Reclaiming Intervention with Sue Jones
Sue Jones a Trauma Informed Practices Coach in New York shares how using the restorative intervention Life Space Crisis Intervention supports students who have experienced trauma and present with elevated ACE scores. We discuss several important issues including adverse childhood events or ACEs, professional learning experiences with Reclaiming Youth International and Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) and how these experiences support students, particularly students who have experienced trauma.
Main topics of episode
ACES and trauma
Educator self-care (and what is often missing)
Life Space Crisis Intervention
Relationship development
Effects of LSCI beyond the classroom
Links
Nadine Burke Harris TED Talk mentioned in episode
CDC ACEs information page
Reclaiming Youth At Risk homepage
Life Space Crisis Intervention homepage
Transcript
Scott Lee
Greetings friends and colleagues. Welcome to the Thoughtful Teacher Podcast, the professional educator's thought partner, a service of Oncourse Education Solutions. I am Scott Lee. In this episode as part of our ongoing series on restorative practice, we will visit with Sue Jones and discuss intervention for students who have experienced trauma. Sue as a trauma informed practices coach with the Broome-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services, a regional school district support organization in upstate New York. In this wide ranging conversation, we discuss how developing a reclaiming and restorative environment supports children, specifically students who have experienced trauma. We also discuss how using a specific intervention lifespace crisis intervention has improved their staff members work with students who have experienced serious histories of trauma. Welcome to the Thoughtful Teacher Podcast Sue.
Sue Jones
Thank you. I'm super excited to be here with you, Scott.
Scott Lee
Let's start with learning a little bit about what your role is and how you begin working with at promise youth.
Sue Jones
So I am by profession, a New York State special education teacher. And I was very fortunate and blessed when I received my education in 2010. So I got into education a little later in life, to work with at promis youth through our local board of cooperative educational service program in Broome, and Tioga BOCES, which is Broome-Tioga BOCES. In upstate New York, it was there that I realized the importance of having to do education differently, especially for this population of students.
Scott Lee
Okay, so let's talk a little bit about trauma. I sometimes when I'm speaking with teachers do the same thing that I know you're working with a lot, too, that's dealing with kids who have experienced trauma, you've done a lot of work with adverse childhood events, or ACEs, tell us why that was something that you thought was important and important for teachers in particular to know and understand.
Sue Jones
So I had recognized very early in my teaching career, that the population of students that I was very fortunate and blessed to be serving were students that were being removed from their districts and coming to receive some more specialized services. And these were students that were significantly behind academically, socially, emotionally. I had a principal who truly encouraged us to understand trauma and the impact on brain development and learning because of the significant need that our students had. These were students that had been removed from district for physical, verbal aggression. They were, as I mentioned, before, just behind so far academically, I had sixth graders who were non readers struggling in ways that I had never seen or experienced before. The program that I was in at the time was called reclaim, which was based on the philosophical foundations of the Circle of Courage. There was a Reclaiming Youth at Risk conference in South Dakota. And I say it today I was being called to South Dakota and was looking forward to meeting the founders and was fortunate to be able to have had that opportunity. And because we had a very supportive principal, that was this was critical for us to understand so that we can be effective educators to improve the life outcomes for our students. It was when I went to that conference that I heard it was either Larry Brendtro, or Mark Freado-I'm not really sure. He had mentioned about adverse childhood experience that every child could experience study. And he said, anybody that's in education needs to know this. So I dove into that research and what I recognized was the students that we were serving that I was serving had significant events in their life. These were students that were scoring 8, 9, 10, out of 10. And I do want to stress that our program really focused on building partnerships with our families. I never once asked a family to fill out the ACE questionnaire, it was basically information that had been shared openly, honestly, most likely not at school, we were a program where we truly focused on home visits. So that was information that was just shared in a caring trustful environment that had been created. Because of what we were experiencing with the students. We did come to understand that these were not willful, intentional acts that if the student knew better, they could do better. So I truly just dove into to understand trauma and recognize the intergenerational impact that it was having on our families also, because as we were teaching our students about the brain, about brain development, about how to self regulate our families, were also acknowledging that they struggled in those areas as well. The information that we were sharing with the students, we were able to help our families in terms of just conversations, they experienced an increase in their child's academic growth. They experienced their own children learning ways to regulate, and it was life changing for them. We did understand that the interventions that we were using for this app promise group of students, it was the difference between life and death. And that information came directly from the adverse childhood experience study, we knew that if we did not have an impact on their social, emotional, mental health well being as well as our academics, our primary was a social emotional mental, that it was going to be really difficult for them as they entered into adulthood.
