003: Co-collaborating for Powerful SEL Classroom Integration with Adia Vellaccio and Amanda Trecker

EPISODE 003 TITLE: Co-Collaborating for Powerful SEL Integration with Adia Vellaccio and Amanda Trecker

EPISODE 003 HIGHLIGHTS:

• Co-collaboration elevates teacher capacity for SEL integration.
• The PAUSE helps create trusting rapport.
• Ensuring all students are seen, heard, and valued  - and that they see each other, hear each other, and value each other - deepens relationships.

EPISODE 003 RESOURCES:

• Connect with Adia Vellacio: avellacio@bridgebostoncs.org, Grade 3 Teacher
• Connect with Amanda Trecker: atrecker@bridgebostoncs.org, Grade 3 Teacher 

EPISODE 003 TRANSCRIPT:

Craig (00:00): People! We are so excited. Today, Krista and I are welcoming two absolutely incredible teacher leaders. They are going to become your friends after this podcast. I'm just saying. We have Amanda Trecker and Adia Vellaccio. Both of them are phenomenal educators right here in Boston. Very specifically, they are doing incredible work with young people, little people who got big minds, big voices, big intellect. We are excited to have them here today to talk about what is SEL looks like in today's classrooms and what their experiences are. So, so excited. Krista, how are you feeling about today's conversation?

Krista (00:45): I am incredibly excited and I told Amanda and AEA before we hit record that they were two of the first people's people's names that you threw out when we were talking about having guests on. And I also love hearing how people who are in the classrooms, working with the student and from what I'm understanding you live this. And that's something that Craig and I both believe in like SEL is not a program that only happens at a certain time. It is who you are and what you do every day. Adia, could we start off with you? Could you tell us a little bit about what age your young people are that you're working with? I love how Craig said young people with big minds. And then could you kick it over to Amanda? And, can you tell us a little bit about your context as well?

Adia Vellaccio (01:31): First of all, thank you so much for having me; I really appreciate it. I'm a third-grade teacher and I think one of the most amazing things about third graders is they're definitely old enough to start to dig down and have some good conversations about their observations on the world and on themselves and on their peers. But they haven't had the full level of sass cooking yet. So, it's a really good sweet spot in education.

Krista (02:06): I have a niece who is in second grade and I call her sassafras. Miss Sass. Amanda, what age of young people are you working with?

Amanda Trecker  (02:21): I also work with third grade. We get to work together every day, which is amazing. Thank you also, thank you for having me. I'm very excited to talk about all of this because we've worked really hard together for four years to really develop something that's really good for our young people. Third grade is when they start to discover things about themselves and the world and also need help navigating all those discoveries. And so we've tried to figure out a way to really help them with those new things happening in their lives.

Krista (03:06): So you said something actually that I want to jump on really quickly before you get into the kids. You're both teaching third grade and you're bouncing ideas off of each other with your respective classes. The first question that we usually talk about is the passion area that you have with students, but I'm curious too, how did you get together and have that initial conversation that you found this was important for both of you because it's SEL with adults. You need to be able to work that out with yourselves first to then be able to think about how you can combine together to meet the needs of the students. So can you back me up to where you started talking as a collaborative partnership about what this would look like?

Adia Vellaccio (04:02): It's so interesting that you asked that because I've never really thought about what the origin of that has been. Amanda and I have been working together for quite some time now. And our first year we had a group of kids who particularly wanted to challenge us some days and through some of the moments, you realize what they're going through a lot. When kids have big feelings, they don't tell you in a calm manner. They don't write you a book about it. They show you, and they try to get you to feel the way they're feeling. I think that one of the reasons I'm really grateful for our partnership is we've learned to work together and really talk to each other through those moments, to get ideas from one another.

We both come from different levels of experience. And so being able to say, “Okay, this is what happened. This is this moment. Let's talk about how we can work together or what ideas you have and what ideas I have to help figure out the best situation for the kids, their families, and sometimes, for each other. I don't know if there's one particular moment of how that really began. I think there were just times when we just relied on each other to try to navigate through this to best serve our communities.

