Community of Practice Learning Series

Looking for ways to revitalize your classroom culture for greater equity & belonging? 

How does your design of space, curriculum, flow, and routines cause students to shrink or shine?

Gather your team of Oakland public school teachers & engage in active inquiry & design with us! 

Anchored in the practice of inquiry, your team will explore design as it relates to belonging. You will have a chance to try out new practices and document what you are seeing in your classroom in order to refine your practice to increase your students’ & your own sense of belonging.

Share more information with your team here.

Each team member must apply. Priority deadline is 12/18.

Series Dates:

• Kick Off: Thursday, January 18, 4-7pm

• Design Jam: Thursday, February 15, 4:30-6:30

• Coaching date TBD by team

• Feedback & Redesign: Thursday, March 21, 4:30-6:30

• Coaching date TBD by team

• Final Share & Celebrate: Thursday, April 18, 4-7pm

Location: In-person at Grass Valley Elementary, Room 8

Participant Level: For site-based teams of educators at all levels.

Participants will be able to: 

• Create greater inclusivity in order to increase sense of belonging for students & yourself

• Reset, revitalize classroom space & culture

• Increase capacity for systems thinking and connection to design

• Use design thinking tools to refine & redesign your classroom space, curriculum and/or routines

Facilitators:

With over 30 years in OUSD, Paula Mitchell currently runs a Maker Space part-time at Grass Valley Elementary and is the Executive Director of Agency by Design Oakland.  Paula also goes by “Futurista” and envisions a future where educators, students and families thrive with joy and collective agency. 

OUSD middle school teacher of 15 years and current Program Director for Agency by Design Oakland, Alia Ghabra is currently in grad school for their MLIS, and is a part-time bookworm and urban farm enthusiast. 

Kara Fleshman has taught at the elementary level and currently teaches at Mills College Learning Lab School.  Kara is also a co-facilitator and graphic designer at Agency by Design Oakland.

Series Dates:

Mondays 4-6pm, 2/5, 2/12, 2/26, 3/4, 3/11

Location: Zoom

Participant Level: Emerging & Developing

REGISTER

This series will focus on preventing and addressing escalation with students, though many of the skills will be applicable for working with all people.

Participants will be able to: 

• Use the escalation cycle to identify characteristics of behaviors at different levels of escalation. 

• Identify different types of defensive and accelerating behavior and intervention strategies which are most effective depending on the behavior.

• Understand the escalation cycle from a brain science lens.

• Increase self awareness and co and self regulation strategies/skills/practices.

• Build awareness/identify biases and experiences towards increasing compassionate and anti-racist responses.

• Build your tool box for working with students, families and colleagues.

Facilitators: Denise Curtis (Restorative Justice), David Yusem (Restorative Justice), Kimberly Berry (Behavioral Health), Sandee Simmons (Behavioral Health)

Series Dates:

Tuesdays 4-6pm: 2/6, 2/13, 2/20, 2/27, 3/5, 3/12 (Last session in person!)

Location: Zoom

Participant Level: Emerging & Developing

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Participants will be able to: 

• Ground in our own intersectional identities to understand how we can stand in stronger solidarity with our students.

• Explore how our biases and micro and macro aggressions show up in schools, and practice cultural humility and how to address them.

• Deepen our understanding of how intersectional oppression impacts Oakland students’ academic achievement, mental health and success in school - and what we can do in our roles to develop equitable practices to support them.

Facilitators: 

Stephanie Noriega LCSW (ELLMA) is bay area native and started working with OUSD schools in 2016 as an Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth clinician with La Familia Counseling Services, a community-based organization. In 2017, she transitioned into the centralized district role of Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth Specialist where she helped facilitate the Newcomer Safety Task Force to address community factors putting students at risk in and outside of school. Stephanie helped create the Newcomer Wellness Initiative which she now manages across 15 secondary sites. 

Lailan Sandra Huen (Office of Equity) is a 4th generation Chinese American Oaklander and proud OUSD graduate who serves in the OUSD Office of Equity coordinating Antiracist Learning and the Racial Justice and Healing Taskforce.  In education for over 20 years, she specializes in youth-led participatory action research, targeted equity strategies, and culturally responsive practices.

Series Dates:

Wednesdays 4-6pm: 2/21, 3/20, 4/17

Location: In-Person (TBA)

Participant Level: All Black women employees in OUSD are welcome!

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Participants will be able to: 

• Foster relationships across roles and sites to fortify the OUSD Black community during trying times.

• Use liberatory processing exercises to externalize the unique stressors of Black women in the field in an effort to retain and sustain these vital community members.

