Announcer (00:01):
Highlighting the amazing stories from inside the North Clackamas School District. This is the Proud To Be NCSD podcast hosted by longtime principal and current community relations director Curtis. Long

Curtis Long (00:17):
After 70 minutes of classroom interaction, first period has come to an end in one of our North Clackamas middle schools and you are hearing what's commonly referred to as passing time. Some students use this fast-paced four minutes to hustle to their hallway locker, others catch up with friends, and some even scarf down a snack before heading to their next class. Hear that music playing in the background?

Curtis Long (00:41):
Better hurry. That means you have less than a minute before the tardy bell. And while some middle schoolers struggle with this stepped up snappy schedule. Others face even bigger challenges, not only during passing time, but throughout each and every school day. Some feel the need to carry certain objects through the hallways at all times, like a favorite stuffed animal. They're upset by any unforeseen sudden changes to their daily schedule, such as fire drills or special assemblies. And passing time can be especially rattling with a sensitivity to loud noises, a tendency to repeat certain body movements and refusing to eat any snacks that aren't a certain color or texture. These are all signs of autism spectrum disorder, a broad range of conditions that affect one of 36 children across the United States and more than 400 estimated students in our school district between kindergarten and 12th grade.

Curtis Long (01:30):
On today's eye-opening edition of the Proud To Be NCSD podcast, we take a closer look at the supports our district has in place for students experiencing autism's effects and the terrific team members who partner with staff members to provide those supports. Please welcome to this week's program, NCS D'S Autism and Behavior Specialists, Genoa Hillis, Julia Hunter, and Amy Nielsen Genoa. Julia and Amy, thanks so much for taking time out of your schedules today to join us. Let's start by having each of you introduce yourselves and a brief background story about what led you to North Clackamas.

Amy Nielsen (02:01):
Thank you Curtis for inviting us to the North Clackamas podcast. My name is Amy Nielsen. I was a practicum student in North Clackamas and then I also became a student teacher in North Clackamas and then began my career at Bilquis in the SLC for three years. Then moved on to Alder Creek for another three years in the slc. And then I did a short stint in another district for a few years and came back to North Clackamas at ALD and the SLC for three years and then have been an autism specialist with North Clackamas for the last two years. And

Curtis Long (02:35):
For people who maybe aren't as familiar, SLCs are structured learning centers. Correct. So kids who need a little bit of a extra support outside of the regular classroom. Yeah.

Julia Hunter (02:44):
Hi this is Julia Hunter. Uh, I've been with the district for six years now. So I came as a predoctoral intern in the school psychology program. So I was a school psychologist intern at Sunnyside and Rao and then was a school psychologist at Sunnyside and Rao for a year before an opening. Came on the autism team and I kind of made that shift. And this is my fourth year as an autism behavior specialist.

Curtis Long (03:05):
So Julia, we got you right outta school. Yes. So you haven't been anywhere but North Clackamas cuz we snagged her right outta school.

Julia Hunter (03:10):
Yes. Fresh out of school. Yeah. So this is my home so far.

Genoa Hillis (03:14):
This is Genoa Hillis. I've started at North Clackamas a long time ago in 2011 as an autism specialist through Columbia Regional. And then that only lasted about a year. And then I did, I was an autism specialist for a couple of other school districts. And then I came back to North Clackamas seven years ago because I really enjoyed my time the first time I was here.

Curtis Long (03:32):
And we'll talk a little bit eventually. There are quite a few students under your umbrellas and each of you are responsible for a certain number of them. And I think our listeners will be quite amazed when we reveal that number of how many that is. We'll get to that in a little bit. We started today's show with just a few characteristics students may notice of classmates exhibiting aspects of autism, but there are really many that aren't immediately visible. What are the most common characteristics you see among the students you work with in North Clackamas?

Julia Hunter (03:58):
I think it's so hard to talk about students with autism in broad strokes because you meet one person with autism, you meet one person with autism, right? Sure. Each person is so, so fantastically unique. But I will say that for the students on my caseload that I've had the honor of working with, they are, they have such a unique sense of humor and a really unique point of view. Definitely a sense of justice and righteousness, want everything to be fair, want people to be honest. Um, they are direct communicators for better or for worse, right? So sometimes they will just tell me like, why did you wear your hair like that? I like it better the way you wore it yesterday. Right. And and maybe I like to tell myself that's just because they like a sense of structure and know what to expect. But it probably, my hair did look better the way it was before .

Julia Hunter (04:40):
And then I would also just say that the students that we have the honor of working with, they just kind of teach us so much about different ways of learning and have really opened our eyes, like on our team to the spectrum, not only the autism spectrum, but really just neuro divergent spectrum that everyone's brains work differently. Right. And I think I've, since becoming an autism behavior specialist, I've realized how much sensory sensitivity I have. Like how I can get overstimulated in Costco with all of the people and the carts and the bright lights. And so I think that that has been really eye-opening for me. I've learned just so much about how different brains work and different learning styles and different preferences, sensory sensitivities and also a lot about flags of the world. We have a lot of students that are very passionate about flags of the world. So, okay. That has been a learning experience for me as well.

