- Hey everybody, I'm Connor.
That's Doug. And this is the Bethel
School District Presents podcast.
And it is the most wonderful time of the year,
especially in my house when we aimlessly scroll
through the channels until we find TBS,
which is undoubtedly playing a Christmas story
for the 53rd time in a row.
And I found myself in an odd position last night when I
realized that I no longer relate
to the character of Ralphie.
I've passed that Rubicon
and I now relate to Ralphie's. Father
- Fra. It must be Italian.
- Well, I think that's just fragile honey.
- Oh - Yeah. Like Ralphie's dad,
I find myself battling furnaces, unleashing strings
of unmentionable expletives
and it's all in the name of providing my family
with the best Christmas ever.
Duh. The whole thing got me thinking.
Which holiday movie character do you most relate to?
- Connor. I love a Christmas story. That's a great movie.
I love the character of the old man.
That doesn't mean I love you, but I love the
character of the old man.
I also love that he's called the Old man in the credits.
I think that's hilarious. As for me,
I love Christmas so much.
So I could never be a Grinch. I could never be as Scrooge.
I don't know if I love it as much as Clark Griswold or Elf.
Definitely as much as John McLean making fists
with my toes as we record.
However, my pick is gonna have
to be good Old Charlie Brown. Good
- Grief.
- Exactly. I love a Charlie Brown Christmas.
I especially love Lucy setting up her little counseling
booth for 5 cents.
And speaking of counselors Connor,
I was over at Natches Trail Elementary School
and I spoke with Sarah Avila.
She is a counselor over there
and recently presented
to the school board about work she's been doing
to help our students quote, become better humans
and quote, I really love that turn of phrase.
And I knew I wanted to talk to her on the podcast.
So the first thing I asked her was
who in her life helped her become a better human?
- So in my life when I think of becoming a better human,
it would've been my parents.
They were great role models.
My father served in the military
and I think he kind of just showed what it is to sacrifice,
but in a way that was healthy.
'cause he was always a dad first, which I appreciated.
Um, my mom is the bravest person that I know.
And then my husband has been the most supportive
human we met in high school.
We're high school sweethearts.
And he's just always stood beside me with my goals
and never made me follow, but just walked right beside me
and encouraged me and my kids make me a better human
because I watch them look at the world with such curiosity
and amazement
and I just wanna be the best version of myself so
that the world they're entering is one that they feel
inspired by and and encouraged to enter.
- That is an amazing family to come from.
It sounds like, and we both know some
of our students don't have that kind of family support.
Is that something you took into consideration when you
decided to become a school counselor?
- It was something I took into consideration.
I wanna be somebody for students that makes them feel seen
and heard and valued.
And I want them to have the skills to go out into the world
and when they meet an obstacle, know that they, it's,
it's not in their way to stop them, it's just something
that they can work through and problem solve to get over.
So I wanna teach them how to be confident
and also compassionate
and go into the world just again inspired
to take it on and do their best.
- That confidence is so important.
What kind of tools do you give them
to help them problem solve?
- Yeah, so in our counselor lessons,
what we really focus on is regulation skills.
'cause I really feel when students are able to identify
how they feel and then regulate those feelings, they're able
to handle a problem in a more safe way.
In a safe way. Not only for themselves but for others.
And I really tell them it's okay to say you're mad.
It's okay to say you're sad. There are no bad feelings.
It's how we handle those feelings.
And as long as we're handling them in a safe way,
in a respectful way with others,
then we're doing the best we can
and we're becoming those better humans.
- I think that answer shows the experience
and dedication that you are bringing here to Natchez Trail.
You're also bringing something else. The presentation you
gave the school board with centered
around a program you've been working through
for the past two years, it's called ramp.
Can you tell us a little bit about that program
and what got you interested in it?
- So RAMP is the recognized ASCA model program.
It's from the American School Counselor Association.
And what ASCA allows counselors
to do is really develop a school counseling program.
So when I say that I run the school counseling department
and at each trail sometimes I chuckle with it
because it is just me.
But I really do feel like it is a
department, it is a program.
We have a mission, we have a vision, we ha I, when I say we
'cause the administration helps me.
But I have a very specific plan on how I'm looking at data
for our students and finding proactive ways
to really approach that data.
And what RAMP is is it's basically meaning you're operating
at the top tier of the ASCA program,
you are doing your smart goals,
you're tracking those smart goals
and you're making sure you're being as proactive as you can.