Scott Lee
For some context, if there's somebody listening that may not be familiar with the adverse childhood experiences or ACEs study that we're discussing, we'll have a link to a TED Talk by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, in the episode notes. The the main thing for people who may not be familiar with it to understand is that the research is clear that anyone with a four or higher has significantly, very significantly poorer, lifetime health outcomes, not just poor outcomes as children and youth compared with people who have had zero or one, though. So there will be some more information in the Episode Notes. This brings us to the point, we can no longer avoid discussing trauma. When we talk about education and learning. You mentioned that the issues are between trauma and social emotional learning and academic learning are, are connected, which of course the brain research is showing, what kinds of things did your organization start doing differently, once you understood in an accurate, actionable way about childhood trauma,
Sue Jones
So I do want to share the program that I ended up working with was called Reclaim. And so the focus has always been about addressing the social emotional learning needs of the students intertwined with the academic piece. And so that program had been in existence for 20 plus years. We weren't calling it trauma informed at that time, but it was really about meeting those biosocial needs of the students and our families. So I want to say it was 2018, our organization came together and reevaluated the strategic plan. And so it was a group of representatives representatives across our instructional program that came together. And the top three needs, if I recall correctly that came from this. So this wasn't just from our special education program. It was our career technical education program, staff that were working with students that were going on to secondary education. The top three needs that came out had to deal with the students social emotional, mental health, well brain, the need for ongoing professional development, as well as positive classroom management strategies. So what ended up happening as a result of the collective voices within our organization across the instructional program, that was a top priority. So we were able to create committees that were going to focus on addressing those needs, especially the social, emotional mental health needs. From that, they were able to enhance their staffing positions where they hired instructional coaches and trauma informed practice coaches. So we were able to provide professional development in the area of trauma, brain development, learning positive classroom management strategies, home visits. So it really was about raising that awareness and walking along with one another, as we learned, again, with the ultimate outcome of improving the life of our students and our families. So there was a lot of support that was given, we did recognize after an number of years of kind of focusing on our students and our families, that the adults within our organization to pivot a little bit in terms of what we were able to provide to increase the importance of self care, understanding that there is secondary trauma, vicarious trauma, and that our, you know, our adults, because of the students in which they were serving, were really directly impacted in ways that we recognize we can't continue to just address the students and our family's needs, it was equally as important that we started looking at what we need to do to support one another. So I think that was something and that's something that's continuing today. 2018 was when we that when we had that strategic planning, it's something that we're continuing to revisit, and learning and growing and taking feedback and trying new things on, especially as we reflect, and realize what we need to do differently.
Scott Lee
So what are some things or an example or two of how you implement or or how you work with that self care piece? Because I think that's something that sometimes in education, working with that promise us we talk about it, but then nobody, or people don't always know how to do that. So what are since you, since you all have been working with, with this identified the self care piece at this point, what, five, almost six years ago, can you give us a couple of examples of what you do to support self care for your staff?
