California PBIS Coalition Again Recognizes Whittier City Schools!!!
For the third year in a row, Whittier City Schools have been recognized by the California PBIS Coalition for excellence in implementing core PBIS foundations. Three of our schools even achieved GOLD level status for their Tier 2 program!
The awards reflect 70-100% fidelity of implementation of national standards, and proof of impact as evidenced by at least 80% of students having received 0-1 office referrals (a few of our schools have 90% of students with zero referrals!). At the Gold level, schools must also provide evidence of improving academic achievement over the previous three years. Schools must reapply each year, reflecting the PBIS core practice of teaching behavior as relentlessly as we teach academics, and with frequent checks on fidelity. Schools will be acknowledged at the annual CPC Conference in Sacramento in September, and listed on the coalition's website.
CONGRATULATIONS to all of our schools for their enduring commitment to schools that are welcoming, safe, positive, and focused on the whole child!
Also in this edition of the newsletter...
- Introducing The Student Wellness Program - the next step in our commitment to a healthy, positive, and caring school environment
- Resources for teaching Second Step social emotional learning curriculum
- Information about Trauma's impact on children, including a link to Oprah's report for 60 minutes
- How to build a calm-down area in your classroom
- "Happy Teachers Practice Self-Care"
- Links to more resources to support classroom practices
 |  |  |
Andrews, Edwards MS, Mill Previous recipients of Bronze and Silver | Hoover, Jackson, Longfellow, Orange Grove, Phelan, West Whittier Second year in a row!! | Dexter MSPrevious recipient of Bronze and Silver Sorensen is also a previous recipient of Bronze and Silver |
Andrews, Edwards MS, Mill
Hoover, Jackson, Longfellow, Orange Grove, Phelan, West Whittier
Dexter MS
Previous recipient of Bronze and Silver
Sorensen is also a previous recipient of Bronze and Silver
Did you know that during the 2017-18 school year in Whittier City....
- 11% of Whittier City students were chronically absent?
- 17% of Whittier City students were homeless or had insecure housing?
- There was a significant increase in Suicidal ideation and threats, mirroring national trends of 30% increase over the previous six years, especially among elementary-aged female students? (Source: CDC)
These facts were the impetus for designing the Wellness Program, supporting social emotional learning in classrooms, and expanding our trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive practices.
Second Step kits come with ready-to-go scripted lessons on the five core SEL competencies of self awareness (identifying emotions), self-managment (focus, impulse control, how to calm down), social awareness (empathy), relationship skills, and conflict resolution and decision making.
Kits include puppets for early childhood grades, video vignettes, quick "brain builder" games, and home links so parents can support the skills at home and in the community. The homelinks can be shared with parents via Sangha so no photocopying is required. Materials are available in English and Spanish.
Lessons are designed to be used "out of the box" with minimal, if any, prep. Once a classroom kit is activated on the Second Step website, video content can be streamed. For ease of access, we have created a single user account with a compilation of most grade level documents and video content. Email pbis@whittiercity.net for the login credentials.
Second Step training:
NO FORMAL TRAINING IS REQUIRED!! The secondstep.org website is rich with resources including sample lessons, video demonstrations, and free on-demand training webinars as brief as 30 minutes - perfect for a grade level team meeting. Once you activate your kit and create a user account, even more resources are available for your specific grade level including video previews of lessons and supplemental teaching video vignettes and activities.
 |  |  |
Social Emotional Learning: It Starts With Teachers"Happy Teachers Practice Self Care" By Madeline Will for Edweek, June 7, 2017 (abridged) Secure your own oxygen mask first before assisting children.
That saying aboard planes has resonated with Danna Thomas, a kindergarten teacher in Baltimore who founded a teacher-support group called "Happy Teacher Revolution." "We can't be there in our fullest capacity to teach kids if we're not in our fullest capacity ourselves," she said. "No matter how strong your lesson is, ... it could all be perfect, but I personally cannot deliver a lesson to the best of my ability if I don’t get a full night's rest, if I don't eat on my lunch break." Happy teachers lead to happy students, educators and researchers say. As schools across the country put more of a focus on social-emotional learning for their students, experts have come to realize that teachers' social-emotional competencies, especially their stress-management skills and their ability to regulate their emotions, are a vital piece of that puzzle. "The primary way children learn social-emotional skills is through being exposed to adult behavior," said Patricia Jennings, an associate professor of education at the University of Virginia who studies teacher stress and the social and emotional context of the classroom. "If a teacher doesn't have a level of social-emotional competence to model the kinds of behaviors that he or she is hoping students adopt, then he or she is sending mixed messages." For example: Some teachers will tell their students not to be bullies or call their peers names but then yell at a misbehaving child. Or they'll be stressed and tense during the school day, which students will pick up on. "[Teachers] need a level of social-emotional competence that's way above the norm," Jennings said. "The average person, you couldn't stick them in a classroom with 25 kids and expect them to be successful as a teacher.".... Building a Healthy School Climate Roger Weissberg, the chief knowledge officer of CASEL, said many of the districts he has worked with "started with [social-emotional] programming for kids and then backed up and said, 'You know, if we did it all over again, we'd focus on the social-emotional competence of adults first.'" Still, Weissberg said, he has also seen teachers receive the benefits of social-emotional health when they teach students the competencies, since teachers learn to model them more intentionally. Read the full article here. 12 Choices to be a happy teacher:
