At times, it appeared that we werent clearly aligned philosophically and did not have a focused call to action. The first pitfall is failing to scaffold for white privilege and white fragility. Of even greater interest, the increase in G.P.A. MLS# 423725010. This prompts staff to reflect and ultimately declare, I want to be an anti-racist teacher, but I dont exactly know how. This has the power to unite folks at the foundational level, setting the stage for deeper commitments to learning new strategies, practices, and routines. That is not always possible for his schools students, Dierke said. Visitacion Valley Middle Public 6-8 1971 Visitacion Ave. San Francisco, CA 94134-2700 (415) 469-4590 District: San Francisco Unified SchoolDigger Rank: 2320th of 2,740 California Middle Schools Per Pupil Expenditures: $6,103 Students who attend Visitacion Valley Middle usually attend: Feeder schools for Visitacion Valley Middle: Like most groups of educators, we had spent a few years dancing around topics of racism and struggled to make lasting change. Due to stereotype threat, this is especially problematic when students of color are a numerical minority in a classroom or school. James Dierke, Principal of Visitacion Valley Middle School in San Francisco, like so many thousands of principals and teachers who are working in inner-city schools throughout the US, knows how frustrating it can be trying to provide an education in Americas low income, high stress localities. Home has a beautiful view with a nice size backyard for entertainment. 375. A lot has changed over this period, including three principals coming and going, but ODriscoll puts the turnaround down to the one constant: the calming influence of the meditation programme. Therefore, unexamined behaviors of White Supremacy Culture are preventing students from being comfortable or supported enough to learn and flourish. Please read our Welcome Back letter. Here are two pitfalls to avoid. For years, educators' requests for more. Remembering Geneva Towers - San Francisco Heritage Now that the shock of reading these words has worn off, lets explore what it is and why we need to dedicate more time to exploring its dehumanizing effect in our schools. As for getting the children to start. 3. Now we can get to the work of promoting anti-racism, liberation, and achievement at our school, by looking through the lens of White Supremacy Culture. And just like that, a hush fell over the auditorium. For example, pushing students to work independently or write before processing verbally can lead to stress and isolation. Visitacion Valley Middle School. By Kyle Palmer On a recent morning at Visitacion Valley Middle School in South San Francisco, Principal James Dierke looked out over the school's auditorium at more than 100 eighth graders. Before the students learn to meditate, the Quiet Time programme requires all staff to be trained in TM. The most recentnewsletteris linked below in the Week 25 section and also in our Families section. Muni Routes to City Schools | SFMTA In one, the effects of the Quiet Time Program, conducted over half the academic year, were evaluated in public middle school students performing below proficiency level. So the privately funded non-profit Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education (CWAE) was set up. At Visitacion Valley Middle School (VVMS), in the San Francisco Unified school district, our brave staff spent a majority of the 2018-19 school year unpacking White Supremacy Culture (WSC). Thus, we are building a collective purpose and a commitment to learning. Visitacion Valley Middle School | SFUSD White Supremacy Culture. At that point the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) stepped in, calling Visitacion Valley "a neglected urban backwater of 18,000 with rampant crime, awful schools, and a deplorable housing project called Geneva Towers." (Gee, thanks, for the recognition, HUD.) It would be nave to think that meditation alone could erase the effects of the many factors, like poverty, that are barriers to educational achievement. Modern Band (music) with contemporary instruments, Visuals Arts, Ethnic Studies, Computer Science, Dramatic Arts, and Spanish! School Profile: Visitacion Valley Middle (CA Dept of Education) Middle Schools Elementary Schools Fares The Free Muni for Youth Program provides San Francisco youth ages 5-18 with free Muni service, regardless of household income level. Price: $759,000. All rights reserved. Anther example might be superficially speeding through content or discouraging interruptions for questions. Students, families, and school staff can email requests to sflink@sfusd.edu,call 415-340-1716(M-F, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3 p.m., closed from 12 to 1 p.m. every day), or complete an online request form. fear. As a result, staff were curious to take action to be anti-racist and promote a learning community that did the same. Also, our school is rich in ethnicity and culture. This can create power struggles, a learning opportunity gap, and as the scholar Monique Morris writes, students being pushed out of schools. Index of Northern California - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Besides dealing with problems outside school, Visitacion Valley faces challenges in school, too. ODriscoll also says that leadership buy-in is essential for the programme to work as there needs to be support in terms of time and resourcing. 