Schools can engage community-based organizations as powerful partners in achieving sustainable and equitable well-being for families. In this audiocast, you’ll hear about how Seaford Public School District has established a systemic approach to addressing behavioral health that engages families and the community to help school staff identify the root causes of behavioral challenges and determine the relevant, community-rooted strategies for supporting students.

Dreams 

A Multidisciplinary, Team-Based Approach to Behavioral Health

This first session in our Leading Voices Online Conversation Series, which spotlights scholarly and practitioner perspectives on pressing education issues. This session is designed to support efforts to create the conditions necessary for equitable teaching and learning.

Building on research and experience in the field, Dr. Christina Pate, Director of Safe and Supportive Learning Environments (SSLE) services at WestEd, and Jenny Betz, Senior Program Associate at WestEd, will lead a conversation with Regina Timms, Program Manager for Safe and Supportive Learning Environments at the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED), and Dr. Rose Prejean-Harris, Director of Social and Emotional Learning in Atlanta Public Schools (APS).

In this session, panelists review current research, discuss the essentials of SSLE, and describe how they implement, scale, and sustain this work.

Leading Voices: Creating Safe and Supportive Learning Environments

With the recent federal recovery funds lasting only three to five years, how do districts sustain innovative and effective support services and improve student outcomes over the long term?

In this second session in our Leading Voices online conversation series learn how districts can sustain innovative and effective support services and improve student outcomes over the long term.

Jason Willis, Director of Strategic Resource Planning & Implementation for WestEd, led a fireside chat with Nolberto Delgadillo, Chief Financial Officer for Portland Public Schools (PPS), to discuss PPS’s efforts to maintain an approach to build, establish, and evaluate investments from one-time federal resources. The chat was designed to support your efforts to sustain investments in student learning strategies and improve equity for all students by offering real-world examples from an urban school district serving more than 49,000 students in 81 schools.

Discussion topics for this conversation include:

- Creating space and time for practitioners to re-engineer their practices

- Making informed financial decisions

- Supporting and committing to the community beyond school settings

- Measuring outcomes and making progress with transparency

Leading Voices: Sustaining Investments for Impactful Student Learning

In recent years, educators have faced unprecedented upheaval and stress. While ensuring student well-being, self-care often becomes less of a priority. However, self-care is critical for educators.

In this episode, Dr. Christina Pate, Deputy Director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety, and host Danny Torres share a rich discussion about the importance of educator self-care for improved well-being and better student outcomes.

As a leading voice in the field, Dr. Pate works to foster adult well-being, promotes trauma-informed practice and resilience, and improves cross-sector collaboration in ways that help improve outcomes for individuals and systems.

“We don’t have to be in perfect condition to be helpful,” Dr. Pate says, “but we certainly can’t be in a debilitating condition or under so much stress that we can’t really show up for other people…. To be helpful to others, we have to be helping ourselves first.”

Dr. Pate describes her personal experience of burnout and offers a framework for addressing educator well-being. Find out why self-care doesn’t mean spa days, learn practical strategies to support well-being, and much more.

Learn more about WestEd's Safe and Supportive Learning Environments services online at https://www.wested.org/ssle

Transcript
https://www.wested.org/leading-voices-podcast-transcript-episode-1/

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Self-Care Strategies for Educators During the Coronavirus Crisis: Supporting Personal Social and Emotional Well-Being
https://www.wested.org/resources/self-care-strategies-for-educators-covid-19/

Beyond SEL Audiocast
https://beyondsel.wested.org/

Leading Voices: Creating Safe and Supportive Learning Environments – Dr. Christina Pate in Conversation with State and District Leaders
https://www.wested.org/resources/creating-safe-and-supportive-learning-environments/

Leading Voices Podcast Series Episode 1: Adult Well-Being and Creating a Culture of Care

All children are born hardwired to play. Through play, children notice what goes on around them and experiment with, and joyfully investigate, objects and people.

