CPS Teach Chicago Podcast
CPS Teach Chicago Podcast
Triangle, Square, Circle
Episode Summary:
Noelle and Kyriako pull together an OSEL Specialist, Principal, and a Middle School teacher to embark on a protocol that breaks down the first quarter of the CPS 2021-22 school year, and some current realities of in-person instruction.
Episode Resources:
Elementary Community Building Handbook
High School Community Building Handbook
OSEL Website
Episode Bell:
Social Justice High School
Teacher Appreciation Schools:
Mt. Vernon Elementary
William H. Brown Elementary
Disney 2 Magnet Elementary
©Chicago Public Schools 2021
It's a tough balance for educators—for teachers, between the sense of urgency to move young people along and also like that practice of slowing down. This is the priority right now. If we don't tend to like, how are the children like the content doesn't matter at this moment.
Noelle Jones:Hey, Kyriako.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:Hey Noelle. So quarter one is in the books.
Noelle Jones:Yeah. Things a little different. Huh?
Kyriako Anastasiadis:I remember saying to myself last year that the first quarter of 2020 was like, no other, if I'm honest, 2021 takes the cake.
Noelle Jones:I agree. Rebuilding the muscle memory of in-person instruction—like live classrooms, has not been like getting back on a bike for teachers or students. And of course it really wouldn't be right? We are coming back from a full and complete stop and restart, you know, of school as we knew it.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:Right? So this episode, we're pushing the interview format aside and going full panel. We're bringing heads together to share observations from quarter one, discuss insights, and frankly make some space to just think a little bit. Listeners, we're happy you're here to join us as well.
Noelle Jones:So as I see all these wonderful faces on my computer screen, let's open up the floor to our guests so they can introduce themselves. Erica, do you want to start us off?
Erica Faulkner:Glad to. I'm so excited to be here. My name is Erica Faulkner. I am a social emotional learning specialist with the Office of Social Emotional Learning. I am a former teacher—I think that's most important. So I am a teacher of 12 years, um, and mainly in the middle grades. So I've taught everything from fifth grade to eighth grade, mainly math, um, came to Chicago in 2009 from Texas when it a completely different change. So I have been an instructional coach. I have been a data strategist and then a social emotional learning specialist with the district. And I do a lot of work with the new teacher orientation and just supporting some of the efforts of teaching and learning with new teachers.
Noelle Jones:All right, Matt, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Matt Blankshain:I'm Matt Blankshain. I am a middle school, seventh and eighth grade math teacher at Mozart elementary school. This is my fourth year at Mozart and fifth year teaching overall. And then I'm also a member of our restorative practices team and the culture climate and equity team over at Mozart.
Noelle Jones:Thank you. And Ellen, who are you? What's going on with you?
Ellen Kennedy:Hello everyone. I am Ellen Kennedy. I'm the principal at Richards career academy. We're a small neighborhood high school in the back of the yards community, and I am in my fifth year as the principal at Richards. My trajectory to school leadership actually comes from a background in school social work, as opposed to a classroom teacher. So different perspective and humble and proud to serve at Richards. And, excited to be here. And I've never participated in a podcast before. So my inaugural podcast participation.
Noelle Jones:Hi. Thank you. Welcome everybody. Don't worry, girl. We'vehaven't been in this very long either. So you're in great company.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:Yes. Thank you all so much for being here. So our plan is to employ a simple protocol to frame our chat. It's called"Triangle, Square, Circle" and no, it's not a Squid Game reference. First up the triangle. Let's get into three observations from first quarter in-person instruction has provided by our three guests. Matt, why don't you start us off? What is one thing you're seeing?
Matt Blankshain:Yes. So one that I have really noticed is the kids have missed seeing each other. And they got back in class and they've really wanted to interact with each other talk catch up.That year and a half off of quarantining and social distancing. And you know, we're still going on in the pandemic, but they really want to connect with each other.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:Do you have an example of kind of like, kind of what brought you to that observation? Like, what are you specifically seeing? Is it in the classroom or maybe a recess or lunch?
