Whole Child Newsletter
March 2021
Upcoming Learning Opportunities!
- JCISD Learning Services is hosting our Day of Discovery on Monday, March 8th! There are 52 professional learning sessions for educators, support staff, administrators, and other school staff. This day of learning is free and is open to community partners as well. Click on the link Day of Discovery to access the website for registration, schedule, presenters, etc.
- Register today for the Advancing Behavioral Health Summit! The ABHS is being held virtually on Wednesday, March 17th from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event offers a variety of sessions covering substance use prevention and treatment, mental health, and trauma. Register here today! Continuing education credits are planned to be offered including; social work CEUs, MCBAP CEUs, CMEs & SCECHs. Click here to check out our website for the most up to date information.
Free! Supporting LGBTQ Youth Workshop
Wednesday, March 17th from 11:30-1:00pm
1) Discuss and understand basic terminology that can be helpful when working with youth
2) Explore the concept of coming out and how it can impact the entire family and other supports for young people.
3) Identify the top reasons that LGBTQ youth are at higher risk for suicide, substance use, and homelessness without proper adult and community resources when compared to their heterosexual/ cisgender peers.
4) Be able to explain local and national resources that can be used by clinical staff, school staff, and parents/family of LGBTQ youth to provide much needed support.
RSVP to michelle.ciaramellano@uhsinc.com
#Unfiltered Webinar
In December, the MI Sexual Risk Reduction (SRA) Council hosted a three-part webinar on online safety. This webinar is for parents/caregivers, teachers, administrators, and health educators for youth programs.
Cyberbullying: https://vimeo.com/507188753
Online Predators: https://vimeo.com/507206724
Pornography: https://vimeo.com/512533526
Ensuring Homeless Students Are Seen During a Pandemic
Even before the pandemic, student homelessness was a challenge in Everett. In 2009, the district enrolled 510 homeless students. But that number—which includes about 200 unaccompanied homeless children annually—has doubled in recent years. The growth mirrors a national rise in child poverty and homelessness in the last decade.
Perusse believes the key to locating and keeping track of homeless students during a crisis is ensuring that everyone is looking for them—and that every family feels seen.
“She really listens to each family, even with how time-consuming it can be, and she will figure out how to get them supported and connected to what they need,” said Chad Golden, Everett’s director of categorical programs, which are federal programs for disadvantaged students.
Learn more about what individuals are doing for homeless students in Washington state by clicking HERE
10 Ways to Use Retrieval Practice in the Classroom
The most important aspect of retrieval practice is students are attempting to access the information from their memory and are not provided any assistance or cues while completing the assessment. I tell my students that retrieval practice is the truest way to know what they know and what they don’t know, provided they don’t use any notes or peers for assistance. Without assessment using retrieval practice, teachers and students are making assumptions about the knowledge students possess.
Retrieval practice can be easy and simple to implement in the classroom, and it takes on many forms: answering multiple-choice or matching questions, written essay response, class discussion, and/or a project that requires subject knowledge to complete. Learn about some ways to use retrieval practice in the classroom by clicking below.
Four Ways Some Schools Are Doing Well with Online Learning
In this Kappan article, Mark Elgart reports the results of three surveys conducted by his education nonprofit, Cognia, in the U.S. and 22 other countries. Tapping the opinions of tens of thousands of teachers, parents, and K-12 students in the spring of 2020, the surveys explored the academic, emotional, and personal impact of the sudden shift to remote learning. The findings confirm common dialogue related to decreased academic engagement and increased sense of loneliness...among students, families and teachers. See the article for more interesting stats.
In the months since conducting the surveys, Cognia staff talked with numerous school leaders and found strong consensus on four key areas of focus – rigor, routines, relationships, and resources – for the remainder of the pandemic:
• Rigor – Several factors have conspired to reduce academic demand: the unfamiliarity of tech connections for teachers and students; the impossibility of being synchronous for the same number of hours per day as in-person time pre-pandemic; teachers’ challenges monitoring students’ engagement and gauging their readiness to take on new ideas and skills; students distracted by their home environment; problems with bandwidth and access to the right devices; availability of supplies and manipulatives for all students; and educators’ difficulty checking in with all students academically and personally.
