Respect 24/7 Event Draws a Crowd

With the theme of "Conditions for Learning: Optimizing the Emotional Health of Our Students," this year's expanded Respect! 24/7 conference drew a crowd of more than100 school officials, community members, parents and students to the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) on October 28, 2014.

The variety of sessions geared to all ages and stages, and a format that allowed participants to stay for the whole day or drop in, attracted a diverse audience.

Kevin Hines spoke about his battle with mental illness and suicide attempt. .

  And the event could not have been more timely, coming on the heels of yet another school shooting less than a week ago, this time at a high school in a suburb of Seattle, Wash.

 The day began with welcome messages from Dr. Joan Rosas, Associate Superintendent, Student Services, and Cary Catching, Director of Safe and Supportive Schools at SMCOE, followed by a youth panel who talked about their experiences in school, the challenges they faced outside of school that impacted their ability to do well and supports that helped them to succeed.

The students, most members of the San Mateo County Youth Commission, were candid in describing what they need to support their mental health, and the pressures they face academically and socially. They spoke about the need for teachers to be understanding, flexible, and sensitive to the many competing demands that teens face. Most were unaware of the many mental health resources available in the county and described the difficulty teens have reaching out to someone when they need help.

A variety of breakout sessions with a

A youth panel spoke about how schools could best  support their mental health.

focus on what school personnel can do, and outside resources that are available to support students and families included: board policies on suicide prevention, trauma and its impact on learning, mental health and social/emotional issues of very young children, parents and teachers as allies, effective threat assessment in schools, youth mental health first aid, and Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and Restorative Justice.

A Resource Fair in the afternoon offered information on services and resources in the community that are available to support families and kids within the school setting. Representatives from the Peninsula Family YMCA , Teen Success, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), StarVista and San Mateo County Behavioral Health Recovery Services  were on hand to describe their services and make contact with community members.

The day was topped off with an emotional evening keynote delivered by Kevin Hines, author of the personal memoir Cracked Not Broken, who at the age of 19 attempted suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. One of only 33 to survive the fall, Kevin spoke passionately about his life story, his battle with mental illness, and the experiences and supports he received following his suicide attempt that helped him regain his mental health. "You are on the front lines of helping youth," he told the audience. "You need to educate youth about mental health and begin early. What you do today to help loved ones and others is the key."

Lucy Calkins Zooms in on Focused Instruction in Reading and Writing

 

  

On October 27, 2014, to a packed audience of 130 San Mateo County administrators and their colleagues from the region at the San Mateo County Office of Education, famed educator, author and founder of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP) Lucy Calkins talked about how important it is that administrators lead the charge when it comes to their school's focus on the intentional teaching of reading and writing.

  

So that the administrators would become more familiar with the TCRWP units and the training that many of their teachers have experienced

Renowned educator and author Lucy Calkins leads professional development at SMCOE for San Mateo County administrators and their colleagues .

through summer workshops, Calkins and her team led the audience through a day-long professional development session, examining several curricular units in writing and reading, videos of best practices and examples of student work.

 

On the following day, several administrators accompanied Calkins and her team on a walk-through of classrooms at a San Francisco school site engaged in implementing TCRWP units, and then had the opportunity to discuss their observations.

 

Calkins spent the morning speaking about writing and setting priorities, or "non-negotiables" as she called them, and the importance of scheduling accordingly within the school day for what's important for students and teachers."If you want to reform the teaching of writing," she said, "You can't just do a little bit. But focus on the teaching of writing consistently and you can reform and fire up the whole school."

 

That focus on writing demands that teachers devote time to student writing and instruction, and time for teachers to share best practices and plan together as grade-level teams in teacher study groups. Those groups, she noted, should be "useful and transformational" and engage each teacher in the process by making them responsible for presenting a specific part of the lesson. She also gave tips for principals on what to look for when visiting classrooms to support teachers, and how to carve out more time in the school schedule for teacher planning and study sessions.

 

Administrators examined student work in small groups. .

The afternoon was spent honing in on reading. Calkins engaged the participants with her clear and compelling picture of how reading instruction can look. She shared examples and led participants through experiential learning opportunities, such as partners reading a piece of poetry with each re-read focusing on a different, deeper dive into analysis of the piece. This kind of instruction in the context of reader's workshop has been transformative in children's reading instruction nationally. Many San Mateo County elementary and middle schools are grounding their instructional programs in this workshop-based approach.

Calkins acknowledged that administrators can't all be instructional leaders in every subject but counseled them to seek out experts among their staff to help them identify leaders and best practices within their schools. She also suggested that principals come together in study groups to learn from one another, and suggested that this day for administrators was designed to spark forging a network of principals doing this work.

 

Participants were enthusiastic about the day at SMCOE. Sonya Dineen, assistant principal at La Entrada Middle School in the Las Lomitas School District, found the session "very focused, helpful and concrete for administrators." Maggie MacIsaac, superintendent in the Burlingame School District, added, "Teachers in our district love this program. It was useful for me to hear about it directly from Lucy and it reinforces the message of what we are doing."