Matt Blankshain:I would say, yeah, all three. It's primarily the classroom. That's where I'm seeing the kids the most. A lot chattier than years past, I would say. And I don't think it's just my group—like this year's kids. I think it's just a collective from talking with other teachers about their classes as well. Just the kids, clearly, they want to see each other again.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:I definitely agree with you on that. Erica, do you want to go next?
Erica Faulkner:Although I'm no longer in the classroom. I think in supporting schools and supporting teachers, something that we are hearing is that teachers are just really overwhelmed, and really trying to figure out how do they best support students beyond instruction. I believe they are really starting to see that social, emotional learning is really important. Relationships are crucial. And now more than ever, I think there is an urgency to really kind of figure out,"Hey, what do we do?" Like there's a lot going on for our students. There's a lot going for us and how do we build community in a time? You know, like this right now.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:Ellen, why don't you bring us all on this one question?
Ellen Kennedy:Well I'm sitting here thinking of several things. I'm going to speak truth in and share that looking at the bookends of high school, they're struggling the most, the Freshmen and my Seniors as well. They missed out on some like maturity that typically happens in that kind of junior year. Just moving into being upperclassmen. They're not the same kind of seniors we typically see—like they lost out on some opportunities and be like, you know, really strong leaders in the building. At the opposite end of the bookend is the freshmen. You know, freshmen always kind of come in, you know, just a little squirrely, still adjusting to high school life. But the, the volume of that experience right now with our freshmen is more profound than we have seen in the past in terms of that, like adjustment to high school life. And just still very much kind of feeling like we still have some middle schoolers in front of us. So it's just a different take and how we're seeing young people show up than we did in years past. That's pretty profound for us.
Noelle Jones:Okay. So I am so glad that I'm not just in my own head space, you know, being cuckoo, because I know I told you guys when I introduced myself to you that I wear a lot of hats, but specifically I teach the freshmen at Social Justice High School. The last time I taught our seniors, Ellen, they were freshmen. And so I have to remind myself and Kiriako, and I was talking about this the other day. The last time we met that our freshmen haven't been in a school building setting since they were in seventh grade and it shows. And so the things that I see in my room, like at this point—now that we're a quarter in, it's not now, they're very, very chatty. But in the beginning they didn't know how to talk to each other. They didn't know how to make friends or, you know, have in-person verbal communication. It was still very, very"social distance," not just physically, but kind of almost in a mental space of being very socially distanced from one another. And relying on their cell phone—the cell phone for everything. And their focus and their stamina, just to reintroduce or introduce how to quote unquote, do school. It's just a lot,
Kyriako Anastasiadis:I agree with everything that everyone is saying here with all the maybe challenges that we're seeing as teachers, principal, SEL leads, have you tried anything new this year that you haven't, or have you tried one of your old tricks to kind of get kids feeling comfortable, again, safe, again, opening up again? What are some things that you have seen that have worked in your classroom or in your school? I'll it up to anyone right now.
Matt Blankshain:Yeah, so I'd love to start our school last year started a restorative practices team. So it was actually kinda fortunate for us with the pandemic that we were able to attend all these trainings virtually and kind of get everything organized and then come in and hit the ground running this year with more of a plan and on the fly last year. So we've introduced talking circles to our classrooms, which for those not familiar, we have a talking piece and we kind of sit in a circle and the lead, which would be myself or another classroom teacher introduces a topic. And then you just go around the circle—when you have the piece, it's your turn to share, uh, they have the right to pass if they would like, if they don't feel that they're able to share there. And then you just go around a few times, there's an opening and closing, and it's been really, really beneficial in giving kids an opportunity to share feelings—open up, give their input about whatever it might be and see where they're at that day.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:That's something I learned in undergrad at Northeastern. And yeah, I hear a lot of teachers really turn to that. It's kind of rough at the beginning. I don't know if you would agree, but then really, you know, once kids get more comfortable with it, it can be some very powerful stuff. Ellen, you want to continue?