Curtis Long (05:26):
Now I can certainly relate to that as a elementary school principal for up to about the last 20 years. I've had many students that tell me, why did you wear that color today, Mr. Long why would you wear that tie today? Why would you do that? Anything else others would like to add?

Genoa Hillis (05:39):
Julia does a great job of speaking . I time, I was like, DJ is like Julia, I'll try not to repeat everything you say. You do what I do.

Curtis Long (05:46):
Well we're glad all three of you are here for sure. . Now, just because a student shows signs of autism or has been officially diagnosed doesn't mean they can't fully participate in class. Right? That's where you come in. How do you assist students and teachers and para-educators?

Amy Nielsen (06:00):
Well, I think one of the first things that's important to know about autism and maybe a, a possible diagnosis is that just because a student might have a medical diagnosis, it does not mean that they would automatically have an eligibility under autism for school. Right? So it's important to first see how their autism is impacting their education. And that is kind of where we might come in and kind of do some assessments or work with our school psychs as well for some of the evaluation pieces.

Curtis Long (06:26):
So there are students who may have a medical diagnosis but not impacted enough where they need any supports from either of you in the classroom. Absolutely.

Julia Hunter (06:33):
Absolutely. So I think there, there's, I keep returning back to Spectrum, right? Yeah. But there is like a continuum of support needed. So some students have a medical eligibility or medical diagnosis of autism, but don't need to be pulled out of class or supported directly by special education staff. They might need accommodations. And those can be provided through a section 5 0 4 plan. So they might be able to be accom, like have accommodations through that, such as like frequent teacher check-ins or strategic seating. So maybe near a strong pier or away from windows or away from uh, distractions or have sensory fidgets or like a pre-warning if the lights are gonna be turned off pre-warning for fire drills. Those can be really mm-hmm. really difficult for our students with sensory sensitivities. So really we have to kind of evaluate if students show skill deficits that require additional intervention to what's being provided in class.

Julia Hunter (07:21):
Because all of our students should be receiving social-emotional learning right? In class they're receiving those, they're having classroom communities, they're learning about like how to form relationships with other kids, how to problem solve on the playground. They're addressing those things in classes already. So we are really looking for do students have additional needs that we need to have them be taught in a small group they need additional time to work on those skills or not. So really it, it varies. And then there are also students who are qualified under autism in a school eligibility that don't have a medical diagnosis. Okay. So it can go both ways.

Curtis Long (07:53):
I was going to ask about that. So they don't have a medical diagnosis but are still getting services at school.

Julia Hunter (07:58):
Yeah. And so it might be that maybe the family has never pursued a medical diagnosis, but they still want the special education supports or perhaps they have a medical diagnosis under something else. So sometimes we'll see that students might have a medical diagnosis of sensory processing disorder and ADHD for instance. But maybe educationally we see that they are characterized best as a learner under autism eligibility. So it really is very individualized to the student in our school. Psychologists and learning specialists and speech pathologists do an excellent job partnering with us on those evaluations to really identify student needs.

Curtis Long (08:30):
And Julia, you mentioned that it's very hard, and we certainly don't wanna make broad strokes to characterize students who have these autistic characteristics, but you mentioned before, so trouble with uh, fire drill or pre-warning with routines, maybe certain smells within the school or things like that. What are the most common things that you assist students with or work with students on? And I imagine it varies from elementary to middle to high school. Tell us about some of those things that you work with students.

Julia Hunter (08:54):
Yeah, so what we see a lot definitely are executive functioning deficits. And these are common in a lot of people with neurodivergent brains. So adhd, autism, even some learning disabilities like dyslexia, dyscalculia. So maybe they might need some support in organizing their material. So one strategy that we do is really to make things visual. So we like to maybe take a picture of what their locker or their backpack looks like when it is all organized. And then we can show them like, whoa, look at your locker right now. There's yesterday's lunch and your tennis racket, even though you don't, you know, tennis Susan just ended and you have three sweatshirts in there that your mom's been emailing us asking where these are like, let's make it match the picture, let's make it clean, let's make sure it's organized. Or students might have really messy desks, so I'm sure that you've seen Yeah. You know, students will just shove things in their desk pocket, right? So then they have all these crumpled papers. Maybe they're forgetting to turn things in because they're getting lost even though it might be done. So we might just give them something as simple as a paper box top and they can use as a drawer into their desk compartment. And then they can't just shove stuff in there, they have to take out the drawer and put it in. So sometimes we can find really simple fixes for some of those things. And

Curtis Long (09:59):
I would say you see that not only at elementary school, but middle and high school as well.

