Tagged With "San Diego"
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44th Street Residents Ask SD Unified To Get Trauma-Informed (kpbs.org)
After a double homicide took his grandson's life last summer, Ricky McCoy Sr. started knocking on doors. He intended to get his neighbors, who retreated inward after hearing more than 40 rounds fired, talking again. Along with the acute trauma of witnessing a fatal shooting, they were experiencing cumulative trauma built up from years of struggling to get by and watching loved ones go to jail or get deported. McCoy and a group of 44th Street residents, whom we started following in November ,...
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A School That Provides The One Constant In Homeless Children's Lives (npr.org)
Positive Tomorrows is a small, privately funded school in the heart of Oklahoma City, designed to meet the needs of homeless children. The future of these students hinges on the one constant in their lives: the school, which addresses both education and basic needs. The educational challenges associated with homelessness are broad and extend to every corner of a child's life. Without consistent access to adequate food, shelter and safety, students are often too hungry, tired and stressed to...
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An Epic Battle for Public Education: A Front Line View
As one single example of one key complexity (there are many others), children in our Public School classrooms have massive rates of trauma, described by a U.S. Department of Justice report as an “epidemic” and by past Surgeon Generals as “national crisis.”
The Center for Disease Control(CDC) says it is critical to understan
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Anti-Islamophobia Training Rolls Out In San Diego Schools (kpbs.org)
In the heat of the 2016 campaign season, San Diego Unified board members voted to put together a plan to stop Islamophobia in schools. Part of that plan was in action Thursday — a week after President Donald Trump signed orders to temporarily ban travel from Muslim-majority countries and crack down on immigration . The presentation wasn't altered for the new audience. Pamphlets on how to deal with being bullied said, "Know your rights as a Muslim youth in school." And tips for teachers —...
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As Its Homeless Student Population Surges, Perkins K-8 Is Learning to Adapt [voiceofsandiego.org]
At one point last school year, homeless students made up a third of the Barrio Logan school’s total enrollment. Fernando Hernandez, the principal at Perkins K-8, makes sure his middle school teachers don’t put too much weight on homework. Hernandez caps the percentage of grades drawn from homework at 15 percent, which he says is lower than many middle schools. Though many schools and parents across the country have argued in recent years that schools should de-emphasize homework, Hernandez...
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One City Heights School is Doing the Nearly Impossible: Closing the Achievement Gap [voiceofsandiego.com]
By Will Huntsberry, Voice of San Diego, March 2, 2020 In San Diego, as with the rest of the country, poverty tracks closely with test scores. The social science is clear: Poorer children are not less bright. They lack the same opportunities as their more affluent peers to gain cognitive skills from the moment they are born. The most pressing question in education has always been whether schools can supercharge the learning process enough to compensate for these class inequities. At Edison...
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Oregon State educators visit Cherokee Point Elementary in San Diego
Cherokee Point Elementary in City Heights (San Diego Unified School District) hosted 12 educators from Oregon on Friday, March 11th. The superintendents, principals and teachers spent the day with Principal Godwin Higa and Resource Specialist Patty Wallach to talk about the school becoming trauma informed, and how it functions. They visited classrooms and had lunch with the students, then met with Dr. Audrey Hokoda, Child, Development Department, San Diego State University and Dana Brown to...
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OurSOLES youth leaders led trauma-informed presentation before educators and school staff
OurSOLES (Our Students of Leadership ~ Empowerment ~ Service) high school students from the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, CA, led an interactive, hour-long trauma-informed presentation for Diego Valley and Diego Springs Public Charter School educators, tutors, school administration and staff last August 14, 2015.
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Peek Inside a Classroom: Jasmine
© Elliot Gilfix/Flickr . What happened to Jasmine? . Photo © Jinx!/Flickr When you look inside a...
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Poetry in Motion: Drama Lit Team Preps for Spring Slams By Elisa Knoell Learn4Life Student
Imagine the power of putting a handful of kids together in a class to tell their stories in their own words—and earn credits in the process. This school year, Learn4Life’s Innovation High School (IHS) San Diego – Lakeside is offering a spoken word poetry course titled “Dramatic Literature”. The course engages youth in classic works of literature and empowers teens to take charge of their own futures and unearth their potential. Annabelle Reyes, a Drama Lit student, told how beneficial the...
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‘Push Back’: Unified Schools Crowd Faces Down Divisive Fears (timesofsandiego.com)
Kevin Beiser acknowledged what brought hundreds of parents, teachers and students Wednesday evening to a dusty ball field in Old Town — the fear of “what it would be like in Nazi Germany.” But school board member Beiser promised the San Diego Unified School District would “push back” against enablers of hate. Trustee Richard Barrera noted a 950-word school board resolution approved last week “reaffirming values of peace, tolerance and respect for multiple perspectives.” (see attached)...