Sue Jones
So one of the things is we talk about it, we have discussions around it, we check in with one another. Our education system was not designed in a way to provide that support. And so I do I have a lot of faith that down the road that will be seen as a priority, as much as it is for emergency service personnel. I think we are getting there for sure. I think it's recognizing that we're not alone. We do offer some trainings on resiliency and thriving. We have staff that are trained in mindfulness training, that are doing mindfulness training, as we speak, in terms of having post mentions, after conflicts that are occurring during the day, the importance of providing opportunities for staff to process through some of those events, so that they're able to, to the best of their ability and our ability to leave those situations at the door so that when they go home, they have the ability to be present or themselves for their families. We encourage using our employee assistance program, but ultimately, we in education, we do have an ethical and moral obligation to see self care self love as a priority because of our perfect professional obligations. And because of the students and families in which we're serving.
Scott Lee
I remember when I first got started in working with kids of trauma who had experienced trauma and of course we didn't even have the vocabulary to describe it that way at the time. This would have been in the mid 90s The There would be days when you'd go from one crisis to another and another and you'd spend time debriefing with the kids. But the, the adults, there was no mechanism even to do that. So this is definitely an emerging area, self care, and actually what that means to support the adults that are working with children that oftentimes provide us with a great deal of trauma and difficulty, how we work together and how we support each other is really important to to work on and grow and grow engro that understanding. But of course, we also want to discuss Life Space Crisis Intervention, which is originally why we had talked about doing this episode in the first place. Yeah. So first off, before we talk about LSCI, or Life Space Crisis Intervention, specifically, I was wondering if you could briefly tell us about what the word lifespace itself means and how an intervention in the lifespace is different from what people might consider traditional therapy.
Sue Jones
So before, before I do that, and I often reflect on our New York State teaching standards, as well as our code of ethics as educators. And principle one for our Code of Ethics has to do with the understanding the student's social emotional well being how they have developed in terms of our teaching standards, having knowledge, right of the students, and just early child and adolescent development, their cognitive, their language of social, emotional, their physical development levels. So in terms of, again, going back to the working with it at promis youth and recognizing the significant struggles and unmet needs, it really was important for us to look at research based interventions. And so what happened was, when I was in South Dakota, there was the book The Life Space Crisis Intervention book, because it was my responsibility, it didn't matter where my students were at, when I got them, I have an ethical and moral obligation to do everything I can to nurture the child's emotional, social, cognitive, physical development. So we continue to have an intervention through Crisis Prevention Institute called nonviolent crisis intervention, and it's something that is required for all of our staff. What I noticed, at least for me, was there was there's a part of that crisis development model where we are to be teaching this new skill. And I struggled at times with that being able to do that to a point where we could see some significant improved outcomes. So when I went to South Dakota, there was that book Life Space Crisis Intervention. And so to to answer your question, what is the lifespace and this is coming directly from from the manual, it is it used to imply the greater proximity to a young human's natural environment than is used in a more formal clinical setting. So this is really being able to respond to a student in real time, the crisis, the event that has caused their system to become overloaded, and to be able to do it in a way that we are truly entering into that crisis with to teach that new skill,
Scott Lee
the understanding that it is immediate, and it's an intervention that you can use right then in there, rather than writing a report and letting somebody else a therapist or counselor, maybe talk to a kid about it a day or two or even an hour or two later, you oftentimes lose that opportunity for for understanding in that emotional moment for the kid. Yeah. So tell us a little bit more about what lifespace crisis intervention then is and how you all implemented it.