Ellen Kennedy:Yeah. Thank you. A couple of things have been happened or we're trying to focus on we're being really intentional about the way we started the school year about really leveraging some resources from OSEL around building out a calendar of community, building activities across the building that occurred. Uh, so if you were a teacher and you felt like you had a pretty deep toolkit of community building and SEL type activities to do with your students, great—Go ahead and do them. If you didn't feel like you had some of those resources, now you have, here's a schedule of different activities to do so kids don't experience duplicate activities across classes. So, trying to fill the toolbox of teachers with relationship building opportunities with young people. I feel like it's important for me as a leader to set the tone with the faculty around permission, to set aside content and tend to humanity and the importance of that, of like we have to be okay with you may not get as through as many units in this course, as you think you should, or that you intended to because it's important to slow down and tend to the SEL needs of our young people. We're also trying to—we have a course at the school, we call it our Change Makers course and it's, it's basically a student committee. And so we've been in that change makers class with those students, they organize themselves around these activist groups and try to build up some school improvement efforts that kind of address what's happening in the school building. There's a group that's working on mental health needs for young people and creating like awareness campaigns around trauma and depression and stuff. So it's student led around awareness of helping to bring attention and name what's happening, and then offer young people like resources for how to get support and assistance given if that's something that they're experiencing. So trying to, uh, address it from both like some at a micro level and at a macro level of like. It's okay, like this is the priority right now. If we don't tend to like, how are the children like the content doesn't matter at this moment
Erica Faulkner:One, with the talking circles. Um, even if I'm not one that wants to talk and I pass, I'm still able to hear from my peers and I am still working on an SEL skill. I did not often make those skills explicit. So when I was working on solving systems of equations or, you know, graphing a linear equation, I was very clear. I was very clear about the steps, what skills they needed. And I gave them feedback on how they were doing. But if a student was able to look at somebody else, take their perspective, um, really agree respectfully or disagree respectfully. I never commented specifically on the skills they were using. So in a talking circle, one thing that we can do is we can really highlight those skills specifically. Like, so let's students know these are the skills that you are working on and when you see it from your peers, affirm it. Right? So our department, I was on the team that built the high school portion of the community building handbook. We do have one for elementary as well, but those are activities that are intentionally crafted to have students really focus on SEL skills, build community. And it is a great starting place. I would definitely say that content is not going to be retained if our brains, if our mental health, if everything that I think if the foundation is not there.
Noelle Jones:Okay, so I'm going to push a button. I am a control freak in my classroom. And with all of the things that I am budgeting—I got plates spinning on sticks and balls going of things that I have to do. I'll be very honest, Erica. One of the last things that I am thinking about is a talking circle. Is a let's take a breath we're in on and popping about what we have to do. Bam, bam, bam. And don't get me wrong. I have very good friends that are like,"Noelle, you're going too fast. You're going too fast, slow down, let them breathe. Girl, let them think. You, you just, you just own and running." And I think that comes with the expectations that I have around. Like, we just, we just did our star 360 Renaissance diagnostic data, and we're launching a new curriculum, and we're reading in our book PLCs about culturally responsive teaching. And so it was comforting to hear Ellen say, to give space, to give permission, and we're not going to get through blah-blah-blah. It's okay. Take that time and do this with kids, build relationship with kids, do do these things. And I don't think that for me, that shift in my thinking. It's like, I hear it. You know, we had, you know, PDs about SEL and I'll be honest. It feels like another thing I have to do. It's not necessarily an incorporated natural thing, as opposed to my objective and my this and my that. So it's taking me some time to adjust and, um, I just don't—my principal could have very well said, do that, but I don't think I heard him. I hear"data,""this that,""gotta catch up," got to do this launch the new curriculum. So I'm thankful for the perspectives because I just would have bulldozed right past that. What's up Matthew? You look like you want to say something?