Julia Hunter (10:03):
Absolutely. Definitely. And, and it's been also a challenge for us, kind of the moving target as we've increased our technology use in the district too. Like, oh, having to move from planners to figuring out Google Classroom. You know, how do you check your Google classroom to see what assignments are missing or outstanding? How do you check your synergy grades to see what missing work you have or what tests maybe you need to ask to make up? And so those things we are definitely seeing. I

Amy Nielsen (10:29):
Think another area that I tend to help students with is their self-advocacy and their self-awareness. Helping them also kind of be able to express themselves in with their wants and needs. Sometimes our autistic students struggle with just asking for help. So teaching them ways, different ways to ask for help. And then working with the teachers to, maybe they don't feel comfortable raising their hand, but maybe the teacher and them can come up with a way that they, the teacher may understand that they need help instead of like just raising their hand. So they might be embarrassed to ask for help or they might realize that the other kids are looking at them or they're concerned with that. And another area that we tend to help with is also perspective taking. Sometimes helping them realize what others might be thinking, helping them understand like the social nuances that go on at recess. They may not understand all the little things, but we kind of help them understand the little things.

Curtis Long (11:21):
No I understand exactly what you're saying. It's as someone who spent time on an elementary school playground that a lot of times kids don't understand when you have to sit out of a game mm-hmm. or it's your turn to rotate out or rotate in. Or there is no referee on elementary school basketball court and sometimes they have a hard time, uh, understanding that

Julia Hunter (11:38):
I think gaga ball is job is job security for us.

Curtis Long (11:42):
Gaga ball. I wondered if you knew of Gaga also our, our listeners who maybe don't know what Gaga Ball is. And perhaps you've seen it if you have elementary school children on your kids' playground, but it's kind of a, a wooden fence that's an enclosure and kids can bounce the ball. The, the idea is to bounce the ball off the fence and try to hit someone with the rubber ball below the knees and you can only hit it with, you know, below your waist and you kind of skirt it along the ground there. But I can imagine that's a tough one for some of our kids. That's some for all kids. That's a tough one. And for our non neurotypical kids, that would be really tough.

Julia Hunter (12:14):
Yeah. You have to practice debate skills. Yes. Uh, whether or not you were hit by the ball , um, is up for debates that didn't hit me . Yeah. Uh, and then you have to be out. Even if you just waited 10 minutes Right. And then you got hit immediately, you have to go out and wait in the line again. So yeah. A lot of, a lot of skill practice in Gaga ball for sure.

Curtis Long (12:32):
That's pretty funny that Gaga Ball is a job security for you. I know exactly where you're coming from on that job. Security for a principal too, who is moderating arguments about Gaga ball at recess. For sure.

Genoa Hillis (12:42):
So speaking about strategies being different for elementary, middle, and high, when kiddos are transitioning to middle school and high school, as we know, the social scene changes completely. So it's important for teachers and sometimes us, we need to remind teachers to try to explain the new social nuances of middle school and high school where hugging wasn't okay. And now we're hugging to say hello and now we're using more sarcasm and we really need to pay attention to body hygiene. Mm-hmm. now. Mm-hmm , that's a really important key. And then dating as we get into high school, but also learning more about yourself. And Amy mentioned this too, about self-advocacy, but just learning that the things that you need in order to be successful and regulated, I think is an extra sort of layer of information that we need to help our kiddos learn about themselves in those stages. Because if you need to stand up and walk around in the back of the classroom while the teacher's talking, that's okay. And just realizing that this is what you need in order to be successful in the classroom. And it is. Okay.

Curtis Long (13:40):
We mentioned this at the very beginning. Here's kind of the magic number that I wanted to get to. There are only three of you and our district covers more than 40 square miles. Now explain to us how that works. Three of you across our entire district with our students that need autism or behavioral supports.

Amy Nielsen (13:56):
Well, that's a good question. Curtis , I will say that we do have, our main office is located at Campbell, so that's kind of our kind of headquarters where we might start off with, as of right now we are split among the feeder systems and then with Nelson Feeder, we kind of all have a few schools in the Nelson feeder. So I think I drive the farthest. Sure.

Curtis Long (14:19):
So you're going from Campbell out to Nelson's area, correct?

Amy Nielsen (14:23):
Correct. In Clackamas. Yeah. So I will either start my day out in that way or I will start at Campbell and then kind of end my day out that way. Okay.

Curtis Long (14:30):
So our studio isn't far from Campbell, so we didn't take you too far out of the No out of the way today. No.

Julia Hunter (14:35):
Okay. And I have to give a shout out because I'm currently out on maternity leave and Amy and Genoa have been covering the whole Oh my

Curtis Long (14:41):
Goodness. So there's only two of them right

Julia Hunter (14:42):
Now. Yeah. So there's only two of them right now and they've been doing fantastic. So thank you. Thank you you guys for letting me have my time with my family while you serve all of our students. But yeah, so we each have over 140 students on our caseload. And again, that is only students with an educational eligibility of autism. Okay. Uh, the last that I saw, the incidence rate of autism was one in 55 children.

Curtis Long (15:06):
Genoa how about for you? Where do you cover?

Genoa Hillis (15:07):
I cover the Putnam feeder. Mm-hmm. and then half of Nelson.

