-
Right. Let's share what you know.
-
I think many of you, probably all of you
-
probably know students who have attended
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or do attend or may attend in the future
-
at Dakota Ridge.
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And um, no two students as you know,
-
have are nothing, nothing
-
is just textbook or fits in a box. Right?
-
So that's what we really pride ourselves on
-
here at Dakota Ridge is when I meet
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families for the first time and we're
-
trying to help them understand what this
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might do for them or how help their
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child, we are an intervention.
-
And in the world of federal setting for sites,
-
we are unique in that we are part
-
of this large District.
-
We are not an Intermediate.
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We aren't somewhere you send your kids
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to that do their own thing,
-
but we are aligned to district 196
-
in everything we do and our goal
-
is to be an intervention,
-
to be that step in between
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to help students figure out what
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is getting in the way for them
-
of being successful, intervene, teach skills
-
and for many students that means move on
-
to your next goal.
-
Whether that's back to your home school,
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whether that's out in the community,
-
whether it's just making
-
your world a little broader.
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Um, I think we're we're fortunately
-
pretty successful at that.
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So um, I'll just talk a little bit
-
and like oh that's not my screen. Yours.
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Um, so I'll just share kind of just
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where we've been, how we got here
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who I am and then I think I'll ask those
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of you who have lived in this world
-
to kind of fill in where I, cuz I don't live
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your role every day.
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I live the right, the perspective
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of outside of it.
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Um, so I prior to my position here I was
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I've had many hats in the district.
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I was a Center-Based Autism Teacher
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at Dakota Hills for many years.
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Um, I was an Autism Specialist
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and then I came over here
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as a Lead Teacher
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and then when I left here,
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I was an Elementary Coordinator
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and came back because once I was here,
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I knew this is where I belonged
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and I couldn't wait to come back
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and I get the opportunity
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to lead this building.
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And one of the first things we did
-
when I came back
-
was we created a shared vision
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mission statement as a building.
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So this is a statement co-constructed
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by staff and what we believe we do here
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at Dakota Ridge.
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And it's a community engaged
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in developing the unique skills
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of individual students through creative
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programming and collaboration.
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And to take that a step further,
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what we truly believe is these starred items
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and every student who walks in our door,
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school has failed them.
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And I don't mean a person
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has failed them, I just our system
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and the way we've gone about things
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has not met their needs
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and we get this unique opportunity
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to rewrite their story.
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And so we walk in this door,
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I truly believe those of us who we have
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very low staff turnover in our building
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because this is a place that it it calls to you.
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It speaks to you.
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Um, and we get
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this opportunity to take students who
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have no joy at school and to find their joy.
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To find school is a place - I'll never forget
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Matthew and I went out to Gideon Pond
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when he was at Gideon and observed him
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and was part of meetings, and all he said
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that first day when he came for a tour,
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I don't know if any of you were with that day,
-
he walked through the hallway
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and kept saying, "Friends. I'm going to have friends".
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That is all he cared and to this day
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that is probably what brings him to school every day.
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He gets excited.
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He never, the kid has impeccable attendance.
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He is never gone.
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We have behaviors when he has to leave early.
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Yes.
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Truthfully, because school has never been
-
an experience like that before.
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So for Matthew for you know,
-
that's a child you can all identify with
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because you work with,
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but every student here,
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no matter how they show us
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things aren't going well and how they
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communicate that to us um,
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we get the opportunity
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to figure out how school
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can be a place for them to be successful
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and there's nothing more rewarding than that.
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And it's it's tough in between there.
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Right? There's some things to work through.
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Um, high quality, effective instruction
-
we believe that in order to do that
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and help school be a successful place,
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we have to believe they can
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and classrooms are set up to teach.
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They are classrooms we are school first.
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You can hear a pin drop
-
in our hallway most days.
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Um and when you walk in classrooms,
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they're learning.
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They're engaged.
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They're using all the same curriculum
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they're using throughout the district.
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The same tools, the same textbooks,
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the same everything
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and we might modify and adjust,
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but I would say we probably
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modify and adjust less than
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a Setting Three classroom
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in a Traditional School.
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What age kids are here?
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Everybody.
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Kindergarten through age 22
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down our main hallway.
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Everybody and we do not, go ahead.
