Transcript

Lori Boll (00:14)

Hello everyone! Today we are traveling to Tanzania, where I’m joined by Pita-Gay Nelson, Student Support Services Coordinator at the International School of Tanganyika. We will explore how the school is building an inclusive system of support designed to meet the diverse needs of its learners. So let’s get to it.

Lori Boll (00:41)

Pita-Gay Nelson, welcome to the podcast.

Pita-Gay Nelson (00:43)

Thank you so much, Lori.

Lori Boll (00:44)

Well to begin with, can you tell us about your school, where it’s located, the community it serves, and the makeup of your student body and staff?

Pita-Gay Nelson (00:53)

Absolutely. So we are located in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and we have approximately 821 students between the elementary and secondary sections of the school. We are located on two different campuses. That’s about 15 minutes drive from each other.

Pita-Gay Nelson (01:21)

And the community that we serve include families who work for NGOs as well as private businesses. Some of the organizations represented at the school include UNICEF, as well as

Pita-Gay Nelson (01:48)

the children of teachers who work here.

Lori Boll (01:52)

Mm.

Pita-Gay Nelson (01:52)

We have approximately 124 US passport holders, and everyone else is from about 52 other countries. So we have about 53 nationalities at the school. We serve students with multilingual needs and neurodiverse profiles, as well as students

Pita-Gay Nelson (02:18)

with neurotypical profiles, of course.

Lori Boll (02:21)

Wow. It sounds like a really interesting makeup of individuals who are coming there. It sounds incredibly diverse and exciting.

Pita-Gay Nelson (02:32)

Absolutely.

Lori Boll (02:32)

Well, I’m wondering how being in a kind of a medium sized school, a SENIA member school, medium sized anyway, how does that influence your approach to inclusion and student support?

Pita-Gay Nelson (02:48)

From my level of leadership, I don’t necessarily think about the overall size of the school per se from the macro perspective. However, when we think about the ways in which the faculty, staff resources are distributed, that has an impact. For example,

Pita-Gay Nelson (03:14)

When I think about our school of eight hundred and twenty-one students, we have a good array of learning support and EAL teachers as well as counselors. So in the elementary school, for example, we have two counselors and more or less one learning support teacher for each grade level.

Pita-Gay Nelson (03:38)

We also have one EAL teacher for each grade, more or less.

Lori Boll (03:44)

Mm.

Pita-Gay Nelson (03:45)

in addition to that, in the secondary school, we have three counselors, one lower secondary counselor, and two upper secondary counselors who support the cohort of students there. There are a total of

Pita-Gay Nelson (04:04)

11.5 learning support and EAL teachers at the school and I do believe this is one of the first schools that I’ve worked where we have a learning support teacher that’s responsible for one grade level.

Lori Boll (04:25)

Yeah. That’s really nice. It’s a nice luxury.

Pita-Gay Nelson (04:28)

Absolutely.

Pita-Gay Nelson (04:31)

It is. And sometimes, when you are in that environment, you don’t, you don’t necessarily understand how other contexts navigate student services with seemingly less resources. And I also understand that

Pita-Gay Nelson (04:51)

The lived experiences of our teachers are different. They may not see that as enough teachers because of the students and the needs that they are serving.

Lori Boll (05:02)

I’m curious how it works in your school. You said you have one learning support teacher and one EAL teacher, mostly in the divisions. How does that work throughout the day? Is it a co-teaching model? Or is it a pull out model? What are what are you using?

Pita-Gay Nelson (05:19)

Yes, good question. IST subscribes to a multipronged approach. We definitely believe in and subscribe to a co-teaching model. For example, in the elementary division, the learning support and EAL teachers are part of the grade level teaching team. They attend planning sessions with the

Pita-Gay Nelson (05:47)

PYP coordinator so that everyone is on the same page about what is happening globally in the grade level and discuss strategies and techniques of how to address the varied needs of students in the classroom. In addition to that, there are students who are part of booster groups, and booster groups are essentially the initial response based on the data received.