In play, they seek to discover new things and to figure things out. Play is essential for young children’s learning; yet despite this, play is disappearing from childhood and early learning settings. 

This session introduces, The Powerful Role of Play in Early Education, an exciting new CDE publication that invites us to reflect on what is needed to reverse this alarming trend. 

In this webinar audio recording, panelists discuss why play is important to children’s learning and what each of us can do to re-center play as the primary context for early learning.

Webinar Moderator: Mary Jane Maguire-Fong
Panelists: Denisha Jones and Elizabeth Crocker

Read the Transcript
https://www.wested.org/pitc-webinar-series-the-powerful-role-of-play-in-early-education-video-transcript-part-i/

Listen to Part 2: Play at the Center of the Curriculum
https://www.wested.org/resources/part-two-play-at-the-center-of-the-curriculum/

For more information about the PITC, visit us online at www.pitc.org.

The Powerful Role of Play in Early Education: Part 1 - Play Matters

Within everyday experiences in play, young children build concepts that are foundational in providing a strong base for all future learning.

This session explores how teachers and providers can place play at the center of early childhood curriculum. The panelists describe how to design play spaces as environments for learning, invite children’s playful participation during daily routines, and support children’s play with others, especially when conflicts arise.

Teaching and learning through play require time for reflection, collaboration, and thoughtful planning. Panelists invite you to explore the time, resources, and support teachers and providers need to thoughtfully observe, document, and interpret children’s play.

This archived webinar is the second part of a two-part webinar series developed by the California Department of Social Services, Child Care and Development Division, in partnership with WestEd’s Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC).

The series explores the importance of play as a right of childhood and the roles of teachers, providers, and administrators to support authentic play as the foundation for learning in early care and education programs. In addition to highlighting research and policy, practical examples for providers and teachers are shared to emphasize the importance of play in supporting optimal learning and development.

Webinar Moderator: Mary Jane Maguire-Fong
Panelists: Marie Jones and Elizabeth Crocker

Read the Transcript
https://www.wested.org/pitc-webinar-series-the-powerful-role-of-play-in-early-education-video-transcript-part-ii/

Listen to Part 1: Play Matters
https://soundcloud.com/wested/the-powerful-role-of-play-in-early-education-part-1-play-matters

For more information about the PITC, visit us online at www.pitc.org.

The Powerful Role of Play in Early Education – Part 2: Play at the Center of the Curriculum

In this episode, Nancy Gerzon, Franchesca Warren, and Cali Kaminsky, all experts with WestEd’s Formative Insights, discuss how schools and districts can amplify student agency and identity through formative assessment policies and practices.

Nancy Gerzon is Project Director for WestEd’s Formative Insights team. She has been at the forefront of developing scalable approaches to teacher-led learning and formative assessment. Professional Learning Specialist Franchesca Warren leads work that builds teacher and student capacity for strategic impact and increased agency. Senior Program Associate Cali Kaminsky supports large-scale projects that grow teacher and leader agency through formative assessment.

With host Danny Torres, they explore:

- What is formative assessment and how it relates to student agency
- The research behind formative assessment policies and practices
- How formative assessment looks in the classroom
- The importance of diversity of thought in the learning process
Implementation barriers
- The crucial role of education leaders
- The importance of culturally responsive and sustainable education

Learn more about WestEd’s Formative Insights services.
https://csaa.wested.org/formative-insights/what-we-do/services/

Transcript
https://www.wested.org/leading-voices-podcast-transcript-episode-2/

Supporting Resources for This Episode

Formative Insights Website and Video Collection
https://csaa.wested.org/formative-insights/

Ambitious Teaching and Equitable Assessment: A Vision for Prioritizing Learning, Not Testing
By Lorrie A. Shepard (American Educator, Fall 2021)
https://www.aft.org/ae/fall2021/shepard

Defining Formative Assessment (Brief)
https://wested.box.com/s/p55zzvjjq4gdfnwfzw1cins5exz48vky