Adapted from the 12 Choices to Step Back from Burnout by Vicki Davis, writing for Edutopia | One high poverty Ohio school gets results with trauma informed practicesBy Katherine Reynolds Lewis, writing for The Atlantic May 8, 2018 Many of Ohio Avenue’s children have brushed against violence and other traumatic experiences in their short lives—abuse and neglect, a household member addicted to drugs, homelessness, to name a few. At schools like this, a small dispute can easily turn into a scuffle that leads to an administrator or school-safety officer corralling the kids involved, if not suspending them. But Ohio Avenue is trying to find another way: Every adult in the building has received training on how children respond to trauma. They’ve come to understand how trauma can make kids emotionally volatile and prone to misinterpret accidental bumps or offhand remarks as hostile. They’ve learned how to de-escalate conflict, and to interpret misbehavior not as a personal attack or an act of defiance. And they’re perennially looking for new ways to help the kids manage their overwhelming feelings and control their impulses, including a focus on:
Read the full article: "One Ohio School’s Quest to Rethink Bad Behavior: How to play the "Good Behavior Game" Google will turn up many search results, but here is a simplified handout with explanations. Here is a short video (6:24 min) demonstrating the game in a Seattle elementary classroom. You'll notice several elements of PBIS incorporated into the game. Consider naming the game after your matrix, such as the ROAR, PRIDE, PAWS (etc.) game. Great Resources for Incorporating the Five Core Skills of Social Emotional Learning Throughout the Day Compiled by Lisa Hollenbach for Find videos, blog posts, articles on mindfulness in the classroom, effective talk, emotional literacy, resilience, and more. Resources for early childhood through high school.
"Our very lives are fashioned by choice. First we make choices. Then our choices make us." - Anne Frank | How to create a "Calm Corner" in your classroom1. Set aside a corner in the building. Pick a place that will be quiet, with little activity from people passing through. Barriers (walls, plants, furniture) that block off parts of the room are especially helpful. 2. Make the area comfortable. Pillows, blankets, weighted blankets, stuffed animals, beanbag chairs, and soft rugs all make the place feel more relaxing. 3. Find ways to minimize sensory input. Try headphones, chairs with large backs to block the view, curtains, and other ways to isolate the corner.
4. Add a few sensory tools. This could involve...
5. Place some basic activities in the corner. This provides something to do while calming down. Examples include books, sketchbooks, stim toys, coloring books, puzzles, logic games, etc. 6. Try out the corner when they aren't stressed. Have kids try to imagine what they might need or want when they are stressed. Teaching Children to Use the Corner 1.Create procedures and introduce the corner to the class. Explain that this corner is a place you put together for them, and that it is there for them whenever they are feeling overwhelmed or upset. Make it clear that they can go there whenever they want. You might create a Cool Tool lesson to teach the procedures you have created for how and when to use the corner, what to do in the corner, and how to rejoin the class/lesson. 2. When the child appears upset or overwhelmed, quietly ask if they would like to use the calming down corner.
"The greatest remedy for anger is delay." - Seneca |
Social Emotional Learning: It Starts With Teachers
"Happy Teachers Practice Self Care"
By Madeline Will for Edweek, June 7, 2017 (abridged)
Secure your own oxygen mask first
before assisting children.
That saying aboard planes has resonated with Danna Thomas, a kindergarten teacher in Baltimore who founded a teacher-support group called "Happy Teacher Revolution."
"We can't be there in our fullest capacity to teach kids if we're not in our fullest capacity ourselves," she said. "No matter how strong your lesson is, ... it could all be perfect, but I personally cannot deliver a lesson to the best of my ability if I don’t get a full night's rest, if I don't eat on my lunch break."
Happy teachers lead to happy students, educators and researchers say. As schools across the country put more of a focus on social-emotional learning for their students, experts have come to realize that teachers' social-emotional competencies, especially their stress-management skills and their ability to regulate their emotions, are a vital piece of that puzzle.
"The primary way children learn social-emotional skills is through being exposed to adult behavior," said Patricia Jennings, an associate professor of education at the University of Virginia who studies teacher stress and the social and emotional context of the classroom. "If a teacher doesn't have a level of social-emotional competence to model the kinds of behaviors that he or she is hoping students adopt, then he or she is sending mixed messages."
For example: Some teachers will tell their students not to be bullies or call their peers names but then yell at a misbehaving child. Or they'll be stressed and tense during the school day, which students will pick up on.
"[Teachers] need a level of social-emotional competence that's way above the norm," Jennings said. "The average person, you couldn't stick them in a classroom with 25 kids and expect them to be successful as a teacher."....
Building a Healthy School Climate
Roger Weissberg, the chief knowledge officer of CASEL, said many of the districts he has worked with "started with [social-emotional] programming for kids and then backed up and said, 'You know, if we did it all over again, we'd focus on the social-emotional competence of adults first.'"