5/28/2021. In order to build this ideal structure, we must start at the base and engineer for equity. The Rent Zestimate for this home is $3,399/mo, which has increased by $239/mo in the last 30 days. Many have little or no parental oversight. In my spare time, I enjoy camping and traveling. Other schools have taken a few minutes off lunch and tutorials. 2023 San Francisco Unified School District, I look forward to our partnership this upcoming school year and collaborating with all of you to support our brilliant students. If you would like to learn more about our wonderful school, please join our School Info Session on Tuesday, October 25 at 5 pm or 6pm. Parent Advocates - ParentAdvocates.org We must name, define, and plan for white fragility, the defensive response by whites when discussing racism. Out of view, city dignitaries and his students waited inside Visitacion Valley Middle School to surprise him with the news: He was the National Middle School Principal of the Year.. MLS # 423724059 It is the water we are swimming in. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider regarding any medical condition. Also, we might hear phrases like, That comment triggered me, it was a microaggression, I think we can do better for our Latinx students, or This is not consistent with our commitment to anti-racism. I imagine we might even see white folks redirecting their white colleagues and carrying their weight of racial conversations. This is because we are starting with the branches of the tree instead of the roots. This organizational structure reflects a "school-within-a-school" concept and is designed to help students make a successful transition from the self-contained elementary classroom to the fully departmentalized, comprehensive high school setting. Please read our welcome letter! Finally, this work is some of the most challenging, but rewarding work there is. Visitacion Valley Middle is a public school located in San Francisco, CA, which is in a large city setting. Monday - Thursday 3:15 p.m.; Program offered free of charge from end of school day until 6 p.m.; Saturday Field Trips and Summer Programs, Rosetta Stone (foreign language instruction), STEAM (science; technology; engineering; arts; mathematics). Our school commits to delivering high quality educational program that addresses individual needs. 336 Wilde Ave, San Francisco, CA 94134 | MLS #423724059 | Zillow Those selecting Dierke for the honor noted how a gunman entered the school, threatening teachers and students in 2004. Also, we might hear phrases like, "That comment triggered me, it was a microaggression," "I think we can do better for our Latinx students," or "This is not consistent with our commitment to anti-racism." Bursts of laughter and errant shouts punctuated the buzz. This includes emotions of fear, anger, and guilt, as well as actions of argumentation, silence, and withdrawal. Dear Visitacion Valley Middle School Community. Visitacion Valley Middle School basks in principal-of-year award - SFGATE Out of view, city dignitaries and his students waited inside Visitacion Valley Middle School to surprise him with the news: He was the National Middle School Principal of the Year. near you and learn more, A summary of studies fromHarvard, Stanford, and more, AHA: TM is the only meditationfound to lower blood pressure, Different forms of meditationproduce very different results, Bob Roth, Director A restless din filled the large room. Later that year, a gunman brazenly stormed into the school, threatened to kill a teacher and robbed two employees. 83 Ervine St, San Francisco, CA 94134 | MLS# 422711357 | Redfin It really is quiet time.. At Visitacion Valley Middle School (VVMS), in the San Francisco Unified school district, our brave staff spent a majority of the 2018-19 school year unpacking White Supremacy Culture (WSC). Down Payment . Personal Commitment graphic organizer used in professional development (Courtesy of Joe Truss). About This Home Great Visitacion home with 2 bed/ 1bath upstairs and bonus room/bath downstairs. $5,220. It has 358 students in grades 6-8 with a student-teacher ratio of 13 to 1. Quantum Physicist (16:40), By Mario Orsatti on 02/15/2012 Blog Home. Yordy teaches world history, civics, and freshman seminar and volunteers as a program mentor. Consequently, all other cognitive functions such as learning, problem solving, or creative thinking stop, (Hammond, 2015) activating our fight, flight, or freeze response. This includes emotions of fear, anger, and guilt, as well as actions of argumentation, silence, and withdrawal. Education in collaboration with the San Francisco Unified School District research department, had more good news. Meditation strengthens the areas of the brain that control our fear center, he said. WSC shuts down learning. Students at Visitacion Valley School in South San Francisco observe 15 minutes of quiet time every morning. Find COVID-19 testing, vaccine, and daily health screening information. We might also see students connecting their identities to their learning and applying it back to their communities to manifest social justice. Racial-equity leaders must be both intentional and responsive when doing this anti-racist work. stress and its manifestations for example, anxiety, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Once white fragility is defined and debriefed amongst a team, we can begin to talk about racism, anti-racism, and