Tagged With "Bay Area"
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No more chairs: Dane County teachers turn to bike pedal desks and yoga balls (madison.com)
The days of students sitting in rigid rows at stationary desks may be a thing of the past as Madison area teachers raise money for treadmills, yoga ball chairs and pedal bike desks for their classrooms. Dane County teachers are using DonorsChoose to fund “flexible seating options” that allow students to remain comfortable and mentally engaged while moving their bodies if they need to. This year, “fidget spinner” was the tenth most searched term on Google, referring to the toys some kids like...
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Nursing Summit on ACES - April 12 in New York State (Incl. School Nurses)
This full-day program is presented by the Catskill Hudson Area Health Education Center's Nursing Workforce Development Workgroup in coordination with leadership of State University of New York - Delhi School of Nursing. The purpose of this program is to provide an educational forum for practicing nurses and school nurses to discuss Adverse Childhood Experiences and the potential effects they can contribute to long-term, adverse health-related issues. The NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing...
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Book review: "Once I was very, very scared," a book on childhood trauma
The past few years have brought a wealth of evidence for the impact of childhood trauma on lifelong health. The AAP has recognized the importance of childhood trauma with conferences (2015 Violence, Abuse and Toxic Stress: An Update on Trauma-informed Care in Children and Youth) and resources ( AAP Trauma Toolbox for Primary Care .) Like many pediatricians, I have been grateful for the attention to and evidence base for an area of pediatrics I see on a daily basis but for which I have felt...
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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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Butte Valley teachers work to expand students’ options [Siskiyou Daily News]
By David Smith / dsmith@siskiyoudaily.com Even though it serves just 98 students in an economically depressed area, Butte Valley High School in Dorris [CA] is offering more opportunities than ever for those students to expand everything from their creativity to their career options. Much like an eight person football team – which BVHS fields each year – teachers at the school take on different roles throughout the day . Instead of the star linebacker also being the team’s kicker, an English...
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California school district targets underlying issues to combat chronic absenteeism [edsource.org]
On an early fall evening, hundreds of students, ranging from 1st-graders to high school seniors, filed onto the stage of a cavernous auditorium at a San Francisco Bay Area high school. One by one, they marched to the microphone to state their name and their milestone in achieving perfect attendance for at least a year: Some had made the goal for four years, some for seven years. One girl, a recent graduate, received a trophy in absentia, for 12. Twelve years without a single tardy, let alone...
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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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Cedar Rapids exploratory program provides project-based learning for high school students [LittleVillageMag.com]
Imagine the countless hours spent in high school classrooms: blackboards, textbooks, lesson plans. Now imagine if you could spend half of that typical day in real-world offices, solving real-world problems. That’s exactly what the students in the Iowa BIG program get to do every school year. Iowa BIG began as a collaborative effort between area business leaders and the Cedar Rapids Gazette Companies to begin to reimagine the typical approach to education. Its pilot kicked off in 2013, with...
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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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Is Your School Ready to be Trauma Informed and Trauma Sensitive?
If you are like many teachers, social workers, or administrators in schools, you've been reading about the need for trauma informed care and trauma sensitive schools. Odds are you didn't need to read the research to know something that you were already seeing in your classrooms, school hallways, and community. Unfortunately reading about it, seeing the need, wanting to make changes, doesn't make the change happen. Five years ago, as the executive director of a school that needed to change, I...
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It Takes a Suburb: A Town Struggles to Ease Student Stress (nytimes.com)
Small rocks from the beaches of eastern Massachusetts began appearing at Lexington High School last fall. They were painted in pastels and inscribed with pithy advice: Be happy.… Mistakes are O.K.… Don’t worry, it will be over soon. They had appeared almost by magic, boosting spirits and spreading calm at a public high school known for its sleep-deprived student body. The rocks, it turns out, were the work of a small group of students worried about rising anxiety and depression among their...
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Jubilee Leadership Academy: Using ACEs Science to Transform School Culture
Students at JLA are reminded that change starts with themselves In 2004, after nearly a decade as program director at Jubilee Leadership Academy (JLA), a Christian alternative boarding school for troubled boys ages 13-18 in Prescott, WA, Rick Griffin decided to take a job in Phoenix, AZ, to work with adults with developmental disabilities. There, he began to see similarities between the issues they were having and what he saw in the kids at JLA. “There was a cognitive reason these adults I...
