Blog Archives - UNCONDITIONAL EDUCATION

UNCONDITIONAL EDUCATION

STAFF HIGHLIGHT

10/27/2016

Name: Jeff Pitts
Position: Behavior Support Specialist, Cox Academy

What lead you to your current position?
Before Seneca I worked for a NPO where I taught swim lessons and coached a swim team in the North Bay. After I graduated college I wanted to keep working with kids but wanted to focus on kids who needed support accessing their academics. After six years of working in several different positions and settings I now work at Cox Academy as the Behavior Support Specialist.

Fun fact or quote:
People may doubt what you say, but they will always believe what you do.

What does your average day look like?
Everyday is different. I may be working with the dean of students around supporting particular needs of our student community, delivering professional development around behavioral intervention, supporting a student in crisis or facilitating a family meeting.

Why do you do this work?
I believe it to be meaningful. I am also a person who is drawn to a challenge and work with a great team who are very passionate and do great work. I started doing this work because ALL kids deserve to have someone who believes in their ability to succeed. I stay doing the work in order to create supportive structures for all students while supporting a strong team to develop a culture of change and empathetic care.

What hope do you have for the future of All-In?
I hope that our vision for students who have been historically misunderstood can be shared with communities in the Bay Area and beyond. I also hope that our leadership and professional development around student support is something that is able to be held by other schools and professionals working in the field outside of our agency so that we can create long-term sustainable change in our communities and education as a whole.

STAFF HIGHLIGHT

10/27/2016

Name: Amber White
Position: Behavioral Support Specialist, Achieve Academy

What lead you to your current position?
After graduating with my Masters in Behavioral Health I was looking for a position to apply the skills and knowledge I left the program with. I wanted to be challenged in my next role and really be a driver of change. The BSS position sounded like the perfect fit and I was even more excited and proud to get started once I met my team!

Fun fact or quote:
I still sleep with a favorite blanket that I've had since I was born.

What does your average day look like?
Getting to work is never the same. I am often met with a challenge or dilemma to tackle everyday that impacts the plans I have for any given day. So, my day on average is spent prioritizing the needs of students, staff, and collaborating with service providers to ensure I am always putting the success of our kids first!

Why do you do this work?
I LOVE it, I love coming to work and learning with the kids and I am always so humbled and pleased to respond to kids when they're proud or excited to share things with me about their experiences. I enjoy being challenged and pushed every day and knowing that I am serving such a delicate and diverse community that has so much to offer. My appreciation for the things that I have learned about myself and my identity is all owed to the work that I do and the families that I serve.

What hope do you have for the future of All-In?
All-in, all over! All-in is such a brilliant and inclusive program and its purpose and potential are so vast! I hope that the success spreads and continues to become a reality all through out the country.

SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: EPIC

10/27/2016

Team EPIC: Getting High School Ready

Epic is a science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) school offering a unique educational experience to all students.

As part of their inclusion model, Epic’s Academic Intervention Specialist, Robyn Collignon, has developed a high school readiness program designed to support Epic’s 8th grade graduating class of 2017, specifically those with Individualized Education Plans (IEP’s). Studies suggest that only 63% of students identified as having a disability graduate from high school- this graduation rate being roughly 20% lower than the national average; thus making the need for this type of program essential for the students and families we serve. In order to curb this trend for students with disabilities, Team Epic is helping students feel empowered in their educational journeys, get excited about this chapter in their educational careers, build their life skills, and develop their self-advocating skills to increase participation in their IEP meetings. Learning targets for each student include:

The group currently includes 8th grade students with IEP’s. They meet twice a month, and so far students have created goals for themselves and built culture in the small group through team building activities. Future events include visiting Impact Academy and Mt Eden High School in Hayward on November 4th, and having a high school senior guest speaker from Lighthouse Community Charter School come and speak to the students to answer their questions in mid November.

Blog post written by:
Toshia Mears, Director of School Partnerships

Code Next: Children of Color Need Science Too!

