UNCONDITIONAL EDUCATION
  • Blog
  • About Us
    • Our Model
    • Our Leadership Team
    • Press
    • Contact Us
  • News + Resources
    • News You Can Use
    • Resources
  • Unconditional Education Book

Welcome

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

​You can click the button below to learn more about our Unconditional Education and School Based Services!

OUR UE MODEL AND SERVICES

STAFF HIGHLIGHT: Joshua Suman

10/30/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Name: Joshua Suman
Position: Student Support Counselor – Seattle Public Schools (Madrona Elementary)
 
What led you to your current position?  I was led to Seneca and this position by a deep commitment to supporting equitable access to high-quality education. My history working with and volunteering in service of young people has provided valuable context in this role, which is the most rewarding I have had during my professional career!
 
Fun Fact/Quote:  I have two Jack Russell Terriers – one is blind and the other has only one eye…And they are happy, energetic, and mischievous!
 
What does your average day look like? I am fortunate to arrive at Madrona every morning to a chorus of greetings from our excitable and friendly students! I have a small group of students I meet with in the morning for a daily check-in – we discuss social skills; conflict resolution; emotional responsiveness; and the importance of having a strong network of adult and peer allies.
 
I provide student support throughout the day in a variety of capacities and in a number of contexts. Our students face immense challenges in many areas of their lives. Through strong, trusting relationships with students, I am able to better serve their immediate and long term emotional, academic, social, and physiological needs – as well as provide wraparound support for their family, as appropriate. Family support also comes in a variety of forms – food backpack distribution in conjunction with a local nonprofit for low-income families; assisting families experiencing homelessness navigate the parameters of McKinney-Vento; facilitating holiday meal and gift distribution for families in need; and working with Seattle Public Schools to source and disseminate available resources to support these students in school and at home.
 
One crucial aspect of my work is communication – with students, teachers, and parents, as well as building and district administrators and consultants. I regularly meet with teachers outside of class time to conceptualize strategies and delivery methods to support students in class; download about previous resets out of the classroom; and maintain a strong sense of the pulse and culture of the classroom and school at-large.
 
At the end of each day, our students leave me filled with a sense of satisfaction and purpose that is unmatched in any other line of work I have experienced!
 
Why do you do this work?  This work is rewarding beyond belief; challenging in a way that necessitates innovation and growth; and provides a positive resource for the students and families most in need. I am fortunate to have found in Seneca an organization that mirrors my values and allows me to pursue my passion for serving youth while fostering professional development.
 
What hope do you have for the future of our program?  I am excited to be part of Seneca’s present and look forward to the many inspiring and innovative ways we will change the face of education in the years and decades to come. In particular, I look forward to seeing Seneca integrate our values and the model of Unconditional Education throughout SPS – providing exponentially greater support for some of our most vulnerable students and families.

Picture
0 Comments

SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Dearborn Park International School

10/26/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
Picture
Dearborn Park International School (k-5) serves students in the heart of Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. As part of Seneca’s expanding partnership with Seattle Public Schools, a Student Support Counselor was placed at the school in Fall of 2017.
​
With an enrollment of about 400 students, Dearborn Park takes seriously it’s responsibility to provide every student with an excellent, holistic education. Dearborn is a dual-language emersion school which embeds Spanish, Mandarin, and English into instruction. As one of the most diverse schools in Seattle, students at Dearborn come from families representing over 25 unique languages and cultures.  About 70% of students at Dearborn come from low-income families, and about 40% are English Language Learners. Dearborn is a school where joy is always in the air, families and community members are active and engaged, and staff care deeply about the students they serve.

Picture
Seneca’s partnership with Dearborn began with a full-time Student Support Counselor focused on carrying out the reset procedure- helping students who are experiencing behavioral challenges, in the moment, to regulate emotions, reflect, restore relationships, and reintegrate into classrooms. With support from Seneca staff, these Tier II and Tier III behaviors became less frequent and shorter in duration. This reduction in reactive interventions provides a powerful opportunity in Seneca school partnerships – focus can shift to proactive PBIS-informed approaches (check-in/check-outs, reward systems, behavior plans etc) for individual students. It also enables Seneca staff to be key resources in systems changes at both the classroom and school-wide level.
​
One powerful support that Seneca has been prioritizing with its SPS partners (including Dearborn) is focusing on the Teacher-Student relationship. Research has consistently shown that the relationship between a student and their teacher is one of the greatest factors in student success. This is sometimes referred to as the invisible classroom – “a collection of continuously active neurological and human connections that have an immense effect on learning but little to do with the actual content of the lesson (Olson, 2014).” It is what exists beyond competencies and test scores – it is the behavioral, emotional, and rational elements that create a contextual, safe, and caring environment in which learning occurs for all students. Teachers, more than any other adult in a school building, have the power to create these environments. By closely partnering with teachers and doing in-class proactive work with individual students, Seneca staff play an active role at Dearborn (and other schools) to work towards positive invisible classrooms. These efforts create sustainability, key to the mission of Seneca’s Unconditional Education model.
Picture
Picture
Blog Post Written By: Adam Campbell, Director of School Partnerships
1 Comment

SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Learning Without Limits

10/23/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
Picture
Learning Without Limits is a K-5 school in the Fruitvale neighborhood in Oakland that believes strongly in the balance between constructivist learning and knowledge-based learning using culturally relevant pedagogy. Students attending Learning Without Limits are empowered with the academic skills and character traits necessary to succeed in college and beyond. The teachers and staff help students grow into leaders who care about their peers and who are able to act in support of what they believe in.  

Students and their families are a part of a community where relationships are nurtured and student growth is a collaborative effort, and their actual vision statement was written by founding families and teachers (they chant it as a whole-school community every morning).
 
We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us as we grow into leaders, who are passionate and care about making our world better. We are equipped with skills and knowledge, filled with curiosity and we know that even when we face challenges, we will achieve!


Picture
Learning Without Limits is leading a visioning around inclusion, which secures opportunities for students with disabilities to learn alongside their non-disabled peers in general education classrooms. This work is being led by Katie Ruffman, former Senecan and LWL's MTSS Lead/Sped Admin.  Katie has always had strong leadership with a critical lens of how SPED can be more inclusive across the school community. Along with still holding a caseload of students, Katie (sped teacher) works alongside the gen-ed teacher supporting LWL's first true inclusive classroom utilizing the co-teaching model!
Picture
The purpose of co-teaching in inclusive classes is not to double the content knowledge of the instructors. The purpose is to figure out ways to meet the needs of the students in the room in a way different than what has been tried and was unsuccessful in the past. Co-teaching is meant to provide specialized services to students with disabilities in regular classrooms, while ensuring they also get access to the same academic material as their peers.
Some notable advantages of co-teaching include:
  • Increased adult attention to students, since co-taught lessons can reduce the teacher-to-student ratio.
  • Shared expertise among two or more teachers.
  • Shared responsibility for instruction and management.
  • Increased opportunity to differentiate for student needs.
  • All students can benefit from the additional supports, resources, and diversity in the classroom.
  • Stronger, more creative, lessons due to teachers sharing the planning process with each other.
Want to learn a little more about co-teaching. Check out this quick reading resource.
Picture
Blog Post Written By: Toshia Mears, Director of School Partnerships
1 Comment

STAFF HIGHLIGHT: Ashley Crittendon

10/23/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Name:  Ashley Crittendon
Your Position? Behavior Support Specialist (BSS) at Learning Without Limits
 
What led you to your current position? When I worked at Cox in 2015, I was a lead SSA where I would train incoming SSAs before they would be sent off to their various school sites. After my first year working as an SSA at Learning without Limits in 2016, a BSS position became available, so Darrell Burns, whom was my supervisor at the time, encouraged me to apply for the position.  I repeatedly told Darrell I wasn't interested, and with much push and encouragement from him, but more push than encouragement, I decided to apply and was chosen to work as a BSS at my home site Learning without Limits since August of 2017.
 
Fun Fact/Quote? "Success is no accident.  It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do." -Pele 
 
What does your average day look like? I support kids in four different classrooms in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade throughout the day and I support at lunch and recess where I play kickball and or basketball with students.  I finish the day off by doing documentation (mental health notes and Apricot), collaboration meetings with my students' support teams, or supervision with my two SSAs on site. 
 
Why do you do this work? First of all, I love being around kids and watching them grow as individuals, but a lot of the students that we work with are hard work, so they often get pushed to the side and forgotten about.  I feel I can really be an advocate for these students and I want to be the support that they can depend on and continue to grow to the point where they can have a feeling of success and be able to be more self sufficient.  As Darrell says often, "We want to work our way out of a job" because there are many other people who can benefit from our support.   
 
What hope do you have for the future of our program? My hope is to continue to provide our clients and school partners with tools and various interventions to  help them build capacity to support students and their families, so that All-In can continue to broaden our relationships with other clients and school partners.  

Picture
0 Comments

STAFF HIGHLIGHT:  Jacqueline Leong-Abad

10/15/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Name: Jacqueline Leong-Abad
​
Position: Clinical intervention Specialist at Legacy Academy

What led you to your current position?  I was interested in working with younger kids to gain more experience with this age-group as I had previously been working with adolescents and adults.