• Routines – Learning the new procedures and expectations of online schooling has been particularly difficult for elementary and middle-school children: arriving on time for lessons, how to participate in class, interacting with peers, when to study, and more. The schools that have been most successful with remote learning have worked closely with families on setting up routines with their children: getting out of bed at the same time every day, dressing in school clothes, eating on the same schedule, and behaving as consistently during the online school day as they did with in-person schooling.
• Relationships – This was the area in which educators got the highest marks in the Cognia surveys: 92% of parents said they had more appreciation for teachers’ expertise, 93% said teachers checked in regularly to make sure students had everything they needed, 96% said teachers showed genuine concern for their children’s learning, and 97% said teachers and administrators made themselves available at families’ convenience. This means the message for educators in this area is, Keep up the good work.
• Resources – There are still gaps with Internet access, laptops and tablets, and other key resources, not to mention PD for teachers to take full advantage of the resources they have – and many schools face budget challenges.
“The pandemic has shined a bright light on systemic inequities in K-12 education and on the urgent need to provide stronger professional support to teachers,” concludes Elgart. He sees hope in the way some schools have adapted to the crisis: “Their practices could even lead to an instructional renaissance, pointing the way toward new kinds of technology-mediated and student-directed learning, enabling us to open up our classrooms, change teachers’ work for the better, and allow students to learn anywhere, anytime, and anyplace. Educators need to ask themselves whether specific classroom practices are vestigial remnants of an old way of doing business, or whether they truly support equitable and engaging instruction, paying special attention to the learning challenges young people face every day.”
“Learning Upended: How Americans Experienced the Shift to Remote Instruction” by Mark Elgart in Phi Delta Kappan, February 2021 (Vol. 102, #5, pp. 48-51); Elgart can be reached at mark.elgart@cognia.org.
Non-Profit Network Learning Opportunities
Join the Celebration!
Register for our NO-COST Cultural Competency Workshops Today!
- Bridges Out of Poverty Community Session - 7/20/21
Please also visit our Facebook page & our DE&I webpage, throughout the month to enjoy all the offerings and to celebrate with us and our communities.
Darkness to Light: Poem of a Healing Journey
Breath holding.
Heart pounding.
Anxious for nothing.
Body on alert.
Mind goes to scary places.
Hyper vigilant for nothing.
Car accident. Arrested. Shamed.
Waiting for something to happen.
But nothing ever does.
I don’t know who I am.
So many limiting beliefs.
No where to turn.
Always in the past.
Missing the present moment.
Nothing I can do about it.
Where has my life gone?
Surviving.
Breathing in acceptance.
Heart full of compassion.
Graced with self-love.
Body glimmering.
Mind calm.
Stillness is abundant.
Recovery. Healing. Connection.
Just where I need to be.
Peaceful life.
I know who I am.
I believe in my greatness.
Strong support network.
Living for the now.
In the present moment.
I get to choose.
Where will my path take me?
Living.
-Kelsey Budge
Contact the Whole Child Team!
Janelle Buchler: Whole Child Consultant (janelle.buchler@jcisd.org)
Eric Swihart: Whole Child Coordinator (eric.swihart@jcisd.org)
Caitlin Williams: Attendance and Homeless Program Coordinator (caitlin.williams@jcisd.org)
Rebecca Hurst: Behavior Health Project Coordinator (rebecca.hurst@jcisd.org)
Kelsea Jabkiewicz: Data Integration and Medicaid Cost Recovery Coordinator (kelsea.jabkiewicz@jcisd.org)
Angela Maddox: Whole Child Secretary (angela.maddox@jcisd.org)