2024 Dakota Ridge Training Part 1

Right. Let's share what you know.

I think many of you, probably all of you

probably know students who have attended

or do attend or may attend in the future

at Dakota Ridge.

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

families for the first time and we're

trying to help them understand what this

might do for them or how to help their

child, we are an intervention.

And in the world of federal Setting Four sites,

we are unique in that we are part

of this large District.

We are not an Intermediate.

We aren't somewhere you send your kids

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

to help students figure out what

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,

whether that's out in the community,

whether it's just making

your world a little broader.

Um, I think we're we're fortunately

pretty successful at that.

So um, I'll just talk a little bit

and like oh that's not my screen. Yours.

Um, so I'll just share kind of just

where we've been, how we got here

who I am and then I think I'll ask those

of you who have lived in this world

to kind of fill in where I, cuz I don't live

your role every day.

I live the right, the perspective

of outside of it.

Um, so I prior to my position here I was

I've had many hats in the district.

I was a Center-Based Autism Teacher

at Dakota Hills for many years.

Um, I was an Autism Specialist

and then I came over here

as a Lead Teacher

and then when I left here,

I was an Elementary Coordinator

and came back because once I was here,

I knew this is where I belonged

and I couldn't wait to come back

and I get the opportunity

to lead this building.

And one of the first things we did

when I came back

was we created a shared vision

mission statement as a building.

So this is a statement co-constructed

by staff and what we believe we do here

at Dakota Ridge.

And it's a community engaged

in developing the unique skills

of individual students through creative

programming and collaboration.

And to take that a step further,

what we truly believe is these starred items

and every student who walks in our door,

school has failed them.

And I don't mean a person

has failed them, I just our system

and the way we've gone about things

has not met their needs

and we get this unique opportunity

to rewrite their story.

And so we walk in this door,

I truly believe those of us who we have

very low staff turnover in our building

because this is a place that it calls to you.

It speaks to you.

Um, and we get

this opportunity to take students who

have no joy at school and to find their joy.

To find school is a place - I'll never forget

Matthew and I went out to Gideon Pond

when he was at Gideon and observed him

and was part of meetings, and all he said

that first day when he came for a tour,

I don't know if any of you were with that day,

he walked through the hallway

and kept saying, "Friends.

I'm going to have friends".

That is all he cared and to this day

that is probably what brings him

to school every day.

He gets excited.

He never, the kid has

impeccable attendance.

He is never gone.

We have behaviors

when he has to leave early.

Yes.

Truthfully, because school has never been

an experience like that before.

So for Matthew for you know,

that's a child you can all identify with

because you work with,

but every student here,

no matter how they show us

things aren't going well and how they

communicate that to us um,

we get the opportunity

to figure out how school

can be a place for them to be successful

and there's nothing

more rewarding than that.

And it's it's tough in between there.

Right? There's some things to work through.

Um, high quality, effective instruction

we believe that in order to do that

and help school be a successful place,

we have to believe they can

and classrooms are set up to teach.

They are classrooms we are school first.

You can hear a pin drop

in our hallway most days.

Um and when you walk in classrooms,

they're learning.

They're engaged.

They're using all the same curriculum

they're using throughout the district.

The same tools, the same textbooks,

the same everything

and we might modify and adjust,

but I would say we probably

modify and adjust less than

a Setting Three classroom

in a Traditional School.

What age kids are here?

Everybody.

Kindergarten through age 22

down our main hallway.

Everybody - and we do not, go ahead.

The word can,

that is that word means so much.

It's such a small word but,

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

because she said you know what we should

start using the word before when he's

having a behavior to cut it off.

You can do that, you can, you can

and it changed.

You could see it in his head this change.

So I just want to that word can, can.

And to your question,

we serve all disability categories.

Um, our building is laid out

in, I think, probably the next slide.

Um, I'll get so this will 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 ago

but, we have a total of 22 classrooms

in the building and eight of them are

classrooms that we serve four students

in that classroom environment.

So that the max we put in there is four

and then the others

are what we call large group

is six to eight students.

Um, and within that environment,

there are paraprofessionals supporting.

Um, in small group our goal

we start at for that one teacher

there's usually

two paraprofessionals ideally

and um, those four students.

Sometimes it takes up to five

because right, the reality of just we

have to serve everybody.

Um, and Lorna is part of one

of those small group environments.

So we, that factors in.

So it's um in that classroom there are

actually two paraprofessionals assigned

in addition to Lorna.

One is out on leave right now.

Um, but just not always.

So like the room Matthew's in, it is one other

paraprofessional with Charlotte.

So we we adjust based on what the needs

of that environment is.

Um, we don't necessarily just group

students by age.

So I don't, one we don't

have a full classroom of fourth graders.

Right? We don't have a full classroom

of fifth graders, but we also know

that students learn best with certain

peers and not with others.

So we spend a lot

of time building those class lists

and we create classrooms that we believe

will learn together best, not based

on their age, grade, all those things.

