SEL in EDU
SELinEDU Podcast is stories and insights from outstanding teachers, administrators, leaders, and students on all things Social Emotional Learning in education. These 30-40-minute podcasts are perfect for a commute, a nice cup of joe, or a self-care walk.
SEL in EDU
064: Building Bridges: Family Engagement Strategies with Kevin Hopkins
Join us for an enlightening conversation where Krista and Craig set the stage with heartfelt reflections on their lives before introducing their remarkable guest, Kevin Hopkins. Kevin, a family engagement professional dedicated to at-risk communities, shares his inspiring journey from East St. Louis. His upbringing, steeped in strong family bonds and community support, has deeply influenced his mission to connect educators, students, and their families. By emphasizing the pivotal role of home life in shaping a student's educational experience, Kevin's story reminds us that true Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) transcends classroom boundaries.
Discover the power of parental involvement as we discuss Kevin's efforts to engage caregivers from preschool to 12th grade. Kevin walks us through creating and implementing programs to equip parents with the tools to support their children's learning and well-being. From workshops on financial planning and healthy living to the use of data for measuring the effectiveness of these initiatives, we explore strategies that make parent engagement more impactful. Kevin underscores the significance of a unified strategy in fostering educational success by shifting from localized preschool efforts to a district-wide approach.
The episode explores practical methods for effective family-school communication and the distinction between mere attendance and genuine engagement. We highlight the importance of proactive relationship-building to foster trust and avoid re-traumatizing parents with past negative school experiences. Weekly virtual meetings and community workshops create a supportive environment for parents, teachers, and students. Tune in to hear about Kevin's efforts in promoting early childhood education, the value of virtual resources, and the joy of community engagement. It's a joy that we can all share in.
EPISODE RESOURCES:
Purchase Kevin's Book: Dakota Doesn't Have to Worry: A fully illustrated children's book
Welcome to SEL in EDU where we discuss all things social and emotional in education. I'm Krista, I'm Craig and we are your hosts on this journey. All right, SEL in EDU family. It is a. It's a great day because you can hear us and this is a gift. So we're excited to start out with an incredible conversation with a very special guest. Krista, how are you doing? How's your heart today?
Speaker 1:Oh, my heart is doing very well, you know. I know we often talk about weather, but it is incredible how it feels when the sun is coming out. I got to see my boys over this past weekend, so I'm feeling very fulfilled, and I've got some trips coming up to learn more about educational systems, and so, you know, I feel like I'm living my best life right now. Life is good. How about you, craig?
Speaker 2:Well, how does one follow up with that? Wow, how does one follow up with that? You know I'm just saying so. For me, you know, the top of the year I got these goals and I, you know, I got these things that I'm trying to do. And by now, which is like spring, early spring, folks have, you know, let those fitness goals, things go away. You know they're doing new things. So for me, you know I'm a full time education consultant Life has been going fairly well, married life as well. You know the hubby is not kicking me out for some reason. You know, yeah, we'll see and look. There are things and there are things. But I'm also looking forward to a great deal of travel that's going to be coming up soon. So, yeah, that's what's exciting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, and speaking of travel, I met our guest when I was out in Illinois a couple it feels like it was just a couple weeks ago, but I feel like it was maybe a couple months and he was just incredible. His passion for education, for serving students, for helping build bridges between caregivers and the school systems, and I'm like, sir, I need you to come on the podcast and help us and educate us and share your expertise and your enthusiasm, and so I am so excited to have Kevin Hopkins join us. He has worked as a family engagement professional in at-risk communities for five years. His work with the families of pre-K through 12th grade students includes creating and facilitating personal and professional development workshops, direct and indirect family advocacy, data management, content development and community outreach. I am so thrilled to have the amazing Kevin Hopkins join us. Kevin, how are you and how is your heart today?