Curtis Long (15:10):
Now, you don't have to mention any specific names, but I love success stories. Maybe you could give me an example of how you helped a student reach a short-term goal or maybe how you've helped a student reach a longer term goal when you or your team has worked with that student through elementary, middle, and high school.

Genoa Hillis (15:25):
So Curtis, you're right. And that is kind of the magical piece of our job right now. I do get to see kids from K through 12 and I have been able to watch kids grow in the past seven years. But Curtis, I also want to talk about the other aspect of our job, which is working with the adults in our school district. I get to watch amazing teachers work with kids and a para-educators and building engineers. And I think for me, the piece that I really love is helping adults rethink the way that they can help a student that's struggling. And if I, if I can explain what's happening for this student in a, in a way that somebody might relate to or say, oh, because the thing that teachers don't know is that they have toolboxes that they are already using. Right. That can be helpful for kids. And I just need to kind of help them tweak their thinking a little bit or tweak that toolbox just a little bit. And then when I see them working with kids and helping kids grow, that's for me, that's the magical piece cuz I don't want to be the person that fixes everything. There's too many kittles that need our help or that need a little bit of...

Curtis Long (16:26):
So there are kids that need a little boost in their, in their classroom. Yeah. So,

Genoa Hillis (16:29):
But if we can help teach adults how to make environments a little bit more accommodating or how to help other kids understand what this child is going through, then I think that's the piece that's really valuable.

Curtis Long (16:41):
And I think we forget about that. Not only do you support students, but you're supporting teachers and paraeducators. So it must be rewarding to come and say in September and there is a teacher who is struggling, hasn't figured it out yet, how do I reach this student? How do I best meet these students' needs? You give some suggestions, maybe work with that teacher a little bit. You come back in October, November and the kids thriving. I gotta imagine that brings a huge smile to your face.

Genoa Hillis (17:04):
Yes. . Absolutely a lot. Yes, absolutely. There's a building engineer at View Acres and there was this kiddo that was really struggling. He's in kindergarten, he was struggling just to stay in class so he would be walking around the school all the time. Right. Cuz he can't regulate in the classroom too much going on. And the building engineer was one day he was like, Hey, come with me. I wanna, you know, help me figure out how to fix this. I don't know, whatever mechanical thing he was working on. Oh, okay. And the kid loved it, he lit up. So then he got to work for, we say, you know, sure. You know, first do your work and then you can have it with,

Curtis Long (17:34):
Okay, so you finish your classwork, you can go work with this person in the building.

Genoa Hillis (17:38):
Yes. So he went and, and worked with this guy. I wish I could remember his name. But anyway, I got to see this. So he finished his work and he came and the, he met the, the building engineer in the cafeteria. He is like, oh thank you so much. I need help organizing my toolbox. So he sat for 20 minutes and this is some, a kid that Uhhuh was not sitting for like two minutes in a classroom and he organized the toolbox and I got a picture of it and he was looking up at the custodian with like this just like glow. Yeah. I love you. So thank you so much. This is amazing. And I got a picture and I shared it with his mom. And which is another piece that I really enjoy doing is working with parents and kind of saying, you know, this is okay, let me talk to you more about your child and explain a little bit about, you know, how you can use interventions at home and just kind of better understand all predictability will really make things a lot easier for you. And that's a piece that I would like to, so in this meeting I was like, it was an eligibility meeting and we were talking about like, oh he can't do this, he can't do this. Which is such a terrible meeting. Right. Eligibility, you know, we're, we're spending an hour maybe probably more talking about all the difficulties that this kiddo is having and it's so heartbreaking. Right. And we do say we start with strengths and they're wonderful child, but now we're gonna put a magnifying class on things that are very difficult.

Curtis Long (18:44):
Things that aren't working. Yeah.

Genoa Hillis (18:45):
Yes. And so it's hard to hear for an hour as a parent. But I said, I look, I showed her this picture. I was like look, see we just need to find what his, we call him passions, what his passion is. Yeah. You know, and she's like, oh, you know, and it was just a wonderful experience to say like yeah this is happening. You know, this is difficult for your child but this also is amazing and he can do these wonderful things.

Curtis Long (19:04):
And what a great reward for that student to know that he has that adult who really cares about him. Not that everyone else doesn't, but he in his mind or her mind that really cares about him or her and can go organize the toolbox and really feel a sense of accomplishment. Hey look what I did.

Genoa Hillis (19:18):
And I think that's the other piece about like our job is to kind of be the investigator. Like, because we have the resources in our buildings like Sure. Oh and you know, it's a para-educator who has this child that has special needs in like, and you just can watch them working with this child and say, and then it's our job just to be like, Hey, that was great . You know what you're doing is excellent.

Curtis Long (19:36):
(Music playing) Hey, you know what else is great? We've still got another half of this uplifting episode of the Proud To Be NCSD podcast. So far we've learned how our three dynamic district leaders cover more than 30 schools and 40 square miles consulting with teachers, paraeducators and students themselves.

