Drudgery and Dreams

18/09/2023

Sometimes dinner is a bowl of oranges...
and that's okay!

Sara Pace

07/06/2023

This is your opportunity to have your voice heard and to connect with other NDs as well.

The ND23 Project's 2nd Listening Session will be:
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
from 4:30 - 6:30 pm Pacific Time.

Topics include:
👉 Barriers to Success
👉 Solutions & Alternatives
👉 Community Resources

The goal of ND23 is to help community members make their projects happen.

The goal of listening sessions is for the Umbrella Alliance executive team and the ND23 Project team to listen to community members' concerns and ideas.

Salena Gavin will be our moderator for this session.

About Salena:
➡ Certified School Psychologist at JFK Community Center
➡ M.Ed. in Education Psychology

Salena's areas of expertise:
➡ Prevention Based Programming for low income youth
➡ Experiential Learning
➡ Breaking Barriers and Stigmatization

Register today:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEucO6vrjMuGdxXfNpwiSdMJ0oR-7tnYjgE

(If you attended the May session, you do not need to register again.)

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Don't forget to follow and share!

Notes from Listening Session 1:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GEnVAS2eA5xtFAFpGO_58nKmErxs7l_u0bRwJk8yyts/edit?usp=sharing
Image Description: A yellow background with accents of blue and purple gives information about the 2nd Listening Session for ND23. At the top is an image of a person looking at a screen during an online meeting. A circular frame in the right center contains a picture of a black woman smiling at the camera. It is labeled Salena Gavin, M.Ed, moderator. Text on the image reads:
Join the discussion in this 2nd Listening Session.
Tuesday, June 13, 2023 from 4:30 to 6:30 pm Pacific Time Discussion Topics: Barriers to Success, Solutions & Alternatives, Community Resources.
web address: UmbrellaAllianceUS.com/projects

23/05/2023

With the school year coming to a close--everybody is heading into transition. Whether you're excited or scared s**tless, listen up because we're gonna talk through all the different end of school year transitions, frustrations, and coping skills this summer will require for both children AND adults....

09/05/2023

Raise your hand if you have bought a planner, used it for a good two weeks, and then left it to die in a drawer or doom pile filled with more planners. The complexities that are being multi-passionate, and an intense planner who may or may not need flexibility leads you to a planner graveyard. You c...

01/05/2023

Love Sharon's newsletter. Here is a recent share - Anti-Racism Reading List April 2023

10+ articles and resources to further your anti-racism learning and action

25/04/2023

The Struggle Bus is real. Oh, s**t, can I say that? Today's conversation takes Angela and Molly into the DSM 5 game of Autistic "levels" of support. Where they will talk all about the importance of words, how outdated words need to go (maybe), why functioning labels (in all forms) can fly a freakin'...

18/04/2023

“A whole bunch of listeners just felt really seen”

"nearly 75% of the ND community experiences economic INsecurity and that a majority of the 25% who do experience security are white and privileged"

“I'm just not able to put energy into anything other than this thing that I'm doing” and her partner “not having access to me yet me…being extra needy emotionally and him having to expend emotional energy and put his his own needs to the side in order to take care of mine”

***r Angela Locashio Molly Hicks ND23 Project Umbrella Alliance

“Have you ever had something you were looking forward to so much, and you had to put so much effort and energy in planning that thing and it’s consumed your mind and kept you up at night? And you’re up in the morning and you’re barely eating or you’re over eating? Because you’re putting ...

18/04/2023

“Have you ever had something you were looking forward to so much, and you had to put so much effort and energy in planning that thing and it's consumed your mind and kept you up at night? And you're up in the morning and you're barely eating or you're over eating? Because you're putting so much ef...

04/04/2023

Rebecca A. Weiner, M.Ed. ( Learn Play Grow with Rebecca A Weiner, M.Ed. back with us today in this powerful episode about inclusion, advocacy and self-advocacy, IEPs and other learning plans and goal-setting, and the power of curiosity. 💖

Seriously, she has an amazing story about a classroom transformation all thanks to the power of “so what” and “what-if” in one of the classrooms she has collaborated with.