Amanda Trecker (05:48): Yeah. The biggest thing that I remember now that I'm like thinking back is that it was my first year at Bridge (Prep) and I was doing my week of orientation. Amanda came in for some of those weekdays during the orientation week and talked to me. Then, she invited me over to her apartment. We went to your apartment, had breakfast, and talked curriculum. From the beginning, we've had a very open, communicative relationship. We just talk about everything and we actually get the best work done when the two of us sit down at a table and just talk about things. It just happened this morning. We had a free moment, so we sat down and got things done. We’re like, “Wow, this is awesome! We actually can talk to each other. It works really well.

Craig (06:45): I think it’s a big win for third-graders across both of your classrooms because they see that mutual respect in regard for one another and kids know. They sense it. Right. Sometimes they'll try to play one versus the other. “They’re over there having popcorn and watching Moana. I don't understand why we can't do that!” It's “Well, if you finish your math right now.” So, you know, it's a really powerful thing! One of the things that I found very compelling for both of you, knowing both of you have different styles, how you actually lead your lessons, and just kind of move your class. But there's an incredible dynamic collaboration and creativity that I've seen.

Craig (07:37): No matter when I walk from one classroom to the next, there is an incredible synergy across both classrooms. It's clear that the two of you're being very thoughtful about the whole child and what each young heart and mind may need, even when they're blaring out in all these nutty ways. When you're thinking about kicking off the day, how do you have those conversations about what has worked and has not worked in regards to just kicking off the day and setting the tone for the young people you serve?

Adia Vellaccio  (08:26): It's such an interesting thing because I think teaching at times can be the most complicated dance you can ever do. Right? It's a way of really trying to make sure that your community is succeeding and thriving, but also that each individual kid feels heard and understood and feels like they have a space where they can express themselves safely. For me, I set up the day kind of thinking about a balance of what things, what elements, will make a kid continue to feel safe. And what elements will have them continue to feel heard - like sprinkling in that joy, right? And sprinkling in that element of joy and love into there as well. 

And so that means really different things for really different kids. That's why I have to stop and think about it for a second. Like one kid can need to completely know exactly what's happening in the day. They need to know if there are any changes, so I need to know all those kinds of things. But another kid can need a hug in the morning and another one's gonna need to just quietly by themselves to wake up. It changes, but trying to create a space where all of those differences are seen and accepted is a challenge in third grade. But it's one that I think we continually try to meet.

Amanda Trecker  (10:14): Yeah. And going back to that question from before, I think it starts with us because like the two of us and Craig said, have completely different teaching styles. If you walk into my room and walk into Adia’s room, you're going to see the same curriculum, but taught in a very different way. Because we're different kinds of teachers. We're also different people. And we’ve been incredibly accepting of each other’s differences from the beginning. We never tried to change each other. We never tried to adapt to the other person or make the other person change to us. We're like,  “You do you. We'll make this work for us.” And so I think as Craig says, “Kids vibe off of that and see it.” It starts there and because we're so accepting of each other's differences, of course, we're going to accept the kids' differences and meet them where they need to be.

Krista (11:17): I think as an educator, what you've hit on there is the art and the science of teaching and there's still an art and a science in social emotional learning today. I was working with groups of elementary teachers yesterday and secondary teachers today, talking about how we know the core pieces of SEL, what those common themes are. As long as we're on boats going in the same direction, it’s okay. The path that we take is different and it's okay that we get there at different times. So I really appreciate that. You're talking about knowing what our goals are for our kids and how we want them to feel included and accepted and then create that community. But how we get there can be different because we have different students sitting in front of us. And I'm curious, and I, I think that you modeling that, how we're accepting of those differences because we know that's what enhances who we are. How does that translate into the classroom with the students? We know that looking at diversity, equity, inclusion, and access is an important part of social emotional learning. So, how did you take the rapport and the strong bonds that you have as teachers and transfer that so that the students become accepting and inclusive of one another?

