OEA Grow

This week’s episode addresses some of the concerns of educators who seek resources not available at their own schools. Our host, Toni Myers, discusses the support offered to rural educators by Education Service Districts (ESDs) with her guest, Ayla Olson. Ayla is an Instruction Coach with the InterMountain ESD, serving twenty-one school districts in Morrow, Umatilla, Union, and Baker counties. Thr...

Season 12, focusing on Rural Education, begins with a close look at the recent surge of interest in Career and Technical Education (CTE) and its benefits for students in urban and rural areas. Host Toni Myers welcomes Nicole Merchant and Bibiana Gifft, longtime teachers of Agricultural Sciences and Future Farmers of America (FFA) advisors at Baker High School, who explain what CTE can offer all st...

Season 12 of the OEA Grow podcast takes us to the less populated regions of our state, focusing on the Rural School Experience for Oregon students and educators. Our host, Toni Myers, teaches third through sixth grades at Keating Elementary, a rural two-room school in Baker City. Drawing on her eighteen years of experience in education, Toni will speak with educators around the state who work in r...

Keynote Address - Alex Caputo-Pearl Conference for Bargaining and Organizing, October 27-28, 2023 Newport, Oregon Alex Caputo-Pearl, practitioner-in-residence at the U.C. Berkeley Labor Center, delivered the keynote address at the Oregon Conference for Bargaining and Organizing. Drawing on his twenty-two years of experience as a teacher and nine years as a full-time elected union leader, Caputo-Pe...

Joe Burns, “Reviving the Strike” Conference for Bargaining and Organizing, October 27-28, 2023 Newport, Oregon In his talk, “Reviving the Strike,” labor lawyer Joe Burns traces the history of union strikes in the U.S. and discusses their impact on current labor negotiations. Based on his thirty years of bargaining experience, Burns feels that today’s public employees are just now rediscovering the...

Our host Dr. Amy Yillik ends this season’s discussion of Culture of Care with a close look at Tier 3 needs and services. Her guest is Ryan Harding, Behavior Specialist with the Redmond School District, who explains that the Tier 3 program is more long-term and individualized than Tier 2, with a focus on providing students with whatever each one needs for success. Continuing repercussions from the...

Our season on Culture of Care continues this week with a discussion of academic and social/emotional support for students, specifically the Tier Two level of the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) rubric. Tier Two is a particularly difficult level to address, coming between Tier One, which all students receive, and Tier Three, which requires one-on-one help. Host Dr. Amy Yillik’s guest for thi...

This week, Dr. Amy Yillik welcomes Julie Patton, Student Success Coordinator at Elton Gregory Middle School in Redmond and a member of the Family Engagement Team with Bridge for Resilient Youth in Transition (BRYT). Their conversation centers around family engagement and the importance of educators establishing solid lines of communication with the families of their students. Children are more suc...

Dr. Amy Yillik continues Season 11, Culture of Care, with a discussion of the concept of equity. Her guest, Steve Wetherald of Bend High School, defines the term as the assurance that all students have whatever they need to succeed. As a Graduation Coach, Steve works to encourage students, whatever their needs, to graduate and attend college, and as the faculty advisor of the school’s Cross Cultur...

Confused about the concept of restorative justice? This week, host Dr. Amy Yillik talks with Sorahi Harati, Program Director of the Restorative Justice and Equity Group (RJE) in Bend. The two educators agree that restorative justice is often mislabeled as a misguided approach to discipline, “giving everyone a lollipop” to solve problems. Sorahi explains that, in reality, efforts of this kind invol...

Each of the episodes so far in Season 11 has centered on how educators might support the wellness of students. And in each week’s discussion, our host Dr. Amy Yillik and her guests have acknowledged that the suggested strategies for students work best when educators are themselves calm and mindful. This week, Dr. Yillik turns her focus to ways that educators can achieve this level of wellness with...

This week, Dr. Amy Yillik discusses trauma-responsive practices in education with Jessica Reamon, Autism Consultant for the Northwest Regional Education Service District. The two educators emphasize the importance of creating an environment where students feel safe and connected, a necessity for any learning to take place. They suggest achieving this goal through co-regulation, the process of mode...

