The JCDSRI Weekly Buzz

September 8, 2024

My name is Jill Davis and I am the principal here at JCDSRI. I have the privilege of working closely with our students, faculty and administrators. One of my roles at JCDSRI is to provide engaging and appropriate Professional Development for our teachers and support staff. This work of developing and facilitating our own Professional Development for JCDSRI faculty is a passion of mine and one of the most exciting parts of my job.

Professional Development at JCDSRI provides an opportunity for teachers to grow their knowledge and sharpen their skills, which can lead to better student outcomes. It’s a way for our teachers to collaborate with their colleagues, and one avenue through which administrators can support our teachers. This summer teachers and administrators alike came together for three full days of Professional Development.  Universal Design for Learning has been a major focus for us and continued to be during our summer learning. As our incredible partners, we want to take a moment to introduce these concepts to you as you will hear and read about components of UDL throughout the year. 

JCDSRI is a Universal Design for Learning school. The ultimate goal of UDL is for all learners to become “expert learners.” Expert learners are purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, and strategic and goal-directed about learning.

UDL is a powerful approach because from the very start of a lesson, it helps our teachers anticipate and plan for all of our learners. It can help us make sure that the greatest range of students can access and engage in learning —leaving no student behind.

Our JCDSRI educational community has learned that UDL may change how we think about what prevents students from learning. Instead of thinking that something needs to change about the students, UDL looks at the learning environment. The learning environment can include barriers to learning, like the design of the curricular goals, assessments, methods, and materials. In this way, the learning environment itself can be “abled” or “dis-abled.”UDL gives us a framework to follow so we can reduce the barriers to learning. 

During our time together, we learned more about the 3 principles of UDL; engagement, representation, action and expression. UDL describes human variability based on parts of the brain that manage the “why” (affective network), the “what” (recognition network), and the “how (strategic network) of learning. However, this was not the first time teachers heard about UDL.  This has been an ongoing journey since last year. In fact, our faculty and staff read “Unlearning” by Alison Posey and Katie Novak in preparation for our summer Professional Development and were asked to come in with responses from the literature that were then discussed and unpacked further.

I am so proud of all our JCDSRI educators. During our time together they collaborated on several UDL tasks, worked in teams, role-played various “real” UDL classroom scenarios, and presented on many UDL topics and case studies – all of which reflected our values, aligned with our mission and educational philosophy. 

September 1, 2024

My name is Bethany Weinstein and I would like to formally and enthusiastically introduce myself as JCDSRI’s social worker! I began in this role last year, when I was lovingly welcomed by students, families, teachers, and the entire school community. Due to my mid-year arrival, I realize I may have missed the opportunity to introduce myself to everyone, and I am excited to do so now as we begin this upcoming school year.

I have been practicing as a social worker since 2011.  Prior to my time here at JCDSRI, I worked as a social worker in the Providence Public Schools and, before that, as a social worker at Butler Hospital.  It is through these experiences that I have come to humbly appreciate the value of social workers in schools. I have had the privilege of learning from and working with some truly incredible colleagues over the years and JCDSRI has proven to be a place where I will continue to share wisdom, collaborate, learn and grow!

In my role at JCDSRI, I will have the opportunity to work with students in groups and focused, time-limited individual sessions. I will support teachers as they continue to integrate our social/emotional curriculum throughout the year. I will also be available to help support you, our incredible families, as you navigate the joys and challenges of parenting!

Please feel free to reach out to me! I can be found at school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and I can always be reached on my email at bweinstein@jcdsri.com. I will do my best to get back to you within 24 hours. I am wishing you all a wonderful school year!