10/26/2016

Currently, the tech industry is another industry notoriously dominated by white men and woman. For example, according to Google’s latest diversity report, Google has a staff population inclusive of just 2% Blacks and 3% of Hispanics. These statistics are commensurate with the diverse representation of employees at the average tech company in Silicon Valley.

Realizing the disproportionality within their own company, and connecting that with the 51% of Black students and 47% of Latino students who don’t have access to computer science classes in school, Google decided to officially launch Code Next near the Fruitvale District in OAKLAND! Code Next is a computer science lab designed specifically to offer young Black and Latino students interested in computer science and technology the opportunity to learn more. Through Code Next curriculum, developed in partnership with MIT’s Media Lab, students will be able to learn how to code, participate in hands-on activities and expose themselves to computer language processing in after-school and weekend programs. Code Next will support students through high school and help them get into college. Once they graduate from college, students will have the choice to opt in to the tech industry. The program is FREE to attend, but students must be nominated by their school and/or non-profit organizations like Black Girls Code.

Take a look at the article to learn more about this amazing opportunity for students and families we support in our neighborhood communities!

Blog post written by:
Toshia Mears, Director of School Partnerships

STAFF HIGHLIGHT

10/20/2016

Name: Razy B. Garcia-Sanchez
Position: Academic Intervention Specialist for TK – 3rd Grade at Achieve Academy

What led you to your current position?
Firstly, I have always enjoyed working with children and families. Also, my parents always instilled in me a love for learning and so I’ve always gravitated towards teaching as a profession. However, what specifically got me here is that I’ve been fortunate to have had many mentors and leaders who took the time to guide me – many folks who believed in me and saw potential in me I didn’t always see in myself. I have been blessed with many opportunities and the proper support to grow professionally and expand my experience in public education. I have been at the right place, at the right time, with the right people, and given the support I’ve needed to yes and with the help of others, make things happen.

Quote: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

What does your average day look like?
Emails, staff check-ins, team meetings, IEP meetings, making student learning tools, laminating them, collaboration, scheduling, and best of all, learning with students and building relationships with families.

Why do you do this work?
I am still trying to find the exact words to describe why I come to work every day. What I do know, is that I hope to serve students and families the way many educators served my own life, and the life of my family. I hope to disconfirm internal working models every day to empower students and their families, especially those who experience systematic oppression and other forms of inequality, discrimination, trauma, and disadvantage.

What hope do you have for the future of All-In?
I hope that in the future, the values of All-In! become a norm across education. At All-In!, I have been taught to serve our communities through student and family centered values and practices. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned with Seneca’s All-In! Program is that we are only as effective as how well we serve our students and families in most need.

STAFF GUEST POST: Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain

10/20/2016

At our last Academic Strand meeting, our team discussed and examined the importance of Cultural Competence and Cultural Humility in our work as educators. I believe strongly in the importance of such work as a white male who operates in an education (and societal and economic and legal) system that was created and maintained to benefit people like me. In my role as an Academic Intervention Specialist, I work primarily with students, families, and educators who have cultural and neurologically diverse intersections different than my own. It’s essential for me to engage in culturally competent and responsive practices as much as possible. One resource that has shaped my beliefs on these practices is the book Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain, by local educator and author Zaretta Hammond.

In her book, Hammond brilliantly connects culturally responsive pedagogy with the neuroscience of learning. She takes time to explain how the different sections of the brain have an effect on learning and are affected by culture. A particularly engaging section breaks culture down into three components: surface culture, shallow culture, and deep culture. She explains to the reader to “Think of culture as software for the brain’s hardware.” Hammond explains culture even further in the modern sociopolitical context. This deep analysis of culture is then tied to strategies for teachers to activate students’ capabilities in learning, cognition, and higher order thinking. She describes a culturally responsive teacher as one who can transition students from dependent to independent learners. This kind of teacher is grounded as a learning partner with students and is their ally in education.

