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​Please scroll down to read our Unconditional Education blog posts.

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OUR UE MODEL AND SERVICES

STAFF HIGHLIGHT: Colleen Callahan

3/25/2019

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Name: Colleen Callahan 

​Position: Student Support Counselor at Rainer Valley Leadership Academy in Seattle, Washington.

What led you to your current position? A friend of mine has been working for Seneca, and recommended the position to me. 

Fun Fact/Quote: A fun fact about me is that I am related to Evel Knievel but I am terrified of motorcycles. 

What does your average day look like? An average day at Rainer Valley Leadership Academy for me looks like, welcoming each student with a fresh start. Checking in with students in the hallway, floating to support classrooms and students as needed, and supporting lunch time  and after school activities. 

​Why do you do this work? I love doing this work because I care about being a consistent listening ear to students, and teaching compassion and coping skills they will use in school and for their future. 

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Building Capacity and Expanding our Reach at Achieve Academy

3/25/2019

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This week I’m highlighting one of our Education For Change partnership schools - Achieve Academy  in Oakland’s Fruitvale district.  Clinical Intervention Specialist Marianne Clark AMFT, who is also our featured staff in the blog this week, has engaged in an innovative practice at Achieve that expands her reach as a single Seneca clinician on her campus. Through building the capacity of others, Marianne and her collaborative Achieve team have been able to serve dozens of students through tier 2 Social Skills groups during the first cycle of service this year; truly an example of creatively bringing the mission of Unconditional Education to her campus.

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The project began with an awareness of her limitations as a single provider at the school.  Using our Social Emotional Screener tool,  Marianne gathered emotional and behavioral data on every student at Achieve and was able to see trends and needs across grades, classrooms, and individual students.  But how could Marianne find the time in her week to provide the myriad of group services the students there would most benefit from? Her answer: she couldn’t do it on her own.  Marianne realized she needed more adults to provide groups and that she could share her expertise with them as a coach and mentor.  She put together a presentation on the basics of running a group, and solicited interest from her school administration and staff community.
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She then met with a group of interested EFC staff which included PE teachers, assistant principals, and other staff on site to provide them with a training on the basics of running a social skills group.  Sitting down with each adult individually, Marianne was able to learn more about what types of issues, students and age groups they were most excited to work with. She was intentional around supporting them to feel more connected to the work by getting to know what their values were and what they were most interested in.

Next, Marianne revisited the data from her Social Emotional Screeners.  She made sure to assign facilitators to grade levels and group topics that would resonate for them.  Tailoring activities to the topics of the groups was another way that Marianne supported the adults with their new initiative. And they were off!!  

Midway through the first group cycle, Marianne brought her team of adults together to provide problem-solving, consultation and connection.  She also started getting input from the team on what they’d like to do for their next cycle in order to keep the momentum going on their new tier 2 initiative.

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Primary and Secondary benefits:
In addition to providing social skills groups to 100 students in the first 6 weeks, other benefits of Marianne’s approach include:
  • Increasing the number of adults these students have a close connection to on campus
  • Increasing the diversity of social skill group facilitators
  • Increasing the capacity of the school to meet emerging needs of students without requiring new funding and without hiring more specialists
  • Creating a broader supportive network for struggling students during free time such as lunch and recess

What’s next?
Marianne is just getting going with the progress monitoring and outcomes measurements that we use for tier 2 groups.  This will include gathering SDQ and collecting Social Emotional Screener data toward the end of the year to see if students involved in the tier 2 cycles showed improvement in any of their challenge areas.   We’re also eager to hear how the facilitators feel after their first year of providing social skills groups with Marianne’s counsel. So far, this has been a big win for the students and school community of Achieve!

What about at your school?  Is there an opportunity to build the capacity of others and leverage your own expertise to have a broader reach while building campus connections?  Leave a comment below if you have thoughts or questions about how you might do this at your school.
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Blog Post Written By: Emily Marsh, Director of Clinical Intervention Services
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STAFF HIGHLIGHT: Marianne Clark

3/25/2019

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Name: Marianne Clark
Position: Clinical Intervention Specialist at Achieve Academy

What led you to your current position? I worked as a behavioral therapist for children with Autism after I graduated with my Bachelors. I loved working with young children but felt overwhelmed and under-trained when it came to working with their families. It was clear that they were struggling and needed support, and I slowly came to realize that I needed to treat the family as a whole in order to see sustainable growth in the children. It was after going to school to become a Marriage and Family Therapist that I came across the All-In! Partnership program, and I saw immediately that it’s values aligned with mine.