Speaker 3:Hey, hey, I'm doing well. Thank you for asking, and I am very, very pleased to be here. I really appreciate this privilege. As far as my heart, my heart is full. I'm actually having a really good day. I'm coming off of a little bit of rest from earlier today. This has been a very good and productive week for me and I've been looking forward to this conversation for quite a while now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you, us too. And so I'm going to kick it off by asking you about your role, because when we talk about SEL and we talk about SEL in education it's often what's happening in the classrooms or in the schools. But we know, we know this is, as I described, like 360 support for our students. We don't do this in a vacuum or alone in a variety of ways, and we know that people's home lives all look different and everybody's doing the best that they can and that they know. And so I'm curious if you could describe for us what your role looks like and what the goal is when you're working between educators and the families and students.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I'll definitely get to that specific question, but I feel as if I need to prep listeners with a little bit of my background, because my background definitely makes the difference in how I approach what I do. Okay, so I'm 56 years young, so I'm not a spring chicken. I grew up in a completely different era than we're experiencing now. I'm the youngest of five children. I'm the only boy, and there's an eight-year age gap between myself and my youngest sister and a 15-year age gap between myself and my oldest sister. Right, my mother, who will be turning 90 pretty soon, was a head start teacher by day and a bank custodian after hours. And although she was a teacher, she did not force me to do homework. That job was left to my sisters. Right, my mother allowed me to have a great deal of independence and she was loving loving, but not overbearing. Right Now, my stepdad, who died shortly after I graduated from college, was honorably discharged from the Army and worked for Greyhound until his retirement. So you know, blue collar. They were separated for most of my youth, but when he visited from California we'd go around and do the father and son thing visiting family, playing baseball, the fake boxing and fishing those kinds of things.
Speaker 3:I grew up in what would now be defined, as you mentioned, as an at-risk community, which is East St Louis, illinois. We lived in the Orwell's Housing Projects until I was about 12 years old and our apartment was the gathering place for many of the kids in our building because it seemed like every Christmas I got every toy that I circled in the Sears catalog, and many people won't even know what that is nowadays, but it's been replaced by Amazon and the like. But be that as it may, I walked with or rode the bus to school with the friends that I grew up with until I graduated from high school and went away to college at Illinois State University, so the bonds between us were tight. I mean, I'm 56 years old and we still have class reunions of the sort at different locations around the city, of the sort at different locations around the city. So now fast forward. You know, all these years, I'm the divorced father of two Gen Z daughters you know ages 24 and 25, and they both have college degrees and, unlike my mother, I am admittedly and unapologetically overprotective and unapologetically overprotective. They can do no wrong, but when they do wrong they get the dad talks that I did not get when I was growing up right, and I believe in my heart of hearts that those conversations and corrections have tremendously influenced their life outcomes thus far.
Speaker 3:Now, that said, I would categorize myself as a passionate and critically creative person. I've been a visual artist for a long time, as long as I can remember, in fact. I paint, I do computer graphics, I'm a photographer, I enjoy creative writing, song lyrics and traditional poetry, and last year I published a children's book. And here's a shameless plug. Sorry, dakota doesn't have to worry.
Speaker 2:Don't be sorry Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're putting the links to this.
Speaker 3:All right Sounds good. So the book is about the anxiety that preschool age children and their parents deal with as they transition into kindergarten. Children and their parents deal with as they transition into kindergarten. And, in all honesty, my well-being is rooted in my happiness in three key areas. Right, that's my relationship with myself, which is my alone time, time to just think or do nothing. My relationship with my art that's the creative time and being lazy and not wasting time. And my relationship with my art, that's the creative time and being lazy and not wasting time. And my relationship with my significant other. So I'm recently engaged and she works in the same arena. Thank you, child protective services.
Speaker 3:And so when we first met, we had an in-depth discussion about how important it is to keep these three areas of my life balanced, you know, in order for me to be happy. Now, I didn't mention family, because to me, family is an obligation and it supersedes all these things, you know, depending on the family member, of course. And I didn't mention spirituality either, because that's something that's embedded and I try to filter all of my energy through that lens. So, getting to what I actually do, I view the work that I do in comparison to my upbringing and I see that things can be the same, or that they technically might be the same, because I'm working in the same environment, more or less, that I worked in or grew up in as a child, right? So, as you mentioned, for the past five years I've worked in family engagement in an at-risk community, again the same one that I grew up in. I found myself on this path after 25 plus year career in advertising and marketing, art direction, public relations, sales and a very brief career in juvenile justice, and, ironically, that made the biggest impact on what I do now in the second act of my life.