Pita-Gay Nelson (06:17)

The data comes from varied sources, including but not limited to DIBELS, UFLI assessments, and in the upper grades, sometimes looking at MAP assessments as well. And for mathematics, looking at the Essential Assessments. And based on the data and what is covered in the tier one context and the unit, the groupings are determined. For example, in a literacy block,

Pita-Gay Nelson (06:45)

The students who are receiving EAL services may be grouped with other learners to boost their understanding of whatever was covered in the tier one context, for example, maybe a concept they didn’t get, they would be part of that booster group and then they go back to the classroom. And then

Lori Boll (07:05)

Hm.

Pita-Gay Nelson (07:06)

those groups shift.

Pita-Gay Nelson (07:08)

There are also situations where there are students who are on the EAL or learning support roster and those learners are supported at a different time in those skill-building areas.

Lori Boll (07:21)

That’s fantastic. I love the name Booster Groups. It’s fun.

Pita-Gay Nelson (07:25)

Yes,

Pita-Gay Nelson (07:27)

yes.

Lori Boll (07:29)

Well, so you mentioned some of the data-based decision-making that you make and using UFLI and DIBELS and such. I’m curious alongside the formal assessment data, how are you gathering and using street data? You know, the everyday experiences, observations, conversations, and perspectives of students, families, and teachers to understand what the learners need.

Pita-Gay Nelson (07:58)

On one end, the school distributes a community survey, and with that community survey, whatever is received from that, the learning leadership team members look at the data and determine what specific responses we might utilize to address those needs. For example,

Pita-Gay Nelson (08:26)

The director of the school has a director’s coffee that addresses some of the needs that are reflected in the data as well as the day-to-day information that’s communicated from the divisional principals and divisional leaders. In the secondary division,

Pita-Gay Nelson (08:45)

There are parent-caregiver coffees as well as in the elementary division that touches on different things that are happening in the community and also provide an avenue for parents to share their insights and also ask questions. In terms of the street data, we have in the elementary school what we call kid chats.

Pita-Gay Nelson (09:12)

And once every two cycles or so, the counselor and all members of the grade level team meet to do this protocol called thumbs up, thumbs down. So essentially, we go through the list of all students in each homeroom in the grade, and the teachers’ responsibility is to share a thumbs-up if things went well that week, or a thumbs-down if something happened, and we want to add them to our longer discussion.

Pita-Gay Nelson (09:40)

Part of the protocol later on. There’s also

Lori Boll (09:43)

Mm.

Pita-Gay Nelson (09:44)

specialist data. So a form is sent out to specialist teachers prior to the kid chats to share any observations that they’re having. And in terms of street data, when teachers and teaching assistants are moving around the campus, they are observing, they’re engaging with students, and that information is shared through informally through

Pita-Gay Nelson (10:09)

hallway conversations, as well as through some of our formal structures during the kid chats. In the secondary division, we have what’s called the SST meetings, student support team meetings. This is when the grade level leader, the counselor, and a member of the learning support team has biweekly meetings, I think.

Pita-Gay Nelson (10:34)

They discuss all students. So we’re looking at the pastoral pieces similar to those in the kid chats. We’re also bringing up any kind of potential challenges academically or behaviorally that are surfacing based on the communication shared to the student support team. And SST for us, SST is really the tier one

Pita-Gay Nelson (11:00)

aspect of our school, even though in other schools we may look at SST also as the tier two responses, it’s really in terms of language and verb, it’s just a different approach in our secondary

Lori Boll (11:13)

Yeah.

Pita-Gay Nelson (11:13)

division. And the SST team members also receive information through Toddle. We utilize the behavior module in that. And when

Lori Boll (11:26)

Hm.