Do you know the term “interoception,” the perception of the internal state of one’s body? Tune into this episode for ways to help students refine their sense of interoception and gain awareness and self-control over their emotions and behavior. Dr. Amy Yillik’s guest this week is Katie Diez, an occupational therapist in the High Desert Education Service District who explains the importance of stud...

Dr. Amy Yillik continues her conversation this week with her Culture of Care colleagues, Amber McGill and Erin Taylor. In this episode they explain in detail how the program, focusing on trauma-responsive, restorative, and equitable practices, supports schools in the High Desert Education Service District with workshops, coaching, and other pedagogical services that individual educators often have...

In this first episode of Season 11, our host Dr. Amy Yillik, discusses the importance of supporting the adults in the school system in order to foster trauma-sensitive, restorative, and equitable environments for students. Dr. Yillik’s guests this week are her colleagues Erin Taylor and Amber McGill, who work with her in Culture of Care, a program created by six Oregon school districts in the High...

The Oregon Education Association welcomes you to Season 11 of the OEA Grow podcast series in which we will discuss the growing problem of trauma in our schools. Our host this season is Dr. Amy Yillik from Culture of Care, a program in central Oregon that offers coaching and consultation for schools in trauma responses. In this season’s episodes, Amy draws on her more than twenty years’ experience...

In this last episode of Season 10, our host Sakura Hamada expands the discussion of newly arrived students to include the community college level. Her guest is Kathryn Long from Clackamas Community College, who explains that adult newly arrived college students may not be actually newly arrived in this country because of registration timelines. They often differ from K-12 students, too, because of...

Host Sakura Hamada focuses this week on trauma experienced by newly arrived students and how educators can create safe spaces for them. Her guest is Franky Collins, who is experienced in working with both elementary and middle-school newcomers. She explains that these students can often come from traumatic backgrounds and family situations, so educators must be prepared with individualized lessons...

In this episode host Sakura Hamada focuses on the challenges of language learning for newcomer students with her guest, Gaby Aguilar-Lopez, from Twality Middle School in the Tigard-Tualatin District, who teaches ELD (English Language Development) and AVID (Advancement via Individual Determination). The two educators discuss how crucial language is as a connector for students, and how difficult it...

This week’s episode offers additional suggestions for supporting newcomer students with Sakura’s guest, Beyoung Yu from the Portland Public Schools. As an English Language Development (ELD) educator, Beyoung builds a base for the English language with his students, but he sees his job in a broader context as well. He offers suggestions about how to connect with students’ cultural identities and fi...

In this very special bonus episode, we hear from a variety of educators from the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) on the conditions that led to the historic vote to authorize a strike. With nearly 99 percent of their members voting to authorize a strike, PAT educators explain why they are on the precipice of their first strike since the formation of PAT as a union in 1966. Portland educators...

Host Sakura Hamada turns our attention this week to ways in which educators can support newly arrived students in middle school. Her guest is Rena Jan, a seventh-grade counselor for  the Beaverton School District, who acknowledges that middle school is often a bewildering time of change and transition, even for students without language or cultural challenges. Rena suggests that extra care be take...

Sakura’s guest this week is Jocelin Morales, a school counselor with the Beaverton School District, who shares ways in which she supports newly arrived students and their families in her school. Drawing on her own experience as the child of Mexican immigrants, Jocelin is sensitive to students’ needs as they find themselves in a new and different environment. She works to create a safe space for th...

Welcome back to Season 10 of the OEA Grow podcast, in which our host Sakura Hamada explores how we as educators can support newly arrived students. In this first episode of the season, Sakura speaks with Ethelyn Tumalad from Clackamas High School about her work with the AVID program (Advancement Via Individual Determination). This program supports students throughout all four years of high school...

Welcome to Season Ten of the OEA Grow Podcast, a member-led production of the Oregon Education Association. This season’s topic is “Supporting Newly Arrived Students,” with an in-depth look at how educators can address the needs of students who have recently come into the school system, a group that includes migrants, refugees, and children of migrant workers. Our host is Sakura Hamada, school cou...