Sue Jones
So it is a researched based, brain based trauma informed relationship building verbal strategy to help young humans in conflict, whether it's in school, whether it's in their community, whether it's at home, the focus is understanding the importance of the relationship that the adult has not to say that you have to have that relationship with a student or young human in In order to do this intervention, because there have been times where I have been walking down the hallway and a crisis situation has escalated to a point where there was some additional support needed. It's a way to enter into the conflict. With out making things worse. The idea about Life Space Crisis Intervention, one of the biggest components of that was understanding the confict cycle. Because we recognize that when a student is struggling with putting words to their thoughts and feelings, we sometimes get the worst of that. And we are designed as human beings to protect ourselves, just like our students are. So it was critically important as part of this awareness and understanding. So I'm speaking from a practitioner point, because even before I became, I am currently in the role of an LSCI trainer. But before that I was a practitioner, I read the book, I did not go and get trained until a couple of years after with two other of my colleagues. So I'm speaking from from that practitioner point of view, I was I was going through the book and it really truly goes through typical developmental anxieties. So here I am understanding that there are typical developmental anxieties that we as humans have experience for the students in which I was fortunate and blessed to be serving, they really struggled in in terms of being able to say yes to is a world a safe place. So it was critical to understand that it was critical to understand how my response at the time of crisis was going to have a significant impact on the outcome, I will be very honest, there were significant times where I myself became overwhelmed with the situation at hand and didn't respond in a helpful way. And we are in the business to help to not hurt. And it was important for me to understand what was happening inside me. When those situations were happening. There were times where I didn't know what to do. There were times where I was fearful, there were times where I was being challenged. And my values were being questioned. Even my ability as an educator was being challenged by some of the students that I was serving. So that was a critical part in terms of what LSCI was offering was understanding this interconnectedness between the adult and the child in crisis, recognizing how important it was, for me to be able to get to a state where I could co regulate, we know that when a student is at a heightened state, their brain most likely has shut down. So it was important for them to know that they had a caring adult whose brain was breathing, they could borrow until they could get to that point where they were able to manage that. When that happened, we were able to provide some very specific interventions based on these six self defeating patterns of behavior. Because there were patterns to the student, the students that I was working with, in reviewing previous documentation on them, the behavior that I was seeing in the classroom, was behavior that had been evident for years. It was the reasons why they got removed from their home district, it was the reason why they were coming to a specialized program. So being able to have this understanding of the self defeating behaviors, and then the interventions and strategies to help that young human begin to put words to their thoughts and feelings. A lot of times when there's a stressful event, a student is coming to us with irrational and shameful thoughts about who they are as human beings who they are as learners, who they are as peers who they are as a son or daughter as a sibling. So they're they're coming to us with this already within them. That plays such a significant role in how they're going to process through these events. Typically, in schools, we would go from, there's an event that happened, the student became triggered. And then we would typically go right to that observable behavior. And in some cases, although, because of the research out there in terms of suspensions, we know that suspensions and expulsions don't work. They might work in the short term. However, we do You know better now, because we do know that there's a direct correlation between suspensions and drop out, we're, we're truly doing everything we can to ensure that our students are getting through and graduating high school. So it was important for us to be able to enter into that, to be able to help them recognize these patterns, to teach them ways to put words to those thoughts and feelings that were driving that behavior to have a different outcome. Once myself and colleagues who were able to go and and spend time with other adults in education that were learning this, it took what I had read, and just truly taken it to a whole other level. This was something that we were practicing, there was just a small number of us that were doing lspci in addition to the other social emotional interventions that we had, teaching the skill. I mean, there was a number of students support teams PBIS. So it wasn't LSCI was number of standalone, it was certainly in, you know, it was in conjunction with other interventions. But one of the things that I was fortunate to do with the organization was we were seeing significant gains, we were seeing academic gains that the student had not experienced prior to the implementation of LSCI. And this is from my own experience, because now I had a better approach that was critical in terms of improving the social, emotional, behavioral, and academics. And so when when I say, roath, I'm saying students that were non readers, that became instructional, first grade reading, in a year, students that were at a second grade level, as a sixth grader, who became instructional sixth grade reading level, in a year, students that had 15 significant episodes of physical aggression down to zero. And that was the beauty of life space crisis intervention, in collaboration, you know, with our other strategies that we were using, to be able to see those changes. The short term benefits of LSI is that it enhances the relationship that the adult has with the youth. The long term goal and impact of LSCI is that the student has gained confidence in who they are as a human being. And that is what is transforming.
Scott Lee
It's interesting that that you continue to point out that this helps create a different kind of relationship with the students. One of the things that people don't always recognize is that every interaction builds a relationship between a teacher and a student, between a student, a student, between staff members, every interaction matters, some matter more than others, certainly, but that's what a relationship is. It's a it's a collection of interactions. And the more interactions that develop positive skills, and students literally changed that dynamic. I really liked the way you you described that and pointed out the importance of the relationships.