So it's a two year process.
The first year is really just planning and implementing.
And then the second year is when you've had those
smart goals defined.
You have an advisory council of stakeholders coming in,
helping guide your work
and you're just operating on all cylinders.
It was a, a very busy year last year getting
that RAMP application in,
but it was work that I am just really proud of.
- Well that work you're doing is
directly impacting students.
Before we move on ramp recognize ASCA model program
and asca, American School Counselors Association.
It's a acronym within an acronym acronym section.
But it sounds like it's doing great work. It
- Is doing great work.
It really provides the framework for school counselors
to put a really proactive program into place.
If you were to compare it to something,
it would probably be very comparable
to the Danielson framework for teachers giving them
that framework and standards to work off of.
That's what ASCA provides school counselors.
- That's a great analogy.
And before we get into the specifics of ramp,
let's talk about the sheer volume of work that you're doing.
So let's talk numbers. Tell us about the number
of classroom lessons, small groups
and individual sessions that you
as a counselor do over the course of a year.
- So in the last school year,
I completed 276 classroom lessons.
They're really based on three specific units.
So the first unit is bully prevention.
It's three months long.
It was an area our school really saw.
We needed to move the needle in. We had a problem with it.
And so I knew I wanted to go in
and devote a very comprehensive, proactive approach
and really giving students the adequate time to practice how
to stand up to bullying and recognizing bullying.
So that was three months.
And then the next unit was zones of regulation,
teaching students how to identify their feelings
and finding regulation skills to handle those feelings.
And then the third unit is career
because we really do feel at Natch Trail we are a career
school and so our students dive into
what is a career, how do you interview?
They do mock interviews, they do resumes, they do budgeting,
which is very eye-opening for a lot
of them when they ha get their salary, then
to look at can I afford this mansion
that I thought I was going to live in .
So that has been a very unique, I think, unit
that they've all enjoyed too.
- That's a great unit. That's something we hear about high
school students learning and here at Natchez Trail,
elementary school kids getting budgets
and buying mansions. Yeah,
- I mean attempting to buy mansions,
they all usually go into debt by the end
and have to revise their budget.
But it goes into those skills that I want them
to have when they're adults.
Because I think in school I am not qualified, right?
To teach them math or teach them English.
I've got amazing coworkers who can do that.
But I want our kids to have skills that they're gonna use
for the rest of their lives to become those better humans,
to become capable adults.
And I think budgeting and interviewing and
and resume building, those are all things
that they're gonna take for the rest of their lives I hope.
- Absolutely. So 270 classroom lessons that you've done.
How about small groups? Small
- Groups were 194.
So the small groups really honed in on those students
who needed more practice on those
zones of regulation skills.
And then in the second semester, so I do my small groups,
I like to think of them in two series.
So I have a fall winter series 'cause they're 10 weeks long.
And then I have spring series,
which is another 10 weeks long.
And that second small group focused on building study skills
and test taking strategies for our students
who really struggled on that English language arts, espa.
So I was able to identify those students, bring them in
and just have them practice.
How do you answer word problems?
How do you take out the answers you know are wrong
and just narrow down into the two left.
'cause it usually comes down to two
and then go back to the text
and find the evidence to show you the right answer.
Again, it's another skill I think they'll take
with them for the rest of their lives.
When they go to college, they go
to technical school, wherever they go.
This test taking strategies I hope is something,
or their driver's test, we want good drivers out on the road
that that they'll be able to use.
I also run our leadership group and a kindness club.
So I run our fifth grade, we call them the trail guides.
They're guiding our trail 'cause we're Natch East Trail.
So they do a lot of tutoring
and they're out in the lunchroom supporting
and they're junior coaches on the playground.
And they help me with, we do a pet drive every year
where we raise money and items for the Tacoma Humane Society
and they help me with our food drive.
So that's been really amazing.
And then I started a kindness club for fourth graders.
So they're just out in the hallways greeting kids.
Yesterday they were in a kindergarten class reading
to kindergartners about kindness.
So that's been really rewarding too.
So last year is 194 small groups
and then about 50 student club meetings.
- Wow. Let's talk now about individual sessions.
This really jumped out at me
because you gave a number during the school board meeting
and then you said, but these are just meetings
that are 10 minutes or longer. Tell me about that.