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Kids in Crisis: Mid-Ohio Valley schools working to identify, treat childhood trauma (newsandsentinel.com)
Teachers and school administrators are learning how to identify childhood trauma to better address student mental health and behavioral issues. The Adverse Childhood Experience, or ACE, Questionnaire is designed to determine a child’s risk due to childhood trauma. Things like divorce, neglect, violence, drug or alcohol abuse and physical or sexual abuse can cause an ACE score to go up. The higher the score, the more at-risk the child is considered. Cathy Grewe, coordinator of assessment and...
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LIVING SAFE: Back to school and behavioral health [www.yourhoustonnews.com]
by Katherine Cabaniss, Cypress Creek Mirror August 23, 2016 Students have returned to school. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are on their minds. Teachers, parents, administrators, and all who care about kids are focused first on academic achievement. In the Greater Houston area, one program focuses on students’ minds in a different way. Mental Health America of the Greater Houston Area (“MHA”) concentrates on kids’ mental health. MHA’s goals further not only student success, but also...
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Loud and Proud Fan of Compassionate Schools!
Consider the premise that to take "compassion to scale" it will take all of us being ambassadors of compassion. The most recent high profile events involving prominent athletes in the NFL have garnered widespread attention that transcends all the...
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Many Students Are in Crisis. So Is America's School Counseling System. [Governing]
By Mattie Quinn, July 2019, Governing Janine Menard is moving quickly through her busy day. On a Monday morning at Pueblo del Sol Elementary, a dual elementary and middle school in West Phoenix, she visits a fourth-grade classroom that’s getting a lesson in understanding “different perspectives.” Menard, the school counselor, goes over scenarios aimed at tapping into the children’s empathetic side. They discuss ways to bridge gaps in understanding using emotional intelligence. An hour later,...
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The Kitchen as Classroom: How Food Helps Students Learn Leadership (yesmagazine.org)
The Detroit Food Academy works with local educators, chefs, and business owners to teach young people entrepreneurial skills. The kitchen is their classroom. And on this day it has the smell and sounds of home. It’s like family, the six student participants from Cody High School say. It’s the first time the students have prepared this meal. In fact, there are many firsts when preparing cultural dishes, and it’s one of the things the students find most exciting about DFA. Working with local...
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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: When the Health Office Pass Includes Emotions
The collaboration between school counselors and school nurses creates safe spaces for students at school. Building a coalition between school counselors and school nurses creates a safety net for our most complex and challenging students while benefiting the whole school community. Promoting connections through intentional relationship building, and ensuring a school environment that is physically, emotionally and psychologically safe changes the culture and climate. Read about an amazing...
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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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Third Grader Learns Bullying Others Makes Him Feel Worse Inside
Teaching self and mutual respect to eliminate bullying
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This researcher wants to help undocumented students find their place in STEM [Crosscut]
By Manola Secaira, July 25, 2019, Crosscut While growing up undocumented, Verónica Guajardo didn't see a place for herself in STEM. Now, she's a researcher who's helping students like herself find their own paths. This interview has been edited for clarity. I was actually an undocumented student for many years. I came to the U.S. about two or three years after I was born, when I was fairly young, from Guadalajara, Jalisco, in Mexico. Then my parents moved to the Central Valley [of...
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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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Registration & CFP | Beyond Consequences Institute's 2019 Spring Trauma Informed School Conference
Registration is Now Open! The Beyond Consequences Institute is hosting our Spring Trauma Informed School Conference® focused on creating trauma-informed schools this June 18-20, 2019 in St. Louis, Missouri. Registration is now open for what is truly going to be an amazing national event! Early bird rates are available now but only for a short time. We also expect an overflow crowd and we are limited in our seating, so be sure to register as soon as possible. Our conferences in the past...