Adia Vellaccio  (12:46): I think there are a number of things that Amanda spoke of earlier. Um, the fact that we have worked for a while on trying to figure out, um, what curriculum would work best and then what, see what kind of holes there were in curriculums, try to hit all the different elements of SEL. And so one of the things we helped pilot, I suppose, at our school where RJ circles. When Marsha first came in, she had asked classrooms to start restorative justice circles. And third grade did do that. And so we do continue to do that, to be able to work things out, to make sure that all students are heard. We also use the Second Step curriculum, and we work with the Black Lives Matter curriculum as well, and then fill in with our own individual styles. Amanda, backfill if I miss anything.

Amanda Trecker (13:53): No, I don't think so. But the most important thing that we've been backfilling in third grade is their joy for themselves and joy for who they are because, in third, they start to not love themselves as much. Third-grade is a lot of where their anger and sadness come from. We've been trying and it's been definitely hard this year. We've been working really hard on it and keep working hard, but it's where a lot of our kids express their anger and sadness and all of their feelings. So, we're trying to figure out a way to have them be proud of themselves.

Adia Vellaccio (14:42): I was thinking we did our circle today that we did was on “what makes you feel proud of being you? What have you done to make you feel proud of yourself?” And then we did compliments for each other so they could hear things that they've been working on echoed back throughout their community. It is a beautiful thing, but I also think it's interesting that in most SEL curriculums that we have looked through, including Black Lives Matter and Second Step and a bunch of them, it talks often about “how can I be a better community member to somebody else? How can I be a better listener? How can I be more respectful to others? How can I not be a bully or not be a bystander?”

It's like, “How can I fill all of these different roles?” But I think something that's really just true about human nature is when I'm not feeling good about myself and that day and that week or that whatever, when I am struggling to see the beauty in my own self, then it's much harder for me to contribute positively to the community. If you haven't built up yourself and understood the goodness and the light that you have within yourself, if you don't teach kids to identify those things, as a fully grown adult, they have still working on these things. We try to put these things in kids now so that they're not having to rely on learning them later.

In third grade, they start to try to figure out what group they're in, “What’s my clique? What's my group? Where do I belong?” And when you try to fit yourself in without first identifying who you are… I love them and I love the beginning of third grade, second grade, first grade. They're still their weird selves. And I love them at that place. You know what I mean? You are still totally you, you're not trying to do anything else. Like, if you're going to walk on your tiptoes, Girl, walk on your tiptoes. Or if you’re going to slide into the class... however, you're going to do it, do it. Then you start to see them throughout the year start to change. And around that same time is when the bullying starts too.

They figure out, “Oh! This is my “in” group! So that's my “out” group and I don't want to be excluded. So, let me figure out how to push away.” And so without backfilling and without doing that self-love work, we kept getting to the bullying unit sooner and sooner every year. We’re like, “Please just be kind to each other.” It wasn't working. And this year is interesting because this year we’re definitely trying to figure out what the balance of those two things are-  of the social responsibility versus the self-love - and trying to figure out that recipe with them this year. Also given the pandemic, and them not being in school, it’s just a very interesting balance of everything.

Krista (18:08): I’m thoroughly fascinated by all of this. One, because I think that focusing on identity and identity development is so important and it happens at a much younger age than I think most people who don't work with kids realize. And so having kids understand who they are, be proud of who they are, and create a community where they can be whoever they want to be, whoever they feel they are on any given day, I think is really critical. And I love that you've hit on this balance between wanting to be accepted, but then sometimes in that wanting to be accepted and be included, it often means excluding or hurting other people. And so how do we help make that connection for people? Because we all have that need to want to belong. And so sometimes our need to belong means that we're excluding other people. One of the things you mentioned is really focusing on teaching kids about that. You mentioned the circles and having them be proud and share who they are. I'd love to hear other strategies. Could give some advice to people, to other teachers, who really want to create that environment where people can be proud of who they are and accepting of everybody else?

(More coming soon!)