Matt Blankshain:Yes. So, uh, we actually just started implementing these talking circles and there's been a lot of teachers who didn't go to these trainings, have a similar mindset to that of, you know, I have other things to worry about these talking circles are so long and our school now is also going on year three of Calm Classroom. Which is an alternative to those talking circles, not to replace them, but on maybe a day where you're thinking a little more, data-driven a Calm classroom, teaches mindfulness in a quick, you know, two, three minute, let's take time, let's get some mindfulness, let's reset ourselves. And whereas a talking circle might take, you know, a half hour, it's worth it to make the time. And you know, our schedules are a little different. We have homerooms so we can use that time. But the Calm Classroom is one of those alternatives where it's not going to take the same time as, as a talking circle, but you can still get that two, three minutes of mindfulness for the students.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:You know, I know a lot of veteran teachers that when they hear"restorative practices,""talking circles," they kind of roll their eyes. And I have a very no nonsense nurture type approach, but restorative practices, isn't just talking circles. Although I do those whole class, usually when there's like some type of big event, and I feel like maybe students want to talk about it. A lot of times the talking circles, maybe just two or three students, you know? And you, and two, two or three other students, it doesn't always have to be a large group. I know I have a lot of talking circles with a small number of students within one class and they just got to talk something out, whether they have drama or whether they're just not feeling well with a particular lesson or a skill that we're doing. Um, and also restorative practices. I think what's really key with that is your restorative language. How we speak, the words we choose and the tone that we're using. So much of it is the tone that you come up. And sometimes as teachers, we don't know—we're frustrated here, the admin, the colleague, or another class, but when our tone comes off in a particular manner that the student can shut down—get super defensive. So restorative practices, isn't just talking circles. It's so much more than that. And I want to make sure that listeners understand that, you know, restorative language, just how the words we use and the tone that we use them in can make a monster difference. I know that from experience. Ellen, did you want to chime in a little bit more?
Ellen Kennedy:Thank you, Kyriako. I was listening to you Noelle and, and hearing perhaps, and correct me if I'm wrong, like this, almost a struggle between the balance of a sense of urgency, right? Of, uh, these young people are within your, um, within your purview now and you're responsible for them as freshmen, and they're going to be sophomores next year, and you want them to leave your nest with skills and et cetera. And so it's a tough balance for, for educators, for, for teachers between the sense of urgency to move young people along and also like that practice of slowing down. And I don't have the right answer for it, but I think kind of like naming it to, to try to work through it. It is important of, it's a, it's a very honest and real struggle that I see my teachers have as well around this. Just how do I, that—like I've got, we've got, we've got, uh, I've got so much to do with them and yet, and want to slow down and try to attend to their humanity and it's a tough balance.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:On that note. I think this is a good time to pause for a bit, take a break and balance this show out with some good vibes. We'll be back on the other side to get into part two and three of our protocol, Triangle, Square, Circle. You're listening to the CPS,Teach Chicago podcast.
Student 1:This episode is brought to you by Ms. Yolanda Pender-Bey at Mt. Vernon elementary school. I appreciate Ms. Pender-Bey because she was by my side, through my whole journey of developing the nature play space next to Mt. Vernon elementary school and now the upcoming Wildcat podcast. Also, I appreciate Ms. Pender-Bey because she put pressure on her class to make sure we will be successful in life.
Student 2:I love Ms. Homan at William H Brown School because she teach me how to be smart and kind.
Student 3:This episode is brough to you by Ms. Murphy
Student 4:at Disney II Magnet Shool.
Student 5:She helps us learn math.
Student 6:This episode is brought to you by Ms. Sharon Wood at Mount Vernon Elementary School. I appreciate Ms. Wood because she is very supportive. She pushed me to the next level in my academic learning, also because when I don't believe in myself, she does.
Noelle Jones:Hey, fellow teachers, it's Noelle. Before we get back to it, I just wanted to thank you for listening. Truly. I hope you're feeling seen out there, especially with our chat today. And if by chance you do feel seen and are connecting with this show, then we'd appreciate it if you took it upon yourself to share with a colleague or two. This show is produced for the benefit of teachers like us. That's the point, plain and simple. It's meant to be a teacher connector across our big city. We know you're getting something out of it. We see you downloading new episodes as soon as they show up in the feed—you care about this show and that's why you should share it. There's no monetary pitch here. There's no quote, unquote, becoming a sustaining member—your donation will blah, blah, blah, blah. We just want to be real—a real resource for teachers, CPS teachers, and shoot teachers anywhere else too. Okay. That's it. That's it share the show. It helps now let's get back to it. Noelle,
Kyriako Anastasiadis:Kyriako.
Noelle Jones:CPS Teach Chicago Podcast.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:This episode is triangle square circle, a quarter one protocol earlier we heard from our three guests, about three observations they had in quarter one. Now it's time to move on to part two, the square. So Erica, Matt, and Ellen, how did your observations square with your own expectations of what in-person instruction would look like this year? Go ahead, Erica.