White Supremacy Culture. Students straightened their backs and closed their eyes. Other schools have taken a few minutes off lunch and tutorials. Although controlled studies are difficult to perform in an academic setting, collectively the results of the Bay Area studies are encouraging. Here are two pitfalls to avoid. By 2009-10, attendance rates were over 98% (some of the highest in the city), and today 20% of graduates are admitted to the highly academic Lowell high school before it was rare for even one student to be accepted. Find COVID-19 testing, vaccine, and daily health screening information. Nov 2020 - Present2 years 4 months. Some 20 parents gathered outside of Visitacion Valley Elementary School on Thursday morning to protest what they said was a failure by the school principal to take action on pervasive bullying. Otherwise, white fragility will shut the anti-racist party down; it's an equity consciousness buzz kill, for real. Ultimately, we are here to help students empower themselves through education. Visitacion Valley Middle School basks in principal-of-year award, campusviolence03_005_cs.jpg It's important to note that these responses work to maintain current consciousness and white supremacy. In recent years however, Principal Dierke and a growing number of other educators have found a way to break the predictive power of demographics. Visitacion Valley Middle School - San Francisco, California - CA Visitacion Valley Elementary School Unclaimed 55 Schwerin Street, San Francisco, CA 94134 Contact info Website 5 /10 GreatSchools Rating 3 reviews Public school 338 Students Grades K-5 Updates Compare 5 /10 GreatSchools Summary Rating 5/10 Test Scores average 6/10 Academic Progress average 4/10 Equity below average Last updated: Nov 18, 2022 Week 25 Newsletter | SFUSD We can have equity missions plastered on walls and front that we are about closing the opportunity gap, but we don't go deeper than diversity trainings. Its origins are in the 1990s when two Silicon Valley investors Jeff Rice and Laurent Valosek developed a programme to teach meditation in public schools, inspired by the tragic Columbine high school massacre. The award, given by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, includes a $5,000 award for the school. This pushed some folks to identify who they could be safe with, be it for comfort or growth. "Instead, the parents demonstrated their faith in Dierke's leadership by not withdrawing any children from the school.". Mortgage insurance $0. Our kids are coming to school. As a leader, it is easy to hoard power, claim objectivity in decision making, or believe that there is only one way to fix education. Thus, we are building a collective purpose and a commitment to learning. Students meditating at Phillip and Sala Burton Academic High School in San Francisco. expanded to serve middle school children and grow with the kids it was already serving. Start with one class or year and let it grow from there.. It contains 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. One teacher, Mary Chirichella added, Some teachers had the courage to approach others to have tough conversations about microaggressions. The second pitfall I will offer is avoiding the tendency to externalize the work of dismantling White Supremacy Culture. Can You Safely Lose Weight While Breast-Feeding? To do it properly Visitacion Valley middle school made the day 30 minutes longer. White Supremacy Culture is the silent killer flowing throughout classrooms and school hallways, like carbon monoxide gas. White Supremacy Culture also tricks us into thinking that if we change to fit a white model, we can be more valued but still never be white. This prompts staff to reflect and ultimately declare, "I want to be an anti-racist teacher, but I don't exactly know how." Check out the 2022-23 academic calendar here. Photos, courtesy of Joe Truss, from the top: The opinions expressed in Next Gen Learning in Action are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications. 1. Now, 82616 to call in a student absence. I look forward to our partnership this upcoming school year and collaborating with all of you to support our brilliant students. 1971 Visitacion Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94134. But Quiet Time is a relatively inexpensive intervention Visitacion Valley Middle School - Public School Review We must name, define, and plan for white fragility, the defensive response by whites when discussing racism. A restless din filled the large room. I thought it was just another fad. San Francisco principal Jim Dierke knew something was up when he saw more cars than usual parked in front of his school Friday morning. The art of relaxation: ideas to get students to unwind and recharge, How two minutes of mindfulness can calm a class and boost attainment, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Not a Single State Meets the Bar, How One School's Mentorship Program Paid Off Big in Academic Gains, Revisiting Educator Collaboration: We Should Think Differently About How We Form Teams, Best Practices for Implementing DE&I PD for Teachers. By Joe Truss, the principal of Visitacion Valley Middle School in San Francisco and a leadership coach. Some of the work I am most proud of as a teacher and leader is building relationships with all community members to create a supportive and positive environment, as well as creating systems and using data to make informed decisions regarding instructional practices that lead to increased achievement for students. 