Blog Archives

NY Times: A Conversation on Race

4/25/2018

Over the last few months, the New York Times website has posted a series of short documentary- style videos in a new section titled A Conversation on Race . Each mini documentary offer viewers a brief and insightful glimpse into the lives of American people and their unique perspectives on race. The videos are intended to jumpstart conversations about how we see ourselves, how other people see us, and how we absorb and interpret the worlds we live in.

Most recently, I shared a video titled “A Conversation with Latinos on Race” at an All-In! Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion group meeting. Watching this video, and listening to the narratives of each person being interviewed allowed our group the opportunity to share, discuss, and relate to one another over topics of race and identity that are not easy to navigate.
I invite educators, mental health providers, those who are looking for new perspectives, or folks who want to open up a healthy conversation on race, equity, and inclusion to explore.

A Conversation on Race includes videos such as:

A Conversation about Growing up Black
A Conversation with White People on Race
A Conversation with Asian-Americans on Race
A Conversation with Black Women on Race
A Conversation with My Black Son
And many more!

Blog Post Written by:
Lulu Gonzalez, Program Assistant

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Staff Highlight

4/25/2018

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Name: Danielle Saporta
Position: Clinical Intervention Specialist

What led you to your current position?
I studied psychology and dance in college and found out there was an emerging field—Dance Therapy. At this same time, I was working with a child with Autism and realized I had to get really creative in my approach in order to engage him in a social way. I loved this so much, I began studying the intersections between psychology and art and found I had a deep love of combining that work with hanging out with kids. After college, I worked in a group home for teenage girls and got no training, feeling extremely ineffective in working with kids with trauma. I wasn’t sure where to go, but knew I wanted to get better training and return to the mental health field feeling like I was able to respond in a more helpful way. I left, working instead at a school for kids with severe Autism and getting trained in Applied Behavior Analysis. I loved the work and learned a ton, but still felt that I couldn’t be as impactful and creative as I wanted to be in that position. I found the Expressive Arts Therapy program at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and it felt like home. As I learned, I kept feeling like I wanted to go back to working in schools with kids and I found Seneca and immediately applied. I wound up in All-In and started at Cox Academy during my Practicum year at CIIS. The more I studied and worked, the more I fell in love with working with kids with trauma, seeing this as the most vital work that has the ability to create a far greater impact than I had anticipated.

Fun Fact/Quote?
"I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel. Life is art." - Helen Bonham Carter

What does your average day look like? Coffee, emails, out-of-the-box ideas, coffee, spill coffee on shirt, art, sports, feelings, meetings, art, feelings, lunch, feelings, art, feelings, art, notes?, meetings, meetings, meetings. Not always in that particular order.

Why do you do this work? I believe that social justice and positive change begin on the individual level. People are wounded in relationship and they heal in relationship. I think the starting place for healing is by allowing people to feel seen, heard, and held. I also strongly believe in early intervention and in the power of teamwork--I love working in a school with partners who also impact my clients’ lives, and who spend a lot more time with them than I do. I think that we can be a stronger force of change and goodness when we work together with common goals and a foundation of love and intent to understand as much as we can about the child, their family, and the circumstances which have caused them to need more support.

What hope do you have for the future of All-In? More growth/upward mobility opportunities for clinical staff. And for us to create more sustainability at our sites, so that when our contracts end, the school is strong enough to continue Unconditional Education on their own.

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Staff Highlight

4/23/2018

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Name: Claudia Martinez
Position: Speech-Language Pathology Aide and SCAI Manager

What led you to your current position? When I was the Program Assistant for All -In, I felt the need to find a purpose of than auditing IEPs and scheduling meetings. After shadowing special education teachers, school psychologists, and speech therapists at several school sites, I knew that speech therapy was for me! I love the fact that speech therapists provide therapy that target their speech and language goals all while playing games and having fun (not to mention the kids don’t even realize they are strengthening their skills) all within a short period of time. After realizing I would need to go back to school to take classes in speech therapy, I was determined to find work that would allow me to not only apply the theories and skills I was learning in classes, but also reinforce that my career switch is worth the all-nighters! All-In! has been supportive with this and has allowed me to work closely with Yoko (our lovely Lead SLPA) and LaTisha (SLP) as their Speech-Language Aide at their school sites that range from Transitional Kindergarten to High School students. Once I am done with my licensing program, the hope is to transition to an SLPA.

