Episode 2 - Return to School Student Services with Dr. Jeff Roberts

SHOW TOPIC
Return to School Student Services

SPECIAL GUEST
Dr. Jeff Roberts, Seneca Valley Supervisor of Gifted Education and Student Services

Dr. Jeff Roberts has been an administrator in the Seneca Valley School District since 2009, and currently serves as the Seneca Valley Supervisor of Gifted Education and Student Services.
He recently earned his degree in doctoral studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Administration and Leadership Studies. In addition to supervising gifted education, Mr. Roberts oversees the school counseling, health service and library departments.
Dr. Roberts is a graduate of the Leadership Butler County program. He is also currently a member of the Butler County Suicide Prevention Coalition, and a board member of the Butler County Alliance for Children.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW
• How recent training related to trauma-informed schools will affect school staff
• How we can help students feel comfortable at school (ex: virtual introductions)
• How our Learn, Explore, Act, Develop (LEAD) Program can support students
• How - and what - tools teachers can use to connect with students who are learning remotely
• How mask breaks will be incorporated into the school routine

USEFUL INFORMATION
www.svsd.net/ReturntoSchool
www.svsd.net/FaceCoveringsRTS
www.svsd.net/LEAD

Transcript

FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode) 

Voices E2 Jeff Roberts

File Name: Voices E2 Jeff Roberts.mp3

File Length: 00:11:25

SPEAKERS

JK - Jeff Krakoff

Int - Introduction

JR - Jeff Roberts

00:00:02:24 - 00:00:07:24

Introduction: Welcome to Voices, a Podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District.

00:00:11:04 - 00:00:18:18

Jeff Krakoff: I'm Jeff Krakoff. I'm here with Dr. Jeff Roberts, Supervisor of Gifted Education and Student Services. Jeff, welcome.

00:00:19:21 - 00:00:20:17

Jeff Roberts: Thanks.

00:00:20:19 - 00:00:27:27

Jeff Krakoff: I know you've been with the district as an administrator since 2009. Let me give you a quick introduction.

00:00:27:29 - 00:00:41:11

Jeff Krakoff: You recently earned your doctoral degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in administration and leadership studies, in addition to your years of supervising gifted education.

00:00:41:13 - 00:01:12:06

Jeff Krakoff: You oversee the school counseling, health service, and library departments as well. Outside of Seneca Valley School District, you're a graduate of the Leadership Butler County Program and you're also currently a member of the Butler County Suicide Prevention Coalition and a board member of the Butler County Alliance for Children. So you've got a lot going on and I imagine this summer you have a lot more going on than typically in an August.

00:01:12:10 - 00:01:28:13

Jeff Krakoff: You know some of us have heard the term trauma-informed schools from being state-mandated. Tell me a little bit about what trauma-informed schools are and the recent training that people have had to undergo.

00:01:28:15 - 00:01:45:26

Jeff Roberts: So we obviously focused on the children and their well-being at school and trauma-informed schools as one would say that we can make sure that all of our staff are thoughtful about the way that they approach children and pre-COVID.

00:01:46:01 - 00:02:16:08

Jeff Roberts: You know we'd be concerned about students that maybe had a death in their family, maybe they had something traumatic happen like the loss of employment for a family member. And obviously our staff, while they don't need to know the specifics of that, they need to be very sensitive to the child and how they're approaching school. So in the spring we did online training for our staff to introduce these concepts to them.

00:02:16:12 - 00:02:50:13

Jeff Roberts: And at that time this was May, the end of the last school year, we introduced to them the idea of collective trauma, that together, all of us are experiencing a difference in the way that we live our lives in the light of COVID-19. And we gave some examples to the staff back then of Hurricane Katrina and the effect that it had on a whole region of the United States years ago and how schools had to rebuild and rethink. So we wanted staff over the summer to be preparing for our students this fall.

00:02:51:03 - 00:02:53:01

Jeff Krakoff: I think just everybody that's a great point.

