Staying SEL:Connected in Sac City

As we return to a restorative restart, we want to acknowledge that many of our students are also undergoing their own personal restorative restart journeys. One such student is Met High School senior, Jisel Mendez who has worked hard to transcend the struggles of her Freshmen year to excelling as a Senior with excellent grades and prospects for a bright future ahead.  Jisel offers great insights and wisdom that will support any student who might be struggling with negative self-talk. We are joined by her mother, Maria Leon, who will also share how she supported her daughter through the challenges of her high school journey. Dr. Olga Simms joins me to support with  our very first bilingual episode. 

As we return to in person learning, schools are activating best practices to ensure a restorative restart for their communities.  At John Sloat elementary, leaders and staff have worked hard to cultivate a positive return to school with explicit SEL and healing centered practices, such as calming corners for students and adults.  In this episode, Principal Claudia Alfaro, Social Worker Liz Torres, Student Support Services Coordinator Pam Cajucom and 5th grade teacher, Marlayna Flores speak to Rosie Arcona and Mai Xi Lee about prioritizing care for their community with Calming Corners.

You can view pictures of John Sloat's calming corners at this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sIbVqmP3wux9pdt1-gatkAGF2VEnULTL?usp=sharing

We know things are hard right now.  In adverse times, it's difficult to see the good that is also happening around you.  While acknowledging the stressors and trauma of the past year, we also wanted to shine a light on the resilience and compassion of our community- the good that is also being experienced, even if we can't always see them sometimes.  We know from research, such as the incredible body of work done at the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, that focusing on the good can also be an antidote for trauma and support for nurturing resilience. With that in mind, today we bring you the good news from our students, teachers, and parents.  Here's hoping to thriving forward together in goodness!

If you are a Sac City parent, student, and/or staff member, and you are interested in being featured on future episodes of "Soaking in the Good, Sac City!" , we welcome you to send a short audio clip with the following:

-Name, Grade if you are a student, role (student, parent, teacher, etc. ), and school site

-"This week's good news is..................and next week, I hope for....................."

You can send you recorded audio to SELSupport@scusd.edu

Thank you. 

This week's episode features 2 of our SEL Training Specialists in an intimate conversation with their daughters on the topic of colorism. Africa Fullove and Candace Evans spent some time with their daughters, students Indigo Fullove and Joy Evans to connect on their experiences with colorism and how it has impacted them.  This is the first part of a 2-part conversation on this important topic. 

In his book, “How to Be an Anti-racist”, Ibram X. Kendi defines “colorism as a collection of racist policies that cause inequities between light people and dark people, and these inequities are substantiated by racist ideas about Light and dark people.” Kendi also says, “When gains disproportionately flow to light people and losses disproportionately flow to Dark people, inequities between races mirror inequities within the same races.” Same-race Colorism means preferential treatment based solely on their color- Light skinned vs. Dark skinned complexion.

This segment continues the conversation between SEL Training Specialists Candace Evans and Africa Fullove, and their daughters, Indigo and Joy. The continue to explore the concept of colorism and offer some opportunities for healing and moving forward as a community. 

This week, Africa Fullove joins us to chat with Sac City teacher Miriam Goff.  Miriam Goff is a veteran educator who has taught elementary and middle school, served Sac City has a Behavior Intervention Specialist, and currently is a co-teacher and inclusive practices educator at Cal Middle School in 8th Grade English Language Arts. She is passionate about supporting differently-abled students and works hard to ensure that students with IEPs have equitable access to learning and barrier-free engagement.  Our conversation with Miriam provides much needed perspective and insight into the challenges and successes of students with IEPs. 

This week Nicki Harrelson joins Candace and Mai Xi to chat with Salvador Turkie.  Sal is a Freshmen from West Campus High School in Sac City.  This week Sal joins us to share his thoughts on National Coming Out Day and his experience as a LGBTQ teen.  This is a powerful conversation with a delightful young man who is wise beyond his years.  

For more information on supports for LGBTQ youths, please visit www.scusd.edu/lgbtq-support-services for more information and resources. 

**Please note that there are some audio glitches  in this episode due to  low internet connectivity.  We thank you for listening and for understanding. 

We continue our rich conversation with Hiram Johnson teacher, Michael Washington.  In this episode, Michael shares his hope for eradicating systemic racism and the realities of the challenges ahead.  We also discuss why adult SEL, especially self-awareness, is critically important to better understanding how we show up for students and building relationships with students. 

