Tagged With "Innovation"

Imagine the power of putting a handful of kids together in a class to tell their stories in their own words—and earn credits in the process. This school year, Learn4Life’s Innovation High School (IHS) San Diego – Lakeside is offering a spoken word poetry course titled “Dramatic Literature”. The course engages youth in classic works of literature and empowers teens to take charge of their own futures and unearth their potential. Annabelle Reyes, a Drama Lit student, told how beneficial the...

Students of Unity, Respect, Consciousness and Empowerment (S.O.U.R.C.E.) is a seminar offered at Learrn4Life’s Innovation High School National City and Chula Vista resource centers that promotes empowerment, resiliency building, and leadership skills. Students engage in the seminar using project-based learning where they are tasked with creating a public service announcement. This exercise gives students a platform to voice their needs and explore issues that are relevant to them. It also...

Innovation High School resource centers in National City and Chula Vista recently launched their “Year of Wellness” program. This program is designed to promote wellbeing of students, staff, and the surrounding community. The program invites staff, students and their families to monthly themed wellness workshops that encompass the multifaceted areas of wellness including yoga, nutrition, art and mindfulness, etc.

As part of the Trauma Informed approach to instruction, the staff at Learn4Life Innovation High School recently created a Focus Room at the National City resource center. The Focus Room provides a space to facilitate restorative processes for students who need a break to refocus or who are not meeting school expectations. In this space, staff assist students and guide them to redirect, recover, and/or return to an internal state conducive to learning. Students can request to use the room or...

At the Chula Vista, National City, and Linda Vista resource centers of Learn4Life Innovation High School San Diego, only four students were suspended during the 2016-17 school year – less than 1 percent of the student population of more than 500 students. For the leadership team and staff at Innovation High School this rate was still too high. The team and staff embraced further training on restorative practices, positive behavior supports and interventions in order to better support student...

Would you be willing to share the referral/request form? I would love to see the reflection and restorative questions you use.

Thank you for expressing your interest Sara. Please see the two attached documents. We primarily focus on helping students reflect on their needs and their behavior, while helping them to also consider the needs of their fellow students, community members, and the learning environment in general. Please let us know if you would like more information. Thank you!

Hello Nevin, This is so exciting to see! I hope there will be a replication of these programs. I am wondering how you prepare your staff to work in these programs? What is your model of supervision and evaluation? Do teachers know their own ACE score and stories? I look forward to hearing more! Jessie

Jessie, thank you for your questions. We conduct training and professional development specifically around Trauma Informed Practices. During this training we do allow our staff to assess themselves on the ACES survey as we discuss and process concepts and practices within the Trauma Informed framework . We also provide spaces for staff to share and reflect on their behavior and collaboration with our team and with students, in the context of developing deeper understandings of how our trauma...

Hear the practical principles and strategies live in Orlando at the Innovative Schools Summit!

I applied this idea on a small scale in my classroom at school. It really worked. My students have become more focused and interested in class. phrazle