- Yeah, so my individual sessions I counted and it's 193.
They're primarily focused on grief, family support.
But I only counted them if they were more than 10 minutes
because if I were to count all the meetings
that were under 10 minutes with kids,
it would probably be in the thousands.
And I think that's a number that all school counselors
and social workers could identify with.
'cause a large part of our job is just building
relationships with kids.
I love to ask kids about their football game
or their gymnastics
or whatever they were doing on the weekend and
and checking in on them.
And sometimes that's under five minutes.
So the 193 was really, if it went 10 minutes
or longer, that student needed, you know,
a regulation skill taught to them in that moment
or just needed additional time
to really feel heard and valued
- In your report to the school board,
you specifically mentioned bullying
and talking to kids about cyber bullying and gossiping
and using a technique called stop walk and talk.
Can you tell me about that and how that's helping?
- So when I came into Natches Trail three years ago,
I asked our teachers what is our curriculum on bullying?
And they showed me the district curriculum.
And while I thought it was great
because it had all the key terms students need
and it had the bullying pledge, just a piece
that I thought needed to be added in was teaching kids how
to respond to bullying in a way that again,
builds those confidence skills.
So we found the stop walk talk method and it's really simple
and it's exactly how it sounds.
The kids practice using stop in an assertive voice
and we talk about what assertive means
and then we talk about walking away
and then reporting bullying to an adult.
So stop, walk, talk.
I'm very appreciative of our staff
because they all bought into it and students use it
and they come up to me often and go, Ms.
Vela, I told this student to stop. And they did.
And they just get this kind of smile on their face that,
you know, they did it, they accomplished it.
And that makes me feel good
because I tell them,
bullying isn't just something you're going to face as a kid.
Bullying can happen when you're an adult,
when you know when you're in the workplace.
And so I want you to have the skills,
be practicing them now,
but have those skills ready
for when you face that as an adult.
So you know you can overcome that
and handle it in an appropriate and safe way.
Cyber bullying was an area that I thought needed
to be addressed a little bit more
because it's an area that our kids are facing.
All of our kids are on screens more.
And I wanted students to really understand what it means
to be safe online, that words matter, even if it's online.
And I wanted them to have the skills to know how
to recognize cyber bullying and then do something about it.
- And cyber bullying, it seems as just getting worse
as kids younger and younger or on more
and more different social media platforms.
You mentioned earlier, let's talk a little bit more about
how you as a counselor are helping move the needle
on academics.
I know you have some data on this.
- So last year when I was making the smart goal for
what I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to find an area
that had an opportunity gap for some
of our more historically marginalized student groups.
And I saw when I looked at our smarter balanced assessment,
English language arts scores, that our students of color
scored lower than their white counterparts.
And I wasn't okay with that
and I wanted to do something about it.
And so I identified those students
and I placed them into a small group.
There was 14 of them
and over 10 weeks we just practiced
those test-taking skills.
Again, it goes back to that confidence,
building their confidence using positive self-talk
strategies and just having them practice over
and over and over.
Those test-taking strategies.
I often would tell them, I can't teach you math,
I can teach you feelings and I can teach you how
to build the confidence to do this.
And that's what we did.
And when I got their scores back, it was pretty amazing.
So 14 started at level one, which is well
below grade level for ELA.
Eight of them moved out of that level.
One, four of them actually are at grade level now
and one is above grade level, which was just mind blowing
that just giving students strategies,
making them feel like they could accomplish something,
building that positive self-talk could really pay off.
- That's amazing. And it shows the work that you're doing,
not only helping kids emotionally, but academically as well.
Since you're the counselor here at Natches Trail,
the new Natches Trail Elementary School, I have to ask,
you just moved into the new school in October
and of course thank you to our voters
for supporting the 2019 bond that made
that possible building this new school.
How has this new school improved the
way you're able to help students?
- Thank you, thank you, thank you to the voters.
This is a beautiful, wonderful building
and we all love being here.
What this school has given me
as a school counselor is the space
to be able to reach more students.
At my old office, it was very small.
My small groups, I was lucky if I could maybe squeeze six
kids into a room.
But with this building, we have so much space in
so many areas for students to meet.
So my small groups now are 10 to 12 kids.
So that's more kids I'm being able to work with
and help build those skills, build those confidence skills
so that they can have
what they need to be those better humans.