Sue Jones
And Scott, if I could add, so it it absolutely the relationship that that the young human has with with the adult. But the other part of this because these were interventions that we were using as a classroom community as a program, the relationships not only enhanced and increased between student and adult, but student to student, student to family, the adults with the family. So it was something that had significant impact on on those relationships, and the relationship that the family had with the school community, because prior to some of our families have had negative experiences themselves in school. Some of the families that I worked with were incarcerated. Some of the families were high school dropouts, some of the families, you know, in terms of their own lived experiences. So the impact on relationship was far reaching more than I could have ever imagined.
Scott Lee
That is so interesting, and something that It means that we oftentimes don't think about, you know, especially if we're just reading the research, because a lot of times those are not the things that are studied is how that changes. But that that is a huge piece. One thing that that I often ask whenever I'm talking with somebody about various interventions that they're using, or that or that they've implemented within their school and the cultural change those kinds of things is that, you know, the pushback I often hear from administrators or others, is that, oh, this is going to cost too much, or this is going to take away too much academic time or something like that. How would you respond to push back that either this is too time consuming, and or too expensive, have teachers spending the time to learn about it.
Sue Jones
So that is the reality in terms of some of what I experienced as a practitioner, as a special education teacher. It did take time. It absolutely took time. But when I was working with a sixth grader who couldn't read, and the goal for the parent was for him to not end up in jail. To me, personally and professionally, it was worth the time, the realization, and there's a beautiful quote out there, which I'm not even going to attempt because it's it won't go as as it should. But our young humans, they are taking our time anyway. These are students that have lost significant time as a result of suspensions, they have lost a significant time because of their inability to be in the classroom. So time is being spent, and sadly wasted. So for me, I began looking at it as the investment. And what is the rate of return? Yes, it is something that takes time. But it also what we're talking about is changing life outcomes. And, quite honestly, our students and families are worth the time.
Scott Lee
Oftentimes, we don't think about how much time you can gain in the long term. There is a little bit of research involved in restorative practice various restorative interventions that indicate that as student behaviors change, you actually gain more academic time on down the line.
Sue Jones
Yes. And that is what was evident, we saw that I personally worked with students that when I first met them, their life trajectory was not heading in a positive direction. We focused on team collaboration, we worked collaboratively with our social workers, our physical occupational speech therapist, our family members, or community partners, whether it was a medical doctor, whether it was the clinical counselor that the student was seen outside of our setting. And I had mentioned before about our interventions, especially for students that have experienced significant adverse events. And these are not just events that were happening in the household. Right. That's, that is the beauty of what has been happening over the years. What happened and what I was concerned about was when you look at the household dysfunctions from the prime from the primary ACE study, what later is coming out is that there's community factors and environmental factors that have an impact on the growth and development of human brains. So it wasn't, we're not in a position where we can continue to just blame our families for what is happening. And it was important for me to add that because if people are going to start looking at the adverse childhood experience study, they're going to see that it's about household dysfunction, events that had occurred before the age of 18. But in terms of like being solution focused, like we're not, we're not blaming our families, our families are a product of our culture, our society, our education system, as well. So we need to continue to remain solution focused in this area. What we were experiencing was not it wasn't just happening alone in the classroom. I mean, we had a team I had a team. I had paraprofessionals in in the classroom. It was our classroom, right? It wasn't just my classroom. You could walk in there, and you didn't know who the teacher was, who the monitor was who the Para was because we truly function as a team. And even in terms of that interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary team approach, that was what supported our ability to do the work.