Erica Faulkner:Um, so my expectation was that teachers would be overwhelmed and there would be a lot of demand. Um, dealing with students coming in, who possibly have been traumatized from everything that was happening since the shutdown. And I would say that is what's happening in a lot of our schools. Um, is there, is that just as Noel was saying, there is that pressure, like the learning loss that we keep talking about, like students have not been in school. They have not, even though we did remote learning, we have students who are behind are not our freshmen. The last time they were in person were seventh grade. So for high school, we're trying to get them ready for college. I felt that that was going to be put on teachers and that they would feel this pressure, um, that students would also need time to adjust. Um, and that's what we're seeing. And we're really just as an office trying to figure out how do we best support our schools? How do we best support our teachers so that our students, um, receive exactly what it is that they deserve. Um, and it's, it's tough.
Ellen Kennedy:I knew there would be excitement and I knew that it was going to be difficult—simultaneously excitement and difficulty. I didn't expect it to be as hard as it is. The volume, you know, after those opening weeks of school, when there, you know, there's always that excitement at the beginning of the school year—that beginning of the year honeymoon. And to some extent we had that, in those opening weeks, that's something that I felt like our school experience and then, you know, reality started to set in. So I didn't expect it to be as overwhelming as it has been. And maybe for me as the school leader getting caught up in the, I might've been so consumed with like, do we have all the PPE? Do we have all the—are the classrooms all set up and ready to go? You like you get so caught up in all these like technical steps of, are we ready? And, and I went into it with this intention, with the faculty of like, we're going to have to spend a lot of time, this school year, focused on answering the question,"How shall we be?" How are we going to function together again? How are we gonna laugh, play, work together again—both as adults and as young people? And so I knew that was going to be a big priority for us this year. I, I didn't realize how tough it was going to be.
Noelle Jones:So with that being said, I think one of the things at my school anyway, that is like,"Whoa" is shoot the stuff that Erica is speaking of—how to remedy. So what are you saying, Noelle? So my AP is like over duty as a Dean right now, kids in the office, some kids preferring to be in the office so that they don't have to be in the classroom. Teachers just knowing what to do with battling phone and interaction and just the whole, the behavior of it all. Of, and I can't just put everything on kids, right? It's like, this is a kid. So I have to control, or as adults, we have to control our own stuff. So that piece is what hasn't squared up for me Kyriako. The whole, I thought everybody would be kind of glad to be back. We might, it might take, be a little slow, but you know, we'll be all right. And we can work with parents and everybody, you know, but, but uh-uh. We cannot get to sometimes the academic things like you were saying, which causes my control freak stuff to kick in and be like, all right, we got to do this and this and this, you know. So that's what I've been seeing that does not square up or what I thought.
Matt Blankshain:Yes. So my big worry this past summer kind of heading into the year was that the remote experience for some kids was really beneficial. We saw a lot of kids who really thrived with that and they made strides and progressed. And then of course there was the other end where a lot of kids fell off with the remote setting. So I had this big fear of the, you know, especially as a math teacher, you know, we, we have the STAR test and the math scores are you know, kept and we see their test scores for data. And so I had this big fear of the divide kind of increasing where certain students were already ahead and then they had great remote years, whereas students who were behind fell off even more, and now we have even more of an achievement gap, which I have noticed is there. And differentiations had to be a big part of that. What I was not expecting was the trauma and the SEL needs. I knew there would definitely be some trauma, but I was not prepared for the level. To echo what Noelle was saying. Our AP is doing the same thing. She's swamped, constantly acting as a Dean, our counselor's office. She's been, non-stop work on herself too. And it feels like there's a lot of overwhelmed teachers as well. So I it's just been the weighing of the achievement gap growing and wanting to focus on getting those scores, but also seeing all this trauma and needing to make time for that.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:Yeah. All very excellent, excellent points. So our next little segment here, Circle. What are some questions thst are still circling in your mind to better support students rediscovering the muscle memory of in-person instruction? What are some things that you're thinking is the new strategies that you're thinking about to better support students? What questions do you still have as we continue to do school in-person again, Matthew start us off.
