Blog Archives

ANNOUNCEMENT: All-In! Movie Night

2/24/2016

What: Paper Tigers, a film by James Redford that captures the pain, the danger, the beauty, and the hopes of struggling teens - and the teachers armed with new science and fresh approaches that are changing their lives for the better.
When: March 16th, 2016 (6:30pm)
Where: AMC Bay Street, Emeryville
Who: Any All-In! staff who want to join

Please RSVP to Robin Detterman by Friday, February 26th.

To view the movie trailer, click the image below.

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Individual Student Planning: Beyond the IEP

2/24/2016

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Has anyone heard about the MAPS (Making Action Plans) planning process? It’s an individual student planning process that brings together many of the same participants of an IEP meeting (i.e. family members, faculty, student, friends, and facilitators), but the process is used in developing an action plan. Originally called, The McGill Action Planning System (MAPS), MAPS is a person centered planning process that brings together the key players in a focus individual’s life to identify a “roadmap” for working toward and achieving dreams and goals for the focus person (Forest & Lusthaus, 1989; Vandercook et al., 1989). To my knowledge it was originally developed in order to support students with more significant developmental needs; however, over time it has become a tool that can be used for any student. It can be used for a student being included into a general education setting for the first time, for a student transitioning from a more restrictive setting to an inclusive setting, or when a school team needs to provide more intensive supports and wants to ensure that all supports are identified and all staff and family have the opportunity for input. For more information on MAPS planning process, please click here.

Blog post written by:
Meka Tull, School Psychologist and Interim Director of School Partnerships

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CLINICAL STRAND UPDATE: A Day in the Life of a Clinical Intervention Specialist

2/24/2016

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There is no typical “day in the life” for any of our All-In family, really. Despite beautifully color coded and shared outlook calendars, and the frequent revisiting of priorities at rotating meetings, I think we can all agree that when it comes to our work, responsiveness is at the core of our approach. And by responsive, I mean -- adaptable!!

We come to work ready to be flexible and open-minded, ready to adjust our plans and schedules to accommodate the fluid needs of our partner schools and communities--guided by the consistent values of unconditional education, and clear mission to collaborate, to provide trauma-informed, unconditional education opportunities for students and to help school systems continually reflect on, and get better at, how to set students up for success.

That being said, anyone here will also likely tell you that they have extremely important game plans in place, and that the adaptable, flexible, course-correction aspects of our work tend to be both the inspiration for our best work, and what chips away at our sense of direction. When, we ask ourselves, do we push back against the latest request to abandon a project for a more pressing one, and when do we adjust and accommodate, change direction, join the new course of action?

All-In staff community, don’t despair! In the words of my celebrity fantasy husband David Bowie (may he rest in peace), “You’re not alone!” This is part of the good work you all do--it’s why we hire thoughtful, creative, flexible and energetic people who understand that providing unconditional care on a systems level can feel like a slow change process a lot of the time. I look around at our teams in schools and I am blown away by the high-quality, creative work being implemented, by the thoughtful problem solving our teams engage in, and the effort each person makes to identify and practice a disconfirming stance with our kiddos. It’s something to celebrate.

This month I’d like to share a story that demonstrates creativity and flexibility, from one of our Clinical Intervention Specialists at Starr King in San Francisco. Here, Dana Wolfenbarger, like other CISs, must navigate the very grey area of delivering school consequences while supporting her client emotionally. The description that follows captures how Dana felt inspired by her client, and how she was able to hold the school priority of a consequence in mind, while still building and holding connection and humanity at the heart of her intervention. Can you imagine how this child felt -- working to heal a relationship and share a part of himself while acknowledging his own accountability to school rules and expectations?

“Recently, in the middle of the day, I got a call on the walkie talkie from a school administrator saying that one of my clients (3rd grade) was escalated and needed support. When I arrived, the administrator asked me to take over and said that my client had to complete a written statement/apology explaining his poor behavior to his mother before he could return to class. My client refused. Once we were alone, I engaged my client in an exploratory discussion about what occurred and validated his feelings. I acknowledged how much he cares about his mother and how difficult it can be to communicate his mistakes for fear of letting her down. I reminded my client about how important music has been in his life and wondered aloud if music could help him find the words he wanted to say. He decided to write his mother a song taking inspiration from Tupac Shakur and Justin Bieber. He worked diligently on the song, taking responsibility for his behavior and repeating the hook “Is it too late to say I’m sorry?” He was proud of his work and presented the song to the school administrator. In this way, we were able to build upon his strengths and find an outlet that worked for him. The song was pretty incredible too.”

I encourage you to celebrate the ways your flexibility and creativity are transforming interventions with the students. I encourage you to celebrate one another as well. Please keep sharing these stories with me and others on your team. We love hearing the varied ways you are reaching the students and communities. You are the heart of the work.

Warmly,
Emily

Blog post written by:
Emily Marsh, Director of Clinical Interventions

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Cultivating Humble Leadership

2/19/2016

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I recently came across a resource called the Greater Good Science Center, based locally at the University of California, Berkeley. The GGSC is “unique in its commitment to both science and practice: Not only sponsoring groundbreaking scientific research into social and emotional well-being, [but also helping] people apply this research to their personal and professional lives.” In a recent (02/09/16) education article, author Vicki Zakrzewski asked the question, "How to Cultivate Humble Leadership".

