By Denise Meyer

Media Specialist

Charlottesville Hospital Education Program

How do you trick-or-treat when you are in the hospital? Easy, you just reverse trick-or-treat. Instead of the children coming to us for treats, some of the HEP teachers at UVA Hospital along with hospital staff dressed up in a variety of traditional, zany, and mind challenging costumes. Several groups of trick-or-treaters gave each child goodie bags and other treats for their enjoyment. There were smiles, laughter, and excited squeals coming from all the rooms and hallways. It is hard to tell who had the most fun, the adults or children.

Written by Renita Davis-Kelley

Our students at the Chesterfield Juvenile Detention Center had lessons and discussions focused on the turkey supply chain and all the activities that encompass the concept from farm (producer) to table (consumer). The students participated in interactive vocabulary and an EdPuzzle. Overall the students came away with a new understanding of Thanksgiving and all the activities that take place during the holiday. To conclude our Turkey Talk dialogue, the students designed turkeys to be sold at the marketplace. Their turkeys could be sold directly to the consumers, to wholesalers, or go through a retail store which lowers their profit. That's our Turkey Talk!

Written by

Renita Davis-Kelley

Mrs. Monica Van Arsdale is affectionately known by our students as “Ms. Monica, the Credit Union Lady,” continues to reinforce each month's topics of conversation that I have with our students. As young people begin to create their credit history, it’s easy due to a lack of knowledge and experience to create long-term financial detriments. The mindset of ‘buy now, pay later’ can be addictive for youth, and influence their financial trajectory for years to come. By learning how credit scores work, and the various factors that are used to calculate them, young people can empower themselves to make better financial decisions. Ms. Monica bought in the CREDIT SCORE GAME. This game was designed by the Virginia Credit Union for students so that they could experience “real-life scenarios” as it relates to everyone’s credit. The game was a big hit. Some students' credit scores ranged from 500-800+. The students gained an understanding of the importance of having good credit and witnessed firsthand how negative situations can impact their scores.

If you’re interested in having Monica speak to your students, please reach out to her, she travels across the state of Virginia. Here’s how she can be reached:

Monica Van Arsdale

Sr. Financial Success Educator

Marketing/Financial Education

(804) 327-7334

monica.vanarsdale@vacu.org

Virginia Credit Union

By Lauren Orndorff

This September, students at CCCA spent an afternoon facing down challenges and embracing mistakes as they explored the concept of growth mindset. After an introduction featuring a cookie-loving pig, students participated in a Breakout EDU event where their problem-solving skills were put to the test. Students also engaged in a STEM build inspired by the story, The Three Little Pigs. Students, teachers, and facility staff worked together to construct a home for their pigs that could withstand the wolf's huffing and puffing. The event called for all hands on deck to solve the design challenge!

Since October of this year, Tuesday mornings at the Merrimac Center welcomes a guest artist, Steve Prince. Director of Engagement at William & Mary’s Muscarelle Museum of Art, Steve has been teaching residents how to draw portraits and faces. A New Orleans native and former power forward at Xavier University, he has gained the residents’ trust in a process that can bring much doubt and anxiety. Steve regularly reminds participants to lock their wrists when drawing while encouraging them to see objects in their simplest form. “Look at every situation and deconstruct it,” sharing his emphasis on principles of Gestalt.

Weekly lessons in art have led to other lessons that can be generalized to the residents’ daily lives and practices. Themes of self-efficacy, resiliency, self-mastery and affirmation are often discussed. One student has, “learned so much from drawing to loving who you are…everybody has their own way of beauty.” In a recent session, students were drawing without the use of erasers and working with imperfect marks to create successful products. You often hear Steve providing words of encouragement, “keep pushing, never give up…as you can talk yourself out, you can talk yourself in…I believe in you.” Another student sums up her experience, “His words of encouragement want me to want to do better and be a better version of myself; he tells me a bigger story through his work.” Looking to return in the spring, Steve hopes to introduce printmaking to residents at the Merrimac.

Why Get Lit?

The Newport News Juvenile Detention Center School’s educational focus for the 2023-2024 school year is increasing our students' literacy skills by incorporating reading and writing into every aspect of the program. We’ve found that many of our students come in with below-average literacy skills, resulting in deficits in our students' ability to read and write at the appropriate levels.

What We Do

To help the low literacy rates among our students, we have developed “lit” (literacy) groups that aim to increase our students' reading fluency, comprehension, word recognition, and writing skills. Students identified as needing additional support are placed into one of two groups. The groups meet with the high school English teacher, Ms. Powell, and the Special Education teacher, Mr. Johnson, twice weekly to work on skills that they can use to help them succeed in the classroom.

