|
School Social Work NOW!
Supporting Innovative Practice,
Effective Leadership, and Applied Research
Vol 4, Issue 14
|
|
|
ALERT for those who have registered for the ACSSW New Orleans School Social Work Conference -- if you have registered and have not received a confirmation via email, please contact Sally Carlson. If you prefer to reach her by phone, dial 414-659-5853.
All registrants will receive email confirmation. However, some persons have faxed in a registration and the fax did not come through to us with sufficient information to complete the registration. (If you have received confirmation, you are all set!)
* * * * *
Speaking of the conference . . . there is still time to register. Keeping abreast of changes and new developments is the responsibility of the employee. This is a national conference with exceptional national speakers and presenters who bring news of the most current educational reforms--and how school social workers can be leaders in reform by using tools that are effective and easy to use. The conference can help you stay in front of new directions.
Additionally, breakout offerings include topics such as: ethics, LGBTQ concerns, ELL and the SSW, relational aggression, restorative practices, oppositional children and their parents, psychotropic medication and the DSM-V, truancy, tier 2 behavioral supports, PBIS, the Interconnected Systems Framework (NEW!!), functional behavior assessments, empowering at-risk students, military children's needs, school anxiety and refusal--and more.
If you are in Louisiana, please know that your director has been sent information about the conference. Check with him/her and share why this conference will help you provide improve services that will help to meet the school's goals.
NEW ORLEANS!
Why attend?
- Become a stronger resource for your administrators and colleagues
- Learn new ways to address your district's or parish's goals
- Gain an understanding of national education initiatives and reforms that affect your school's students
- Increase your knowledge base and freshen old skills
- Participate in all-day Psychological First Aid training
- Challenge yourself with new ideas and ways of thinking
- Gain insight into programs that affect student learning
- Network with colleagues from across the country
- Meet and interact with expert presenters on various topics
- Earn CEUs (included in conference cost)
- Have FUN!
Professionals from across the nation and beyond have been registering for the conference. It is interactive and enriching. The brochure is available online and has information about the hotels as well as the workshops and speakers. Discounts are available for teams of 3 or more from the same school, parish, or district.
Hope to see you there!
President
|
|
Recommended Read for January
|
Creating Conflict Resolution with Tough Workplace Adversaries
by Philip Sutton Chard
"...beast management is not about them so much as it
is about you." p. 75
Most approaches to workplace conflict rely heavily on rational and "let's be reasonable" methods, such as mediation, crucial conversations, win-win negotiation, and the like. However, in dealing with people with low emotional intelligence, personality disorders, hidden agendas, and dysfunctional communication styles, rational approaches often fail or yield disappointing outcomes. Beast Management picks up where
reasonable conflict resolution falls flat. It provides creative and powerful behavioral tactics that will significantly enhance your toolkit for addressing discord with difficult people in the workplace. Metaphorically depicting one's adversaries as "beasts," this book offers simple yet potent techniques for managing conflict when all else fails. Beast Management does not attempt to discredit or replace rational approaches to workplace strife, many of which can be effective when applied with the right kinds of people in appropriate circumstances. Rather, it offers unique methods for saving the day when reason has proven no match for the "beast" in your midst.
available for Kindle or Nook
|
When I was in college I had a professor who stated that you could make a good living as a social worker, but you would have to work very hard. I have found this to be true. A social worker with a masters degree can generally perform the same duties as a psychologist including diagnosing mental health issues. The same professor said that agencies like to hire social workers because they are cheaper than psychologists. When we asked why since they perform the same work, he said it was because social workers are willing to work for less. Certainly there are barriers to social workers asking for more, but that doesn't mean that they should accept the status quo. It needs to change and it's possible the process has already begun. Full article.
A student who has untreated OCD is likely to have a very difficult time concentrating in the classroom and completing homework assignments. Children with OCD may experience extreme anxiety or strong urges which, at times, actually overwhelm them. Children and teens might describe the feeling of mounting anxiety or intensifying urges as if they were a rising volcano or a tea kettle about to boil -- and relief comes only when the pressure is released. Unfortunately, the release is usually a compulsive behavior that may be extremely disruptive to the student's learning, and possibly to the classroom. More.
|
|
|
|
App - Psych Drugs Free for a limited time
|
|
Come to NOLA
| |
SAVE THE DATES!