Matt Blankshain:Yeah. I, my one question would be kind of, when will it kind of shift back to what we were expecting? You know, the, when you know—they obviously had lost these procedures and everything? When is it going to be a second quarter, third quarter? Is it next year? Or is it, that's kind of this, the one thing it's, it's kind of feeling it out day to day and seeing where the kids are at, but it's definitely, always going of when are we going to shift back to what seems to be the kids back in these procedures and used to doing this?
Noelle Jones:I didn't even think about when. I haven't thought about that at all. I think what I've been, what's been circling is just how to meet my kid's needs. What do I need to do? What, what, what—I'm willing to do it, what do I need to do? And I've tried, I think so far to make what I'm teaching just as relevant and connected, not just academically, but I like to say, you know, what's going on out here in these streets. So using their voice. So when I talk about my English classes and what is English class for, what is literacy for? You know, it's a nice essay. That's, that's cool too, but nobody cared about your essay when you out there in those streets, you know? So how can we use our voice outside? How can you take these thinking those ways of thinking, how do we think about this and strategize about this? How do we argue this? How do we convince this, that we can use those things out in, you know, in our lives that are outside of school and to make my classroom, I always tell them, don't make school hard school. Shouldn't feel like school. You know? So I try to keep that as my forefront to make them comfortable, to build relationship of trust. To let them know. I love them to let them know I care and we're gonna get some work done. So I need to add in what Erica has been sharing about SEL. I actually welcome that. Um, but I do want to make sure, so what's, what's circling what questions. I don't really have any, I just want to create an environment of some peace if we can't have any peace outside of school, because for whatever reason, then at least during your 50 minutes in Room 104 we can have some peace.
Erica Faulkner:I think about the question, what keeps you up at night? Um, as the same as this what's circling, and I'm pretty much the person in our department, that's always like, how do we touch more teachers? How do we get our content out to more teachers? Because I truly believe in the power of, of instruction. I believe in the power that teachers possess to change lives. And so we've been really looking at SEL through a transformative lens. So that equity piece, like we talk about the pandemic, but we also have to realize that George Floyd. We lost George Floyd. Also students were able to see this on the news. They were able to witness the trial. Um, and if, if the equity issues that we have have not been blasted, they were definitely blasted that summer. And I want SEL to be the vehicle that helps our students transform their community. Right? But they have to know that they have that power. And I don't believe in saying, you know what, well, I have to, I have to give the students the power. No, I don't. They have it. I have to help them know that you can unleash it at any time, but they need those skills. They need those transformative SEL skills so that they can transform their community in order to do that. They have to build relationships. They have to know how to seek the resources. They have to know how to negotiate and argue and fight in a way that is productive to help bring power to their community. Right? And so I'm always like teachers have the power to do this, but we have to get this content. We have to get transformative SEL into the classrooms so that our students are living it, so that they're speaking it, and so they are teaching it. What is circling for me is just like, how, and when can we do this? This podcast is a step. Um, but we are constantly just thinking about how do we put this in the hands of teachers so that they can put it in the hands of our kids because they're ready.
Ellen Kennedy:I heard Noelle say, you know, just trying to focus on, you know, what do my young people need? What can I, what can I do within the confines of this classroom and these 50 minutes that I have them together? I heard Erica say something, you know, like the, the transformative power of the teacher and the potential for the teacher to be that such big change agent for our young people. And so it kind of connects to what circling for me is, and I think I'm because I'm thinking about it from a school leader perspective, is how do I support and nurture the educators in my building to stay in the game right now, given how hard it is? So nurturing all the adults in the building, that's the classroom teacher, the Dean, the counselor, the SECAs, security, I mean, everybody is giving the best that they can in this moment. And, you know, there's a part of me that sometimes wants to be like, where's the rest of the troops? Like, I don't know any school that's operating at full capacity in terms of personnel and resources. And, and even in the best of circumstances, you know we always need more resources for our school, but particularly now with, you know, the honesty around staffing shortages and stuff that are occurring, like that strain feels hard right now. And so that's where I kind of just continue to circle it for me is like how, as the building leader, do I continue to support and nurture the educators and the adults in the building so that they can turn around and do their best work in service of our young people.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:Speaking from a teacher, feed them—feed them. We love food, especially when it's free.