Speaker 3:And so just to kind of give you an idea of how that impacted me, within one year of service as a juvenile case manager, I saw three young men go to jail for lengthy sentences and we're talking teenagers, right, you know that committed adult crimes crimes. Another young man on my caseload was shot and two others were killed, you know, and this is all within a year and these were young people that expressed a desire to change, with the exception of one, but had no safe arena or platform upon which that change could be sustained. And when talking with them, in one way or another. They all pointed to their childhood as the starting point of their problems Right, either through parental contact with law enforcement, being misled by an older sibling or someone in their neighborhood, or pure and simple ignorance of the long term consequences of being involved in criminal mischief and later felonious activity, of being involved in criminal mischief and later felonious activity right.
Speaker 3:So those things definitely played a role in my decision to switch over to family engagement. So the opportunity came along and I said, hey, if I can make this switch into engagement, with the experience that I've had through marketing, the experience that I've had now through juvenile justice, I really feel that I could make an impact. And so when the opportunity presented itself, I made the jump and I have not regretted it and I have not looked back since. So when I show up is with my experiences from those two areas in mind, as compared to my own childhood again, same place, same neighborhoods, different times and when I think about how my life could have gone, you know, in comparison to how those young men's lives went, if it were not for the influence of my family and a couple of very influential teachers along the way, we would not be having this conversation today. I believe that completely.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much for sharing so much of yourself.
Speaker 2:So, I mean, just right off the bat, uh, it's you know, it sounds like a very rich and complex tapestry uh, that you have shared in regards to your own upbringing, uh, what has served as your center and inspiration, as well as navigating the complexities of humans who are hurt and are hurting, and being present and being a support and standing in the gap for them?
Speaker 2:Uh, and standing in the gap for them, and, um, and even though I'm not a parent yet, you know, I have been, uh, in working in schools for 20 some years, right, and I know today's times, um, the environment is much different in regards to what parenting looks like and the demands on, you know, lives of those who are, who have young people in today's schools, and so I would love to hear a little bit more context about, well, how does, how do you wake up every day and engage in this work? What is the arc of the work that you do? What are you proud of in regards to what? What is the arc of the work that you do? What are you proud of in regards to what you have the opportunity to do? And, uh, you know, just shed some light on uh yeah on how my day looks.
Speaker 3:Okay, no problem at all. So when I began um with the school district that I work in now again, this is the same school district that existed when I was a kid I came in as a parent engagement specialist at the preschool level, so all of my work was focused on parents and guardians of young children. You know how to get them better educated and acclimated to the educational environment and some had children already, you know. So that school in particular was not new to them. But we as a program, as a school, wanted to take a different approach. The program that I was my position was funded by was called Preschool for All, and so when I thought of Preschool for All, I imagined it to be an opportunity for everyone to relearn the education system. So our charge as a team, and my charge as a team leader initially, was to put together some programming that reintroduced parents to what it meant to be a guiding force in their child's life. So we would have professional development workshops. We bring in community entities, stakeholders, to put on workshops to teach parents about the different ways that they could either set aside money and save, about the different resources that were in the communities, how to eat healthy, how to keep themselves safe and how to basically be that at-home support for what was happening within the classrooms. Because we all know classroom time is very limited, but learning takes place 24 hours a day, with the exception of the time that the child is asleep. And the one thing that was drilled in my head from the very first day in that system was that a parent is a child's first teacher. Now I heard this every year through several people at almost every workshop that I went to. And although a parent is a child's first teacher, that does not mean that learning from that parent ends when teachers are introduced to that child. The child continues to learn from that parent based on their activities and what they observe and what they actually tell that child. In fact, I would say that the parent's influence is far more important on the child than what they learn in the classroom. And it can be because, again, that's the first teacher, that's where their source of nurturing comes from and that's the through line for almost all of their lives.
Speaker 3:Now, as the program developed, I was ultimately promoted to a family engagement specialist throughout the district. So now my responsibilities went from pre-K all the way up to 12th grade parents. Now the responsibilities have changed but it's essentially professional development, problem solving, resource allocation. We bring in people now to kind of help parents find a job, get back to school. We troubleshoot with the building administrators, the building counselors, to find solutions for specific families, for specific children, and we do data tracking at the locations to just kind of see which trends are emerging and which direction those trends are taking us.