Genoa Hillis (19:52):
Number one, the kids, right? They're just magic.

Curtis Long (19:55):
But what about kids about to enter the magical world of kindergarten, especially if parents are concerned about autism or behavioral challenges?

Genoa Hillis (20:03):
I would say our kindergarten teachers are phenomenal.

Curtis Long (20:05):
Speaking of phenomenal, we'll dive deeper into students' lovable learning habits.

Julia Hunter (20:10):
I had a student even sneak a little vacuum to school once. Oh. Because he wanted to help vacuum up after Popcorn Day.

Curtis Long (20:16):
The second half of the Proud To Be Ncsd podcast picks up right after this.

Commercial Announcer (20:21):
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Julia Hunter (21:16):
And we as adults need that too.

Curtis Long (21:18):
For sure. That's a great story. Do either of you have any similar things that you can think of?

Julia Hunter (21:22):
I mean there are so many kids that run through your mind. Right. So many success stories. So many students that have maybe been able to exit special programs mm-hmm. . Um, so been able to come out of the SLC and T or TLC and been able to be in general education class with less support. Just showing that they're able to self-regulate better or able to navigate their needs better because they've been supported by our wonderful teachers and para-educators. So that is so rewarding. It's really exciting to see students just grow throughout the year. You know, especially incoming kindergartners that maybe have never been to school because of the pandemic, never really been exposed to other children before. Maybe had a really hard time sitting in class at all. And then are able to just be so much more of the classroom community playing with kids at recess, sitting at the carpet.

Julia Hunter (22:06):
It's really exciting to see that growth. But I agree with Genoa. I think it's also really exciting to see teachers reflect on their practice and, and maybe think about how their classroom community can be more inclusive, can can better serve all of their students, including the Neurodiverse students. And I think that has been really, really rewarding and something that our team has been focusing a lot on this year. We've done a lot of presentations to school teams, to the general education teachers, to the para-educators talking about recess strategies. And that's been a big focus of our team this year. And so it's exciting to then see at recess the paras using those strategies that we talked about, those deescalation strategies. You know, like we were talking about with Gaga, all those mediation strategies. And so I think that has been really rewarding.

Curtis Long (22:47):
Do you guys often get to go to say a high school graduation or watch one online and see one of your children go across that stage or eighth grade recognition or fifth grade promotion when they're going off to middle school? That's gotta be pretty heartwarming.

Amy Nielsen (23:00):
It's pretty amazing. I was able to, well this year I'm actually able to, I help support our ATP program. Mm-hmm our adult transition program. And I'm able to see my kindergartners that I had my first year of teaching, this is their last year in the etp. Gosh. So to be able to see them from age five all the way to age 21 uhhuh . And for those that don't know, our adult transition program does help our students that are on IEPs and have modified diplomas, get job skills, help get more access into the community. So to be able to see them from a kindergartner to a 21 and seeing them getting support for having a job in the community is pretty amazing to see. So I think that's probably one of my biggest success stories. Just to see from my first year teaching uhhuh my little five year olds to now when they're 21 and

Curtis Long (23:45):
Thinking about how they were functioning as five year olds to what they're doing now.

Amy Nielsen (23:48):
Yes I've had many conversations about .

Curtis Long (23:51):
Yeah. You can reflect back with 'em. Remember what I worked on with you when you were five.

Amy Nielsen (23:55):
Yes. And it's pretty fun cuz some do remember you and some don't.

Curtis Long (23:59):
We've talked a little bit about the next question on my list, but I would love to hear your perspectives some more. We talked a lot and so far we've talked a lot about, I would put in air quotes, the distracting characteristics of a student with autism. But these students have so many gifts and you've mentioned them before. Tell us about some of the amazing things you've witnessed firsthand from some of our NCSD students.

Julia Hunter (24:17):
Well, a lot of our students have passions. So they have a, a special interest that is just all encompassing. We like to say, or at least I like to say that info dumping is a love language for a lot of our artistic students. So they wanna tell you everything that they know about the Titanic for one of my students. And so I had a little guy who made a book about ships. Okay. And so he made a book all about different hospital ships, all different ships and then was able to present it to a kindergarten class. So that was really cool. We've learned, like I said, a lot about flags of the world a lot. Definitely now a lot about Minecraft. Mm-hmm row blocks, different cars. We've had students really interested in vacuums. I had a student even sneak a little vacuum to school once. Oh. Because he wanted to help vacuum up after Popcorn Day. Uh, very thoughtful of him.

Curtis Long (25:01):
Brought a dust buster into school in his backpack. That's great.