Organizational leadership, including school leadership, is a popular topic, for good reason. Indeed, strong leadership is a critical element to the success of any organization or program. In our work, collaboration with the school principal is a critical part of the All-In partnership, and our goals are shared in a highly interconnected way. Based on my experience working in schools for many years, with direction and guidance from dozens of principals, it is clear that there are a lot of different personality types and professional styles, but a few common themes when it comes to the highly effective leaders. Top of mind... a clear vision with the perspective to balance both short term needs and long term goals, strong communication and relationship building skills and true confidence over arrogance, which is significantly supported by having a humble approach to the work, in my opinion.

This article focuses on the value of humility in the role of a leader and profiles a middle school principal and her experience using this value to create change for students and the school culture. The cornerstone of her approach to school transformation was to seek support and teamwork from the school staff and together focus on building relations with the students. She and her staff went on to create a character education program that fundamentally changed the culture of the school and lead to positive outcomes for students and their learning opportunities.

The author outlines two guidelines to consider related to cultivating humble leadership:

“ Ask yourself: Is it all about the students or all about the school? Humility is a core component of servant leadership—a type of leadership whose hallmark is the growth and development of followers rather than organizational success, and, hence, a perfect model for schools that are in the business of growing human beings.”

“ Balance humility with self-confidence… being able to listen to feedback, elicit the opinions of others, and express appreciation—key factors of humility—are not enough for leaders who aspire to lead others with humility. They also need to appear confident in their leadership. While this might sound contradictory, it’s really not: research suggests that humility and confidence need to go hand in hand.”

Blog post written by:
Lilly Green, Director of School Partnerships

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ACADEMIC STRAND UPDATE: Brain Breaks for the February Fidgets

2/19/2016

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“February is crazy, so give your kids some brain breaks!” –Yoko

I’m sure Yoko is not the only one feeling the symptoms of fidgety February. But, have no fear, our Lead SLP-A has a solution for us! Check out this website that teachers at one of her schools—Learning Without Limits—are using with their students in the classroom. The kooky, silly videos from GoNoodle provide fun ways for kids to move their bodies for a few minutes before getting back to work.

You likely don’t need any further convincing that students need more movement in their days, but in case you do…

Children naturally start fidgeting in order to get the movement their body so desperately needs and is not getting enough of to “turn their brain on.” What happens when the children start fidgeting? We ask them to sit still and pay attention; therefore, their brain goes back to “sleep.” (Washington Post, 2014)

Read more here: “Why So Many Kids Can’t Sit Still in School Today”

How might you build a minute or two of movement into even our briefest intervention groups?

Blog post written by:
Alli Guilfoil, Director of Academic Intervention

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STAFF SHOUT-OUT!

2/5/2016

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We're excited to introduce this new section in our blog that gives All-In! staff an opportunity to shout-out some well-deserved appreciations to your fellow staff members. Our first appreciation is for Yajaira Cuapio (SSA at Starr King Elementary School), from Dana Wolfenbarger (Clinical Intervention Specialist at Starr King Elementary School):

Yajaira,
I don’t want another week to pass without giving you this well-deserved shout-out!
Thank you for all that you do to support our students. You consistently go above and beyond to respond to social, emotional, and behavioral needs, particularly in Kinder and 1st, but school-wide as well. Your thoughtful approach to the work has been effective and inspiring to others (the teachers that you partner with and the Seneca team). I appreciate your attention to detail, collaborative style, and strong work ethic.
We are so lucky to have you as part of our team-
Dana

If you have someone you want to shout-out, please email MK Morrison.

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How our Work ties into a National Conversation: The Interconnected Systems Framework

2/5/2016

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As we enter that long, uninterrupted stretch of school days leading up to spring break and find ourselves digging deep into the work of supporting our students, I want to take this opportunity to invite you all to take a step back and make a connection between the work you do every day and the conversation that continues to evolve at the national level. There is a reason that Seneca’s Unconditional Education program was awarded a federal education grant founded on the principle of supporting innovation in the field. You are all doing truly ground-breaking work and bringing to life the kind of best practice that is being talked about at the local, state, and national level. I was reminded of this recently when we were invited to join a national working group led by a sub-committee of national PBIS leaders. Their efforts revolve around the concept of an Interconnected Systems Framework, which they describe as “a proposed and developing interconnection of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and School Mental Health (SMH) systems to improve educational outcomes for all children and youth, especially those with or at risk of developing mental health challenges.”

Sound familiar? This group is developing protocols for supplementing multi-tiered academic and behavioral interventions with multi-tiered mental health interventions. As you can imagine, we have a lot to contribute to the conversation. To learn more about the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF), please follow this link to the ISF monograph: “Advancing Education Effectiveness: Interconnecting School Mental Health and School-wide Positive Behavior Support.” This monograph is not lacking in content, so I suggest that you start with Chapter One as a good introduction and then see what other chapter titles capture your attention. As you read through these concepts, I hope you begin to recognize that as Unconditional Education staff, you are actually putting into practice the concepts that experts in the field are proposing as innovative best practice for supporting school communities. As always, you amaze.

Blog post written by:
Jenny Ventura, Director of Model Implementation

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Welcome

ANNOUNCEMENT: All-In! Movie Night

Individual Student Planning: Beyond the IEP

CLINICAL STRAND UPDATE: A Day in the Life of a Clinical Intervention Specialist

Cultivating Humble Leadership

ACADEMIC STRAND UPDATE: Brain Breaks for the February Fidgets

STAFF SHOUT-OUT!

How our Work ties into a National Conversation: The Interconnected Systems Framework

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