Fun Fact/Quote: I use knitting as self-care EXCEPT for a 4 month period from March to June where I take part in an international speed sock-knitting competition called Sock Madness. The past few years I’ve placed around 40th out of thousands of knitters all over the world. It’s my favorite time of year!

What does your average day look like? I walk to Achieve from Fruitvale BART and sometimes stop along the way to get a tamal or champurrado from my favorite street vendor. A lot of the students I work with struggle to transition from home to school, so I start my days checking in with them, making sure they’ve had breakfast, addressing any restorative justice needs from the playground before school, and giving them a morning hug or pep talk. I pull students for individual counseling until around lunchtime, where I start my lunchtime social skills groups. One of my favorite parts of this work is being able to support students in making connections and healthy friendships. Sprinkle in some consultation, meetings and supervision and that’s my day!
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Why do you do this work? I do this work for altruistic and selfish reasons. I do believe that quality mental health treatment is systemically unavailable to people who are black, brown or living under the poverty line, and I try really hard to use my privilege to push against that norm and be the best therapist I can. On the other hand, I do this work because it fills a part of me that really loves to care for others, play with others, and be silly. 

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SHOUT OUT to our School Psychologists!

3/18/2019

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A special "UE Shout Out" goes to Jenny Ortega and Danielle Morales, both Education For Change School Psychologists and our very own Seneca School Psychologists Pam Nieto, Anna Lisa Johannsdottir, and Laura Lopez for doing amazing work at their schools. We appreciate all the work you do with our students and happy you are a part of our amazing school teams!
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Shout Out Submitted by Toshia Mears (Director of School Partnerships) and Claudia Martinez (Executive Assistant)
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​Addressing Special Education Inequity through Systemic Change

3/15/2019

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Although there is no evidence to indicate that discriminatory practices (including school mission, vision, culture, school-family-community relationships, policies and procedures, resource allocation, and collaborations)  in the school setting are the cause of dis-proportionality, research does show a correlation between the two, suggesting that systemic change is a practice that would benefit already marginalized students. Sullivan, Artiles, & Hernandez-Saca provide a general address to dis-proportionality in school settings, recommending how to best benefit from a consultant when looking at a long term (5 year) restructure targeting systemic change in the special education process. In addition, they identify efforts to support the reduction of dis-proportionality, resolutions schools can apply systematically to combat dis-proportionality, and they also make suggestions around reshaping school systems which shape disparities put into place by the school itself.
 
Systemic change is a HUGE task and calls for comprehensive vertical reform of perspectives, policies, and practices, which could prompt a shift towards reflecting, rethinking, and restructuring oppressive systems. Equity, vision and philosophy of education, stakeholder involvement, professional collaboration, resource allocation, and curriculum, instruction and assessment which support diverse learning are noted as imperative components of systemic change. It is not an easy solution and it most definitely requires dedication and openness at every level over an extended period of time. However, there is belief that it is possible and necessary to eradicate the intersectionality and disparities for ethnic minority students who have also been identified as having a learning disability.
 
Take a look at this article to read about it in more depth!

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Blog Post Written By: Toshia Mears, Director of School Partnerships
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STAFF HIGHLIGHT: Arielle Kovacs