Julia Hunter (25:03):
Absolutely. Um, so we learned so much from our students. We co-teach a class at Saban Shellenberger called Self-Determination for our high School students. And we have learned so much about anime, world War Two, world War ii. Okay. A lot of airplanes and yeah, it's just fascinating getting a sneak peek into what they are so passionate about and it's really, really awesome. That's one of my favorite parts of the job. I will say,

Amy Nielsen (25:27):
I think some of the amazing things that I have witnessed are, we have some amazing artists. Mm. I have seen some students be able to take a painting. Like we have a couple Bob Ross fans in our district and they've been able to take a Bob Ross painting and paint it almost Wow. Perfectly to, I mean, you wouldn't know. I've seen them be able to take a map of the world and draw like the countries. So just their visuals, spatial strengths are just kind of mind blowing. Uhhuh, .

Genoa Hillis (25:54):
I just really enjoy their sense of humor.

Curtis Long (25:56):
Me too. . Me too.

Genoa Hillis (25:58):
So going back to the self-determination class, I think that we have been talking a lot about relationships and then now we're talking about self-regulation and goals and just kind of identifying what they need as a learner and being an advocate for those things. And then I get a little goofy and I just, it's just, I cannot kind of be a little bit more myself around Sure. Kiddos and then they think I'm a little bit ridiculous. and I really enjoy it. .

Curtis Long (26:22):
That's the best part I think of working with kids. They think you're ridiculous. Uh, you mentioned before their sense of humor. Yes. I mean as long as you approach it the right way, it's really fun to have to strike up conversations and joke back and forth with those kids because they're not shy about saying it, Mr. Long. No, no. What in the world to the deal with your hair today? Or what's, why'd you wear that color today? Or mm-hmm. even Mr. Long, you smell differently today. Yeah. I went to the gym before school. I know it's a different soap and um, thanks for noticing. Mm-hmm. glad you caught that.

Amy Nielsen (26:50):
Yeah. Last year, the first day of self-determination class I was teaching and I had finished the class and they looked at me and they're like, you remind me of our kindergarten teacher . And I'm like, is that good or bad? Yeah. I never got an answer. .

Curtis Long (27:05):
So we've mentioned a little bit about how you support students. Of course you support teachers, but how about classmates who are learning to be a good citizen and to accept students in their room for who they are? Do you work with other students? Do you work maybe with classrooms or with other students in the classroom? I know you've worked with other students on the playground before. Uh, how does that work? How do you teach kids around these children to be good classmates and good citizens? Yeah.

Amy Nielsen (27:31):
I think it sometimes depends. If there was like a situation and maybe they needed a little bit more explanation, I might pull them to the side. But the team, mostly Julia has created these neurodiverse slideshows that she's been able to come into some, some of the classrooms into, um, different elementary classrooms and present to the whole class.

Julia Hunter (27:51):
I'll just give Whitcomb a shout out. Okay. Because they have an amazing team of behavior interventionists and social workers that have actually gone into each and every classroom in past years and done the neurodiversity slideshow. And so it really kind of goes into understanding how there are just so many different types of brains that we see in our classrooms and kind of understanding how to be a good classmate and be a good citizen and just understand how everybody learns differently. Right. So one thing that we've been challenging this year is kind of the poster that you might see in a lot of elementary, especially early elementary classrooms about like a whole body listener. Right. Okay. So my ear, my ears are listening. Yeah. My eyes are watching, my body is still, my mouth is shut. Well, for a lot of our students body still, that takes all their energy. Right? All of their focus would have to go towards keeping their body still. And they're not able to listen to you if they're focused on keeping their body still, they learn best if they're pacing or if they're fidgeting. And I feel the same way. I'm fidgeting with my shoelace right now. Right. So

Curtis Long (28:45):
I can vouch for that

Julia Hunter (28:46):
. Yeah. So we might need to rethink a whole body listener. Maybe humming softly under your breath while you're listening is okay, maybe drawing is okay. I've even seen students in college classes be knitting during class. Right. And that helps them focus. So maybe having a, a quiet fidget is okay. Or pacing in the back of the room, maybe standing up while you're doing your work. And so really having other students understand that they can then work on ignoring low level distractions and still be focusing their attention on the teacher. They can ask a student to help them before they just jump in and do something for them because our students aren't helpless. Um, our students with physical disabilities, our autistic students, our neurodiverse students, our students with learning disabilities, right. They deserve the chance to try something themselves and to be able to ask for help and have that autonomy rather than just have someone jump in and do something for them to be nice. And of course the other students are trying to be kind. We're just kind of helping them understand different ways to be kind. Right. So it is great to have people play with you and if someone ask to play with you, it is so nice to say yes. But if you don't like the way that they're playing with you, it's okay to say maybe tomorrow. Right? Mm-hmm. . And so I think that those are some things that we've been trying to instill in our students and in our classrooms.

Curtis Long (29:54):
So you mentioned that at the elementary level there are slideshows that you can show a classroom so all students kind of understand. I think that's important cuz I'm sure we have families listening right now who maybe have a student who just turned five years old, they're going to go into kindergarten this upcoming year. They're probably a little bit worried about their son or daughter. What advice would you have for them? I mean, I can say very broadly, we're gonna take care of your child and we're gonna make sure that they feel successful in school. But you can speak to that much better than I can. What would you say to families who are getting ready to enroll their five year old student into our kindergarten program? Maybe a little worried about how that's gonna work outside the home where the student hasn't really had that structure outside of the home yet.