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Removing barriers to success gives kids the opportunity to thrive [philly.com]
Basketball superstar LeBron James continues to make offseason headlines. This time, it's for something that even 76ers fans can agree on. James' I Promise School model recognizes that a child's environment plays an important role in his or her success. A high IQ and personal initiative don't mean students will excel in the classroom, especially if they don't have support at home, don't know where their next meal is coming from or don't feel safe in their own neighborhood. James has opened...
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Resource List - Research & Reports
Reports and research about how ACEs affect schoolchildren, or about how schools become trauma-informed, or the outcomes of integrating trauma-informed and resilience-building practices in schools. 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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Re: Trauma-Informed Schools_Teacher Certification
Hi Jim, Missouri offers alternative certification, in general. I am looking for districts in the St. Louis area that use alternative certification to fulfill staffing needs. My practice and dissertation is focused on trauma-informed care. So, it would be great to work in a district that is also working to increase trauma-informed practice. I hope that makes sense.
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Re: Trauma Training For Educators (Free)
Hello, I have received the following error message when trying to download. Is there a solution to this. Kind Regards Lesley Banner Your access to this service has been temporarily limited. Please try again in a few minutes. (HTTP response code 503) Reason: Access from your area has been temporarily limited for security reasons.
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Re: Students seeking mental health help kicked out of colleges to prevent ‘bad PR’ [RawStory.com]
There is so much political talk about the need for mental health services and support, but many institutions do not know how to respond to mental health needs in a truly compassionate and healing way. I think schools may be especially challenged in this area. Not just related to bad PR, but punishing and shaming rather than having a focus on healing mental health disorders that present themselves at school, which just intensifies the student's struggle.
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Re: A New Documentary About Breaking the Cycle of Trauma is Launching This Fall!
I would love to see a trailer of this documentary. Is one available?
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Re: A New Documentary About Breaking the Cycle of Trauma is Launching This Fall!
Hi, Rene: Please click this link, https://www.wrestlingghosts.com/ , for their website and the trailer.
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Re: A New Documentary About Breaking the Cycle of Trauma is Launching This Fall!
I still don't see a tab on the site for viewing a trailer of this film. I tried putting the title in on YouTube to see if there was trailer posted and don't find one there either.
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Re: A New Documentary About Breaking the Cycle of Trauma is Launching This Fall!
Hi, Rene: Gosh, I'm not sure why it's not working. Please know I just clicked this link, https://www.wrestlingghosts.com/ , and it took me right to their website. Please consider signing up for their newsletter and my sense is you'll have access to their trailer, upcoming film screenings, etc. Please share how I may be of further support. In gratitude, Dana
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Re: A New Documentary About Breaking the Cycle of Trauma is Launching This Fall!
It does take me straight to their website but there is no trailer to be viewed. If you have access to them you should let them know.
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Re: Conchella Valley, CA Is anyone from this area?
Maybe you have found something since posting this, but I used to live in Joshua Tree so am familiar with the area, but moved away two years ago. It looks like Riverside County is doing some work (possibly with the 4CA Campaign as well). Here are a few links: https://www.pacesconnection.com...fornia-county-groups (Riverside has an email of someone to contact) https://www.pacesconnection.com...Profile_2018_PDF.pdf http://www.4cakids.org/ Good luck!
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Re: schools/classrooms using trauma-informed practices?
Rod: I'm doing a series of stories about trauma-informed schools. Here's the overview: http://acestoohigh.com/2013/03/20/secret-to-fixing-school-discipline/ Here's a story about the work being done by the Washington State Area Health Education Center in Spokane: http://acestoohigh.com/2013/08/20/spokaneschools/ Cherokee Point Elementary in San Diego started out with restorative practices and is now moving to a trauma-informed approach:...
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Re: schools/classrooms using trauma-informed practices?
Hi, Jane: Hope you're stories turned out for you. Loved the links you provided me here. Thanks so much. I've forwarded them already many times. If you have access to any other videos of school-based programs, I'd love to take a look at them. The Lincoln Alternative School looks incredible. Would love to visit it one day. Another question, Jane: do you know of anyone in the Lancaster, PA area who would be willing to present on ACEs? Philadelphia is only about 1:20 away. Harrisburg is about 40...
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Re: schools/classrooms using trauma-informed practices?