Noelle Jones:Well, speaking of food, which is always a motivator, we are in this podcast, a solutions oriented space. And so what resources, even if you've mentioned them before and over the course of this conversation, if you wouldn't mind repeating. So that we can move forward with some power, with some,"I'll try this out." Here's some things that I'm thinking I'm going to try, but some things, so that folks are walking away from our podcast episode today, empowered and hopeful, and like, yeah, I got this. I can hold on. I can make it.
Erica Faulkner:So I'm going to name a few, but definitely always check learning hub for any professional learning that the office of social emotional learning is doing our SEL integration content is fresh. It's new, it's something that I've been kind of plugging a little bit here with the transformative SEL, but really talking about how do we take SEL into your English class, into your social studies or your science class, and teach it in conjunction with your core content areas. So doing that through academic discussions, doing that through student self-assessment and self-reflection, we can build those SEL skills during cooperative learning opportunities. We can build those SEL skills when we are giving students voice and choice. So those are just four of those teacher practices that you can find in SEL every day. That is a small book. It's an easy read. Um, we are promoting that we are actually using it with our high schools. So high school principals have received that book. We are also just shouting out our community handbook, which you can also find. I know that our knowledge center holds a lot of our resources, but if you reach out to your network SEL specialist, they can also pass that information along to you. So it's just a great resource for some of those community builders. Some of those student reflections. We do have some talking circle, um, prompts and protocols. So just some really great resources to check out. And again, always check for our professional learning on the learning hub.
Matt Blankshain:Yeah. So I'll kind of add on to that. I already mentioned calm classroom and the restorative practices like that, our school, we actually did a school-wide staff reading of Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning. And that was a phenomenal book. We did a PD on it, uh, and it, it was really a good book. It's very, solutions-based the whole, it's got a dependencies of, you know, different books that you can use in your classroom, different practices—models, everything that you could ever need and want is in that book. Highly recommended, and then a little more, not a physical resource, but I was going to say some of the best resources for me have been just conversations with co- workers and joining teams and getting involved and using the other people and their experience in your building, uh, to, to grow and find out what they're doing well, and use that, and then share some of your experiences and kind of collaborate together to get on the same page as a school.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:That is huge. You know, finding that colleague to talk to and kind of lean on is something that I use every single year, every student school year. And I think this year would probably be just as useful.
Ellen Kennedy:You know, building on that idea of, of sort of leaning on colleagues and such. I'm trying to think about this with our faculty and staff around this kind of"collective care," and when we take care of each other, it helps take care of us, um, or take, when we take care of each other, it helps us take care of ourselves. And we're really trying to let's think about this in some manageable chunks. So on our November 5th school improvement PD day, we did some work together to just kind of name and talk about what was, what our current lived experience was for the school year. But then also tried to think about quarter two and like, let's take this into some manageable chunks. What's going to help us get through certain segments of it? We did an activity where we, we kind of reflected on like, what is the, the, the inward work we need to do to contribute to our own wellness and healing? I'm seeing educators be very brave about more brave than ever about work-life balance. And I applaud that. And I know it comes along with a lot of educators feeling very guilty about it—and myself too. I've been more protective of my work-life balance and that's been a healing strategy and a survival strategy for me. Um, so what's, what's the inward work we, you need to do to support our healing. What's the outward work of like, how can we support one another? What's what can we contribute to this community of educators to help support our collective healing and getting us through this next stretch of, of the school year that they were invited to like reach up. Like make a request, like, is there something that admin can do to support you so that you're your best self to be with young people? So it just kind of that for me, is really trying to think about the ongoing tending to the adults in the building, so that they're ready to be as best as they can in front of young people.