Genoa Hillis (30:30):
I would say our kindergarten teachers are phenomenal and they know the interventions that are going to be most powerful and useful for kiddos. You know, predictability structure, and then they're in charge of teaching everyone how to play and share. Right. So yeah, so I would just start there. And then also, if you have an opportunity right before school starts, it's fine to reach out to the school and say, Hey, I'd like to meet with a kindergarten teacher and talk to them about my child. Mm-hmm. and how they learn best. And I, I think everyone would appreciate a little bit of inside information about a child and say, oh, they really love dolls. Great. I'm gonna have 10. Let's set up for success.

Julia Hunter (31:05):
So I brought my two year old to the dentist for the first time this week. And beforehand we watched videos and we practiced opening our mouth really wide. And he did so much better than I thought. So one thing I will say to parents is, you know, look for books in the library about kindergarten, walk past the school or in the summer if possible. Play on the school playground, talk about school, kind of get them ready to go to school, talk about what it might be like. Let them pick out their backpack or their lunchbox if possible. Practice some of those things like waiting for the bus or walking to the bus stop and just talk about it and help them get their wrap their heads around it because it is a big change and a big shift. And I think that helping them kind of visualize it, preparing them, talking about it, it will help them feel more ready and more prepared that when they then experience kindergarten for the first time, they're gonna be like, oh yeah, we read about this. This is more familiar to me. So as a parent and as an educator, I, I just really recommend sort of those preparation steps whenever possible.

Amy Nielsen (32:01):
I would also add that an important skill is to make sure that their student knows how to use the bathroom without an adult present or washing their hands. All those little advocacy skills that either they're gonna start learning or if we could help them prep them for over the summer.

Julia Hunter (32:17):
Yeah. And if there are parents who haven't spoken with their care provider about any concerns that they have, we always recommend starting with your medical doctor. If you have concerns about your child, definitely bring it up at their annual visit or message your doctor and just say like, Hey, I'm seeing these characteristics. Like, what do you think? Because it's always worth kind of bringing up any concerns that you have to your medical provider as well. So if you feel like you've been listening to this podcast and thinking about your child, it just might be worth bringing up to your medical doctor.

Curtis Long (32:43):
All three of you have been at this for a little while. Your job certainly has its challenges each day. What brings a smile to your face every day? You wake up in the morning knowing you're going to visit with these kids today, or you look forward to coming to your job each day. What keeps you going each day in the job that you're in?

Genoa Hillis (32:59):
Number one, the kids. Right. They're just magic. When we came back after Covid right? We hadn't seen kids for so long and it was just like, oh yeah, this is why I'm here. So kids, number one. And I, I also really enjoy working with our teachers and our math Clackamas staff. I think we have a phenomenal teaching staff and para educational staff and, uh, just being around them and hearing their passion for kids and problem solving and they never give up. So I, I enjoy all of it.

Amy Nielsen (33:26):
I would agree. I think the students, the staff, the parents, I've just loved building teams and helping people achieve things together. It's just been phenomenal. I just, I really enjoy it.

Julia Hunter (33:37):
I have to echo the, the same sentiments. I mean the students, our staff. Absolutely. And then I think just getting to hear from teachers and parents about exciting new developments, about successes that they've had, about things that they're excited about. When a mom said, you know, my kiddo said that he missed me for the first time. Mm-hmm. , like, you know, those kinds of moments can just bring tears to your eyes. Mm-hmm. . So we are, we're definitely very fortunate to be able to be part of amazing teams for amazing students.

Curtis Long (34:01):
And I bet you get to the end of some school years and there are teachers that you've worked with that are sad to see that kid, they don't wanna pass that kid along mm-hmm. because what, what they've learned as an educator, it's made them a better teacher and the connection they've made with that student because of the work that you've done. I'm sure that you see that sometimes where teachers are like, oh, I really don't wanna pass that kid on to, to the next grade. Yeah.

Amy Nielsen (34:21):
I've had a kindergarten teacher tell me, I wanna do your job . I wanna be with that kid forever, .

Curtis Long (34:27):
Oh. And it's fun for them then to watch that child progress through the school, whether it's elementary, middle, mm-hmm. or high school. I wanna make sure we don't ignore the second half of your position title. Now you're each listed as an autism and behavior specialist. You do a lot more than educate and support staff about autism, don't you?

Genoa Hillis (34:43):
Yes we do. Recently, Julia mentioned we do, uh, staff trainings and we've done quite a few trainings on behavior, kind of understanding behavior and really delving into the why behind behavior. Is it a skill deficit or is it a performance deficit? And one of our slides that I think is really important is that we should never think that kids should be able to do something. You know, you're nine, you should be able to stand in line, you're 14, you should be able to turn in your homework on time. Mm-hmm. , because there's usually an underlying reason behind that behavior. I call it behavior not, and I'm not saying behavior in a negative way, it's just what they are doing. Right. So I think it's important to, I say, put on our detective hats and figure out why this isn't happening. You're not standing in line. Well let's talk about it.