- And your office is lovely.
We're sitting in it right now
and one of the things you have up on your walls is an
inside out poster, the Pixar movie that deals with emotions.
Is this your favorite Pixar movie
or is there another one and why?
- This is my favorite Pixar movie.
I, I would be surprised if any school
counselor didn't say it was there.
It's just because it really just focuses on emotions in that
no emotions are bad.
It's okay to be sad
and there can actually be joy found
within sad times.
'cause it reminds us of all the things we have
to be grateful for.
And that is something in my small groups, we always end
with, we call it a gratitude wall.
And each week they write down a person
who keeps them in the green zone.
So who keeps them calm, keeps them happy,
and it, I think it just reminds kids that we have
so much in our lives that can just make us feel good
and that we should just be thankful for.
And just really focusing on that.
So I think inside out represents that for me,
it's just all emotions are okay.
It's how we handle those emotions
and to be grateful even for the sad times.
- Absolutely. I love that journaling technique too.
That's a wonderful thing to teach kids.
Sarah, you have over a hundred hours invested in the ramp
process and even more invested working
with students here at the school.
Thank you so much for what you do for our students.
Thanks for joining us today.
And before I let you go, we're gonna
circle back to the top of the show.
Connor and I kicked things off talking about
what holiday movie character we most associate with and why.
I wanna ask you the same question.
- So I did think about this
and the one I came to repeatedly was Cindy Lou,
who from Jim Carrey's, the Grinch one.
'cause she's got great hair. I love a character
with great hair Second
because I think she saw somebody who was excluded
and on the outskirts and
and she went out of her way to make them feel included.
And when I think about my trailblazers
and the work I'm doing, I want every student
to feel included and valued and seen.
And I think Cindy Lou who did that.
So I hope each day I'm living up to miss Cindy Lou, who,
- Well, from where I'm sitting, it seems like you are.
And the data shows that Sarah Villa, thank you so much
for joining us today and happy holidays. Welcome,
- Welcome for New Nervous. Welcome.
- Welcome, great interview as always, Doug.
I love how passionate she comes across.
I bet the kids absolutely love her,
- Man.
You gotta see it too. Believe it.
I got to stand with her in the hallway
as she welcome kids into school.
After our interview and there was no shortage
of hugs conversations,
one little girl even handed her a note
as the girl walked away, she read it and just smiled.
The biggest smile. One thing I did notice, a lot
of the kids came up and asked her a question.
They asked what zone was she in?
She would say green
and then asked them what zone they were in.
They would say Green.
- Oh, interesting. What zone she's in, what could that mean?
- Great question. And I actually asked
her that right afterwards.
- So that's the zones of regulation,
that's that classroom unit.
I really wanted to give, give students the skills to know
that it's okay to ask people what zone they're in,
that it's actually a really great thing
to do is kind of check in on people.
So a lot of times students in the morning will go,
Ms. Avila, what zone are you in?
On my badge, I have the zones of regulation.
And I'll say green. And a lot
of the times I get green back, which is great.
But sometimes I'll get students say,
I'm in the blue zone today.
And so I'll say, why are you in the blue zone?
Well, I'm, I'm feeling a little tired.
And I'll say, all right. So then I tell them a joke
or tell 'em to do five jumping jacks.
Something to try to wake 'em up to get 'em to
that green zone before they go into class.
But morning greens are my favorite part of the day.
It's the first opportunity I think for students
to feel seen and heard.
And I like to be out there to let them know that I see them,
I hear them, and I value them.
- So you talked about green and blue.
What are the other two zones?
- The way I kind of talk about the zones is your brain.
When your blue zone, your brain's asleep.
It's not really awake. You can't do your best learning,
so tired, sad.
Then if we can get you woken up
or regulated, you get to the green zone,
you're happy, you're calm.
That's where you do your best learning.
Yellow zone is when you're starting to lose control.
Frustration, stress, excitement.
And then red zone is when you're outta control.
You're really angry, super terrified, things of that nature
- That is very interesting
and a very cool thing for kids to learn.
What about you Doug? What's your zone right now?
- I'm green all day, baby. How about you?
- I'm feeling purple.
- That wasn't one of the four zones that she mentioned.
What's what's purple mean?
- It means the podcast is over.
I hope you all have an amazing winter break.
We will see you back here
with a fresh episode on January 4th.
- Happy New Year everybody.