Growing Together

Laurie and Aaron have a conversation with Brandon Slade.  Brandon is the founder and CEO of Untapped Learning and a leading expert on the topic of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD).   Brandon talks about having ADHD and how he has dedicated his life to help others experiencing ADHD, Dyslexia, Anxiety and other executive function challenges.    You can also watch the vidcast of this show here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrw0IY_DP0M

QUESTIONS

Q: How and why did you start working with ADHD?

Q: Parents have told us that their ADHD children have a hard time focusing on their homework.  What advice do you have for these parents?

Q: What advice do you have for parents about to send their ADHD children off to University, College or other fields of work and study?

Q: When your child isn’t doing well with their work and responsibilities, how do parents hold their child accountable without being overbearing?

Q: What would be a good nighttime routine to help your ADHD child prepare for the next day?

Q: Because of Covid 19 there has been a lot of online learning happening at home.   What can parents do to create an effective, positive work environment for their child?

Q: What is the main takeaway that parents should understand about ADHD?

Lauren LaComb: Coordinator - Healthy Schools / Health, Wellness & Prevention

Aaron Ragon:  Lead Counselor / Personalized Learning Department

Guest: Brandon Slade:  Founder and CEO of Untapped Learning

Produced by The Curriculum Instruction & Assessment Department

Douglas County School District

Our guest this week is Pam Allyn.  Pam and Erica have a conversation about literacy and how to encourage a love of literacy with our students.  Pam is an author of 26 books for educators.  A few of her books include, “Every Child a Super Reader'',  & “Your Child’s Writing Life: How to Inspire Confidence, Creativity and Skill at Every Age”.   Pam is also the founder of LitWorld and Senior Vice President of Innovation at Schoolastic Education.  You can also watch a vidcast of this show here:  https://youtu.be/RwkbRpqxGF0

QUESTIONS:

Q: You’ve done a lot of work incorporating social emotional learning into literacy.  Can you  tell us about that work and what led you to it?

Q: How do we build an inclusive environment that feels safe and empowering to all of our students?

Q: You mentioned student agency; how would you advise we build student agency?

Q: How do we help parents and teachers instill a love of literacy with our students?

Q: What is one piece of advice you would like to share with our Douglas County Community?

Hosted by Erica Mason

Director / Curriculum Instruction & Professional Growth

Douglas County School District

You can listen to this and future episodes by subscribing to Growing Together through your favorite podcast platform, such as Apple, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

Laurie and Aaron invite Finessa Ferrell onto the show.   Finessa is a Social & Emotional Learning Specialist with the Colorado Education Initiative.    Finessa is also the keynote speaker at this year's DCSD Summer Summit; Building and Leaders on July 26th.   Finessa dives deep into (SEL) Social Emotional Learning and how it helps students, teachers and staff develop and build skills to help them thrive in their personal and professional life.  You can also watch a vidcast of this episode here:  https://youtu.be/ISs0VOUSswc

Hosts:

Lauren LaComb, Coordinator - Healthy Schools / Health, Wellness & Prevention

Aaron Ragon, Lead Counselor / Personalized Learning Department

Guest: Finessa Ferrell / Social & Emotional Learning Specialist with the Colorado Education Initiative

Produced by The Curriculum Instruction & Professional Growth Department

Douglas County School District

You can listen to this and future episodes by subscribing to Growing Together through your favorite podcast platform such as Apple,  Spotify or Google Podcasts.

Our guest this week is Tina Boogren.    Tina and Erica have an in-depth conversation about self care for students and educators.  Tina is the Author of "Becoming a Reflective Teacher.   Tina is also an instructional coach and a consultant with the Marzano Research Lab.  You can watch a vidcast of this episode here:  https://youtu.be/Eb2oY3f6hhg

QUESTIONS:

Q: What is the biggest need right now for educators?

Q: Educators have been challenged to expand their capacity to meet the needs of hybrid learning.   How do we establish boundaries, to take better care of ourselves?

Q: You talk about making healthy choices, how do we navigate this current landscape to make better choices.

Q: How do our educators better manage their workload so that our students can be successful?

Q: How do we also help our students with self care?

Q: With vaccines rolling out, many restrictions are being lifted.    We talk about revitalizing and refreshing for next year even though we won’t be completely back to normal.   What do you think next year’s transition will look like?

Q: What message would you like our students, our parents, our educators to walk away with today?

