Inspiring Stories Archives - Sound Discipline

Auburn School District’s All-Staff Wellness Day Lays Foundation for a Culture of Care

“SEL is about preparing students and staff for quality instruction, quality learning, and quality interaction, because that’s where we are spending all of our time.”

– Assistant Superintendent Rhonda Larson, Family Engagement & Student Success Dept

On September 1, Auburn School District provided a day of wellness training for all 2600 of their staff!

Thursday, September 1, we were thrilled to spend the ENTIRE day with Auburn School District Staff during their first All-Staff Wellness training day!

This district-wide day of wellness and staff training was planned and executed by a collaborative team at the district level. In the Family …

07Apr 2022 by Mary Power

Orcas in the C’s at Lakeridge Elementary

Inspiring Stories, School Partners, Teachers

Lakeridge Elementary 1st grade Orcas who participate in the ‘Orcas in the Cs’ program.

For so many schools, it has been a tumultuous two years from school-on-a-screen to in-person learning. This is definitely the case for Lakeridge Elementary in the Renton (Washington) School District. For new 1st graders, school was in constant transition. Starting kindergarten on Zoom, they learned what it meant to be part of a classroom community through a screen. Later, when welcomed back into the school building as 1st graders for the first time in the fall of 2021, they began learning how to be part of …

17Mar 2022 by Mary Power

The Mindful Mentors Project in Tukwila School District

Community Partnerships, Inspiring Stories

The Mindful Mentors Project, in the Tukwila School District, brings together teens and third graders to connect as mentors and mentees, who engage together in learning about social emotional learning, mindfulness, and movement.

Partnering with the students on this project are Thrive Centered (formerly Thrive Yoga), an organization that centers embodiment and provides somatic-based SEL and restorative practices for youth K-12, Sound Discipline, Tukwila Elementary School, and Foster High School.

Foster High School Mindful Mentor Andy Huynh

In Spring of 2021, Thrive Centered, founded by Damithia Nieves, and Sound Discipline, recruited six high school students to serve as mentors. …

Celebrating Black History Month with Tymmony Keegan

Tymmony Keegan, 10th Grade Humanities and Black Studies Teacher, Cleveland High School

What is your current position?

I am a teacher at Cleveland STEM High School in Seattle Public Schools. Previously I was a teacher at Dimmitt Middle School in the Renton School District – which had been great and I wanted new challenges. I am currently piloting a Black Studies class, which I jumped at the opportunity to teach. I also teach 10th grade Humanities.

I’m a member of Cleveland’s racial equity team, building leadership team and am the social studies department chair.

I started working with Sound Discipline …

16Feb 2022 by Mary Power

Lakeridge Elementary’s Journey

Inspiring Stories, Problem Solving, Race and Equity, Racial Justice, Teachers

What is it like to transform a school into a place where all young people feel they belong, they matter, and they can grow as learners?

Lakeridge Elementary, in the Renton School District, has been on just such a journey. In the spring of 2020, while navigating remote learning during school closures, the skilled Lakeridge data team, supported by Sound Discipline facilitators, decided to focus data collection on identifying patterns of racial disproportionality in discipline and identifying ways to develop a truly inclusive school community.

Analyzing Data and Looking for Patterns

A typical data team is made up of members …

Celebrating Black History Month with Hani Nur

Hani Nur, Reading Interventionist and Principal Intern, Thorndyke Elementary School, Tukwila School District

What is your current role(s)?

At Thorndyke Elementary in the Tukwila School District, I currently have two roles:

As a Reading Interventionist, I support the entire school in Tier 2 interventions. I work to support the below grade level readers. I am also a Principal Intern, supporting the school with similar to what an Assistant Principal would do, such as behavior, expectations, data-informed practices. As an intern, I shadow and learn from our Principal through practical application and thought-provoking conversations.

I have not seen enough people …

Celebrating Black History Month with Ebony Pattenaude

Ebony Pattenaude, Director of Renton Innovation Zone Partnerships and Early Learning, Renton School District

What is your role?

I serve as the Director of Renton Innovation Zone Partnerships and Early Learning. The Renton Innovation Zone Partnership (RIZP) is four elementary Schools in the Skyway, West Hill, and Highland Sunset neighborhoods of Renton. This is my 4th year in this role and prior to that I was doing family and community engagement coordination for the Renton Innovation Zone schools as well.

What brought you to your current work?

Pretty much my whole career has been around education and workforce development and …

Celebrating Black History Month with Damithia Nieves

Damithia Nieves (she/they), Founder of Thrive Yoga and The Mindful Mentors Project

What is your current role?

I am the Founder of Thrive Yoga, which will be changing to Thrive Centered. Sound Discipline has been a supporting partner for a program I created called The Mindful Mentors Project in the Tukwila School District. This is a somatic-based SEL program for local high school students who undergo an 8-week reciprocal-learning based training. The training teaches foundations of trauma informed care, contemplative embodiment practices, mindfulness, foundations of Ruler Social Emotional Curriculum, social emotional learning, storytelling and more. They then co-facilitate, with an …

Celebrating Black History Month

Sound Discipline has the privilege of working alongside local Black leaders in the areas of social emotional learning (SEL) and education. To celebrate Black History Month this year, we reached out and asked if we could share their work and personal inspirations.

Anthony Ase, Secondary STEM Facilitator, Renton School District
Damithia Nieves, Founder of Thrive Yoga and The Mindful Mentors Project
Ebony Pattenaude, Director, Renton Innovation Zone Partnerships (RIZP) and Early Learning, Renton School District
Hani Nur, Reading Interventionist and Principal Intern, Thorndyke Elementary, Tukwila School District
Tymmony Keegan, Cleveland Highschool, Seattle School District

Thank …

Celebrating Black History Month with Anthony Ase

Anthony Ase, Secondary STEM Facilitator, Renton School District & Sound Discipline Board of Directors

What is your role in your school district?

I am a Secondary STEM Facilitator for the Renton School District. Essentially, I spent a lot of time in my own classroom getting things together for some years, and now I get to help other teachers set up their classrooms to achieve their goals.

My really big push this year is to help teachers to act as a facilitator – trying to facilitate conversation with students instead of conversation at students. I love being in the classroom …