Hey there LSSPs,

Welcome to March Madness!

1st off, a quick note. Today (3/2/20) is the beginning of Educational Diagnostician's Appreciation Week. I know that it is important for many of us that SPAW gets acknowledged, so be sure to check in with your diags to let them know you see them and appreciate what they do.

Hopefully you are finding a good stopping point in your work to be able to have some time to decompress a bit over spring break. Many of you will end up taking work home with you over spring break (myself included), but please be sure to still make sure and build in some time for some self-care, whatever that means for you (taking walks, spending time with family, lamenting your bracket being busted, watching mindless terrible TV, whatever works).

Keep Being School Psych'd,

Keya Saleh, LSSP, NCSP

Region 10 Educational Service Center

50 Cognitive Biases in the Modern World

Beautiful infographic with some great examples of cognitive biases that impact our lives.

How Strengthening Relationships with Boys Can Help Them Learn

Mindshift article about the challenges in developing authentic emotional relationships and how to support the emotional developments of boys in schools.

New report links smartphones and social media to stress among teens

Video from TODAY about a new report released Monday suggests that increasing smartphone and social media use could be contributing to mental health issues among teens, including depression, anxiety, stress and poor self-esteem.

So I have been thinking about the links that I post in this newsletter and it dawned on me that 'Hey, wouldn't it be nice if all of these links that show up every month could be pulled together into one easy to find place?" Well, that idea is now a reality. Presenting:

The Get School Psych'd Good Reading and Research Collection

This is a permanent resource that will house all of the links that I share every month in the newsletter. I will do my best to catalog them alphabetically by content area. Enjoy!

In honor of the upcoming #SELDay, Region 10 will be taking part by hosting a collection of speakers on SEL all day on March 27th at our Spring Valley location. Here is a list of some of the great speakers we have already lined up:

Tom Hoerr, Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Speaker and Author

Craig Hinkle, Principal Royce City High School

Dana Harper, Duncanville ISD

Sharon Bradley, Director of SEL, Plano ISD

Melanie Acker, Director 504, Rockwall ISD

Check out our promo video to learn more and get registered today!

Here's a great training opportunity from Dr. Michael Sandbank, University of Texas-Austin Early Childhood Special Education Department Professor:

Autism researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Pediatric Clinicians at Dell Behavioral Pediatrics have organized a rare 2-day Clinical Training in the ADOS-2, a gold standard autism diagnostic assessment, at a significantly reduced cost compared to that usually offered by the assessment publisher.

We’re hoping to spread the word about the training far and wide, to school psychologists, autism specialists, and other relevant clinicians in the area. Since you are the autism specialist for Region 10, I was hoping you might circulate info about the training to school psychologists and other relevant professional in your region. The training will take place March 9th and 10th.

Registration is here. Spots are limited.

See flyer below for additional information.

Sanford Harmony, the highly regard and 100% free SEL curriculum and resource system, is now shifting to be available completely digitally.

Learn more about accessing these resources here.

The Tommy Tranchin Award was established in 2007 at The Dallas Foundation to support 8th grade and high school level students in North Texas with physical, emotional or intellectual disabilities. Since its inception, the Tommy Tranchin Award has been given to over 64 individuals. For more details, please see this flyer and application.

If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact Laurie Tranchin directly, Co-Founder of the Tommy Tranchin Award at 214-395-2802 or The Dallas Foundation at scholarships@dallasfoundation.org.

The Mental Health America of Greater Dallas will be hosting a women's conference on balancing work, family life, and mental health on June 3rd. From their Eventbrite page:

I have always gotten a lot of questions about the books I am reading (mostly because approximately 84% of my sentences start with "you know I just read this book..."), so I decided to start sharing some of my personal favorites that I have recently read (or in some cases, reread).

This month:

The School Psychologists Survival Guide by Dr. Rebecca Branstetter, The Thriving School Psychologist herself.

Sometimes it is good to get back to basics, and this is a good well to come back to. The Survival Guide includes well written and timelessly useful tips and tricks for managing all of the aspects of the work of School Psychology. Whether a refresher for you or a gift to an early career professional, Dr. Branstetter's guide provides some good value, and more than a couple of laughs.

In an attempt to get information more organized, I am moving toward a Google Sheet for listing out upcoming training sessions here at Region 10 that would be of interest to LSSPs.

(NOTE: Sessions that I am facilitating have been bolded.)

This link will take you to the live spreadsheet. Check out the list every month to see what new offerings are coming up at Region 10.

HIGHLIGHTED TRAINING OF THE MONTH:

SLD and Executive Functioning Assessment with PASS Theory

3/27/2020, 9:00-3:00

Session ID# 2623100

In this session with Dr. Jack Naglieri, prolific professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, participants will be provided with a straightforward way that they can use the so called ‘third method’ for SLD eligibility determination to both classify and remediate specific learning disabilities. This will include a brief look at the research on the effectiveness of traditional IQ and second-generation tests for SLD identification and socially just assessment.

Emphasis will be placed on a step-by-step analysis illustrated using PASS theory to measure ‘basic psychological processes’ in a manner consistent with the current definition of SLD. Specific cases will be presented to describe how defensible SLD eligibility decisions can be made, and most importantly, how targeted interventions can be generated for instructional planning purposes.

One of my biggest goals of GSP is to get information about our Region 10 LSSPs. I know your time is valuable and I don't want to ask you to spend half a day filling out tons of information, so I have settled on what I am calling the Two-ish Question Quiz. Every so often, I humbly ask for you to answer two questions about yourself to help us get a better picture of the LSSPs in Region 10.

An FYI on this month's questions: First, a reminder that the TQQ is completely anonymous. I will be speaking to special education directors at our next meeting here at Region 10, and I am curious to hear some thoughts from you about what those directors need to hear with regard to supporting and staffing for LSSPs. If you have any additional information you want to share that needs to be included in this talk, you are free to email me with additional info if you would like (anything you share will remain anonymous before being shared with directors.)

If you have any questions or need support in your campus/district, give me a shout!

Email: keya.saleh@region10.org
Website: www.region10.org/programs/evaluation-special-education/overview/
Location: 904 Abrams Road, Richardson, TX, USA
Phone: 972-348-1598
Twitter: @getschoolpsychd