00:02:53:04 - 00:03:08:17

Jeff Krakoff: I think we're all trauma-related dealing with this time of pandemic and unknown, but what are some specific things that you're doing that the school district is doing to help students feel more comfortable at school when we all return.

00:03:08:25 - 00:03:34:02

Jeff Roberts: So our staff isn't necessarily focused on diagnosing what difficulty a child might be, but they're more so focused on giving some options for students. So if you don't feel comfortable doing A, then maybe you'd like to do B. So giving choice is something that is very therapeutic for kids and adults. We don't like to only have one choice.

00:03:34:04 - 00:03:34:19

Jeff Krakoff: Right.

00:03:34:21 - 00:03:42:11

Jeff Roberts: And so it is to the extent that teachers can say here's one way that you can show me that you know how to spell cat.

00:03:42:13 - 00:04:06:18

Jeff Roberts: But here's a different way. And kids are going to gravitate to the one that their most was comfortable with and that's a simple example. But, we have to recognize that if a child is stressed or an adult is stressed, they stop using their thinking brain. They start using their emotional brain and you know you've heard of the fight or flight syndrome. That really happens on a day-to-day basis for kids. If I feel like I'm cornered,

00:04:08:07 - 00:05:07:10

Jeff Roberts: just relationally, then I'm not going to use my thinking brain and I'm not going to be learning. You know, and many people have heard of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. We have to take care of the basics. And that's part of my department, getting kids comfortable coming back to school is "what's going to be like to go through the lunch line?" You know we've got things planned out so that there's an easy path it's obvious for what kids can do. "What's it gonna be like getting off the bus?" So as we prepare kids to come back to school they are going to get introductions with their classroom teacher, so the classroom teacher can show them virtually around the classroom and their principal can virtually say hey this is what the routine is gonna be when you get off the bus in the morning and added to that we don't typically feature those folks, but our school nurse and our school counselor are gonna provide a lot of virtual introduction to our kids about school and that it's OK to be nervous.

00:05:07:12 - 00:05:23:11

Jeff Roberts: You know everybody's nervous on the first day of school so let's be nervous and excited about this new thing as opposed to COVID-19 or mask wearing or something like that. That really shouldn't be the big deal. I know that it's on everyone's minds but let's be excited about school.

00:05:23:22 - 00:05:24:07

Jeff Krakoff: Right.

00:05:24:09 - 00:05:42:03

Jeff Krakoff: So trying to make the virtual world is as normalized as possible. Tell me a little bit about the LEAD program which which stands for Learn, Explore, Act and Develop. I know this is something you're using to help support students. What's it all about?

00:05:42:08 - 00:05:45:05

Jeff Roberts: So so LEAD is in many districts.

00:05:45:07 - 00:06:18:29

Jeff Roberts: Talk about social-emotional learning and for our students,  we really believe that they need to learn how to relate to one another. So we do classroom meetings and we can do those virtually and we'll do them in person with the students that are coming in person this fall. And that's for kids to feel comfortable with one another. You know lots of people know what icebreakers are and we'll do some of those in the first week of school, but we carry on with that class meeting idea all through the school year so that kids can deal with the day-to-day life of being a classroom community.

00:06:19:01 - 00:06:51:23

Jeff Roberts: We really believe in that concept of community and our kids need to learn, you know what it's like to be a digital citizen, certainly a component of this school year is going to be using technology for remote learning, for virtual learning, all those things. So we want to teach those lessons. I know our our CIRC teachers at the elementary level, our librarians at the secondary level, are going to help kids use the online card catalog. So how do I find a book that that will help me do my research or will help me you know enjoy my time as I'm learning and reading.

00:06:52:06 - 00:06:53:27

Jeff Krakoff: OK that's a great example.

00:06:53:29 - 00:07:06:19

Jeff Krakoff: So in addition to an online card catalog, if I'm a teacher and I've got students to teach remotely what are some other tools at my disposal that are going to help me reach those students?