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The word can that is that word means so
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much it's such a small world word but
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that word even Martha Martha is the one
-
who brought it to Matthew's plate I'm
-
going to give you credit for this one
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because she said you know what we should
-
start using the word before when he's
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having a behavior to cut it off you can
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do that you can you can and it changed
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you could see it in his head does change
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so I just want to that word can can and
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to your question we serve all disability
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categories um our building is laid out
-
and I think probably the next
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slide um I'll I'll get so this will
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stack on that this doesn't probably mean
-
a whole lot just the way it's laid out
-
but and this was a snapshot taken months
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ago but we
-
have a total of 22 classrooms in the
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building and eight of them are
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classrooms that we serve four students
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in that classroom environment so that
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the max we put in there is four and then
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the other are what we call large group
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is six to eight students um and within
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that environment there are par
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professionals supporting um in small
-
group our goal we start at for that one
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teacher there's usually two pair of
-
professionals ideally and um those four
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students sometimes it eaks up to five
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because right the reality of just we
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have to serve everybody um and Lorna is
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part of one of those small group
-
environments so we that factors in so
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it's um in that classroom there are
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actually two Care Professionals assigned
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in addition to laa one is out on lead
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right now um but just not always so like
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the room Matthew's in it is one other
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pair of professional with Charlotte so
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we we adjust based on what the needs of
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that environment is
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um we don't necessarily just group
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students by age so I don't one we don't
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have a full classroom of fourth graders
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right we don't have a full classroom of
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fifth graders but we also know
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that students learn best with certain
-
peers and not with others so we spend a
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lot of time building those class lists
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and we create classrooms that we believe
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will learn together best not based on
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their age grade all those things so we
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might have a eighth grader mixed in with
-
10th and 11th graders because they need
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some Role Models they need they need
-
something different um we don't always
-
get it right and we sometimes have to
-
adjust but that is just what we do here
-
we we reflect and we figure it out and
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we adjust
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um so we we we joke that we're a big
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family here and it really you have to
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kind of have that mentality to be here
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we're all in this together um if you if
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you everybody carries a radio and if you
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say on that radio I need
-
help like more than you wished I usually
-
follow behind like I think we're good I
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think we're
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good um and not because it's so big
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scary I mean we we have evolved in the I
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think what Dakota Ridge was maybe 15
-
years ago our population has evolved and
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changed the one because I believe our
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setting two and three within our
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Traditional School settings has grown in
-
their capacity to serve students so they
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may have been sent to a quarterage years
-
ago but we don't need to serve that
-
population anymore we also have growing
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needs of individuals who maybe just
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weren't served in schools before because
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they were so extreme um there are fewer
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facilities for them to go to just so
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many reasons why that the complexity of
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Learners has changed here
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and we have bad days just like every
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school in the district I would say it's
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not every day and it's not every week um
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and the support that one big family were
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in together you just
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there we had I we had a major incident
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last week oh this week it was Tuesday
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only um but the reality is 90% of the
-
school had no idea what was going on
-
because we have systems and routines and
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people trained to support those
-
situations so that we have a practice we