Speaker 3:Because most schools put different initiatives in place and they hope and pray that they'll work right. But there's usually no data tracking and with the background that I had you know, which is the advertising and marketing, the question was well, how do we even know if this stuff is effective if we're not looking at the outcomes and the impact? Stuff is affected if we're not looking at the outcomes and the impact. So we began setting up spreadsheets for our center, which was, you know, the headquarters for the school district and for each of the school buildings. We established some parent engagement teams which included parents at each location and we asked that they report back the data, the attendance, from the different events that they were having, so that we can begin to see which events were getting the most traffic, where they were putting their efforts and what kind of feedback we were getting from parents in relation to the information that they were getting and, more importantly, whether those events were having an impact on their connectivity to the school district and the outcomes for the students.
Speaker 1:When you think about all of this work that you've been putting in and those trends that are emerging, I'm curious what advice would you give to schools based on what you're seeing? I do have a follow-up question, but I'm going to hold it for a moment. But I'm really curious to see you know what has been working, what are people excited about, what have they been attending and what are they looking for.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I'll start with this one, and this one may be a tough pill to swallow, for a lot. Attendance and engagement are not the same things. You can have a high level of attendance at an event but there'll be no engagement at the event. And, for example, we'll have an event like you know donuts with dads or muffins with moms and we may have a couple of hundred people come out, but there won't really be much engagement in terms of information sharing, questions being asked, personal relationships with the families being built.
Speaker 3:Now, to some degree, that's left to the parent engagement teams at the schools, but it's a work. It's something that has to be established, I would say, at the beginning of the school year, because, in my opinion, if you don't make a connection with those families within the first month and a half or less, they are lost because they settle into the routines of their lives, either dropping their children off to school, getting back to work. What we always preach, which is the parent, is the child's first teacher, and that the more involved the parent is, the better the outcomes are for the child. So we let them go, because keeping track of them to some degree becomes just another job that someone has to do, but we don't realize the impact that it has on that child's education and ultimately on our relationship with the family when and if a problem arises. You know for the most part if they don't get a phone call from the school until there's a problem, then they've got a problem with that and you know what that makes sense to me.
Speaker 1:Like you're only going to reach out if there's an issue, but and only want my help or my perspective when you're hitting up against a mismatch for whatever reason. Like it can't just be when there's a problem or an issue it's. You know we're in this from the start, at the very beginning, and I think that's an excellent reminder for people that you know we have to start at the proverbial ground zero, right? Not wait until like hey, by the way, it's October or November and here's what we're seeing. Like we needed you at the beginning and you needed to show us that we were important and valuable at the beginning.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. The other thing that we're seeing too is, you know something that a lot of people don't talk about we start off with a trust deficit. Right, in many communities, the school has been there forever, right? So the same parents that now have children reflect on the times when they were mistreated or felt as if they were an outsider and they carry that memory into their experiences, their new experiences with their child. So they bring an attitude, if I could say, to the door. And when they re-experience or are re-traumatized with those same experiences, with new teachers and a new generation that's now meant to educate their most loved possession, their child, then they tend to react in ways that we don't appreciate and we don't seem to understand, without realizing that, hey, this is something that has been set up since before I was an employee in this district.
Speaker 1:Greg, do you mind if I ask my follow-up question? Okay, thank you, I'm just checking. Usually we kind of go back and forth and I know he's got things as well. I had written down and I love the way that you said this that you had had conversations and corrections growing up, and that's how I like to think about things too, like it's a conversation and a correction, not necessarily, like there's natural logical consequences, and I think that what that? The bigger word that goes with that that you had mentioned was communication. And how are we working in tandem with each other and, based on your work with the families and the parents and the caregivers, do you have recommendations on how we, as educators could better communicate or help people feel more comfortable with a communication if they've had a bad experience in education, like what has worked? What would be a welcoming way to re-engage people again when they've been hurt in the past?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. It really kind of starts with hello, introducing yourself. In many cases what we find is that parents don't even know who their child's teacher is. They haven't received an introductory letter, a phone call, an email is. They haven't received an introductory letter, a phone call, an email, and so they've just turned their child over to a system and they have no real point of contact. Nowadays it's hard to even get into the school past a security guard, and rightfully so. But you still want to know that you have an inside person that you can reach out to. If you have an issue with your child at home, you can convey that information. If there are some concerns that you have as a parent, you can ask that teacher hey, well, what have you been seeing at school? And without that level of connectivity, there's no effective communication between the school and the parent and unfortunately, the child is the person that falls through the cracks and suffers the consequences, and the school and the parent are both pointing the finger at one another, all while the child suffers.