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Defending Childhood
Common Sense Millions of injured children whose pleas are not being heard are waiting at the intersection of the “Defending Childhood” Report from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Congress’s rewrite...
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“Disgraceful” Disparities In School Discipline Funnel Kids Into Justice System [witnessla.com]
By Taylor Walker, Witness LA, November 11, 2019 Research and the national conversation around racial disparities in school discipline have largely remained focused on the outsized disparate treatment that black students receive when compared with their white peers. Yet Native American youth face much the same disciplinary treatment in schools that black students do, according to a report from San Diego State University and Sacramento Native American Higher Education Collaborative (SNAHEC)...
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Don’t Suspend Students. Empathize. (nytimes.com)
<Thank you to San Diego member, John Michno , for sharing this article.> Getting rid of bad-seed students is supposed to benefit their "good" classmates, but that turns out not to be the case. When students witness their classmates being shown the door for trivial offenses, they worry that they may be next. Studies show they grow anxious and do worse on high-stakes math and reading tests. In short, this kind of discipline is a lose-lose proposition. What's to be done? Enter empathy.
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Early childhood educators learn new ways to spot trauma triggers, build resilience in preschoolers
A hug may be comforting to many children, but for a child who has experienced trauma it may not feel safe.
That’s an example used by Julie Kurtz, co-director of trauma informed practices in early childhood education at the WestEd Center for Child & Family Studies (CCFS), as she begins a trauma training session. Her audience, preschool teachers and staff of the San Francisco-based Wu Yee Children’s Services at San Francisco’s Women’s Building, listen attentively.
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Editorial: Three things California must do for successful K-12 distance learning during coronavirus crisis (sandiegouniontribune.com)
The decision by districts across California to shut K-12 schools last month to slow the spread of coronavirus remains a smart and practical move that aligned with other “social distancing” measures to keep virus deaths at a lower level than in other states — and to allow health-care providers more time to prepare for a projected onslaught of patients. But besides managing the public health crisis, leaders in San Diego and statewide also face another huge challenge: the need to make online...
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Education Transformations - Providing Soc/Emot Training to Schools & More
Education Transformations is a company that works with districts, schools, teachers, and other organizations to improve Social/Emotional Intelligence (EQ), and what we call Relational Competency. We are San Diego, CA based, but can travel.
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Emotions 101: Why Hawaii Schools Are Focusing On Feelings [civilbeat.org]
Editor’s note: This story was produced in conjunction with On Campus , a Civil Beat podcast series that tracks the first year of a new school in Hawaii and examines big education issues in America. Thanks to ACEs Connection member, Godwin Higa, who retired this year as principal of Cherokee Point Elementary School in San Diego, CA, for being a champion in this article. Nothing about the classroom looked abnormal. Seventh-grade teacher Allison Harkey stood at the front of her Wheeler Middle...
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Encinitas Farm to School Program Provides Students with Lunch and Learning (livewellsd.org)
The Encinitas Union School District's Farm Lab and Nutrition Program have teamed up to bring healthier fare to its students. The District has been successfully operating its Farm to School program since 2013 and secured its organic certification in 2016, making it the first certified organic school district in the country to grow for its own lunch program! The Farm to School Program harvested 5000 pounds of produce and enough lettuce each week to supply all nine daily salad bars in the...
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Escondido Union School District Introduces Trauma Informed Strategies (livewellsd.org)
The Escondido Union School District (EUSD) values its staff, students and families. The district welcomed their 1,800 employees to the 2017-2018 school year through events coordinated to connect staff to each other, develop a trauma informed school system and encourage staff wellness and self-care during events held on the first staff work days of the school year. On Thursday August 10 th , all EUSD employees attended an inspirational presentation by Dr. Dawn Griffin, Associate Professor and...
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Guide - Creating Trauma-Informed Policies: A Practice Guide for School and Mental Health Leadership
Author, Leora Wolf-Prusan, EdD, School Mental Health lead for SAMHSA's Mental Health Technology Center Pacific Southwest http://mhttcnetwork.org/mhttc/mhttc-psw.html Creating compassionate policies is a cornerstone strategy of educational leadership. This guide provides a deep dive into developing, implementing, and evaluating trauma-informed and compassionate school policies. It highlights four "choice points" for education and mental health leadership: Choice Point 1: Names &...
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Improve Classroom Climate with Dynamic Mindfulness
Improve Classroom Climate with Dynamic Mindfulness January 2020 We know that challenges with toxic stress and trauma amongst our educators and the youth they serve affect learning readiness, school classroom climate, and teacher burnout. What can we do about it? Many educators are struggling with this question and searching for answers. Niroga Institute's Dynamic Mindfulness (DMind) programs should be considered as a comprehensive solution. Dynamic Mindfulness is a combination of movement,...