February 10-11, 2014
NEW ORLEANS!
School Social Workers:
Inspiring HOPE. . .
Advocating for JUSTICE
Learn More Now!
|
|
 |
|
|
Social Support Strategies for Students with OCD
Students with OCD are often unhappy -- if not depressed -- and feel isolated. They know their behavior isn't normal, which creates stress that other students don't experience and are not likely to comprehend. Children and adolescents have reported believing that they were "crazy" before discovering their obsessions and compulsions were caused by a real mental health disorder. The social difficulties experienced by many students with OCD are frequently compounded by the fact that OCD usually co-exists with one or more other disorders (e.g., AD/HD, Tourette Syndrome, learning disabilities) -- each of which may bring to bear its own set of difficulties related to social functioning. Continue.
Help Students Fight Stigma in Their Own Words
Students who experience stigma often suffer in silence. Here is a way for them to express their feelings about it through their own words and creativity. The Youth Lens Photo Contest is a free contest using the modern technology with which today's youth are so familiar. It costs nothing and could result in one of your students winning a national contest conducted on behalf of the Federation of Families of South Carolina. Click here for more information.
IDEA Partnership - Youth Webinars
This youth-led initiative is developing a series of webinars on the youth role in transition planning for professionals in the field. The initiative is asking young people to share their thoughts and experiences via brief, 3-minute (or less) webinars which they create. Guiding questions are supplied for consideration. The deadline for the submissions has been extended. This is a great way for young people to teach us! More info here.
Free Guides for School Social Workers
Columbia University Teachers College Press published 4 guides geared to support teachers, administrators, student personnel staff, and parents. For a limited period, and as supplies last, TCP has agreed to provide FREE copies of the guides to social workers and educators working with military kids in schools including: teachers, school administrators, PPS workers, and military parents. School social workers should be aware of this wonderful, time-limited, FREE offer from TCP. Many school social workers will benefit from these guides.
The process is simple. Each individual desiring a free book would need to click on the link, select the type of book s/he desires, and fill out name, mailing address, etc. on the Qualtrix form after selecting the book desired. The book will be mailed in a few weeks.
|
The chaos of the times seems to present a new disaster every week, plunging leaders who may be top-notch performers under normal operations into a world of chaos and expectations - situations they are both unequipped to handle and also prone to make well-meaning yet disastrous decisions in the heat of the moment.
Leadership in a crisis situation is very different from leadership in a time of normal conditions. On the surface, the Five Practices may not seem to apply to a world turned upside down. But based on my teaching experience, all leaders in government and industry would find the tools useful and provide the foundation for responding to and recovering from any crisis.
The organizational operating models that provide the baseline for a smooth-running enterprise during normal times evaporate during a crisis, throwing the leadership into a morass of uncertainty and chaos. But the chaos can be managed successfully if its impacts are understood. Learn more.
Leaders Who Refuse to Lead
Leadership responsibility automatically is conferred upon anyone with formal authority. There's no way around it. Unfortunately, many managers, supervisors and executives either aren't able to lead effectively, or refuse to fufill their leadership responsibilities. To learn more about this common managerial error and its consequences, click here.
|
Abstract: The benefits of public, child welfare and education collaborations are numerous. However, different privacy laws that dictate professional practice within each respective system may cause tensions to surface across service agencies in the interpretation and implementation of these policies. A new perspective on the interpretation of these confidentiality policies is offered to guide the child welfare and education workforce in cross-disciplinary decision-making that maximizes the educational well-being of children in care.
|
U.S. Departments of Education and Justice Release School Discipline Guidance Package to Enhance School Climate and Improve School Discipline Policies/Practices
The U.S. Department of Education (ED), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), today released a school discipline guidance package that will assist states, districts and schools in developing practices and strategies to enhance school climate, and ensure those policies and practices comply with federal law. Even though incidents of school violence have decreased overall, too many schools are still struggling to create positive, safe environments. Schools can improve safety by making sure that climates are welcoming and that responses to misbehavior are fair, non-discriminatory and effective. Each year, significant numbers of students miss class due to suspensions and expulsions-even for minor infractions of school rules-and students of color and with disabilities are disproportionately impacted. The guidance package provides resources for creating safe and positive school climates, which are essential for boosting student academic success and closing achievement gaps. More information.