Speaker 2:Well, I appreciate the fact that you share a common philosophy with me about our parents and our caregivers being our children's first teachers, because sometimes people lose sight that you actually are getting this wonderful gift from people who have their own traditions, rituals, who have their own traditions, rituals, upbringing, dreams, aspirations and more, and they have a cultural richness. They have a, you know, within what I consider to be culturally and linguistically prosperous communities, and I've talked at length in different conversations about sometimes there's a lost sight on the fact that our young people are the best gifts that their parents have. They are not they're presenting to you the best that they have and my parents have. You know the tools that they have and they're looking for a partnership, absolutely. And you know I really appreciate your strengths-based, assets-based framing for this and in today's environment, I think about this time last year when I was leading a school in the building and parents have more needs today than they may have had over the last couple of decades.
Speaker 2:Housing costs are astronomical. We're seeing a lot more transiency because families can't stay unified within a particular community because they can't afford to stay there. Gentrification is real. In many parts of the United States there's a lot of food deserts, especially for healthy, nutritious food that our young people can access at the corner stores, at bodegas and sometimes in school buildings. So they rely heavily on what is accessible, which is junk food. It doesn't fuel their bodies, but it's the best. Sometimes it may represent the best that they have at the time because that's what they have access to. And we understand that many of our families and caregivers also may be working several jobs in order for them to make sure that there's clothes on the backs of the children, that they have food in their bellies and their ability to get to and from wherever they need to go.
Speaker 2:And so I'm just curious, in the work that you are leading now, what are some of the strategies and ways that you have found success in strengthening partnerships with families individually or with schools? Because I understand that sometimes schools or particular members in school communities lose sight of the very thing I started with, which is parents are our children's first teachers, which I agree with you wholeheartedly too, that they come with so much, and sometimes people think that, oh, this parent, this family, this neighborhood doesn't have, and I'm like they actually have a lot if you really were open. So I'm just kind of curious with what? Are the ways that you are engaging families? What feels successful? Where are you seeing pockets of magic that's happening in regards to the work you lead?
Speaker 3:Okay, so once a week we have a virtual parent meeting and in that meeting everyone in the district is invited to attend. Teachers that meeting, everyone in the district is invited to attend. Teachers, families, even the students can attend if they can sneak away or if they happen to be on a down period, right, they can chime in. During those meetings we discuss whatever the issue of the day is or whichever issues the parents, the families, raise themselves. So we don't necessarily come in with an agenda. So if I'm having a concern about something that's happening at the high school, the middle school, as a parent I can raise that concern within this meeting, which is an hour, and I can share my experience, I can find out whether or not other families have had the same experience and because I'm a member of a team that's directly connected to the superintendent and to the cabinet of the school district, we can either directly address those questions and concerns or go straight to the top and say, hey, this is a serious concern that's growing and it needs to be addressed immediately, before it gets out of hand. So we do have that leverage. It's also effective because it allows parents to connect with one another, right, what we ultimately want is there to become a community within the community of parents that cooperate and share their best practices and share their experiences so that each one can help their child prosper and become more well-educated. Right. We learn from that process as well as a team, because we get to see what's working for them and what their actual concerns are, and when they raise those concerns we have the opportunity to say you know what? We need to create a workshop, we need to create a training around these concerns.
Speaker 3:Many times when we bring a student into a school district, we assume that a parent has read the student handbook. We assume that a child has read the handbook. Although they sign it they have to sign that as a part of the enrollment process it does not mean that they have read it and it definitely does not mean that they have understood the policies written within that handbook. So the onus is on the district to explain to the parents, to the students, what their rights and responsibilities are, and we have turned that into a process within which everyone is blinded, and so when something comes up, it's escalated to the highest priority because there was no initial understanding. And so when we bring parents in, when we have these open houses, when we have orientations. We have to take that time to actually begin developing a relationship. Let them know what the opportunities for learning more about enrollment are, more about opportunities and enrichments within the district and learning more about what their actual rights are and, more importantly, identifying who they can come to if they have a concern, because many times things are escalated because a person has been sitting and brooding a problem has been brooding.