This week we talk to Michael Washington, a high school Ethnic Studies teacher from Hiram Johnson High School.  Mr. Washington shares his experience balancing critical discourse in the classroom and being authentic to who is as a Black educator navigating race in the educational system.  This is a thoughtfully moving and powerful conversation with a voice that is critically important to equity, access, and social justice in Sac City. This is Part 1 of 2.

Welcome back Sac City! This is your SEL team and we are back with a new season of “Stay SEL: Connected in Sac City. “This year’s focus will be on uplifting voices from our community, who are experiencing the greatest inequities.  It’s our hope that by bringing you these lived experiences of our students, families, and staff, we can deepen our sense of empathy, compassion, perspective taking, and begin to heal as a community- a community that is truly united toward equity, access, and social justice for all. Stay tuned for new episodes of “Stay SEL: Connected in Sac City.”

This week, we connect with voices who we have engaged as partners in providing social and emotional support to our students: the voices of our Student Support Services and Expanded Learning staff.  SEL is intuitive to our partners at Student Support Services and Expanded Learning, as they play an important role in supporting our students to develop, practice, and apply SEL strategies in order to be successful in school. We are joined by Student Support Services Coordinator from John Still K-8 school, Dr. Josephine Jones-Pugh, and Expanded Learning Program Manager from Will C.Wood/Hiram Johnson HS, David Truong, They will share new ways they are connecting with students during Distance Learning and their experience with Covid 19.  We will also feature our SEL Competency of the Week, Growth Mindset, and a quick practical tip for practicing SEL.

Some of the most impactful voices from the frontlines of distance learning are those of our beloved Classified staff and volunteers in our Sac City community. This week, we check in with a Classified staff who serves many roles for Pacific Elementary and her husband. Juanita Fred is the Walking Attendant/Noon Time Duty Monitor and PTA President, and her husband Reed Fred is a regular volunteer and current caretaker of Pacific’s community garden. Juanita and Reed have been going to Pacific Elementary regularly to tend to the garden, and specifically, they’ve taken on a special memorial garden that they are taking care of with loving attention. They are also parents to a 7th grader at Fern Bacon Middle School.  We will chat with them about their many roles supporting our district during the school closure and their experience navigating Covid 19.  We will also share the SEL Competency of the Week-  Responsible Decision Making- and a practical tip for practicing SEL.

Covid-19 has not only impacted students and teachers, it has also affected school leaders. Without a blueprint for how to navigate this unknown world of distance learning, many principals are charting their own paths in order to best support their staff, students and families. School leaders are relying on instincts that have helped them become successful administrators- the instincts to model social and emotional wellbeing and to harness the power of relationships and connections. What these leaders knew before Covid-19 and what they have come to rely on is that building strong relationships is key to cultivating collective efficacy and hope.  This week, we are honored to be joined two Sac City administrators who exemplify these traits: Michelle Blanton, Principal at Leataata Floyd Elementary School,and Tarik McFall, Principal at Einstein Middle School. They will share their experience leading schools during Covid-19 and navigating distance learning. We will also focus on the SEL Competency of Social Awareness along with a tip to practice SEL.

This week’s episode features important voices in our Sac City community- those of teachers.  Teachers are critically important for students' academic growth as well as their social and emotional well-being. Particularly during distance learning, teachers may be the only constant for students during these tumultuous and uncertain times of distance learning.  When teachers prioritize and are explicit about SEL, both students and teachers thrive.  To that end, we’re featuring 2 Sac City teachers who are intentional about building strong relationships with their students, and are explicit about teaching with SEL in mind. We’re honored to be joined by 4th grade teacher Karen Hall-Sandlund, from Alice Birney K-8 school, and high school Social Science and English Learner teacher Larry Ferlazzo, from Luther Burbank High School. Both educators will share their experiences with distance learning and how they have continued to connect to their students and sustained positive relationships. This week’s SEL Competency is Relationship Skills.

The school closures have been challenging for many students, but they have been especially painful for the senior class of 2020. With all the senior rite of passage activities cancelled, and many unknowns about graduation, we wanted to check in to see how our seniors were handling everything that has occurred since the closures. This week, we chat with  two seniors, Citlali Garcia, a senior from John F. Kennedy HS and Malik Peterson, from Rosemont HS, to get their perspectives and get a sense of their experience thus far- with distance learning, Covid 19, and what missing the final act of their high school career means to them.  We will also feature our SEL Competency of the week of Self-Management and offer some practical tips on managing strong emotions during this time of Covid 19.