Hosted by Erica Mason

Director / Curriculum Instruction & Professional Growth

Douglas County School District

You can listen to this and future episodes by subscribing to Growing Together through your favorite podcast platform, such as Apple, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

Aaron and Laurie invite friend and colleague, Jennifer Gottschalk on the show to talk about how to encourage your children to become better writers.  Jennifer finds inspiration from some of her favorite authors that have written books on writing.   Authors mentioned on today's show include Gail Carson Levine, Victoria Hanley, Annabeth Bondor-Stone, Connor White, Rebecca Stern, Grant Faulkner, Donald Maass and Stephen King.  You can also watch a vidcast of this show here:  https://youtu.be/N29IKm9uS38

Hosts:

Lauren LaComb, Coordinator - Healthy Schools / Health, Wellness & Prevention

Aaron Ragon, Lead Counselor / Personalized Learning Department

Guest: Jennifer Gottschalk, Published Author,  Team Lead / Personalized Learning, Gifted Education, DCSD

Produced by The Curriculum Instruction & Professional Growth Department

Douglas County School District

You can listen to this and future episodes by subscribing to Growing Together through your favorite podcast platform such as Apple,  Spotify or Google Podcast

Laurie and Aaron invite friend and colleague Jennifer Gottschalk onto the show.   Jennifer is an author of three young adult science fiction stories.   This month her new book, “Writing Strategies for Talent Development, From Struggling to Gifted Learners, Grades 3-8”, is being published.   This show offers a wealth of information for those looking to take their writing to the next level.   You can also watch the vidcast here:  https://youtu.be/qS23Sxb_PXs

Hosts:

Lauren LaComb, Coordinator - Healthy Schools / Health, Wellness & Prevention

Aaron Ragon, Lead Counselor / Personalized Learning Department

Guest: Jennifer Gottschalk, Published Author,  Team Lead / Personalized Learning, Gifted Education, DCSD

Produced by The Curriculum Instruction & Professional Growth Department

Douglas County School District

You can listen to this and future episodes by subscribing to Growing Together through your favorite podcast platform such as Apple,  Spotify or Google Podcasts.

Our guest this week is Elena Aguilar.  Elena is the Best Selling Author of "Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators.     She's also the founder and President of Bright Morning Consulting.  You can also watch the vidcast of this show here: https://youtu.be/U0l_T2_kzds

QUESTIONS: 

00:15  Can you talk about the need to be resilient?

Hosted by Erica Mason Director / Curriculum Instruction & Professional Growth Douglas County School District  

You can listen to this and future episodes by subscribing to Growing Together through your favorite podcast platform, such as Apple, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

Laurie and Aaron invite friend and colleague Jon Widmier to discuss the best way to change some of the bad habits we've picked up over the years.   You can also watch the vidcast of this show here:  https://youtu.be/mzJUo89lAw4

Hosts: Lauren LaComb, Coordinator - Healthy Schools / Health, Wellness & Prevention Aaron Ragon, Lead Counselor / Personalized Learning Department

Guest: Jon Widmier, Coordinator / Social Emotional & Behavior Services, Littleton Public Schools.   Produced by The Curriculum Instruction & Professional Growth DepartmentDouglas County School District

You can listen to this and future episodes by subscribing to Growing Together through your favorite podcast platform such as Apple,  Spotify or Google Podcasts.

Director / Curriculum Instruction & Professional Growth

Erica has an in-depth conversation with 3 Sierra Middle School students and their parents about how to be successful and positive and how to support each other during these difficult times.   You can also watch the vidcast of this episode here: https://youtu.be/3lvxPTn_Arw

QUESTIONS:

00:16  What has been working well for you this year?

01:13  What has been challenging this year in regards to remote learning?

03:42  What does your at-home learning space look like and how have your parents supported you?

05:57  How do you continue to stay motivated with hybrid learning?

07:18  Is there anything that your teachers are doing to help your engagement with hybrid learning?

09:21  How have you maintained social engagement with your friends during these times?

10:17  What advice do you have for students and families that are not thriving and doing so well?

14:06  Talk to us about remote check in’s with your school counselors?

Hosted by Erica Mason

Director / Curriculum Instruction & Professional Growth

Douglas County School District

You can listen to this and future episodes by subscribing to Growing Together through your favorite podcast platform, such as Apple, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

Laurie and Aaron invite friend and colleague Jon Widmier to discuss tips & tricks for time management during these stressful times.   Please watch the vidcast of this show here. https://youtu.be/qhNa47DoNdQ

Hosts: 

Lauren LaComb, Coordinator - Healthy Schools / Health, Wellness & Prevention 

Aaron Ragon, Lead Counselor / Personalized Learning Department

Guest: Jon Widmier, Coordinator / Social Emotional & Behavior Services, Littleton Public Schools.   

Produced by The Curriculum Instruction & Professional Growth Department

Douglas County School District

You can listen to past & future episodes by subscribing to Growing Together through your favorite podcast platform, such as Apple, Spotify or Google Podcasts.