Scott Lee
One last thing, could you share a story about about of student,
Sue Jones
I'm gonna go with a student that just popped into my head. This was a student who, before I even met him, one of the things that when I graduated with my master's, and I did go back into education later in life, and I recognized the the sacrifice that my family had to make. So when I graduated with my master's, I was a case manager. Prior to professionally speaking, I truly was focused on making a difference, because I truly felt that schools were functioning more in silos. And there were so much available within our community to support what was happening in the school. So I decided I can complain about it, or I could go back and do something. And this was primarily for students with disabilities, because that's what I did professionally. Prior to getting into education. I was driven by the code of ethics, I was driven by the teaching standards. And to this day, that is what I'm driven by. When I started, this is my first year in the Reclaim program, which is a six one plus program, it is the most restricted educational setting. So six students, one teacher, and however many adults were required to ensure safety during instruction. So these were students with significant unmet needs, with families with significant unmet needs. So the student that I'm just bringing is very still to this day, close to my heart was a student that when I was doing my home visits, and I had made a commitment that I was going to do everything I could to meet the student and family before they stepped foot in the classroom. I wanted the families to know who I was, so that when we were having conversations, they knew who they were talking to. I also wanted the student to know, I wanted to get to learn about the student, I wanted to understand their hobbies, their interests, their learning style, what motivated them. So in terms of my teaching standards, those a lot of what I was able to gain actually had to do with what I learned outside of the classroom. I was hearing horror stories about the student, from the this students, the classmates, and also from the families. And I had envisioned right in my head. This not a very fun picture of this student. And, you know, safety, obviously, is the utmost in terms of, of home visits. And so I did do some check in and it was it was apparent that I needed to meet this, this child, maybe not at at the one primary residence, but I was still going to meet him outside. When I met him, he was there at his grandmother's house with his siblings. And what I saw in front of me, was not the picture that I had. This was a young, fourth grade human who was interacting, who is caring, who was loving on his siblings who was listening to his grandma. So I was finding it really hard to believe what I had, had heard about him. We entered, he entered into the classroom. And that was when I saw the version of what was described to me. This was a student who struggled academically. He did not have the confidence walking through that classroom door that I saw back at his grandmother's. This was a student that when we're talking about if we did not have an impact, his life trajectory was not looking positive, mom struggled. Dad had been in and out of jail. It was imperative that I took what I had learned in terms of lifespace crisis intervention, understanding where the child was developmentally where he was at academically, where he was at in terms of his value of relationships. There was not a student in that class that wanted to be friends with him because they were so fearful. It has significant impact on the classroom community. Especially during times of transition going from a, you know, a high interest activity, like recess, or PE class, to more academic, there was most likely going to be some physical type of reaction, utilizing the skills. Again, we believed in the circle of courage as that philosophical foundation, so the belonging, mastery, independence, generosity, so all of that was kind of intertwined in what I'm sharing with you. So this was a student that we had to meet him where he was at, we had to let him know that we loved him too much to let him think that it was okay to hurt himself and others, we had to enter in to this young human's life, we built that relationship with the family. Even though the dad was gang affiliated, this was still his son, we worked with grandmother, we worked with mom, we built that trust and relationship with Him, we recognize that we had as much of a role as he did, in terms of helping him see that he did have choices. He didn't think he had any other choice but to act out. So as it was, we lspci guide this student daily, what ended up happening, his competence in who he was as a, as a classroom member, increased. His academics increased his ability to self regulate, and to use his words to express his thoughts and feelings changed dramatically. This was a student who had been kicked out of his district, in kindergarten, when the school came to observe him. They wanted to take him back to district. That was what they saw. And I begged and pleaded for them not to, because he wasn't at that, not that he would, he wasn't at that independent level in terms of the support that was being provided the environment, because of the circle occurred that was created unless they were going to be able to duplicate that it was going to be difficult for this content for this young child to continue to grow on that trajectory that he was now on. But I very distinctly remember, I mean, zero ounce of self control. So if he became threatened, upset, frustrated, sad, there was an immediate behavioral reaction. We knew, because of the brain science, we knew, because of the commitment from the adults that was interacting with this young, with this young man, as well as the others that he was growing. In June of that year. There was an event between him and another student. So when I when I say games and academics, I'm trying to think now Scott, I think this was a student who struggled with math, I'm gonna say kindergarten, first grade level math is reading. He was two grades below. But it was really his behavioral outbursts. I mean, it was really, he created, he did create an unsafe situation that we really, truly had to had to impact. But this was a student that was now learning that the evidence of him collaborating on science projects, right, having friends, that interactions, sharing, sitting down and having lunch with his classmates were things that we were starting to see his inner his ability to put those words to thoughts and feelings. So there was an event at the end of the year in June where he and a classmate got into a little bit of a disagreement. We were able to separate the two of them, are they they actually ended up separating themselves, but I could tell that this student was still struggling. He had picked up one of those six volt batteries. And he he said to me, he's like Mrs. Jones, Don't come near me. He was going to throw that battery at me. And I remember saying to him, I care for you too much to let you think that this is okay. That was one of my go to lines.