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follow and usually it's a hold that
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particular day we want to when on a
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secure and so people just knew we got to
-
stay in the building we know that the
-
staff are call the leadership is calling
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this going to keep us safe we can go
-
about our business and again to this day
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90% of people probably don't know what
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happened and we just went on with our
-
day you go on with your day you trust
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and you know that people have got your
-
back and we're in this together and we
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do everything we can to keep people safe
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I mean I'm sure if you're at the DC you
-
see things right you see police cars you
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see ambulances 90% of those situations
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are mental health issues and we are
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responding to a student and getting them
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help it is not a risk sometimes the the
-
behavior that leads up to them meeting
-
that level of
-
intervention looks scary but it looks
-
more scary because it's not typical to
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see it's not because we're in danger
-
it's because we're scared how are we
-
going to keep you safe how are we going
-
to meet your needs and we take that
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responsibility really
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seriously
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um every two class so in our small group
-
environments we got a redesign of those
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spaces last year so those spaces all
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have three break spaces in them because
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that population of students just need
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less noise they need some time alone
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some sometimes isolation we have swings
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in every one of those every one of those
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classrooms has one room with a swing
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Mount and then down the main hallway as
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we get into what we call large group in
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between every two classrooms we have a
-
break space and within that break space
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we our hope is that students learn use
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that space proactively so that they can
-
request a break because when they think
-
about going back to a home school and
-
their environment grows drastically they
-
need to know when to say I need to break
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where to take that break what tools they
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need to take that break um and then
-
there are times when students don't have
-
that skill yet that as adults we help
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them to learn that by supporting them
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and getting to that break space and we
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baby steps to Growing to where they can
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do that
-
independently um like I said all support
-
all staff carry radios we have a
-
building leadership team that's made up
-
of myself Mr Wilson is the assistant
-
administrator and then there are six
-
additional people that make up our our
-
school psychologist our we have a
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full-time School social worker we have
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uh a lead interventionist so academic
-
interventions who is a behavior also has
-
deep background of behavior we have a
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curriculum interventionist or core
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intervention
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who has a strong background in behavior
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and then we have a behavior lead
-
interventionist um all who have been
-
teachers in the building and believe in
-
this um we have a float staff which is
-
made up primarily of prayer
-
professionals who work really hard
-
we back when Staffing was a different
-
story right they were two or three
-
individuals who truly their job all day
-
was just Flo and be in places now they
-
are individuals we have identified who
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they are part of teams but they they
-
have flexibility um and they build
-
relationships throughout the building so
-
they're our go-to when we have uh a
-
couple of Staff down here in small group
-
who they have we have a new Elementary
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learner
-
who is really struggling um and they are
-
the right people they have built a
-
relationship with him and so we just
-
have flexibility that that float staff
-
are the people that come down and
-
intervene sometimes they just need a new
-
face sometimes they just need somebody
-
they know they can trust who wasn't in
-
that moment with them um and we have a
-
deep shared understanding of students we
-
do a lot to communicate with each other
-
um based on a need to know right there's
-
that fine line between
-
confidentiality um but we do a lot we
-
send out emails hey just a heads up this
-
student's plan is this or we have an all
-
staff meeting once a month and we might
-
bring a picture of a student if you see
-
this person in the hallway please don't
-
say this we have a young lady right now
-
who is exploring work she's a transition
-
age learner um and what we have learned
-
is when she wears her sweatshirt that
-
announces her employer that is probably
-
something went wrong today at her job
-
and what's your go-to if you see her
-
walking through the building that says
-
K's across it it's like oh I was work
-
today right well we have figured out as
-
a team that we have to coach everybody
-
not to engage about her job because that
-
is her like way of letting us know I
-
can't talk about my job today um but not
-
what our first reaction as adults is so
-
we do a lot of working with each other
-
just sending building wide emails like
-
hey if you see so and so in the hallway
-
heads up don't ask
-
her so um
-
yeah so this is more information that we
-
met with um staff here in the building
-
just to talk about what does it feel
-
like to work here and what are supports
-
are in place so these may be SL yeah
-
perfect and can I just name I Martha was
-
involved in this too I didn't say your
-
name earlier but Martha spend the
-
sizeable amount of time here and help
-
plan just from the flow perspective too
-
around maybe not um kind of coming and
-
going to so
-
make so I would just I guess I would
-
wonder what things are you wondering
-
about and what things do you hear that
-
make you um
-
uncertain that's the question I that's
-
one of the first questions i' I've
-
always wanted to know is what are your
-
concerns of why you don't want to come