Fun Fact/Quote? At one time, I had a pet wolf named Hunter. 

What does your average day look like? The average day at Legacy Academy can be a lot of pushing in and pulling out, based to the level of support needed by students and staff. There are days where I’m folding origami and playing card games to enhance a students social skills to conducting Risk Assessments and collaborating with a students and their outside providers team to support safety. Although this is the school’s freshman year, there have been various opportunities such as providing school-wide psycho-education to the teens, assessments, individual and family therapy, and art-based interventions.

Why do you do this work? I enjoy the creativity of kiddos and I learn something new from working with each person and their families. Every day is a new day and it can be so different from yesterday, which I appreciate. 

What hope do you have for the future of our program? I hope our program expands to provide groups (planning is underway).

Picture
0 Comments

SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT: Legacy Academy

10/8/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Legacy Academy was created by a group of people in Santa Clara County who have a deep understanding of  the needs of systems-involved youth. Marc Buller, the founder and CEO, was the Chief Assistant District Attorney who oversaw Juvenile Justice matters in San Jose. The board also includes a former director of Santa Clara County Mental Health, a mental health non-profit CEO, and a few former teachers/school leaders. This group of change-makers saw a lack of  supportive middle school environments that could adequately serve students who have had contact with the Juvenile Justice and/or Foster Care systems. Knowing that many of these youth would benefit from therapeutic supports, the board reached out to Seneca and heavily included our approach into their school model. Now, Seneca has the amazing opportunity to work with a dedicated team and co-design a supportive, therapeutic environment for adolescents.

When it comes to implementing our Unconditional Education model, Legacy Academy is a very different kind of campus. The school currently serves only 13 students, and most of them demonstrate at least some level of behavioral and socio-emotional need.  So how do we tailor our tiered mental health systems to serve this unique setting? We provide the same quality tier 1 supports, building out Legacy's PBIS system with Power, Purpose and Passion (the 3 P's) as their school-wide expectations. Staff constantly reward students for demonstrating the 3P's by handing out tickets that can be used to purchase items at the school store (snacks, free dress passes, dollar store items, etc). At the tier 2 level, we will be opening our first social skills groups this month. The talented Jacqueline Leong-Abad (also featured in the blog this week!) will be using her knowledge of DBT to support students in building emotional self-regulation skills in a small group setting. With 1.6 clinicians, we have been able to open 7 out of 13 students for Tier 3 services (i.e. individual and family therapy), and we will likely open 3 more in the next month. The 3 remaining students will be receive therapeutic services outside of school. We have a COST system where we can coordinate services and triage emerging needs, but most of the collaboration occurs in tier 3 meetings. Essentially, we have an inverted pyramid where the majority of students receive tier 3 supports.

Picture
As a brand new school and program, we definitely have our work cut out for us down at Legacy Academy. The majority of our students have experienced trauma and around half are in special education. While the needs stand out, so do the personalities. Our students are HILARIOUS. Nicknames are in full effect, and almost every student has one (Jimbo, Shorty, and Mango, just to name a few). The students are currently choosing a mascot, and they meet weekly with our fabulous SSAs, Matthew Kang and Samantha Adamson, to select items for their school store. As you can imagine, student voice is extremely important in this school community, and they have a LOT to say! Are you curious about our all-star program down in San Jose? Reach out to the amazing Jennifer Uribe-Sanchez or another member of our team to set up a visit!
Picture
Blog Post Written By: Jonathan Barnett, Director of School Partnerships
0 Comments

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT: Empathy in Relationships

10/8/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Many of us enter into this work due to a deep inner calling to create change in the world.  This impact can be realized through our direct interactions with students, families, teachers, administrators, and peers (just to name a few of the groups with whom we interface on a regular basis).  There is a unifying theme that emerges when we look at how change occurs: Relationship.

We may be able to easily empathize with some of the above mentioned groups whereas it is more challenging (maybe even triggering) to be asked to empathize with others.  This may be due to the nature of our roles, age, positionality with regards to power or oppression, or an unidentified reason.

Empathy is a central factor in building and maintaining relationships, especially with those we are experiencing conflict, disagreement or some other barrier for moving forward with a shared goal. However, without it, we may not be able to really connect with the other person, in order to re-ground in what is needed.  The article, “Why Empathy is Key for your Relationships”, from The HuffPost, describes 5 steps to building empathy to improve relationships.

It is through maintaining empathetic and authentic relationships that enables people to be open to addressing and moving through barriers.  There are many different situations in which relationship can support better outcomes for students: a student engaging in a behavioral intervention, a teacher implementing an accommodations, a dean using restorative practices, a parent providing feedback about an IEP, or a principal making certain decisions about resource allocation.  

