buki wasn’t in Coos County to placate its residents. “You need to get your shit together,” he told a banquet room full of locals at their highly-anticipated housing summit on April 26. The Virginia-based consultant and his business partner, Thomas Eddington, had just spent the previous hour explaining to the audience that Coos County’s housing crisis hinged, in part, on the...
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Rural Oregon County Integrates ACEs Screening in School-Based Trauma-Informed Health Centers
For the last two years, nearly all students referred for mental health services in seven school-based health centers in Deschutes County, OR, have taken the 10-question adverse childhood experiences (ACE) survey.
It didn’t take long to realize why this was good idea.
“The average ACE score for a student being seen by a Deschutes County clinician was 5 out of 10,” says Elizabeth Fitzgerald, supervisor of school-based health centers at Deschutes County Health Services.
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RYSE gathering: To promote healing from trauma, institutions need to stop seeing youth as the problem
A young man told clinical therapist Marissa Snoddy recently that when she calls him a leader, she got it all wrong. “He said, ‘I just came from Juvenile Hall,’ I’m not a leader.” But, she said, “We just kept giving him love. And we said, ‘You’re courageous for showing up and being here,’” The very fact that he was there, she explained, showed he was a leader. Snoddy related the anecdote recently for 80 people attending the Trauma and Learning Series launch led by Rising Youth for Social...
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Sandy Hook mom's school program pitched for expansion in Arkansas (arkansasonline.com)
School officials are considering expanding a social and emotional learning program districtwide as part of safety and security efforts. Incorporating the Choose Love Enrichment Program in every school is one of many recommendations made by the Fayetteville Safety and Security Task Force to the School Board last month. Scarlett Lewis founded the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation and has worked with educators, researchers and others to create the program. She began her work after her...
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Re: Do Children have a Right to be Safe ?
Dear Dawn, Thank you for this thoughtful, comprehensive and amazing compilation of information about safety. You have done a masterful job of uncovering how our various systems define safety and make excellent suggestions. You are to be commended! I do agree with your point that it is critical to keep the child at the center of our understanding of safety - however, I also think it's important to acknowledge that environmental safety (such as creating safe buildings and developing safe...