Still, Weissberg said, he has also seen teachers receive the benefits of social-emotional health when they teach students the competencies, since teachers learn to model them more intentionally.
Read the full article here.
12 Choices to be a happy teacher:
- I choose to be happy.
- I choose to disconnect and detach with love.
- I choose to be mindful.
- I choose to make time for sleep.
- I choose to get outside and get moving.
- I choose to be grateful.
- I choose what to overlook.
- I choose the battles worth fighting.
- I choose what to do next time and what to stop doing.
- I choose to enjoy the relationships that matter.
- I choose to schedule and prioritize what really matters.
- No matter how the school year started, I choose to finish well.
Adapted from the 12 Choices to Step Back from Burnout by Vicki Davis, writing for Edutopia
One high poverty Ohio school gets results with trauma informed practices
By Katherine Reynolds Lewis, writing for The Atlantic
May 8, 2018
Many of Ohio Avenue’s children have brushed against violence and other traumatic experiences in their short lives—abuse and neglect, a household member addicted to drugs, homelessness, to name a few. At schools like this, a small dispute can easily turn into a scuffle that leads to an administrator or school-safety officer corralling the kids involved, if not suspending them. But Ohio Avenue is trying to find another way: Every adult in the building has received training on how children respond to trauma. They’ve come to understand how trauma can make kids emotionally volatile and prone to misinterpret accidental bumps or offhand remarks as hostile. They’ve learned how to de-escalate conflict, and to interpret misbehavior not as a personal attack or an act of defiance. And they’re perennially looking for new ways to help the kids manage their overwhelming feelings and control their impulses, including a focus on:
- Social emotional skills
- Sensory tools and strategies to help students manage their stress (resistance bands around chair legs, mini-eliptical machines, bean bags, glitter bottles, stress balls, etc.)
- Combining a nurturing approach with clear limits and predictable routines
- Harmonicas in place of whistles or flashing classroom lights on and off to reduce stimulation
- The PAX game (AKA "the good behavior game")
Read the full article:
"One Ohio School’s Quest to Rethink Bad Behavior:
How to play the "Good Behavior Game"
Google will turn up many search results, but here is a simplified handout with explanations.
Here is a short video (6:24 min) demonstrating the game in a Seattle elementary classroom. You'll notice several elements of PBIS incorporated into the game.
Consider naming the game after your matrix, such as the ROAR, PRIDE, PAWS (etc.) game.
Great Resources for Incorporating the Five Core Skills of Social Emotional Learning Throughout the Day Compiled by Lisa Hollenbach for
Find videos, blog posts, articles on mindfulness in the classroom, effective talk, emotional literacy, resilience, and more. Resources for early childhood through high school.
“Trauma affects children in so many different ways. Some kids are reactive while others are reserved. It is key to know the students’ stories in order to know how to support them.”
- Mathew Portell, principal of the trauma-informed school Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville
"Our very lives are fashioned by choice. First we make choices. Then our choices make us."
- Anne Frank
How to create a "Calm Corner" in your classroom
1. Set aside a corner in the building. Pick a place that will be quiet, with little activity from people passing through. Barriers (walls, plants, furniture) that block off parts of the room are especially helpful.
2. Make the area comfortable. Pillows, blankets, weighted blankets, stuffed animals, beanbag chairs, and soft rugs all make the place feel more relaxing.
3. Find ways to minimize sensory input. Try headphones, chairs with large backs to block the view, curtains, and other ways to isolate the corner.
- Some people like to curl up underneath or behind objects. Try creating a makeshift tent.
4. Add a few sensory tools. This could involve...
- Audio: a radio and headphones with soothing nature sounds or instrumental music
- Visual: Drawings, snow globes, photo albums, blankets/pillows in calming colors
- Tactile: Fidget toys with various textures, and soft stuffed animals or pillows
- Olfactory/Gustatory: Lollipops, hard candies, sweet-smelling lotions, chewy toys or jewelry
- Proprioceptive: Weighted blankets, beanbags, deep pressure vests, brushes, lotion
5. Place some basic activities in the corner. This provides something to do while calming down. Examples include books, sketchbooks, stim toys, coloring books, puzzles, logic games, etc.
6. Try out the corner when they aren't stressed. Have kids try to imagine what they might need or want when they are stressed.
Teaching Children to Use the Corner
1.Create procedures and introduce the corner to the class. Explain that this corner is a place you put together for them, and that it is there for them whenever they are feeling overwhelmed or upset. Make it clear that they can go there whenever they want. You might create a Cool Tool lesson to teach the procedures you have created for how and when to use the corner, what to do in the corner, and how to rejoin the class/lesson.
2. When the child appears upset or overwhelmed, quietly ask if they would like to use the calming down corner.
- Remember that the calming down corner is not a time-out or punishment, but a voluntary opportunity to take a break and calm down.
4. When the child is in the corner, give them quiet time. Avoid talking to them or making noise nearby.
5. Let the child leave the corner when they are ready.
Students can set timers when they enter the corner. Congratulate them on using the corner so calmly, and ask if they are feeling better now.
Read the full wiki-how post here
"The greatest remedy for anger is delay."
- Seneca