Speaker 3:They don't know where to go with it. They talk to other parents. That parent doesn't know, and when they call a secretary, that secretary at the school may not have the best information or they may have had a bad day. So what you'll get is, you know, put on hold for a few minutes before you come back, and then you hear I'll have someone call you back and so the problem continues to brew and then when we hear about it, it's critical, it's an explosion, and that's something that could have been avoided way, way in the past, before it's turned into someone yelling and screaming at the security guard wanting to see the principal or at a board meeting wanting to see the principal or at a board meeting, and it's those kinds of things that set up the bad blood between school districts and the families that they are meant to serve.
Speaker 3:When the parent talks about the school district, who's in the room with them that child Does? That conversation that that child overhears influence what they think about the teacher and the school Absolutely. So. Now, when that child goes to school, they have a whole different attitude about the learning process, and it affects their outcomes. And so that partnership that you mentioned, that is so critical, has to be established from the beginning, and that's only done through effective and compassionate communication. We cannot look at parents as just people that are sending their child to school. We have to view them, in my opinion, in the same way that corporate America does, as a customer that we have to keep happy and we have to keep them coming back, because more and more now school choice is becoming a thing, and although in the past they were relegated to a different district, it's not the same as it used to be. If we had an exodus in our school district of, let's say, a thousand children, we would have some serious employment problems.
Speaker 2:I think that it's important to hold, that I think about. I hold so many parents who, god knows? They found me right at the parking lot, mr Martin. Mr Martin, hey, hi, what's going on? You didn't get my email. That so-and-so ain't tell you that I'm like, okay, well, why don't you tell me what it is now, so that we can find out what it is? And, uh, you know, it's also making sure not only that they feel heard, uh, but that you restate what you've heard, like here's what I'm hearing. Um, I want to make sure I'm clear because I may not like this. Your presentation is the first time I'm hearing about it. Can I actually get back? Like, give me 24 hours, let me do some investigation so I can get back to you with something.
Speaker 2:And I think that what is also something I hold when I think about my experiences in time in leading schools, but also what I would want as a parent.
Speaker 2:Our parents come and they do the very best that they can and sometimes we don't let, we don't, we don't bring them into better understand, like, this is the language of what we do, this is how we do, we do. I know parents have a lot of responsibility, so they don't always want that level of education. But you also have to figure out what is the creative way for them to be seen and know. Here's where your gifting could be very supportive to what we're doing. And knowing your kid shows up is an investment, is an investment in the school, is an investment in that kid Knowing that you do follow up with a text message or something like that may not be in the timeline that a teacher school wants, but that's their way of trying to stay connected to the thing. And I think that where you know we find this tension is we're not having enough conversations. Schools are not necessarily always community-based, where families and the staff you know, like we see in abbott Elementary, may live around the community Right.
Speaker 2:It's such a very you know, a very expansive community where parents could be coming from two towns over to actually get you know, get their kid to school and vice versa for so many others. So I appreciate what you shared from the lens, that you shared this, Thank you.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and you know a lot of it depends too on who's greeting that child or that parent at the door. You know, typically there is a security guard and we know that a security guard's job is to keep the facility secure, secure. So you may not get the warmest greeting or the biggest smile from a security guard, but someone has to be there to counter that experience right. So if you got someone whose job it is to make parents feel welcome, like a family engagement person or a principal or an assistant principal, that person should also be there to just provide a balance and, like you mentioned, to give an immediate answer or to a question or to say let me get back with you on something, so that that parent knows that somebody is there to listen if they have a concern.