Hi, Rod -- You can probably find someone in the Philadelphia area. I suggest contacting Leslie Lieberman or someone else in the Philadelphia ACEs group. And, I know that Jim Sporleder, former principal of Lincoln, has retired from his job there to begin consulting with high schools. For online instruction, ACEsConnection member Steve Dahl has developed a course that many schools in Washington State have used. I hope this helps! Cheers, Jane
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Re: schools/classrooms using trauma-informed practices?
Greetings - I am grateful to Jane for sharing this information. I will share a little bit here about what my original intent was in creating the course (Creating Compassionate Schools), how it was designed, and "what's next" or pending in terms of professional development. First, as we all know, we are all taking a "it takes a village" approach. This applies to all professional fields, not only to traditionally defined K-12 education. That said, it was about 5 years ago that I learned about...
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Re: WHAT'S MORE IMPORTANT ? TEST DATA OR LIFE DATA ?
I think the elephant in the room is profit$. The testing environment for teachers and students is not grounded in evidence-based research. The points that Daun brings out has a depth of research behind it. I was in a school yesterday that has been labeled by the state as a school of improvement. They have a fifty page document in which they have to complete for the state to show how they are going to raise student test scores. The principal was in tears, the teachers I talked to were in...
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Re: Has anyone surveyed teacher attitudes about trauma-informed care as a way to collect some baseline data?
I have been teaching an online course called Supporting and Educating Traumatized Students. I use my book by the same name as well as multiple other sources of information. The evaluations that I receive at the end of the course are very positive. I also do about 24 speeches a year on treating ODD and Conduct disorder from a trauma informed perspective. many teachers attend this seminar and give very good evaluations. As far as serious data you might try contacting Ron Hertel with Washington...
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Toxic Schools Worsening Toxic Stress: The Destructive Reign of Universal Standards, Pathology, Medication and Behaviorism
This post is the first chapter of a book. The names HAVE NOT been changed, as each individual profoundly impacted the author's growth and development. She wants their identities to remain intact. I did not realize that my first years in public education would profoundly shape my trauma-informed journey and what I would do nearly twenty years later. But I clearly remember the late fall of 2001. I was completing my second year in a master’s program for school counseling at the University of...
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Trauma education and mindfulness help youth living amid gun violence
Armon Hurst, 2nd from left, first row, Teens on Target, courtesy of YouthAlive! Eighteen-year-old Armon Hurst serves as vice president of the student body at Castlemont High School in Oakland, Calif. He has a 4.0 grade point average, is an avid baseball player, and is slated to go to college next year. But until a few years ago, Hurst would find himself waking from nightmares in the middle of the night. It was difficult to concentrate at school, and he wasn’t eating well. Armon Hurst “There...
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Trauma Informed Care -- Workforce training framework
A colleague of mine -- here in New Zealand!! -- recently passed the attached PDF, from Scotland, onto me. It concerns a relatively recent, and still developing, proposed trauma training framework. This might be helpful to others wishing to go further in introducing TIC in their own services. It includes a consideration of ACEs. Naturally, it needs to incorporate culture-specific additions or modifications to suit your local conditions. The document as it is likely has broad application.
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Trauma-Informed Classrooms: Calming Corners
In our trauma-informed classrooms blog post last week, we talked about choices. We mentioned the benefit of having a space in the room where a child can go to help them calm down and become regulated. While this has become increasingly common at the elementary level, we have found that this is a tool that can work for students of all ages. Even when we survey adults about the things that help them to calm down when they are upset, one of the most common answers we hear is that they want time...
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Trauma-Informed Classrooms: Educator Self-Care
Working in a school is hard. It doesn’t matter if you work in a suburban, urban, or rural area. It doesn’t matter if you work with 5 year-olds on building empathy, teach 11 year-olds about symbiosis, coach teachers in aligning curriculum, or help high school seniors choose their postsecondary pathways. It is hard work. From the cacophony of lockers closing at dismissal, to the challenge of getting 25 sets of 8 year-old eyes looking at you in synchrony, schools are a special kind of organized...
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Trauma Informed Education
We have finally completed our one day seminar on trauma informed education. We will be in Los Angeles in February, New York in early March and Michigan in April. We have attached brochures for each of these presentations Hope to see you there!