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Throughout my entire K-12 childhood experience, I never once saw anyone who looked like me. Not in any textbook. Not in my teachers' or administrators' faces. There were no role models on television and not one affirming character who looked like me in a novel. I was never taught about a single Asian female of any significance who made any positive contribution to society at all. Much later in life as a 1st grade teacher in my own classroom, I looked at my own classroom library collection...

I wanted to share with you an article I recently published in the Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, and Early Intervention titled “Trauma and the role of the school-based occupational therapist”. It is about the important role school-based OT’s can play in addressing trauma, using a sensory-based approach, to support participation and engagement in education. Here is the link. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19411243.2018.1438327

SALISBURY — They’re only 5, 6, 8, 10-years-old — but life has already thrown some elementary school students more punches than they can handle. Rowan County children walk into school every day with the scales stacked against them; bearing the weight of abuse, poverty or community violence — and when one more weight is added to the pile, they break. “The response could be fight or freeze, ” Christy Lockhart, a social worker at Koontz Elementary said. “ And it’s out of their control.”...

When Dustin Gordon's high school invited juniors and seniors to meet with recruiters from colleges and universities, a handful of students showed up. A few were serious about the prospect of continuing their educations, he said, "But I think some of them went just to get out of class." In his sparsely settled community in the agricultural countryside of southern Iowa, "there's just no motivation for people to go" to college, says Gordon, who's now a senior at the University of Iowa. "When...

As a parent, I understand the desire for practical responses to school shootings. I also absolutely believe the government should do more to prevent such incidents. But the gun control debate has proven so divisive and ineffective that I am weary of waiting for politicians to act. I study the kind of aggressive childhood behavior that often predates school shootings. That research suggests what communities and families can start doing today to better protect children. Here are 10 actions we...

She was 3 years old when her father died in a car crash and 17 when her mother committed suicide. In between those bookends of loss, she lived with the man she refers to as “my evil stepfather. ” He demeaned her, her two older sisters and her younger brother, and punished them with a belt when they didn’t meet his exacting standards. To read the full story - click the blue link at the bottom of the post - As the sun fades and her office on the fourth floor of the state Capitol darkens –...

This conference is designed to bring educators, students, parents, pastors, community members, health departments, corrections and any other professions that deal with human capital, to the table of solutions and collaboration. This is Jim Sporleder's first national conference. Jim is the author of Implementing a Trauma-Informed School and the Principal of Lincoln High School in the award winning documentary Paper Tigers. resilience.essdack.org Here's the link to register:...

As a result of California’s new school accountability system , West Contra Costa Unified, a San Francisco Bay Area school district that includes Richmond and several surrounding communities, is facing considerable pressure to increase the number of special education students who meet math and English language arts standards on tests and who go on to graduate. The district is among more than 150 districts — nearly 18 percent of all districts in California — slated to get help from county...

There are tools to promote healing and growth and you can foster them within your school!

A few weeks ago, I went into my son Chase’s class for 
tutoring. I’d e-mailed Chase’s teacher one evening and said, 'Chase keeps telling me that this stuff you’re sending home 
is math—but I’m not sure I believe him. Help, please.' She 
e-mailed right back and said, 'No problem! I can tutor Chase after school anytime.' And I said, 'No, not him. Me. He gets it. Help me.' And that’s how I ended up standing at a chalkboard in an empty fifth-grade classroom while Chase’s teacher sat behind me,...

Held for four hours each weekday afternoon, the Star-C afterschool program is one part of a dynamic model — piloted here at the 186-unit Willow Branch, where the residents’ average income of $18,750 is well below the U.S. poverty line — that’s showing how affordable housing can boost performance in local schools, increase resident health and even quell crime. Alongside its fundraising arm, 3Star Communities, Star-C was founded by Marjy Stagmeier, 55, a successful manager of commercial and...

There are a few more days to submit your proposal for a 90-minute workshop to be presented at our 2nd Annual Philadelphia Trauma Training Conference - Preventing Childhood Trauma and its Impact across the Lifespan: An Interprofessional Agenda for Providers, Advocates, Policy Makers, and Community Members The submission deadline is March 1st . If your proposal is accepted you will be granted free admission to the three-day conference . First launched in 2017, the Philadelphia Trauma Training...