Students initially had reservations about joining the group, often feeling like it was a group for “slow” students. As students started growing comfortable with the material and coming to the group, their engagement and willingness to read and share their opinions increased tremendously.

Now that students are eager to read, look forward to coming to the group, and have fun, we are truly getting lit!

Tiffany Powell & Aaron Johnson

Newport News Juvenile Detention

Mrs. Monica Anderson used her Professional School Counseling Skills, Social & Emotional Learning training and Creativity, to encourage our students to create a large scale Bullying Prevention “THINK” Campaign at Newport News Juvenile Detention. Our Campaign activities were also featured on the Districtwide FACEBOOK page. Students created, participated, were fully engaged, shared, and learned a wealth of information to support our Anti-Bullying efforts at the school. Student created a school wide survey, pledged against bullying in their Art Therapy class, and also participated in our Digital Citizenship activities were they designed Apps and learned about Internet safety.

In partnership with Newport News Public Schools’ Youth Development Department, Newport News Juvenile Detention School applied for, and received a grant for over $300.00 to go towards a need. Mrs. Anderson conducted a schoolwide needs assessment, and use that data to determine where the grant would benefit our students the most. After the assessment was done, it was determined that our students would benefit most, by using the grant funding to purchase suitable, safe and comfortable footwear. We are now able to provide sneakers to our students in need, and also ensure that students have a quality pair of sneakers to wear during physical education.

NNJDS Post- Dispositional Transition Teacher Mrs. Monica Anderson, applied for and is now a recipient of the Master Gardeners’ $500.00 grant. We will use the money towards our Post- Dispositional greenhouse and garden. Their email correspondence is listed below.

Hi Ms. Anderson,

Congratulations on receiving a Horticulture Grant from Newport News Master Gardeners for the 2023-2024 school year. If you have any questions or would like any Master Gardeners to come out to the Detention Center and provide guidance for your Each One Plant One project please feel free to contact me. We can also provide presentations to your students on specific topics as well. Hope you are having a good start to the school year.

Dale Timmer

Newport News Master Gardener

In collaboration with NexTrex Recycling Company & Newport News Juvenile Services we collected 500 pounds of plastic. Students learned about our Carbon Footprint, how animals are impacted by plastic, and the benefits of recycling, reusing and reducing waste. We sorted, collected, weighed and transported pounds of plastic to Harris Teether on a monthly basis. This plastic was then recycled and used to create the beautiful green bench displayed below.

https://nextrex.com/view/recyclingchallenge

(Submitted by Mrs. Anderson)

Using my Professional School Counseling expertise, Pathful Explore, and other Career Assessments students learned about career exploration and how assessment results can be interpreted to help them align their career choices with their future aspirations. Students also learned how each assessment helps to develop their interest and academic-career relationships. Students then created “Career Genograms” which provided information about different career choices of their close family members. We then used that data and information to construct Career Genograms with an “Ultimate Career” choice listed. Students conducted research on different careers and the path needed to accomplish their goals. Students also compared and contrasted how family occupations can also influence career choices.

Written by: Ritchie Brown, MT-BC - Music Therapist

Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center - Fort Collier Academy

How long does it take to build rapport? An hour? A week? A month? Does this development of rapport ever stop? We know establishing relationships is vital for the work we do, but we don’t always have a defining moment where it feels like everything has clicked into place. With a new school year full of staffing changes, the leaders here at the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center wanted to find opportunities to support both the staff and students present in our facility. One way they went about this was implementing a Gratitude Project!

Our Gratitude Project coincided with our homeroom program, the Positivity Project. We’d been

discussing gratitude throughout the week, and felt ready to put some of our discussions into practice! Dozens of posters lined the walls of our building, with the prompt “I am grateful for ____ because…” written across the top; one for each staff member and teacher. Each student was prompted to consider at least one staff member they are grateful for and complete the prompt on a loose leaf piece of paper. As they worked, the teachers collaborated to think of unique reasons to be grateful for each student. While the initial shared responses were kind and caused many smiles, as well as “Aw, thank you”s, no one could’ve predicted how far this project would go.

Even from the beginning, students went above and beyond thinking of reasons to be grateful for staff members. Our suggestion to start with one staff member quickly evolved to three staff members, and then five. When the residents were given opportunities to write their thoughts on the corresponding posters, some asked if they could list something for each staff member so everyone could be included. Their request was quickly approved! As the days passed, students would ask for additional opportunities to work on the posters, as they’d had more time to recall events or conversations that they wanted to recognize. Within a few days, the excitement about this project spread to the staff members, who began writing kind and personal messages for their peers and supervisors alike! The once blank posters were now filled with colorful messages of gratitude,

appreciation, and love.