8:15 a.m. - MWTh 3:00 p.m.; 8:15 a.m. - TuF 1:15 p.m. SFUSD's Student Family School Resource Linksupports students and families innavigating all of the SFUSD resources available to them. A major factor preventing underserved children from learning is the stress they encounter on a daily basis from factors like poverty, deprivation, lack of steady parental input, physical danger and constant Discussing WSC gave us more impetus to make changes, because we now knew what was happening if we refused: microaggressions, dehumanization, widening the opportunity gap, and producing disproportionate outcomes. Angelica Mahinay, Visitacion Valleys 8thgrade student body president, said Quiet Time gives her more energy. Some conversations fell flat, and others were superficial. You can see past weeks' newsletters as well. Visitacion Valley Middle School were the happiest in the whole of San Francisco, to more schools in the city introducing the programme, Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education, recommended the Department for Education designate three schools to pioneer mindfulness teaching, international lessons in education series. We should be planning for the righteous rage of IBPOC (Indigenous Black People of Color), but 82 percent of our teaching force is white, so we will also plan for white fragility. Dr. Bettina Love writes in her book, We Want to Do More Than Survive, To even begin to attack our destructive and punitive educational system, pedagogies that promote social justice must help educators understand and recognize America and its schools as spaces of Whiteness, White rage, and White Supremacy, all of which function to terrorize students of color. (Love, 2019) It is imperative that we examine these deeply held beliefsboth conscious and unconsciousto build on top of a new set of habits, behaviors, and systems. And a 2015 review of the program, issued by the Center for Wellness and Achievement in David Lynch Foundation, involved introducing two 15-minute periods of quiet into the school day. Teacher Phil Yordy, left, works with freshman Derek Shallow, 15, right, during an after school mentoring program at Oregon High School in Oregon, Ill., in February. They are not guaranteed to be accurate, up to date . The announcement was made today during a surprise ceremony at Visitacion Valley. For example, pushing students to work independently or write before processing verbally can lead to stress and isolation. But Quiet Time took years to develop. With respect to race, the foundational issue is White Supremacy Culture, and we must attack the problem head on. Nearby homes similar to 183 Tucker Ave have recently sold between $1,150K to $1,150K at an average of $475 per square foot. We might also see students connecting their identities to their learning and applying it back to their communities to manifest social justice. Phys Ed: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast, Dog Needs a Walk? This can create power struggles, a learning opportunity gap, and as the scholar Monique Morris writes, students being pushed out of schools. WSC dehumanizes people of color. Distance: 1.7 mi. 9 . I think its helped my golf game, too.. Visitacion Valley Middle School is a public school in San Francisco, California that is part of San Francisco Unified School District. Based on Rocket Mortgage data in comparison to public data records. $1,862. NBC News Cynthia McFadden, Tim Sandler and. Principal and Interest. In 2008 Mr. Dierke was named MetLife/NASSP National Middle Level Principal of the Year. At first glance, it might not appear the principal of the year would come out of Visitacion Valley. The work of exploring White Supremacy Culture gave our staff a new framework to define our North Star, being an anti-racist school. Young people are incredibly stressed, says Michael Matania who teaches mindfulness meditation to young people in London through a programme called Mindkit. For example, we looked at how our implicit bias when responding to student behavior leads to racially disproportionate discipline incidents and we organically identified restorative practices as a focus for the following year. Our teachers use Community Building and Restorative Practices. For instance, we might see folks making eye contact, leaning into conversations about racial identity, and asking probing questions. Theres an App for That. Visitacion Valley Middle (San Francisco) is a 06 to 08 grade school in San Francisco, and has made tremendous strides in improving the acceptance rate and education its students receive. Less than a year after starting Quiet Time, which is in part funded by . SFUSD's Student Family School Resource Link supports students and families in navigating all of the SFUSD resources available to them. Prompts for reading a White Supremacy Culture article (Courtesy of Joe Truss). 379 Winding Way, San Francisco, CA 94112 | Compass where I had the privilege to serve as a 7th and 8th grade English Language Arts and English Language Development (ELD) teacher at a public middle school. Which Type of Exercise Is Best for the Brain? Dierke, who has been principal at the school for 13 years, said things reached a turning point about five years ago. In my dream, I imagine that educators can become comfortable talking about race and how it informs the work of educating children.