So we might have a eighth grader mixed

in with 10th and 11th graders

because they need 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

we adjust.

Um, so we we we joke that we're

a big family here and it really you have

to kind of have that mentality to be here.

We're all in this together.

Um, if you if

everybody carries a radio and if you

say on that radio I need help,

like more than you wished.

I usually follow behind like I think we're good.

I think we're good.

Um, and not because it's so big scary.

I mean we we have evolved in the,

I think what Dakota Ridge was

maybe 15 years ago,

our population has evolved and changed.

One, because I believe

our setting two and three

within our Traditional School settings has

grown in their capacity to serve students.

So they may have been sent

to Dakota Ridge years ago,

but we don't need to serve

that population anymore.

We also have growing needs

of individuals who maybe just

weren't served in schools before because

they were so extreme.

Um, there are fewer facilities

for them to go to.

Just so many reasons why

that the complexity of learners

has changed here

and we have bad days

just like every school in the district.

I would say it's

not every day and it's not every week.

Um, and the support that one big family

we're in together, you just

there we had we had a major incident

last week, oh this week, it was Tuesday.

Um, but the reality is 90% of the school

had no idea what was going on

because we have systems and routines and

people trained to support those situations

so that we have a practice we follow

and usually it's a hold.

That particular day we went on a secure

and so people just knew.

We got to stay in the building.

We know that the staff

are call the leadership is calling this

because it's going to keep us safe.

We can go about our business and again,

to this day, 90% of people

probably don't know what happened.

And we just went on with our day.

You go on with your day,

You trust and you know

that people have got your back

and we're in this together and

we do everything we can

to keep people safe.

I mean I'm sure if you're at the DSC,

you see things. Right?

You see police cars, you see ambulances.

90% of those situations

are mental health issues

and we are responding

to a student and getting them help.

It is not a risk.

Sometimes the the behavior

that leads up to them needing

that level of intervention

looks scary, but it looks

more scary because it's not typical to 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 responsibility

really seriously.

Um, every two class so, in our small group

environments we got a redesign

of those spaces last year.

So those spaces all have

three break spaces in them because

that population of students just need

less noise, they need some time alone,

some sometimes isolation.

We have swings in every one of those.

Every one of those classrooms

has one room with a swing mount.

And then down the main hallway

as we get into what we call large group,

in between every two classrooms we have

a break space.

And within that break space we,

our hope, is that students learn to use

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,

where to take that break,

what tools they need to take that break.

Um, and then

there are times when students don't have

that skill yet, that as adults we help them

to learn that by supporting them

and getting to that break space and

we baby steps to grow into where they can

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 full-time School social worker.

We have a lead interventionist,

so academic interventions

who is a behavior also has

deep background of behavior.

We have a curriculum interventionist or

core interventionist

who has a strong background in behavior

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 paraprofessionals

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 float and be in places.

Now they are individuals we have identified

who 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 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

Cane's across it?

It's like oh, how 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 when 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 [inaudible] yeah. Perfect.

And can I just name Martha was

involved in this too, I didn't say

your name earlier, but Martha spends

a sizeable amount of time here and help

plan just from the float perspective too,

around maybe not um kind of coming and

going too so, thank you.

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'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.

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 will say

I don't get 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 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 think sometimes

we hear questions

in 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

I don't think they always understand.

And they, 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 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.

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.

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 blossom in this setting.

And I would imagine that people have

some hesitation about like supporting here

and I don't know that that's

necessarily any of you, but it is a fear

of like maybe I don't have the skills

to support 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 would say that that's a lot of times

more of a fear then of the unknown.

And to be that, off of that,

like that's I have [inaudible]

I been here um, I know that um,

in chatting with coworkers you know I talk

[inaudible]

Um you're going to giggle.

You're going to laugh and you're

going to leave with a smile usually.

I mean that's my experience.

You know I think a lot of the times

that I've been in communication

with some coworkers is and I'm not trying

to over step it's or anything, 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 PCM trained.

Well the reality is we don't use PCM

everyday.

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 equipped 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's give it a whirl.

Can't say that won't work.

Try something else. Right.

So it's thinking

that lens and 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 Ridge

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 sock.

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.

[sounds on video]

[inaudible voices on video]

Can you sign big?

Good job.

And there is my why.

And he has

relationships with everybody.

He's like Royalty when he walks in

in the morning.

Might take him five to ten 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 a sub para who's here

two days a week who I got watch

their interaction yesterday and I just...

He has grown so much.

When when he first started here he was

in a room by himself.

So to see him do 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 adding.

His language and communication -

It's fun watching him.

What was on the screen?

Um, it was actually Shelby was teaching

ASL class and there were jifs

and he just thought it was the funniest thing

and then he would describe the jif.

[inaudible]

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.

Thinking of like

what is it like to support here,

subbing 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.

Yep, but we did it.

We got there.

Just keep going. Try something different.

Um, so a positive, happy demeanor.

When I walk into that break room