Being in a detention center, we initially had reservations about lining our hallways with posters for this project. We were unsure if frequent movements would knock them down, or if the varying shifts (such as overnight) would all see responses on their posters. Little did we know, this project would be exactly what we needed to welcome and include new staff, recognize the hard work of our experienced staff, and remind ourselves of the relationships we’ve developed and the rapport we’ve built with residents. As we approach the end of the fall semester, we will be taking our posters down and handing them out to staff at our holiday party. What a way to end 2023!

Many times the greatest concern students have about writing is their belief that whatever they write won’t be good enough. This year our English teacher, Ms. Holland, decided to focus on taking the fear out of writing for our students. To help alleviate that concern, students write on a daily basis without fear of judgement through journaling.

How do you get students to journal? Although journal writing has always been a regular part of student classwork, it wasn’t until this year that it became something the students actually looked forward to doing instead of anticipating with dread. Using a 10-minute TED talk about the positive effects of gratitude on the brain, the teacher had students watch it, then watch it again. After a meaningful classroom discussion on what they learned from the talk, Ms. Holland made an unexpected announcement! This year the only journal topic would be “Gratitude.” To her surprise, NO ONE complained. There really is a first time for everything!

Every day when students come into English class, they begin by writing in their blue “Gratitude” journals. She also sits and writes with them. She expressed that taking the time to journal benefited her as much as it did them! When it came to grading of the journals, they are not graded on content, but instead, journal entries must include an entry date and some form of written expression. New students in her class don’t object to the journaling after they get shushed once by the old timers. On the rare occasion when journaling was skipped because extra time was needed to cover a difficult lesson, students complained. She now tries her best not to skip journaling anymore because of the uproar caused when students don’t get to write about what they are grateful for that day!

With the craziness that goes on in our world, sometimes it may seem hard to find gratitude. Often we just need to stop and remember how lucky we are to wake up in a warm bed, and have something to eat. When you’re a teenager it’s especially hard, until you think about a friend or relative who no longer has that opportunity.

Ms. Holland stated, “The best part is that gratitude has also created a more positive classroom atmosphere for learning, and for that, I am extremely grateful”.

Looking for ways to motivate and engage Post-Grad students in class can be a challenging endeavor. When presented with options, their response tends to be something like, “Do I have to?” and/or “Why?” However, when Mr. Meyer approached them with a proposal to learn about construction and home building, an interest piqued. Students began asking questions about the process, materials, training, timelines, jobs, etc. Little did the students know, Mr. Meyer, in his previous career, worked in the construction field and had first hand knowledge and experience to share. As more questions were asked and a deeper level of understanding was gained regarding all involved in building a house - students began to become overwhelmed and self-doubt began to creep in as to their ability to potentially pursue a construction career in the future.

At this point, it would have been easy for Mr. Meyer to deliver the standard verbal vote of confidence, and thennmove on. However, knowing an interest had been sparked, and looking to leverage the momentum, he didn’t stop there. The idea of constructing a scaled replica house with the class evolved.

Since that point, under Mr. Meyer’s tutelage, students have been working diligently, literally from the ground up, constructing a to-scale house. On any given day, as the Golf Unit works in class, students can be seen evaluating the several layers of floor plans, calculating size to scale and snipping small wooden craft sticks, popsicle sticks, and cardboard used for construction. Students are seen collaborating to ensure their interpretation of the blueprints fits the model and carefully and skillfully building the frame - piece by piece. At first, the watchful eye and oversight provided by Foreman Meyer was substantial and direct. However, as time has passed and students have gained confidence and skill, Foreman Meyer has been able to step back and become more of an observer and source of guidance. He would, at times, have to sit on his hands and watch students make mistakes, knowing they will learn from them in the future.

The parallel between watching students learn and grow, through their successes and failures as they construct the house with their individual lives - as they continue to learn and grow, through their personal ups and downs is undeniable.

“We don’t just construct buildings, we create homes, shape cities, and build futures.”

- Rosa “The Roofer” Ramirez

In Mr. Hitch's post-graduate class, students who successfully earned their food handler card were able to cook themselves a pancake and bacon breakfast. Rounding up skillets that faculty had at home, students were divided into pairs, working together to fix, and then devour (we mean 'eat') their meal. Students were excited and the delicious smells traveled down the halls. A student remarked, "I have a feeling you are going to see your graduation rate increase." We hope so!

As of December, fifteen students successfully completed their CPR/AED certification through Mr. Wilson's Health and Physical Education class.