-
here you know I find it a wonderful to
-
work but other people don't see that and
-
I'm like I don't I don't understand
-
understand I mean you're so well
-
supported um it is like a family here
-
you have a ton of information and it's
-
always being given to you in many
-
different ways so I just yeah that's a
-
hard one for me to and I would say I
-
think we've worked together a long time
-
right and there are times that there are
-
decisions Dan and I might make or that
-
as a building and Charlotte I don't this
-
why are we doing this and we want that
-
that is how we that's how we can only do
-
better so if people come in and they're
-
like this makes no sense why is someone
-
doing this maybe we're going to learn a
-
better way so we welcome those questions
-
or whoa there's so many layers here
-
nobody shared with you let me share with
-
you so you understand why we do um and
-
that's really how we operate I I spend a
-
lot of my day
-
just talking about what we
-
do I think the other thing to know is
-
that um it's a big decision when a
-
student ends up coming here right so um
-
it is a significant decision when an IEP
-
team is considering a setting change for
-
a student for a lot of reasons right
-
like statute wise but also we are making
-
a decision that that student should be
-
leaving their home building for a period
-
of time always our goal is to have them
-
come back um and sometimes we find this
-
is the right setting for them um so I
-
think sometimes we hear questions and
-
buildings around how those decisions are
-
made and why um and I think just know
-
that they're not taken light and this is
-
like the very you have what 120 students
-
right now in a district of
-
29,000 um so it is truly like a small
-
number of students who truly need this
-
setting and that's also why it's
-
effective right um so if you hear
-
questions in the buildings always know
-
that that is the case and we can help
-
with those conversations because if
-
people don't spend time here I don't
-
think they always understand and they
-
the program the PE the students who do
-
move here are at their worst when they
-
come here so what the perception of that
-
individual child when they leave
-
somewhere else is much different than
-
the perception we get to have because we
-
get a fresh start we get to take that
-
worst and it's we we truly believe as a
-
building we there's nowhere else for
-
them to go we're not we're not
-
intervening to figure out where else
-
we're going to send you we're
-
intervening to get in it with you we're
-
intervening to figure out what's in the
-
way and how are we going to fix it and
-
not fix it we can't fix anything that's
-
the wrong word just to help you grow and
-
do better and
-
so I think a lot of times people think
-
of the kids they have seen come here and
-
the story they have is the story of that
-
child at their worst and we're really
-
lucky because we get to celebrate those
-
small wins and change that story
-
um
-
so I when kids come here you almost see
-
them Blossom right for some kids like
-
the environment is the right environment
-
for them with the structures and
-
routines that are in place and the
-
supports and just the connections with
-
staff and some kids just absolutely I
-
would say lots of kids not some
-
absolutely just loss them in this
-
setting and I would imagine that people
-
some hesitation about like supporting
-
hair and I I don't know that that's
-
necessarily any of you is a like maybe I
-
don't have the skills to support with
-
that particular student or I don't I
-
don't know that I'm capable of that and
-
I think the realization of the team
-
right like you're not alone but I I I
-
would say that that's a lot of times
-
more of a fear and of the
-
unknown and to be that off of that like
-
that's I I
-
I been here um I know that um in
-
chatting with coworkers you know I talk
-
like got over
-
um you're going to giggle you're GNA
-
laugh and you're going to leave with a
-
smile usually I mean that's my
-
experience you I think a lot of the
-
times that I've in communication with
-
some coworkers is and I'm not trying to
-
over separate things it's like they have
-
that uncomfortable feeling that like you
-
know the unknown or the big the PCM
-
training piece and the part that I like
-
to say much what you guys have always
-
just said here too is that you have that
-
support in the room that will always be
-
there right away for you if you need it
-
you know and that's even a culture thing
-
we hear of Staff here when people are on
-
their back wheels or just having a bad
-
day of nobody in my room is PM train
-
well the reality is we don't use PM
-
every day like I
-
mean it's not this magic wand right we
-
don't use it that often but it is that
-
something when people are feeling right
-
we all go to what do I not have how am I
-
not equi to do this um but really it's
-
about coming here and helping kids be
-
successful and we got we've got a lot of
-
ways to get creative to do that in
-
interventions we try and tools we use we
-
are resource Rich yeah I feel it's
-
endless it's endless you just have to
-
identify what you need or what they need
-
and then and we'll try it and we'll try
-
it let give it a can't work yeah try
-
something else right so it's thinking
-
that lens and all fa all behavior is a
-
form of communication so behavior isn't
-
personal it's a child trying to
-
communicate something and they don't
-
have the skills to tell you what that is
-
in that moment so thinking through all
-
the tools that you have here at Dakota
-
Rich to support kids and there is no
-
tool here we use that we don't have in
-
other buildings or that we can't get in
-
other buildings so I think that's the
-
other layer to know it's not like we're
-
tool Rich because we've got it at all
-
here it's out there it's using a rocking
-
chair instead of a regular chair it's
-
putting a roller ball at their feet it's
-
giving them a fidget in their class room
-
it's using a body stck those aren't
-
magic wands those are things we have
-
everywhere we might have more of
-
them um but we are very very aware to
-
make sure it's a functional tool that
-
can go somewhere like that so and there
-
he is there's
-
MJ
-
you
-
big good good
-
job
-
and there is
-
my and he has
-
relationships with everybody he's like
-
Royal to you when he walks in in the
-
morning might take him five to 10
-
minutes to get to the classroom because
-
everyone's got to stop and chat myself
-
included um and he's got things with
-
each person we have subar who's here two
-
days a week who I got watch their
-
interaction yesterday and I
-
just and he has grown so much because
-
when when he first started here he was
-
in a room by himself so to see him do
-
that of that oh so so awesome like I
-
said I watched him sign 20 some words
-
last night and I was just amazed that he
-
just kept going I'm
-
like wow and then he'll tell the story
-
again and he know add a word to his
-
story and I'm like yes yes just keep
-
adding and adding and
-
add what was on the screen um it was
-
actually Shelby was teaching ASL class
-
and there were
-
chips
-
and he just thought it was the funniest
-
thing and then he would describe
-
the do you guys want to take over this
-
part these are just all the things you
-
shared and I kind of captured them on a
-
slide when we met of thinking of like
-
what is it like to support hair subing
-
and stepping
-
in
-
um okay
-
so just in this just in this now in this
-
week um we have our safe spaces for them
-
I have watched Matthew on his own walk
-
in just walk in instead of taking us
-
seven years y y but we got
-
there
-
just keep going try something different
-
um
-
so a positive happy demeanor when I walk
-
into that break room