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School meals: a reflection of growing poverty in LA (calmatters.org)
The numbers of Los Angeles children who need the meals have been rising sharply in recent years. In 2015-2016, 72.4% or 405,338 LAUSD students qualified for the free or reduced price meals, according to a 2017 Food Research Action Center report. “We have the highest participation of students who are served breakfast in the classroom,” said Monica Garcia, a member of the LAUSD School Board. “Also, most of our schools (75%) are in the Community Eligibility Program, where all students get all...
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Schools Should Recognize Trauma as a Disability, Compton Lawsuit Says [KQED.org]
A group of middle and high school students in Compton have filed a first-of-its-kind federal lawsuit saying violence at home and in their neighborhoods has impaired their ability to learn at school. The students, along with three teachers who are also plaintiffs, allege the Compton Unified School District has failed to recognize and address their trauma-induced disabilities, and therefore has denied their legal right to an equal education. ....You have to address trauma in order to do...
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Seeking Development Manager in Houston, Texas
FuelEd is a non-profit whose mission is to develop emotionally intelligent educators who develop relationship-driven schools. We are seeking a dynamic Development Manager who is interested in playing a role in improving teaching and learning in our schools. The ideal candidate is excited to engage in a variety of fundraising activities including grant writing, prospect research, and communications. They thrive in a fast-paced environment and want to be a founding member and leading...
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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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Suspension rates for black male students in California higher for foster youth, rural students (EdSource)
Black male students in rural counties and those in foster care are suspended at some of the highest rates in California, a new report has found. The report also found that the disparity in suspension rates among black male students compared to all students is greatest in kindergarten through the 3rd grade. The report, titled " Get Out! Black Male Suspensions in California Public Schools ," looked at suspensions through the 2016-17 school year. It was authored by J. Luke Wood and Frank Harris...
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Teachers: Use Mindfulness to Help Students’ Academics (smartbrief.com)
Mindfulness is a way of paying attention to the present moment without judgment, says Amy L. Eva, an education content specialist for the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California—Berkeley . Over time, individuals develop the ability to detach from whatever they are dealing with so they are not coming down on themselves often, she says. That could be especially important for students who worry about grades. Educators interested in incorporating mindfulness into their high...
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Teen suicide clusters prompt mandate for California schools to confront taboo topic (calmatters.org)
In California and across the country, suicide is the second leading cause of death among teens—a grim reminder that many high school students’ primary barrier to adulthood is themselves. More young people take their own lives than the number killed by cancer, heart disease, birth defects, stroke, flu, pneumonia and chronic lung disease combined. And under legislation set to take effect in January, school systems up and down the state will be forced to confront the taboo topic head-on.
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Native American Students Suspended at Higher Rates Than Peers. New Report Looks at Solutions [desertsun.com]
By Risa Johnson, Palm Springs Desert Sun, September 30, 2019 Native American students in California's public schools face higher-than-average suspension rates, according to a new report. A joint effort between California State University, San Diego, and the Sacramento Native American Higher Education Collaborative, the report outlines what it calls troubling trends regarding how school administrators discipline students. Racial disparities in school discipline, particularly for African...
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Nowhere to Hide the Elephant in the [Class]room
Developmental trauma changes the architecture of the physical brain, ability to learn and social behavior. It impacts two out of three children, but I didn’t even know what it was…
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Bill would give protected school leave to teen parents (k-12daily.com)
(Calif.) With an important legislative deadline quickly approaching, Senate education committee members passed about a dozen bills last week targeting topics including time off for teen parents, statewide assessment options and charter school transparency. AB 1951 would require the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to approve a nationally recognized high school assessment–such as the SAT or ACT–that districts can administer to students instead of the grade 11 California Assessment...
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Burnout Risk for In-Prison Educators Could Jeopardize Programs for Incarcerated Students
Sustaining Futures will strengthen education programs for incarcerated individuals by training California Community College faculty and staff on trauma and resilience.
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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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Learn4Life Staff Learns De-Escalation Techniques
At a recent Professional Development (PD), staff and teachers at Learn4Life resource centers throughout the San Fernando Valley and Northern Los Angeles County, learned about de-escalation techniques. The PD provided the staff with resources designed to equip them to organize their thinking and calmly respond to and effectively de-escalate situations to avoid a potential crisis. The techniques they learned included: Defining the behavior and how to approach a situation QTIP! (Quit Taking It...