3/15/2019

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Name: Arielle Kovacs
Position: Education Specialist - I lead the collaborative student team at Lazear Charter Academy 
What led you to your current position?
I started my work with Seneca as a Mental Health Counselor (SSA/para educator) in a counseling enriched classroom for two years and developed an interest in the role of teacher. I liked the need for creativity and individualization that Special Education requires and I believe that fundamentally education does not work unless it works for all. I got my degree through the Seneca-LMU program and was placed in All-In program at ASCEND, I worked with a wide range of students and was able to grow my teaching skill a lot in that role but I did miss working with a smaller group of higher need students. At the current Lazear program I have a much smaller caseload and work on a larger team of adults holding students who have a wide variety of needs. In my current position I know that the students I work with would be in Special Day Classes (SDC's) or Counseling Enriched Classes (CEC's) if it weren't for the intentional, hard working attempt at full inclusion programs. 
Fun Fact/Quote: "It is our choices that show what we truly are far more than our abilities." - Dumbledore
What does your average day look like?
I spend between 70-80% of my every day with students. I frequently have collab meetings before school where I lead a team in info-sharing and brainstorming about shared students. Then I spend most of my morning with my 6/7th graders and most of my afternoon with my K-2 students. The students on my caseload get services from 2 other Ed specialists, 2 therapists, 4 SSAs (or para educators), speech pathologist and an occupational therapist, so I am also frequently doing fly-by check ins with other adults in between teaching. I’m never ever bored at work. 
Why do you do this work?
I believe that education is the most important and high leverage area of our current society where we can make sustainable, long term progress towards the world we collectively want to live in. When I began working in education it quickly became clear to me that the problems we as a country struggle with (environmentalism, mental health support, crime and punishment, segregation and discrimination, access to resource needs) begin and are replicated over and over in our schools. While working within education means playing a daily role in a system that I am not always proud of, I do this work to tip the scale a little every year closer to true equity and be a voice and advocate for those who are not getting the education that we all deserve. 

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STAFF GUEST POST: Being Mindful about Mindfulness

3/5/2019

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I wanted to share this article "Why Mindfulness and Trauma Informed Teaching don't Always Go Together". I think it is a great article but if you have no time here are the "take aways" - ​
  • Sometimes being asked to sit quietly with your eyes closed can be triggering. 
  • When teaching mindfulness, use the Lion/Dog metaphor to explain what mindfulness does and why it is an important practice: 
                          Lion/Dog metaphor - If you hold up a bone in front of a dog and move it side to side you will have that      dog's full attention - they see nothing past the bone. If you hold up a bone in front of a lion the lion will see  the bone but they will also see the human behind it meaning that they have a bigger picture and options of  what to eat/how to react. Mindfulness allows you to step back and see more than the bone (problem/emotion/situation). When students are able to see a bigger picture beyond just the frustration or target at hand they are able to have more agency and move in a more informed way. We all want to be lion-minded or "kings of our inner-jungle". 
  • Teachers practicing mindfulness and self care is the MOST IMPORTANT piece of being able to teach it to students - and there are some recs in there to support over worked staff - we have to practice what we preach
  • Practicing active listening and being a "predictable adult" are two of the hardest and most important ways to build relationships and safe/trusting environments with students which will allow them to trust in mindfulness or other personal growth activities.
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Blog Post Written By: Arielle Kovacs, Education Specialist at Lazear Charter Academy
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STAFF HIGHLIGHT: Laryonda Ward

3/5/2019

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Name: Laryonda Ward 
Your Position?  Clinical Intern at Lazear Charter Academy
 
What led you to your current position? 
Back in 2010, at the age of 17, I witnessed a close family member be murder and that lit a light up inside of me. This prompted my mother to take me to therapy, where the therapist wasn't helpful, so I took a vow that I would give back into the therapy world in order to ensure that I would provide my clients with everything that the therapist lacked while working with me. After I graduated from college in 2014 I got a position in Seneca as a Mental Health Counselor which I loved. As the years progressed clients would continuously make statements like "I wish you were my therapist". After hearing that so many times I decided it was time to elevate myself and obtain my MFT. 
 
Fun Fact/Quote? I come from a huge family I have 56 (and counting) first cousins on my mothers side alone.
 
What does your average day look like? An average day for me consist of therapy with clients, group work with clients, notes and documentation, and of course spending free time to connect with the other members school community. 
 
Why do you do this work?
As stated earlier I do this work because I want to provide clients with support to better navigate through life. Also due to my background growing up this work means a lot me. Growing up in Oakland I learned that often times the youth aren't receiving the proper care they need and we were over looked a lot. Being constantly overlooked made many of the people that I grew up with start to feel like there was no point in trying. After witnessing multiple people be murdered constantly this became a norm in our community, but because it was so normalized often times people were't even given the space to mourn. There are a handful of problems that people in the Lower Class face so my goal is to simply provide them the help that I can provide and connect them with their community resources. 

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