Speaker 1:I've been thinking about that idea of the how are you kicking off the year and I appreciate that you really brought it down to how are people experiencing entry into your building and the connections and you know, I think about and I'm sure, craig and and you too, kevin, moving from school to school, you know, schools feel different depending upon where you go, and it matters, it really does matter. And so when we think about social, emotional learning and connecting to other people, it's not just classroom teachers, it is everybody who's involved in the children's lives, the family's lives, from the moment you, you know, ring that bell outside to the voice you hear asking why you've shown up. It all matters and it all resonates and it all impacts the feelings that we have in, I think, even to our level of wanting to connect. And I'm going to switch it up a little bit, thinking about our time. And I'm going to switch it up a little bit, thinking about our time and I'm going to I want to go back to your children's book.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:And I want to bring this up because one of my boys has a lot of anxiety and he I'm going to be fully transparent he gets it from me and you know. So I hate that I passed that down, but his is specific around transitions and so it didn't really kick into gear until fifth grade, but then eighth grade and 12th grade, and so your book here Dakota Doesn't have to Worry is about the pre-K and kindergarten transition. This is this huge and it is like life altering milestone. It's anxious for the kids and for the parents to kind of have that release, and so I think I'd like to hear you know if you could talk about your book. We're going to have it linked up to Amazon so that people know where they can get a copy. But I think it's just as valuable for the parents as it is for the kids to know what this looks like for them, and I'd like to hear a little bit more about the book, what inspired you to start it and what people can get from their purchase.
Speaker 3:Okay, absolutely, and I appreciate the question. So, as a parent engagement specialist, when we were doing enrollment screenings for the children, this is something that would happen. It would begin in the summer and it rolled well into the school year, which really began mid-August. The children questions and you expect them to be able to perform a certain task based on their age. What we found is many children had never held a pencil, maybe because their parents didn't want them to write on the wall. They didn't have a ball to play with or anyone to catch or throw a ball to. Maybe because they were the only sibling and there were other milestones like this.
Speaker 3:Problem solving was the big one, problem solving milestones and just social interaction. We teach our children not to talk with a stranger, but if that stranger is the screener and asking a question that's pertinent to how that child is placed in a classroom, then we need to be able to help that child feel comfortable in the presence of the parent, in the presence of the screener, so that that child is properly placed and that their answer or a lack of response is not misunderstood and that child is placed in a classroom that they don't belong in, right? So, after seeing this, for about two years, probably close to three. I said, man, there's got to be a solution to this. Sometimes we'll say, hey, these are the things that you need to bring to enrollment, but we won't prep them on what that child should have learned or they should have taught during that coming of age, before they get to an enrollment screening.
Speaker 3:A lot of parents, you know, as loving as we can be, as much as we try to protect our child and be there for that child, education is not really the thing we're trying to bring to them.
Speaker 3:When they're a year old, two years old, three years old, we think that just loving them, feeding them, taking them to fun places is enough.
Speaker 3:But really all those things are part of the learning process and we have to prepare them for formal education. So there's that component and you can also factor in the fact that some parents are extremely protective to their child and they do not enroll their child in school until they absolutely have to, until it's legally mandated, which in some cases is not, until that child is six or seven years old, which means that that child is missed out on probably three years of learning by not having gone to a preschool. That's socialization, that's language exposure, that's you know colors and shapes and just all kinds of interactions, and so that's a deficit that shows up when that child goes through an enrollment screening. And so the book was meant to give parents a heads up on the things that they should probably be teaching their child before they get to kindergarten, and those things are meant to help them get the best start in education that they possibly could.
Speaker 1:I love that and especially, and even being a high school teacher, I was talking to some of my elementary friends and Craig, you're probably going to laugh at this, and Kevin, you would get it right away too but my friends were like, you know, kids need to learn how to put their own coat on and I'm like I don't know, like we can't zipper and button all 20 kids up and have them outside. I'm like, oh my gosh, like it had never been in my experience because I've only had the two kids. But things like that, that how can we help prep kids for independence as well? Some pieces, yeah. So I love that and I think that's a fantastic resource for our parents. And, like I said, even if we are in education but this is not what I, the level that I work in I didn't know a lot of these things and so I relied on my friends in education to help me with that.
Speaker 3:And just imagine, if you don't have that connection with a person in education, how would you know? Until you show up at that screening and you see your child perform poorly. And now, as a parent, you're embarrassed because you feel as if you failed your child, because, truly, if that score comes back, you know and they say, oh well, your child has some deficits, we need to have some additional resources for your child. You're thinking, wow, you know what happened. What didn't I do? So this is meant to help correct that sense and just get kids on the best path that they could be on.