  

Gary Waddell, Deputy Superintendent at the San Mateo County Office of Education, worked closely with Calkins and staff at Teachers' College to set up this unique day of professional learning for administrators. "We have seen the power that this workshop-based approach can have in transforming classrooms and lighting that spark in children that comes from igniting both passion and skill in reading and writing," he said. Dr. Waddell commented that this sort of day spent focusing on reading and writing for administrators is unique. The San Mateo County Office of Education is committed to building a structure to support this type of transformative instructional work in San Mateo County through curriculum support systems as well as through continued partnership with the Teachers' College Reading and Writing Project.    

 

 

 

  

Teachers Engage With Common Core

By and large, teachers in San Mateo County are both excited and challenged as they transition to the Common Core standards. That's the consensus gleaned from interviews with teachers both at the elementary and high school levels from various districts throughout the county.

Jim Burke, English teacher at Burlingame High School, has been involved with the rollout of Common Core for four years, both at his school and on a national level through committees he serves on with the College Board and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). "As a teacher, consultant and writer, I see teachers pushing themselves from all sides to get better," he says. "And in the San Mateo Union High School District, I see more focused, structured and intentional professional development." Burke is supportive of the higher expectations embedded in the Common Core but the challenge, he notes, is reaching students at lower academic levels.

Deborah Carlino, fifth grade teacher at Martin Elementary School in South San Francisco, notes that the transition to Common Core has meant more collaboration for teachers at her school and across the district, helping teachers to be conscious of the standards at each grade level and what their students need to know. For her students, she notes, it's all about persistence and building their confidence as they become problem solvers.

Kelly Duncan, language arts teacher at Alta Loma, concurs. "Kids have to think through their responses," she says. "They have to get out of the test-taking mold where there's one right bubble, and they need to learn that it's OK to fail and try again. It's been a positive change with an increased focus on critical thinking."

"It's hard but exciting," says Antoinette Villarin, math teacher at Westborough Middle School in South San Francisco. "There's a lot more rigor and engagement for students with real-life settings for math problems. The standards are more applicable to students' development."

Teacher leaders in her district received in-depth training on the standards at the San Mateo County Office of Education, and then in turn trained other teachers. Common prep periods with other teachers at her grade level have been designed for planning lessons together, and she has found that collaboration to be really helpful.

"Teachers are hungry for more tips," notes Sarah Cullom, teacher on special assignment for technology this year for the San Mateo-Foster City School district, and previously a fourth and fifth grade teacher. "It's hard because the curriculum is in flux and it can be difficult to find resources."

Her district has had several professional development days focused on Common Core and she has seen a lot more collaboration across the district. "And there are also a lot of great websites such as newsela for nonfiction materials and everyday math. On the whole, teachers are excited. Common Core means a deeper level of teaching and strategies which are really best practices in teaching."

County Committee Looks at New Trustee Boundaries 

As the population has shifted in San Mateo County over the past 10 years, the County Committee on School District Organization is currently in the process of reviewing the seven trustee areas for the County Board of Education and proposing a redrawing of the boundaries. This process, which occurs as directed in the California Education Code after each decennial census, is geared toward making the areas more equal in population.

Currently, the smallest trustee area represents 4 percent of the total population of the county while the largest area represents 22 percent. The coastside school districts, Woodside and Las Lomitas have all seen a drop in population in the last 10 years while Redwood City, Belmont and San Mateo-Foster City have seen an increase.

 "This redrawing of the boundaries, as far as we are aware, has never happened before in San Mateo County. But San Mateo County is unique because of its geography," notes Nancy Magee, Administrator at the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) and Secretary to the County Committee. "There's the coastside area that includes large swaths of rural land and mountains, and is one reason the differences in population are so large."

The County Committee is elected by the governing boards of the 23 school districts in the county, and is comprised of 11 members representing two members from each of the five supervisor districts and one at-large member. Each member serves a four-year term.

After the election of new County Committee members in November 2013, the full committee established a subcommittee to identify possible options for redrawing boundaries. This subcommittee has come up with several options all of which succeed in keeping elementary districts whole within the new boundaries and stretch east to west rather than north to south as in the current boundaries. Because the high school districts are so large, it's not possible to keep them whole, notes Magee. The subcommittee also took into consideration the County Board trustees and how far they would need to travel within their trustee area.

The proposed options narrow the existing gap from the smallest to the largest trustee from 18 to 10 percent or less. The proposals keep many of the existing trustee areas as is.

This month, Hilary Paulson, one of the members of the County Committee, presented two of the proposed options to the San Mateo County Board of Education. On November 3, the County Committee will set dates for future public hearings and on November 17 at 7 p.m, a special study session on these options for school board members will be held at the County Office.

Based on the public response, the committee could take action before March 2015 and present the new plan to the County Board of Supervisors, or if public response generates other solutions, the process could continue into next year. Stay tuned!