• Explore healing-centered, Black-specific somatic practices that center both self & co-regulation strategies.

Facilitators: 

Lindsey Fuller (she/her/sis), The Teaching Well Executive Director

As a former teacher, administrator, and district leader, as well as a Black affinity facilitator of 20 years, Lindsey loves to hold healing, restorative space for Black educators. She specializes in culturally affirming coaching, rage practices, and building authentic community building containers.

Brittany Rush (she/her), The Teaching Well Lead Facilitator

Brittany has served in school communities as a teacher, Dean, Principal, DEI Director at the District level. Brittany is passionate about creating healing containers for Black women in education. She holds at the center, courageous authenticity, hope practices, and communal liberation.

Series Dates:

Wednesdays 4-6pm: 2/28, 3/6, 3/13, 3/27, 4/10, 4/24

Location: Zoom (Note: These sessions will not be recorded)

Participant Level: All Levels

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This series will focus on addressing conflict and repair amongst adults, though the skills will be applicable for working with all people.

Participants will be able to: 

• Draw relationships between individual and collective nervous system activation and white supremacy culture to understand how individual and collective harm is enabled.

• Practice individual and collective nervous system regulation and tending strategies as ways to prevent harm and build capacity for harm repair.

• Explore and tend to barriers around  boundary setting in ways that center deepened connection with self and others.

• Explore the practical elements of a culture of connection and shared power.

Facilitators: 

Rosa Cabrera (Reclaiming Our Own Transcendence)

Rosa (she/her) is a queer single mama from Harlem, born to Dominican working-class parents. She has published writing on accountability and love. She has taught English in New York City and Oakland high schools for a total of 5 years, taught English at the community college level. She currently resides in Oakland, California.

She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Mills College, MS in English Education from University of Rochester as an Urban Teaching Leadership Fellow, and a BA in Black and Latino Urban Studies from San Francisco State University. She founded Reclaiming Our Own Transcendence in 2018 to explore abolitionist and transformative healing methods to address and end violence.

Amy Paulson (Healing Together)

Amy (she/her) is mental health advocate, speaker, writer, facilitator, and co-founder and CEO of Healing Together, a global nonprofit working to end cycles of individual, collective, and generational trauma and harm and democratize access to healing resources for communities disproportionately affected by trauma and systemic violence. To date, Healing Together has trained over 10,000 community healing advocates across four continents who support over 200,000 survivors around the world. A Korean adoptee, Amy is a survivor of orphan trafficking, sexual abuse, and generational trauma, and approaches healing through somatic, expressive, and cultural arts practices.

Amy holds a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management with a concentration in Global Studies from Northeastern University, a certificate in Trauma-Informed Interventions (UC Berkeley), and a post-grad certificate in Global Trauma Recovery (Harvard Medical School).

Series Dates:

Mondays 4-6pm: 4/8, 4/15, 4/22

Location: Zoom

Participant Level: Emerging & Developing

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Participants will be able to: 

• Understand what being an adult ally looks like for youth/students.

• Identify ways adultism has prevented shared decision-making within the classroom and the larger educational system.

• Explore strategies on uplifting and honoring student voice and input in the classroom and school.

Facilitators: 

Citlali Espinoza, Student Engagement Specialist - Office of Equity

Citlali Espinoza is an East Oakland native and OUSD alum. As a high school student, Citlali was an active student leader and an All City Council Governing Board member for two years. After graduating from MetWest high school, Citlali worked as a Meaningful Student Engagement Fellow for 3 years to systematize and strengthen the work of student engagement in OUSD. 

Citlali's late mother, Gloria Vargas, and mentors instilled in her the importance of creating equitable educational experiences by uplifting and empowering parent and student voices. Seeing the active role her mentors and mother played in her community and educational experiences, Citlali is proud to be able to continue advocating for the needs of our students across Oakland as she currently pursues her master’s degree in school counseling.

With ACC Student Leaders!

Series Dates:

Mondays 4-6pm: 1/29, 2/5, 3/4, 3/18, 4/15, 4/29, 5/6

Location: Zoom

Participant Level: Developing & Practicing

This learning and action group will engage in sustained collective inquiry so that we can become a source of information and action against ableism and racism - and for disability justice in OUSD.

This is a continuing group from the Fall.  If you would like to join mid-year, please contact cintya.molina@ousd.org.

Facilitators: Cintya Molina, Office of Equity; Jamal Muhammad, Office of Equity African American Achievement; Samantha Fenwick, Office of Equity Family Engagement Network 3; David Cammarata, Special Education; Melisha Linzie, Engagement Specialist, Special Education