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Learn4Life students in San Diego Get a Lesson in Yoga
Since 2016, certified yoga teachers Josie Duraso (E-RYT 200) and Tara Booze (E-RYT 200) have been sharing the practice of yoga with students and staff at the Learn4Life Innovation High School resource centers in National City and Chula Vista. This year-round enrichment program provides a safe space for students to not only participate in the physical practice of yoga, but to explore meditation and mindfulness, self-regulation tools, and positive habit building. Students participating in this...
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Learn4Life Teams “Get Lit”
At the recent “Get Lit – Words Ignite” Classic Slam poetry competition, Learn4Life (L4L) students throughout California demonstrated that they have the knowledge and eloquence to Shed Light and Motivate (SLAM) their communities to take action. Hailed as the world’s largest youth poetry slam, the event took place April 26-28 th in downtown Los Angeles and included seven L4L squads and 36 total teams. Get Lit – Words Ignite is an organization that uses poetry to “increase literary, empower...
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Lincoln High dedicates new courtroom facility for mock trials, criminal justice classes (sandiegounified.org)
Lincoln High dedicates new courtroom facility for mock trials, criminal justice classes | San Diego Unified Newscenter //--><![CDATA[//><!-- (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js","ga");ga("create", "UA-10591117-2",...
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The Learning Curve: 'Restorative Justice' Can Make Schools More Violent If Not Done Right [VoiceOfSanDiego.org]
In 2014, a team of Harvard researchers visited San Diego Unified and produced a report that convinced school district administrators their punitive, zero-tolerance policies weren’t working. According to the researchers, a disproportionate number of suspensions and expulsions had involved students of color and those with disabilities. Students repeatedly suspended from school were more likely to drop out of school or be involved with the criminal justice system. [For more of this story,...
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The Monumental Task Of Reopening Puerto Rico's Schools [npr.org]
The schools in Puerto Rico are facing massive challenges. All the public schools are without electricity, and more than half don't have water. More than 100 are still functioning as shelters. But Puerto Rico's secretary of education, Julia Keleher, tells us that the schools that are open are serving as connection points for communities. They've become a place where children and their families can eat a hot meal and get some emotional support, too. [For more on this story by MERRIT KENNEDY,...
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The urgent need for a system of support for California schools (edsource.org)
Earlier this year, a representative of a California advocacy and civil-rights organization asked me if the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence , the new state agency that I head, has a “genuine sense of urgency” about its work in getting the right kind of help and assistance to districts, charters and county offices of education. I told him that the very first meeting that we had in the very first district that we agreed to take on was at Ironwood State Prison, which is...
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Reframing Undesired Behaviors as an Aspect of Learning, not Punishment
At the Chula Vista, National City, and Linda Vista resource centers of Learn4Life Innovation High School San Diego, only four students were suspended during the 2016-17 school year – less than 1 percent of the student population of more than 500 students. For the leadership team and staff at Innovation High School this rate was still too high. The team and staff embraced further training on restorative practices, positive behavior supports and interventions in order to better support student...
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Resource List - Activities & Tools
This is a list of activities and tools for children K-12. If you recommend any others besides those listed here, please leave a comment in this blog post with a link and/or information.
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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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San Diego Unified Launching New Food Recovery Program (timesofsandiego.com)
In an effort to prevent thousands of pounds of leftover school meals from being thrown away, the San Diego Unified School District is set to officially launch a new “food recovery program.” Dubbed the “Love Food Not Waste Program,” the goal is to divert leftover school meals into local organizations facing food shortages, according to a SDUSD news release. The Love Food Not Waste Program is a partnership between SDUSD and Feeding San Diego . Feeding San Diego coordinates with additional...
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San Diego Unified OKs Plan to Counter Bullying of Muslim Students (timesofsandiego.com)
San Diego Unified School District board members voted unanimously Tuesday night (July 26, 2016) in favor of a plan to address Islamophobia and bullying of Muslim students. More than 200 members and supporters of the city’s Muslim community erupted into applause after the vote. “You guys are essentially the reason why this district is one of the safest in the nation,” said Hanif Mohebi, executive director of the San Diego chamber of the Council on American-Islamic Relations . Mohebi also told...
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San Diego County's Answer to School Stability for Students in Foster Care [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
It seems obvious that keeping kids in their home school with their peer group – a concept known as “school stability”– is a key ingredient in the recipe for academic success for students in foster care. Research shows that on average, children lose four to six months of learning each time they change schools. This is especially acute for high school students, who run into issues obtaining the credits they need to graduate or may have to re-take classes due to coursework alignment issues. For...
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School Confronts Trauma in Students' Lives [APMReports.org]
Three decades ago, a team of researchers at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Diego asked thousands of patients about traumatic events from their childhood. The responses were collected and analyzed against health records for a study known as the Adverse Childhood Experiences study or ACEs, a landmark study in the field of trauma research. The researchers found a strong correlation between the ten adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) - which include physical and sexual abuse, losing a...