Speaker 1:Thank you and, for those of you who are listening, check out the link in the notes because you can take it right to Amazon to get this for you. I'm gonna kick it back over to Craig. For our ever famous question that we ask all guests, and Kevin, I've been trying not to tell you about it. For our ever famous question that we ask all guests and Kevin, I've been trying not to tell you about.
Speaker 2:But all right, I'm sitting down. So who has the best pizza? I think is the.
Speaker 3:Oh, my goodness. So the best pizza hands down St Louis area, this is Emo's Pizza. Now, a lot of people have not heard of Emo's. When you think of Emo's Pizza, you're going to say that pizza is as thin as a playing card. They call that pepperoni. On that it's like a nickel-sized slice of pepperoni. But this stuff is so good, man, if you come to St Louis or the St Louis area, you better make sure you have a slice of Emo's pizza, because you will not forget it. You will not forget it, you can eat a whole pizza by yourself.
Speaker 3:So that's one of the benefits. You will still have room for dessert, but it is to me that good.
Speaker 2:That's good to know. I'm'm gonna ask the second question, that is you know, top of mind and, uh, our, you know our question.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know that we asked all the guests now that's a good new question like, okay, what do you think about pizza? What is the best pizza? Because people are traveling and I'm getting hungry. So, uh, what you know, we, we do ask every person because we feel like you know, you are luminous in to so many who may not, who may not have the best days and they are struggling in the shadows of whatever's going on. And, for some reason, your presence, your smile, your, you know, you wrap your arm around them and give them a hug, represents so much and you probably you've already shared so many gifts with us. But what do you feel at this point in your life is your superpower?
Speaker 3:Wow, I would say my superpower is just being able to make someone have a little bit of a laugh at themselves through some insight. You know, I like to kind of twist stories up and just kind of have people look at the glass the half of the glass that's full Right, instead of the half that's empty. So when you take a moment to analyze the situation and you can do that you can, you know, pretty much bring them to a more positive conclusion. And you know, again, I'm not always serious, even though I always have a serious face. You know, when I throw a joke in, people are surprised, and so I think that's the superpower that I have.
Speaker 1:Do you have any go-to jokes that you like to pull out like back pocket jokes?
Speaker 3:No, it's not even that kind of joke, not even, like you know, three guys went to the corner store kind of joke it's. You know. I would say that, because of the audiences that I've worked with in the past, I am always analyzing a situation right, and so I take a little bit of pride in being able to assess a situation even as I'm walking up to it and just kind of pull out something that's you know, situationally relevant and just kind of putting it out there for people to take a look at.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I appreciate that.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 2:So for folks who are excited and ignited to connect with you, I would love to lean in a little bit more about some of the the magic that you carry with you to support the needs of young people and their caregivers and families on a day-to-day basis. How will they go about doing that?
Speaker 3:Well, you can reach me at my email address, which is kevinhopkins at estl189.com. That's because I'm an employee of East St Louis School, district 189. So again, it's kevinhopkins at estl189.com. If you'd like, I can send you a link to our weekly virtual parent meeting. You can just kind of sit in and interact with the parents that are there, just kind of contribute to the topic of the day. And, if you like, even more, we could send you some links to some of the virtual workshops that we have and that ranges from you know things like the history of East St Louis to mental health, to SEL conversations you know just a variety of things and even the legal components of enrollment. So we have a lot of community partners that we bring on to interact with and just kind of help counsel our parents. So I'm welcome, I'm happy to share any of those resources you know with anyone.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you Well, sel and EDU family. It has been phenomenal. We have had the incredible and incomparable Kevin Hopkins, who has been here with us, and so you got to do all the things so that you can get settled up and ready. That is a Cowboy Carter reference? Yes, it is, and all of the all of the magic that he brings to the wonderful people of St Louis and beyond, to the wonderful people of St Louis and beyond. So, until we meet again, we want you to hold you and yours real tight and we want you to continue to stand strong, 10 toes deep in that great, mighty light. We love you and we will talk to you again soon, thank you.