And I started thinking about the brain science. What I did next I didn't do in September, October, November, December, January, but I trusted the brain science. I trusted the work that we did, collaboratively to help this young man recognize that he did have choices that it, he wasn't going to that immediate survival part of his brain anymore. He was thinking cause and effect. And I trusted that I did go towards him. And I do remember specifically thinking, Oh, this stuff better be right. Because otherwise this is going to end up being a worker's comp claim. But I trusted his his growth, I trusted the science, I trusted the intervention, I trusted the other adults. And that young man took that six volt battery as I was coming in to help co regulate. He took that six volt battery, and he rolled it to my feet. He did tell me that if I took a step closer, he was gonna throw it at me. So it was important for him to save face. Right? After he did that, and after I was able to get close, and provide some some verbal de escalation. I thanked him for not hurting me that that is a moment that will forever stay imprinted on me. You know, this was a young man, he did go back to district sadly, it wasn't that long after where we were asked if we could take him back. We do have stories though, where we can tell you students that we had worked with did end up going back to district graduated, you know, are now parents themselves. I think one of the one of the most beautiful gifts that we received, there was a number of us that met a student, we met him at the local park. And there was another person that we had in our program I had her when she first came to us as a fourth grader. And so she went from one program to another program. And again, that was the beauty about what we did as an organization, that Lspi training. I mean, this was years after but this was something that we ensured that as I think we have 300 plus staff members trained now in five day lspci. Here we were at the park and the student approached, it was myself and two other dear friends and colleagues with her little six month old. And one of the things that she shared with us that I will never forget was she thanked us for helping her be a better mom. And that's the work. We are working as educators to enhance life outcomes. Right. We have healthy adults that are able to give back. Yeah, so you know, it's it's a it's a really tough job.
Scott Lee
Yes, it is.
Sue Jones
So I share that because that is what can happen when you have a group of committed individuals that are seeking to understand that are providing opportunities to learn that are encouraging mistakes, redos so that when they leave us, they have the ability, as I mentioned before, to be healthy adults.
Scott Lee
Thank you very much for joining us today. Sue on The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast.
Sue Jones
You are so welcome. Thank you for this opportunity.
Scott Lee
The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast is brought to you as a service of Oncourse Education Solutions. If you would like to learn more about how we partner with schools and youth organizations, strengthening learning cultures, and developing more resilient youth, please visit our website www.oncoursesolutions.net.
This has been episode 10 of the 2023 season. If you enjoy this podcast, please tell your friends and colleagues about us in person and on social media. We also greatly appreciate positive reviews on your favorite podcast app. The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast is a production of Oncourse Education Solutions LLC Scott Lee, executive producer, in partnership with Chattanooga Podcast Studios. We encourage diverse opinions. However, opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of producer partners or underwriters. Guest was not compensated for appearance, nor did guest pay to appear. Episode notes, links and transcripts are available at our website www.thoughtfulteacherpodcast.com. Theme music is composed and performed by Audio Coffee. Please follow me on social media. My handle on Instagram and Twitter is @drrscottlee and on Mastodon @drrscottlee@universedon.com.