Genoa Hillis (35:25):
And I really like collaborative problem solving, having a conversation with the child, you know. Oh, so when we are lining up and we're going out to lunch and everybody's in line, I notice that you kind of struggle with that. Tell me more about that. And then it's a chance for us to get the child's perspective. And then we say, okay, well here's the issue. I don't mind if you're walking a little bit behind us or not really in line, but if it was a fire drill, we all need to be in line straight so that everybody connects it quickly. So explaining your reason behind your concern and then listening to the students reason, like, well, it's hard for me because I don't have enough space or I don't like to be near people that are allowed. Or is it a performance deficit? So yes, I can do my homework.

Genoa Hillis (36:01):
Yes, it's in my backpack, it's completed, but I'm not turning it in. So then do we need to teach you a skill about like, okay, well let me teach you how to turn in your homework assignment in first and then thinking about the steps of completing that behavior and making sure that we're not asking someone to change their behavior overnight. Because I don't know when the last time you tried to change your behavior, Curtis. Yeah. It doesn't work very well. Yeah. , it's definitely not an overnight situation. No . And I think we need to keep that in mind when we're asking kids to change their behavior if, because we think it's, it's dangerous or it's it's not meeting their needs as a student, we're trying to help you learn and focus.

Julia Hunter (36:33):
You know, you asked kind of like, what else would we wanna mention? I think one thing that our team has been really cognizant about is really trying to learn from autistic advocates. And so we have tried to change our language because the autistic community is saying we don't want person first language. Right. And, and it's interesting cuz as educators, we, it has really been drilled into us. You say student with autism, you say student with disability, right? Because you wanna see the student first as a person and their disability doesn't define them. And I totally understand that perspective. And some people still hold that perspective and it's very valid. But the autistic community is really saying, I have autism. It is a part of me as a part of my identity. If you ignore my autism, you're not seeing me. Mm-hmm. , because it is just how my brain works.

Julia Hunter (37:11):
There's nothing wrong with being autistic. And so we're trying to change our language and shift our perspective away from the medical model that sees autism as something that is wrong. Kind of more of like a disease, something to be cured and trying to see more that it is just a different brain type and something that is only a disability because of how maybe our environment is set up that makes it a disability. So that's really why we have been trying to do so much training and helping teachers kind of think about their classroom environments, think about how they can support people, think about the accommodations that they can put into place. And also we're really trying to reframe autism a lot of times. I think we've, in the past we've thought of maybe the autism spectrum as a spectrum just from like less autistic to more autistic.

Julia Hunter (37:50):
And that's not really the case. There are so many different ways that students might be impacted by autism and to more or less degrees, right? So some autistic people really have a lot of social impacts. Other autistic people are extremely social. Maybe some of the most social people around, right? Like we have a student that was royalty, you know, homecoming royalty, right? Like just super, super personable. And so, but there is just such a literally a spectrum. Um, you know, I, we have students in high school that are in general education classes, but are limitedly vocal verbal. So they use an augmentative communication device like an iPad to Right, to help them speak. But they are able to do grade level math or they're able to perform academically. So really you can't look at a person and understand the impact. So really we need to think about our students and think about their unique needs and their unique profile as a learner.

Julia Hunter (38:37):
And at the same time, think about how our environments can just be more inclusive to all neurodiverse people at the same time. So I think it, that's complicated, right? I'm saying like be more inclusive to everybody and think about everybody as an individual at the same time, right? But we're here to help through that process and we're learning as well. And we, like I said, we're really trying to learn from the autistic community and take our cues from them. And I think that has been a new process for us, but something that a lot of other districts are doing as well. So we're always collaborating with other districts and learning from their practices and changing how we're doing things or how we're thinking about things. So it's an ongoing process for sure. And we're just, we're very honored to partner with amazing parents, amazing teachers and amazing staff in our district.

Curtis Long (39:15):
Well, we're very honored to have all three of you here today. I think all three of you at one time mentioned the, the term detective hat. You're kind of detectives that are trying to figure out what is the best way we can support this student? What's the best way we can support this teacher, this para-educator? And it sounds like what's the best way we can support each other in our work with other districts as well? And I think that's just so heartwarming to see in the stories that you've been able to tell today about the kids that you have followed through elementary, up through middle, and up through high school. Each of you truly makes us proud to be in csd, which is the title of this podcast. So thanks so much for taking time. I know you have a busy schedule ahead. So thanks so much for taking time outta your days today to start your day with us here on the Proud To Be NCSD podcast.

Julia Hunter (39:55):
Thank you. Thank you.

Curtis Long (39:57):
Thanks for listening to the Proud To Be NCSD podcast. In North Clackamas, we know that education is a community effort and we're so thankful that you and your family are a part of our community. Until next time, remember, there are always great things to see wherever you go in N C S D.