Fun Fact/Quote? I have been dancing Mexican folklore for 20 years! Because of dance, I have been able to meet so many people, learned so much about myself, and have traveled to different places to perform. Here is an action picture!

What does your average day look like?
Every day is different! I am located at different school sites so my day depends on what day of the week it is. I usually start at one school, set up my materials and supervision, grab the student, work with them for 30 minutes and send them off to class. I then grab the other student, work with them and send them back! Then I’m off to the next school!

When I am able to stay at one school site, I usually grab speech materials which can range from worksheets, board games, sentence strips, and tongue depressors to set up for the sessions I have for the day and then it’s off to grab the students! Depending on what the student is working on, we could be working on them being able to produce a sound, incorporating sign language with their verbal communication, using complete sentences or working on how to deal with their stutter. Once they are done with their session, I provide them with stickers and send them off to class so I can grab the next group of students. All this is happening while LaTisha supervising me during therapy sessions and I’m taking data on how the child did during the session! In between sessions, I help print IEP documents, connect with teachers and other service providers about their students, prepare materials (laminating is a must!), and entering data in Apricot. Every day is different and can get very challenging but it’s all worth it when the you finally hear your student say “Okay” instead of “Otay” when talking to their friends.

Here is a picture of one of my activities I prepped for my student who is working on her /l/ sound production!

Why do you do this work? I do this work in order to work closer to a community that I can connect with, despite the hour commute I do every day. When I began working in the schools, I realized many Spanish speaking families are under-represented and find it difficult to connect with educators on campus, especially within Special Education. I felt the need to continue to work within this community so help advocate for their needs and be able to connect with them linguistically and culturally. Bilingual speech therapists are rare to come by and my hope of when I am licensed, I can help children not be diagnosed with Specific Language Impairments but rather with a language difference and continue to work with students on their speech and language needs.

What hope do you have for the future of All-In? I would like to see All-In! open up its own charter school and expand to the Tri-Valley area! It would be amazing to see all staff who work there follow the same model and have the same vision for our students.

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Finding Joy at Work

4/23/2018

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The article 5 Ways to Spark Joy at Work, from the Live Happy website, provides 5 ideas that have been shown to increase joy at work. They are:

Helping others
Giving and receiving recognition
Making friends
Feeling a sense of accomplishment
Working with a team

The work we do can be so demanding and our days so full that we can end up feeling drained. It was interesting to read the above list in thinking about the work. On those days that are especially taxing, it has most certainly been one or more of these points that have given me the stamina and endurance to continue.

For me, joy and hope are closely connected. When my hope quotient is low, I struggle to find joy. When I am more joyous, hope stays at the forefront. I feel lucky to work for an organization and specifically this program, which prioritizes joy.

Where do you find joy? How does joy show up for you, in this work? How can you share your joy with others on your team?

Blog Post Written by:
Celina Zins, Director of School Partnerships

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Staff Highlight

4/16/2018

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Name: Jenna Evans
Position: Unconditional Education Coach

What led you to your current position?
I began my educational career as a third-grade teacher in St. Louis Missouri. Before teaching, I always knew that I wanted to go to graduate school for school social work and knew that having experience in the classroom would make me a better resource to my teacher colleagues. After two great years in St. Louis, I moved to Minneapolis, where I completed my graduate studies in social work at the University of Minnesota, and worked a school social worker at Whittier Elementary School.
When I was looking at relocating to the Bay Area, I came across Seneca’s Unconditional Education Program. I read “Unconditional Care” by Sprinson and Berrick and started to implement what I had learned into my role as a school social worker. When I saw the opening for a UE coach position, I knew it was a perfect fit! I am honored to be in the position to serve an elementary school supported by so many resources and great talent.

Fun Fact/Quote?
I can talk with my mouth closed (kind of like an amateur ventriloquist).

What does your average day look like?
I am an early riser! I wake up well before 6AM so that I can spend time with my family before going to work. Then I hop on my bike to school. The ride and the cool morning air help clear my mind and relax my body. When I get to work, I start with emails and then preparing for groups. My office is located right by one of the school’s entrances, so I leave my door open to greet staff as they come in. By some stroke of luck, one of my first morning duties is holding the kindergarten door. I love to imagine adults entering their work buildings with the joy that kindergartners enter our school building! After this, all days look different with a common element: creating and refining standing school systems as well as managing social emotional, behavioral, and mental health services for students. I spend time conducting social skills groups with students, facilitating school team meetings, and problem solving with staff and students.
After school, I bike to my baby’s daycare and pick her up to enjoy some downtime as a family. My partner is a wonderful cook and I love a good book before an early bedtime, which is a great combo!