00:07:06:24 - 00:07:37:11

Jeff Roberts: So we want our teachers to connect to our students remotely and Microsoft TEAMS is one of the center points for that for us. We like it because it's secure and internal. So the only people that could be on the TEAMS meeting would be Seneca Valley staff with students. So it's not accessible on the outside and we think that it's valuable for our students to see our teachers face, even in an online environment.

00:07:37:13 - 00:08:08:07

Jeff Roberts: And it's important for us to relate to one another. So there's the content there's the learning,full-time  but learning particularly in elementary and secondary school is about relationship. I learn because my teacher makes it exciting or makes it interesting and I want to please that teacher. So those are things that our teachers are going to do online. And I think it doesn't matter whether you're choosing the online full time cyber pathway or in-person.

00:08:08:10 - 00:08:15:09

Jeff Roberts: There's gonna be those live interactions every week for four kids to feel connected to the teacher that they're working with.

00:08:15:21 - 00:08:20:00

Jeff Krakoff: That's important you know. Again it is a whole new world.

00:08:20:04 - 00:08:35:15

Jeff Krakoff: Yeah I know what parents are concerned and maybe staff with masks. Is there something said as far as taking breaks, mask breaks, during the routine to break things up?

00:08:36:12 - 00:09:13:25

Jeff Roberts: Yeah. So far our in-person students the teacher is gonna make time during the day for mask breaks. As we start the school year, September 8 in person. There's gonna be a cohort of students so half of the class will be there Mondays and Wednesdays and the other half will be there Tuesdays and Thursdays. So because there's a smaller group of kids, it's gonna be possible for the teacher to say OK everybody is already six feet apart we're going to take a break now we're just going to take our masks down and I want you to stay in your seats, but the teacher is going to control those kind of opportunities and we're gonna be very focused on getting kids outside.

00:09:13:28 - 00:09:42:18

Jeff Roberts: So through September or October or even into November there's good good weather outside to get a breath of fresh air and we want our kids to be able to do that. I will say that it's good for parents right now to get our kids experienced with wearing a mask so to the extent that they want to play a game on their iPad, maybe say "Well you could take a half hour on the iPad but you need to wear a mask while you're doing it," just so that they get kind of comfortable with those sorts of things.

00:09:42:21 - 00:09:51:09

Jeff Krakoff: Yeah, sort of like muscle memory. It makes a lot of sense. So Dr. Roberts if I'm a parent or a member out there in the Seneca Valley community.

00:09:51:11 - 00:09:51:26

Jeff Krakoff: 

00:09:54:02 - 00:10:01:03

Jeff Krakoff: What What advice would you give me for get getting getting my children back to school and being ready?

00:10:01:05 - 00:10:33:00

Jeff Roberts: I think it's important to be a salesman. So as a parent kids take their cues from us. If I say "This is gonna be a great school year and I know you're gonna learn a lot," then that's the mindset that our kid our kids are gonna come to school with. If parents say "Oh this is gonna be really miserable and it's not gonna be like a regular year and you're probably not going to like it," our kids are gonna take that cue. So I would say as parents, be as positive as you possibly can be and give your kids the chance to be successful.

00:10:33:08 - 00:10:49:13

Jeff Roberts: That would be the thing that I would appreciate and I know our school counselors would appreciate as they're getting kids off the bus and into their classrooms at the beginning of the year. At this point, it'll be over six months from when kids were last in school till now. So we've got to get them back in those routines.

00:10:49:15 - 00:10:50:00

Jeff Krakoff: Right.

00:10:50:02 - 00:11:00:12

Jeff Roberts: And I'm excited about the first week of September where half the kids will be there so that we can give a little bit more individual attention each day so the kids get those routines.

00:11:00:14 - 00:11:04:03

Jeff Krakoff: All right. Great advice. Thanks for spending time with us. Thanks

00:11:04:05 - 00:11:14:03

Jeff Krakoff: Thanks for everything you're doing to prepare and get everything ready for for going back to school this fall and again, here's to a great back to school season.

00:11:14:06 - 00:11:15:07

Jeff Roberts: Thanks so much.

00:11:15:09 - 00:11:15:24

Jeff Krakoff: Take care.