I sometimes have the instinct to jump into problem-solving mode when working on school-wide dilemmas with school principals.  But almost every time, I am reminded that it is a balancing act of being able to move forward with strategic planning while at the same time holding space for folks to experience and process their emotional reaction to the situation at hand; to empathize with them, to slow the process down.  

Picture
When people experience validation and empathy they are better able to move out of reactionary decisions being made.  When people feel held, they are able to view a situation or dilemma from a different perspective. If I am not able to empathize with their perspective, I may miss a valuable opportunity to connect with them in a meaningful way that actually enables us to then engage in the logic-based, problem-solving.  

Working in a highly stressed, under-resourced environment is challenging.  There is a standing invitation for all of us to get swept up in the frenetic energy that shows up easily in the face of trauma and crisis.  I have noticed that I am best able to resist this invitation when I am grounded and taking good care of myself. This is also when I do my best work and to have the most positive impact on my partnerships. 

The term self-care means different things to different people.  I have linked two articles that discuss self- care practices from different perspectives.   Both resonate and share insightful ways that we can all consider as we commit to taking care of ourselves.  

The first article, “Indigenous Self-Care Practices for Organizers.” comes from the Mijente Blog.  The author, Veralucia Mendoza identifies as a queer, Afro-Peruvian immigrant and speaks with Fracisca Porchas, a Mijente member and organizer with Puente Human Rights Movement.  They discuss how going back to our roots can support restoration.

The second article is called Mindfulness:  “10 Lessons in Self-Care for Social Workers”, from The New Social Worker.  “The practice of mindfulness is integral to our efforts to reduce stress and to increase our capacity to cope (Kabat-Zinn, 1990). Although mindfulness is best learned and reinforced through sustained and regular practice, many mindfulness-based strategies can be incorporated into daily life activities at any time (Boyce, 2012; Burdick, 2013; Fralich, 2013; Stahl & Goldstein, 2010). Practicing these techniques will not prevent stress completely or take it away when it occurs, but doing them with care and attention on a regular basis can help us manage more effectively. Here are several to consider.”

As this year continues to roll along, please take good care of yourselves and stay in relationship with each other!
Picture
Blog Post Written by: Celina Zins, Director of School Partnerships
0 Comments

STAFF HIGHLIGHT: Rashida Wright

10/8/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
Name: Rashida Wright
​Position: Academic Intervention Specialist at Invictus Academy and Behavior Support Specialist at Caliber Beta Academy, both in Richmond, CA. 
 
What led you to your current position? 
 I have always wanted to teach, since the 2nd grade, when I had the most amazing and vivacious teacher ever and wanted to be just like her! I have always loved teaching students and working with under-served students with different needs. I was a mental health counselor for two years, then a teacher for five years at James Baldwin Academy.  After working in that concentrated world for 7 years, I realized that I wanted to branch out and grow my collaboration and leadership skills; I wanted to broaden the impact that I felt I could make, so I came to All-In! 
 
Fun Fact/Quote? 
Fun fact:  I lived in Madrid for a year!  
Quote: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. – Nelson Mandela 
 
What does your average day look like?  
The way my day looks depends on which site I am at.   At Caliber (where I am a Behavior Support Specialist), I collaborate with the program specialist, education specialist and general education teacher of my student, I then am supporting said student throughout the day in all of their classes, providing behavioral support and interventions, tracking behaviors, incentives, etc., as well as providing academic support in the classroom.  I also facilitate weekly meetings with all service providers of all students in the collaboration model at Caliber, I also attend the leadership team meetings.   
At Invictus (where I am an Academic Intervention Specialist), I begin the day collaborating and checking in with general education teachers, I then provide push in and pull out academic services to all the students on my caseload (15), I also complete IEP paperwork, facilitate IEP meetings, assess students, collaborate and communicate with caregivers and families, attend leadership meetings and hold meetings with general education teachers to support differentiation and accommodations within the general education classroom. 
 
Why do you do this work? 
I do this work because I love teaching and I believe that every student, regardless of ability, background, or privilege deserves to feel empowered and each student also deserves access to an equitable education. 
 
What hope do you have for the future of our program?   
My hope for the All-In program is that it continues to expand and build partnerships for an even larger impact!

Picture
1 Comment

    Authors:

    School Program Partnerships

    We're Hiring!

    Interested in joining our School Program Partnerships' Team​? Check out our open positions below!
    Teachers
    School Therapists
    Classroom Counselors

    Categories:

    All
    Academic Strand Updates
    All In! Snapshots
    Behavioral Strand Updates
    Clinical Strand Updates
    Program Highlights
    School Highlights
    Staff Guest Posts
    Staff Highlights

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.