The Power of Evidence Use in Formative Assessment (Brief)
https://csaa.wested.org/resource/the-power-of-evidence-use-in-formative-assessment/

Amplifying Student Agency Through Formative Assessment (Blog)
https://www.wested.org/wested-bulletin/insights-impact/student-agency-through-formative-assessment/

Digital Learning Modules and Courses (Online Resource)
https://fa-insights.wested.org/sail/

Formative Insights Named a Top Education Innovation in Formative Assessment (News)
https://www.wested.org/wested-bulletin/news/formative-insights-top-innovation-formative-assessment-hundred-jacobs-foundation/

Follow the Formative Insights Team on Twitter: @FormativInsight

Listen to more Leading Voices Podcast episodes at https://www.wested.org/wested_podcast/leading-voices

Leading Voices Podcast Episode 2: Amplifying Student Agency with Formative Assessment

The California Department of Social Services, Child Care and Development Division (CDSS-CCDD), in partnership with WestEd’s Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC), hosted a webinar series that focuses on updates from the book, Infant/Toddler Caregiving: A Guide to Social-Emotional Growth and Socialization, now in its third edition.

The series highlighted the significant work of infant/toddler care providers and teachers in developing relationships with individual children and their families, an important first step in supporting the children’s social-emotional growth and socialization.

The first in a two-part series, this archived webinar focuses on self-knowledge and meaningful partnerships with families and introduces one of the new chapters from the Infant/Toddler Caregiving book, “Resisting the Margins: Advancing an Imperative to Attend to Race and Culture and the Social-Emotional Growth and Learning of Infants and Toddlers.” Our guest presenter, Eva Marie Shivers, considered poverty and racism, and how these impact the well-being of children, families, and early-childhood educators. 

Webinar Moderator: Elizabeth Crocker
Presenter: Eva Marie Shivers

Transcript
https://www.wested.org/pitc-webinar-series-part-1-resisting-the-margins/

Session Resources:

PowerPoint Presentation (PDF)
https://wested.ent.box.com/s/y10vuv0gvlbursp4pbxpirk2c1jhcx70

Resource List (PDF)
https://wested.ent.box.com/s/9f6fjmrhnigtsyi1odp43rfvq6m4qgkz

For more information about the PITC, visit us online at www.pitc.org.

Pitc Webinar Series Part 1 : Resisting the Margins

The California Department of Social Services, Child Care and Development Division (CDSS-CCDD), in partnership with WestEd’s Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC), hosted a webinar series that focuses on updates from the book, Infant/Toddler Caregiving: A Guide to Social-Emotional Growth and Socialization, now in its third edition.

The series highlighted the significant work of infant/toddler care providers and teachers in developing relationships with individual children and their families, an important first step in supporting the children’s social-emotional growth and socialization.

The second in a two-part series, this archived webinar explores the earliest foundations of empathy formed during the infant and toddler years and introduces one of the new chapters from the Infant/Toddler Caregiving book, “From Early Empathy to Acts of Kindness.” Presenters discuss why empathy is important for infant and toddler caregivers and young children. The webinar focused on a set of skills that make up empathy and how young children’s empathy develops over time. The presenters describe how caregivers can support empathy development of infants and toddlers in their programs.

Webinar Moderator: Elizabeth Crocker
Presenter: Jennifer Marcella-Burdett and Tatiana Hill-Maini

Read the Transcript
https://www.wested.org/pitc-webinar-series-part-2-from-early-empathy-to-acts-of-kindness/

Session Resources:

PowerPoint Presentation (PDF)
https://wested.ent.box.com/s/o5ehtcffswcav55s996689kf4e41prxu

Empathy Handout (PDF)
https://wested.ent.box.com/s/08h1cbtov8fqx6zjq6cwvwh0vfn8r0vb

For more information about the PITC, visit us online at www.pitc.org.

PITC Webinar Series Part 2: From Early Empathy to Acts of Kindness

WestEd

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