Pita-Gay Nelson (11:27)

teachers submit information, we have a

Pita-Gay Nelson (11:29)

subcomponent called SST Anecdotal. Anything that comes up, maybe about students who we are already aware of. A teacher may document something there, or maybe it’s some things we are asking the teachers to share some insight, and they must use that portal to communicate information. And the members of the SST look at that data, they discuss what to do and

Pita-Gay Nelson (11:58)

That information is then either used to develop strategies for that kind of tier one response and shared back with the teacher, or depending on the number of SST chats that have occurred about a particular student or group of students, it may lead to a child study. And that’s the same in elementary, where after a few kid chats, they may move on to a child study process. Depending on the division,

Pita-Gay Nelson (12:26)

some things happen differently and the pace at which things happen is also different and the extent to which we are effective in some areas varies as well.

Lori Boll (12:40)

Interesting. So once they’ve gone through the child—sorry, student study—no, what’s it called? Student support team, kind of that tier one, then they might move on to the child study team, which is where

Pita-Gay Nelson (12:57)

Included, yes.

Lori Boll (12:58)

I see where you make more decisions about possibility of switching them to a tier two or tier three.

Pita-Gay Nelson (13:06)

Or

Pita-Gay Nelson (13:07)

Instead, as a school, we are moving away from a tier two student or a tier three student and we are adjusting our language to say tier two services or tier three services. But yes, to answer your question, once that initial tier one work kind of happens and we discern what’s happening in the classroom and

Pita-Gay Nelson (13:33)

All of those other areas, then the SST team may decide, hmm, now is the time to initiate a child study. And at that point, a separate meeting may occur. And in that instance, myself as a student support coordinator may be brought in to support that solution-focused discussion about how we might, what the data is showing us, number one.

Pita-Gay Nelson (14:01)

And also how might we design a plan to support the student and ramp up their supports or if you will, intensify their service provisions.

Lori Boll (14:13)

Awesome. Well, thank you for bringing up the important component of language. Language is important. And so we do want to say that students are receiving tier one, tier two services or tier three services versus they’re a tier two student. So thank you for that. I wanted to follow up on your

Lori Boll (14:36)

Bringing up Toddle and the behavior module. I’m just curious, can you give us an example of what that might look like?

Pita-Gay Nelson (14:44)

Sure. Toddle was introduced the year before last, and I believe this is the third year that we are getting into

Pita-Gay Nelson (14:57)

the functionalities of the system. With respect to the behavior module, different members of the community have different levels of access. For example, the student support team members have access only to the grade level in which they are responsible for.

Pita-Gay Nelson (15:21)

The grade six learning support teacher, for example, will not receive the SST input, but the grade six counselor will have information come into their inbox and come in through the system as well as the grade six team leader and one of our child protection leads and vice principal will receive all that information.

Pita-Gay Nelson (15:46)

So, on the teacher side, they will log into the platform, they will create an event, select from the dropdown list, whether they want to submit something regarding academics, whether they want to submit something regarding social behavior, or another category is SST anecdotal, which is separate from

Pita-Gay Nelson (16:14)

the general behavior items. There may also be items about attendance or the like. Once they’ve done that, they select the level of concern. So whether it is level one, level two, or none. And those levels are based on our behavior matrix that we have as a school. Teachers are also encouraged to submit positive celebrations. And

Pita-Gay Nelson (16:40)

Whenever that information is received, the student support team will look at that as well. There are also

Lori Boll (16:47)

Mm.

Pita-Gay Nelson (16:48)

categories where if a teacher submits, it can go to the parents as well. So teachers have to be very careful as to what categories they select and how they, regardless of the category, how they’re framing their communication in Toddle.

Lori Boll (17:07)

Hmm. So interesting. Thank you. That I’ve been out of the schools now for a little bit of time. So it’s nice to have a system where you can add all of that important information rather than just focusing on academics. So I’m curious as you develop your MTSS framework further.

Lori Boll (17:29)

How are you determining staff members’ current understanding of MTSS?