Hammond’s ideal culturally responsive teacher is the “Warm Demander,” one who is at the cross-section between “Active Demandingness” and “Personal Warmth” with the following attributes:

Engaging in resources like this book is assisting my growth towards being the culturally responsive teacher I feel our students and families deserve. This growth is made exponential by being part of an All-In! team of educators and service providers who are committed to culturally competent and responsive practices.

I hope you are able to get a copy of Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain and are able to take a deeper dive into the culturally responsive teaching brain based practices that Hammond advocates. In the meantime, I have shared a few articles from Zaretta Hammond herself within the same field of study:

If you have any other resources on Culturally Responsive Teaching (or Education) please feel free to share below.

Blog post written by:
Alan Ellis, Academic Intervention Specialist

ACADEMIC STRAND UPDATE: How Are We "Supporting Dependent Learners to Become Independent Thinkers"?

10/20/2016

October’s Diversity & Inclusion topic of the month, Cultural Competence and Cultural Humility, led me to grab a book off of my bookshelf at home. Darrell recommended this resource to me when it came out last year, and our guest blogger, Alan, coincidentally focused on this same resource in his blog post this week! But I’d like to echo the recommendation of Zaretta Hammond’s work, and particularly this book: Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students.

In the first chapter, “Climbing Out of the Gap: Supporting Dependent Learners to Become Independent Thinkers,” Hammond highlights the teaching and learning gap that exists between culturally and linguistically diverse students and their white, English-speaking peers. Ms. Hammond does not specifically speak to students with disabilities, but we know that diverse learning styles compound the challenges of culturally and linguistically diverse students in our education system – and I encourage us to keep this in mind as we reflect on our current practice and possible ways to grow and improve our practice.

“Classroom studies document the fact that underserved English learners, poor students, and students of color routinely receive less instruction in higher order skills development than other students. Their curriculum is less challenging and more repetitive. Their instruction is more focused on skills low on Bloom’s taxonomy. This type of instruction denies students the opportunity to engage in what neuroscientists call productive struggle that actually grows our brainpower. As a result, a disproportionate number of culturally and linguistically diverse students are dependent learners” (p.12-13).

...So what can we do about it? Hammond’s Ready for Rigor Framework organizes the high-priority components of our work with students that build the environment to support students to be more independent, self-directed learners. These are the areas where we need to build our capacity as educators in order to better support diverse learners. What I know about our team is that we build strong relationships and connections with students, and create safe spaces for learning. Here’s what I wonder…

If so, what conditions or factors help/allow us to do so? If not, what holds us back? In what ways could we do this better or more consistently?

I invite you all to add comments to share your reflections, suggestions, questions, and experiences.

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

STAFF HIGHLIGHT

10/13/2016

Name: Anna Scaiano
Position: Unconditional Education Coach at Verde Elementary

What led you to your current position?
Before I got my MSW, I spent a long time working in high school education redesign, which got me more and more interested in how our systems of education are failing our kids. I decided to pursue my MSW at UC Berkeley so I could more deeply dig into these issues and figure out ways to better to help students achieve their full potential. After I graduated, I was looking for a position that would let me work at a systems-level, but also directly with kids – being a UE coach was exactly what I was looking for!

Fun Fact
The only time I ever got sent to the Principal’s office when I was in school was in third grade, and it was because Raven Symone was in my class and I asked for her autograph.

What does your average day look like?
My main role is to support Tier I interventions at Verde Elementary, and that looks a little different each day. I work with the Principal and the Vice Principal to implement programs, I work with our student support team to build success plans for students, I train teachers and staff members on different strategies for supporting students and implementing PBIS in the classroom, and I help students deal with conflict.

Why do you do this work?
I do this work because I was given a lot of opportunities in life based on where I was born and the color of my skin, and so many people are not afforded those same opportunities. I love working with kids, and I truly believe that schools are our best intervention points for stopping systemic inequities. Every person deserves a quality education, and I’m thankful to be in a position where I can help work towards that every day.

What hope do you have for the future of All-In?
Growth! I love the Unconditional Education model, and I hope we can implement it at more and more schools each year.

SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: ASCEND

10/13/2016

ASCEND went through an extensive re-visioning and design process during the 2015-2016 school year. It was important to us and to current stakeholders to create a shared vision that was representative of the folks in the building. Therefore, ASCEND developed a new guiding statement and actionable values that speak to both habits of work and learning:

One of the foci this school year has been on the Habits of Work and Learning (HOWLs) and intentional character development. One area where this work is highlighted is during daily Crew sessions. Crew is the intentional time where we build relationships, collaborate and learn social and emotional skills to create a strong character, community, and citizenry. The purpose of Crew is that each student is known well by at least one adult within the school. Crew introduces and reinforces the Habits of Work and Learning (HOWLs).

Crew provides each student a one-to-one relationship with an adult advisor at the school, as well as a consistent and ongoing small-scale peer community. Advisors monitor and support student progress, serve as the student’s advocate in difficult academic and social situations, and act as the primary contact point between parents and the school. Crew meetings are frequently used for teambuilding exercises and for group discussions on topical issues. These exercises and discussions help establish Crew identity and a positive school culture.

Crew has a strong academic focus on the goal of developing life-long learners. This goal, while primarily addressed in academic classes, has a special home in Crew. Crew time can be used for literacy skills and structured discussions based on current events or book studies. Advisors utilize readers’ workshops and other practices that hone students’ ability to apply reading comprehension strategies to progressively more challenging texts.

Blog post written by:
Sonya Benavides, Unconditional Education Coach

STAFF GUEST POST: Making the Case for Creativity

10/13/2016

“Creative thinking inspires ideas. Ideas inspire change."
- Barbara Januszkiewicz

In the education field, ideas and change are kind of our “thing”, right? And creative thinking is abundant in young minds, but to keep creative thinking inspiring ideas and change, creative thinking must be nurtured. By building the capacity of students to think creatively, we can help them become more motivated and engaged learners. Creative thinking, which strengthens problem solving skills, helps students become better prepared for life beyond the classroom. As Laura Preble, author of the article “Teachers Must Encourage Student Creativity”, puts it: “Ultimately, creativity not only improves those pesky test scores, but it also contributes to what should be our ultimate goal as educators: inspiring students to become curious, engaged, and interested in the world around them and within them.”

What is Creativity? What is Creativity Not?

Creativity is not just for the arts. It is not just for the right side of your brain. It is not something that some people have and others never will. It is something that spans across all content areas, utilizes both the left and right sides of the brain, and it is something we are all capable of. We have to believe this for ourselves, and then help students understand this so that they can begin, or start again to believe that they are creative thinkers. Helping students understand that creativity is accessible to them - that every idea doesn’t have to be some spectacular one-of-a-kind revelation - will encourage them to be more engaged and motivated in creative thinking activities.

What Does Creativity Look Like in the Classroom?

Once students believe that they can be creative, there are many different ways adults can cultivate creative thinking with students. Here are some key recommendations from Sparking Student Creativity (Drapeau, 2014):

provide a safe environment
support unusual ideas
provide choice
utilize creative strategies and techniques
encourage multiple solutions
incorporate novelty
provide constructive feedback
model creative thinking
utilize hands-on, small-group, problem-based learning

For more detailed, in-depth recommendations, these are some great resources are:

Teaching for Creativity: Two Dozen Tips from the Center of Development & Learning
The Creativity Roadmap: a tool from Sparking Student’s Creativity that “guides the process of intentionally integrating creative instruction with content”
Librarian Approved: 30 Ed-Tech Apps to Inspire Creativity and Creation from KQED’s MindShift
20 Ideas to Promote More Creativity in Your Classroom from Fusion Yearbooks
Developing Students' Creative Skills for 21st Century Success from ASCD’s Education Update
10 Hands-on Exercises to Spark Student Creativity and Innovation by Charles Wood, Ph.D

Another great resource is your fellow All-In! team members! We’d love to hear from anyone willing to share. What are some ways, big or small, that you encourage creativity in or outside of the classroom?

Blog post written by:
MK Morrison, Associate Project Manager