Backed by brain research, California schools are beginning to address the effect of severe trauma on the health and achievement of their students. In districts including Humboldt, Richmond, Santa Cruz, Aptos and San Francisco, groups of teachers are being trained to recognize that students' explosive anger, classroom outbursts, habitual withdrawal and self-injurious behaviors could be symptoms of traumatic stress, the result of repeated exposure to violence, abuse and neglect. While other initiatives focus on providing counseling services to youth, these trainings aim to provide teachers with the science and skills to better manage traumatized students in the classroom, an approach known as "trauma-informed" or "trauma-sensitive" teaching. The trainings ask teachers and staff to look at how their tone may contribute, knowingly or unknowingly, to combative interactions with traumatized youth. Classroom strategies for managing traumatized students align with the evidence-based social and emotional programs that are part of a system known as Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, a program of school interventions that is recommended by the U.S. Department of Education and used in 600 California schools. Read more here.
|
19th Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health
Proposals are now being accepted for the 19th Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health to be held September 18-20, 2014 at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown in Pittsburgh, PA. Last year, there was an increase in school-employed presenters--school social workers, school psychologists, and school counselors--and this was not only well received but enriched the conference.
The Conference is hosted by the Center for School Mental Health (CSMH) and the IDEA Partnership (funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), sponsored by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education. The theme of the conference is School Mental Health: Enhancing Safe, Supportive and Healthy Schools. The conference features twelve specialty tracks, including one co-facilitated by ACSSW, ASCA and NASP, and also includes a special topic area on funding and sustainability in school mental health. This Annual Conference offers speakers and participants numerous opportunities to advance knowledge and skills related to school mental health practice, research, training, and policy. It emphasizes a shared school-family-community agenda to bring high quality and evidence-based mental health promotion, prevention, and intervention to students and families. The intended audience for the conference includes school mental health providers, clinicians, educators, administrators, youth and family members, researchers, primary care providers, advocates, and other youth-serving professionals.
The deadline for submissions is February 4, 2014.
|
Deadline: February 14, 2014, 5 p.m. EST
For more than 65 years, Lowe's has supported the communities we call home. At a time when schools and community groups are struggling to support the basic needs of their communities, the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation recognizes the importance of financial support. This year, as a foundation, we are challenging ourselves to seek ways to provide the tools that help our educators and parent groups through today's challenging times efficiently, while providing the greatest impact, with basic necessities taking priority.
The Spring 2014 cycle is now open. However, if 1500 applications are received before the application deadline, then the application process will close. Learn more.
Children's Foundation Medical Grants for Children in Need
These grants are designed to cover financial expenses for a child's medical needs beyond a family's health benefit plan. Families can directly apply online for these grants of up to $5,000. Details.
Do Something Seed Grants
Do Something Seed Grants for youth can be used towards project ideas and programs that are just getting started, or to jump-start a program and realize ideas for the first time. These grants can also be used towards projects that are already developed and sustainable, towards the next steps of a project and organization as it looks to expand and grow impact. Maximum award: $500. Eligibility: community projects that are youth-led and driven. Deadline: rolling. Application.
|
|
archived
Group mentoring is an increasingly popular strategy for providing positive relationships and activities to youth in need. In fact, over 20% of youth mentoring programs offer some form of group mentoring, while a survey of American volunteers finds that over half say they work with more than one young person at a time. But compared to one-to-one mentoring, the research on the group approach is still emerging, and programs often wonder when group mentoring might be the right fit and how to implement these models for maximum effectiveness. Access online.
|
|
|
|