Pita-Gay Nelson (17:34)

That’s a very good question. And that’s a question we asked ourselves as a school. As a school, we are working on CIS Project 2. Last year, we engaged in a joint accreditation process with CIS, IB, and MSA.

Pita-Gay Nelson (18:00)

The CIS projects were initiated, I believe, five years prior. And some of those projects include enhancing student support services, further embedding our well-being program. There are things about community engagement. Now, with respect to enhancing student support services, there are also subareas within that include

Pita-Gay Nelson (18:27)

further embedding our life-centered education program or further developing our life-centered education program, developing a highly capable learners program, embedding MTSS, and embedding universal design for learning. So those are a lot of things that fall under the work that we have been doing in the past and that we are continuing to do.

Pita-Gay Nelson (18:54)

Now, with respect to discerning the community’s level of understanding, one thing that we did was to use the Katie Novak self-assessment rubric, as it includes three different drivers for MTSS implementation: the leadership driver, the competency driver, and the implementation driver. And

Pita-Gay Nelson (19:22)

I then put the survey questions into a Google Form that allowed for open reflection after rating each area. And during our last professional development day, our director of learning and teaching helped to facilitate those conversations. Essentially, teams of teachers

Pita-Gay Nelson (19:50)

worked in groups based on their subject areas. So, for example, our EAL team members sat together at a table and they completed the survey together. They worked through it step by step, and their notes were recorded in the form. And our teaching assistants either joined different groups of like the EAL Learning Support, our grade level team, and were part of that.

Pita-Gay Nelson (20:17)

Our visual arts and other specialist departments also completed it. We now have that data, and this happened I believe a week or so ago, the time

Lori Boll (20:30)

Mm-hmm.

Pita-Gay Nelson (20:32)

Time is really hard to keep track of everything at the moment. However, we did that.

Lori Boll (20:37)

Ha ha.

Pita-Gay Nelson (20:38)

And now our next step as a leadership team is to unpack that information. What is the information communicating? What is surfacing based on this data? And my plan along with the leadership team is to

Pita-Gay Nelson (20:56)

Explore a protocol that can support us in unpacking all of that. And once that is done, we will share that information back with the rest of the community and use that to support any further decision making that we will do. And the goal is to ensure that our teachers know that they’re doing the things, right? They are

Lori Boll (21:20)

Yeah.

Pita-Gay Nelson (21:21)

doing the things. It’s

Pita-Gay Nelson (21:23)

It is more about how we are doing things strategically and how we know that what we are doing is working, and that’s the consistent journey, and that’s what I believe MTSS is about. Often we focus only on the tiered delivery system, but it has, depending on what literature you’re reading, it has five components, and tiered decision-making is one, but data-based decision-making.

Pita-Gay Nelson (21:52)

as well as the collaboration and communication also marry each other for the strategic

Lori Boll (21:59)

Mm.

Pita-Gay Nelson (22:00)

work that we need to do to have the impact that we want to have. And ultimately, this is an equity-based framework. So how are we ensuring that our practices are equitable?

Lori Boll (22:11)

That’s really interesting and exciting. You have given teachers a voice, and you have next steps. Like now that you have all this data, you know where to go from there. So I can’t wait to hear how it goes. So make sure you follow up.

Pita-Gay Nelson (22:30)

Absolutely.

Lori Boll (22:32)

I’m curious what initiatives you have going on at your school right now that you’re particularly excited about.

Pita-Gay Nelson (22:39)

So many initiatives. There’s so many things happening at IST. That’s very exciting. As mentioned, we are looking into the development of highly capable learners programming. That has started. The work didn’t start with me; it started before me. Now, exploring how we do that is continuing this year. In addition, we have our professional learning

Pita-Gay Nelson (23:09)

inquiry groups that kicked off a few weeks ago and today had our second meeting. For example, we have our AI Core Leadership Group. The group is working to support our community in understanding our students’ understanding of AI, what our faculty

Lori Boll (23:33)

Mm.