Why do you do this work?
Holding the stories of our students and their families is both an honor and a gift. When I read this question, faces of students, parents, co-workers flashed through my head. Through this work, I have learned and grown so much from all the various people I have met whether it be co-workers, students, families or community members. I do this work because I believe that schools can be one of the biggest agents of change in a person’s life. I believe that a good education is a right for all students.

What hope do you have for the future of All-In?
All – In is very data driven, this is one of my many favorite things about the program. I would love it if we could develop and package an “All-in” social emotional data system that we could share with schools all over the country. In the meantime, I hope that we continue to check back with schools that we have exited out of for feedback on how to keep the program working even after Seneca leaves.

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The Hidden Benefits of Handiwork

4/16/2018

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One of the founding tenets of occupational therapy includes the use of crafts and activities of daily living to support and enhance physical and cognitive function. Whether a client is a child born premature with developmental delays, or an adult who experiences injury due to a stroke or accident, incorporating crafts and games promote left/right brain function, motor coordination, planning and sequencing skills, and improve ability to sustain attention.

Incorporating therapeutic activities that are client-centered and promote functional motor skills so a client can function as independently as possible in their daily life is incredibly gratifying. As an occupational therapist, I have observed clients with attention deficits and learning differences gain independence with self-care tasks (such as adaptive cooking and dressing) with the right visual supports and scaffolding in place. One client who struggled with daily transitions appeared to benefit from preparing breakfast for himself upon arrival to school. In addition to increasing his sense of self-efficacy, the predictable and familiar motor task of stirring the ingredients together often appeared to produce a calming and modulating effect. Another client with fine motor delays developed adequate strength and coordination to cut with scissors, and created a birthday card for a peer in his classroom. This task promoted functional eye-hand coordination, but in a holistic way, as his finished craft was gifted to a friend.

From an occupational therapist perspective, it is always encouraging to come across recent news articles which reinforce the many benefits of these types of therapeutic interventions! Read on to learn more about how even the mundane daily tasks have both physical and psychological advantages.

Blog Post Written by:
Marika Minczeski, Occupational Therapist

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New Social-Emotional Competencies for Teacher Credentialing, and Resources to Support

4/16/2018

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Often times in our work supporting schools on behavioral initiatives like reducing disproportionality among office referrals or other exclusionary discipline practices, we provide professional development to teachers on topics like trauma-informed education, culturally responsive teaching, or implicit bias. In the past, these subjects weren’t required (or even offered) in many teacher training and credentialing programs, and I’ve heard many staff wonder (and have definitely thought to myself): “Wouldn’t it make sense if they were?”

Well, good news folks! I recently learned on a 4CA webinar that, back in 2016, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing adopted major revisions to the standards and expectations for administrator and teacher preparation programs across the state. These revisions overhaul the previous standards by adding required content on the mental health and social-emotional wellbeing of students—including expectations related to trauma, culturally responsive teaching, restorative justice, racism, and implicit bias. There are even new standards around school climate and the role of multi-tiered systems of support, which are cornerstones of the UE model. All in all, the fact that all teachers and administrators will receive training on these UE-aligned topics as a part of their credentialing process should feel like a really exciting step for all of us who have worked to bring this work and mindset into schools.

To support programs in adopting these standards, the Center for Leadership Equity and Research (CLEAR) has compiled a ton of great resources on each of these topics. Although these are technically intended for teacher and admin training programs, many of these are resources that any of us could pick up and easily use in our day to day work—even if only to share with teachers and admin at your school. For reference, I’ve linked in CLEAR’s pages for some of our most relevant topics, which I hope can be helpful to you.

Resource Links for:

Blog Post Written by:
Sean Murphy, Assistant Director of Program Assessment and Evaluation

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Welcome

NY Times: A Conversation on Race

Staff Highlight

Staff Highlight

Finding Joy at Work

Staff Highlight

The Hidden Benefits of Handiwork

New Social-Emotional Competencies for Teacher Credentialing, and Resources to Support

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