Noelle Jones:I just want to say, thank you so much to our guests. I'm so happy to have had all of your various perspectives and I, I don't mind being checked, right? I don't, I don't mind being vulnerable and I don't mind being corrected or exposed to other ways of thinking. And so I very much appreciate what you have to share, Matt and Erica and Ellen, thank you so much. This was so extremely helpful.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:I have to echo the same thing. All three of you were incredible, and thank you for taking the time. We really appreciate it. And you add a lot of value to our podcast and the different perspectives and from a school leader, SPL lead to a classroom teacher. I think it's crucial that we get everyone's perspective because it's not a one size fits all. And, you know, everyone needs a little bit of help from a school leader to a lead to a teacher, to the most important person, the student. So everything was in extremely insightful. And I think our listeners are really, really enjoyed it. Thank you.
Erica Faulkner:Thank you for having me.
Ellen Kennedy:Thank you. I was in such good hands for my first podcast and, uh, glad to be with you all and to join the other panelists in this great conversation.
Maurice Swinney:Hello, CPS family. This is interim Chief Education Officer Dr. Maurice Swinney. I'm here to dedicate this episode to the office of Social Emotional Learning's Executive Director, Hellen Antonopoulos, who recently passed away. Helen was a beloved member of the CPS family, and we are truly devastated at this loss. Her impact on growing SEL and CPS will be felt for generations and we appreciate all the time and effort that she has put into Chicago Public Schools and producing the Healing Centered framework. We take a moment of silence for her and acknowledge all the great work that she's done. And we hope that you enjoy this session as it will fill your heart and mind. Thank you, and stay tuned to the podcast.
Ellen:Hi, I'm Ellen and I work in the CPS Talent Office. It's my job to help teacher candidates find a job in Chicago Public Schools. I'm here to tell you about the hiring experience in CPS, but I'm not a copywriter. So I thought we could try something else. Hey Jordan.
Jordan:Hey Ellen.
:So I'm trying to share what getting a job in CPS is like for prospective teachers out there. And I figure, you know better than anybody since you were recently hired. I was wondering if you would be so kind to share your experiences with us.
Jordan:Definitely. So around this time, actually last year, I first received an email from you because you saw my resume and things online. And you thought that I would be a great fit for Opportunity Schools. I had never heard of it. So I looked it up further from our conversation, and I thought it'd be a great fit. I'm sure I got on your nerves. I emailed you all the time with questions and you always responded very quickly. You always assured me that I could reach out at any time. You always called, even over the summer when I was having questions or next steps. I never felt like I was at a point where I don't know what's going on, or I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing because you always jumped in.
Ellen:So where are you teaching now?
Jordan:I am currently at Avalon Park on the South Side of Chicago and I teach fourth and fifth grade literacy.
Ellen:And how's it going?
Jordan:It's great. I was nervous at first, because I had never taught fourth and fifth grade. I've always taught middle school. So I was nervous to go to that upper primary level, but I love it. I love my school. I love my principal. I love my kids. It honestly was a perfect fit.
Ellen:I am so glad it is going so well for you. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today.
Jordan:No problem. And thank you for everything that you did for me,
Ellen:Interested in teaching for Chicago Public Schools? Real people, like me, are standing by to find the right school for you. Visit teach.cps.edu to learn more.
Kyriako Anastasiadis:Season 2 of the CPS Teach Chicago Podcast is Noelle, Adam, Collin, Dave, James, and me—Kyriako. Special thanks to Erica Faulkner, Matt Blankshain, and Principal Ellen Kennedy for being our guests this episode. We really appreciate all of them taking the time to process with us. Additional thanks to the students of Mt. Vernon, William H. Brown, and Disney 2 for our teacher appreciation ad. Our bell for this episode comes from Social Justice High School—hey, I know somebody there.
Noelle Jones:You can find more information about the Teach Chicago Podcast and links to resources discussed in this episode at cps.edu/tcpod. Additionally, if you’re a teacher interested in teaching in Chicago Public Schools, visit teach.cps.edu to learn more. Do you have questions or comments? Share them by emailing us at teachchicagopod@cps.edu. Feedback, of course, is always appreciated. S ubscribe to the CPS Teach Chicago Podcast by hitting that small little subscribe button wherever you get your podcasts. You can also take 5 minutes and leave us a review which helps the show tremendously. C opyright 2021, Chicago Public Schools. W e’ ll see you next time for a conversation on a different kind of sustainability in CPS. U ntil then, Teach Chicago.