Pita-Gay Nelson (23:34)

faculty are developing that understanding as well.

Pita-Gay Nelson (23:36)

And not just understanding how we are using it ethically and how we are helping students to understand its utility within the context of their work and looking at the social-emotional components of AI and ensuring that students realize that their intellectual property is so powerful and they should not

Pita-Gay Nelson (24:03)

allow AI to take that away, essentially. We’re

Lori Boll (24:05)

Mm.

Pita-Gay Nelson (24:06)

also looking at further enhancing our life-centered education program, and within that, we have teachers who are from our life-centered education program who are part of our high school pathways group, having conversations about some of those courses that students will have access to.

Pita-Gay Nelson (24:29)

This is not necessarily IB-specific, but more so complies with our US high school diploma pathway. All students get an IST diploma Within that umbrella, we are looking at how we can ensure that the students along the continuum of need receive the services and support they need, and they have

Pita-Gay Nelson (24:57)

a pathway that not only supports them where they are, but helps them in future planning. So we have teachers who are looking at that. We have teachers who are also looking at interventions within the tier three context, particularly in the secondary school. At times, our learning support classes can focus on homework, but they are looking at how they can deliver

Pita-Gay Nelson (25:26)

effective interventions, or improve the interventions they are already providing. So there’s so many things happening. We’re working on modifications. Yeah, so I’m very excited about the journey that IST

Lori Boll (25:40)

Yeah.

Pita-Gay Nelson (25:41)

is on.

Lori Boll (25:43)

Yeah. And it sounds like you’ve got a faculty that is very inquisitive and curious. So that’s awesome. Well, I asked this to all of our Happy Hour Inclusive Spotlight schools. How has being part of SENIA helped your school strengthen inclusive practices?

Pita-Gay Nelson (26:04)

Hmm, that’s a really good question. I have heard and I subscribe to the idea that the best PD is right next door. Right? So

Lori Boll (26:15)

Mm-hmm.

Pita-Gay Nelson (26:15)

it’s the teachers in your ecosystem.

Pita-Gay Nelson (26:20)

And it’s also our SENIA neighbors, if you will. And being part of the SENIA network has, for the past few years, not just at this school, it has definitely helped me to have a sounding board to process through all my creative thinking and helped me to question my thinking as well, so

Lori Boll (26:47)

Mm-hmm.

Pita-Gay Nelson (26:48)

that the work that

Pita-Gay Nelson (26:49)

I’m doing, and the work that I am advocating for my community members to be doing is in line with not just best practice, but grounded in the humanness of the work that we do and builds staff capacity. So it’s definitely supported me. For example, I’m very excited about the life-centered education cohort that

Lori Boll (27:18)

Mm-hmm.

Pita-Gay Nelson (27:18)

just started a few weeks ago and excited for the next session. And I have explored some of the resources on Mighty Networks and just having access or the opportunity to connect with other SENIA school members has been great. And the opportunity to have those one-on-ones with a leader from the SENIA board, I think is a great option. So

Pita-Gay Nelson (27:47)

Leveraging those resources has definitely supported my own learning, but also supported all the work that we’re doing to create neuroinclusive spaces for all the students that we serve.

Lori Boll (28:00)

Yeah. Thank you for that. And one thing I’ve noticed is that there are a lot of your teaching assistants who are enrolled in our coursework, which we all know

Pita-Gay Nelson (28:12)

Absolutely.

Lori Boll (28:13)

that teaching assistants, you know, they play such an important role. And so it’s super that your school is giving them the opportunity to grow professionally as well.

Pita-Gay Nelson (28:26)

One hundred percent.

Lori Boll (28:28)

Well, Pita-Gay Nelson, I think that’s all we have time for today. Thank you so much for sharing about IST and all the wonderful things you’re doing. I hope to see you soon.

Pita-Gay Nelson (28:40)

Thank you so much, Lori. Thank you for the opportunity to share all the wonderful things we’re doing here at IST.