Molly ( Molly Hicks, Brand Strategy + Design ) brings in real-life questions and experiences from a parent perspective and Angela ( Angela Locashio about poverty, justice, and access—or lack of it—to resources which make it easier or exponentially more difficult for students, parents, teachers, staff members, schools, and the community to have what they need for education to be meaningful and effective.

👀 Watch now on our YouTube channel-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB236kvzb8M&t=3s

🎧 Catch the episode on your favorite podcast app!

04/04/2023

Rebecca A. Weiner, M.Ed. is back with us today in this powerful episode about inclusion, advocacy and self-advocacy, IEPs and other learning plans and goal-setting, and the power of curiosity (seriously, she has an amazing story about a classroom transformation all thanks to the power of “so what....

14/03/2023

Molly and Angela are joined by Stimagz founder, Kody Lukens. They start the episode off right nerding out over Mandalorian - don't worry, no spoilers - and the Millenium Falcon before jumping into the creation of Stimagz, Kody's ADHD experience, how cool squirrels are, motivation, entrepreneurship,....

28/02/2023

“Back the fork up. I'm about to explode like my little kiddos house in Minecraft when it's built from TNT” (Molly, 7:56). Today, we are talking about needing accommodations but not always getting them because we are the one’s doing the accommodations most of the time. Because we can…until we...

14/02/2023

Rocking, magnets, and squeeks*! Oh my! In this episode, we get into the nitty gritty of the senses, all eight of them. You heard that right—EIGHT, not the five you were taught in elementary school! Then things get stimmy when Molly shares how multiple ND people in one home can be tricky and Angela...

07/02/2023

Sergeant Squeaks is in the house! Molly may not have known they were neurodivergent their whole life–but now that she does? Well–that’s what this episode is all about. Reflecting on the highest and lowest points of her past to acknowledge the (now obvious) signs of her ND life. Listen as Angel...

31/01/2023

You asked for it so here it is. Angela’s story. Angela takes Molly on a tour through her Wonderland. The story starts in Weirdville and takes a side quest to Q***rtown. A trip to Autisticland brings back memories for Molly as she recalls Angela’s first visit before she realized that it was home....

24/01/2023

Welcome to Season 2! Molly and Angela are excited to get going this year! And what better topic than resolutions and transitions, right? True to their ND spirits, they aren’t jumping on the resolutions bandwagon. Instead, they are talking anti-resolutions by not making resolutions at all or—YIKE...

13/12/2022

Depending on your own neurospicy flavor, this week's episode may be a must listen. We're talking all about how medicines eff with our ability to mask, the different ways people in the neurodivergent community view masking, and all the overloads/meltdowns--and even this word is a controversy in the c...

06/12/2022

We are giving a big ass enthusiastic YES! to this one!!! From FRIES to rings and yummy goodness in between, this episode is a full course meal! Angela loves to blow folks’ minds with her take on consent and Molly reminds us all that not only is consent a process, but learning about it and how to i...

29/11/2022

Touch and connection with people. It’s something we all need but we want it on our own terms. Molly and Angela talk about being touched out and peopled out in this episode. Join us for this conversation as we talk about the shame and guilt that comes with touch in a variety of our relationships an...

15/11/2022

The holidays. We could probably just stop there and our point is made. Alas, we have more to say. Join us as we talk about challenges that neurodivergent and q***r ADULTS (of course, we do talk about the littles as well, we are parents after all) experience at this time of year. With its hearty bell...

09/11/2022

In this episode of Drudgery and Dreams, Molly and Angela dive into the importance of co-regulation. Last week, Molly showed us all how to co-regulate when she supported Angela when she got overwhelmed and was legit frozen from the restraints of time and the sheer amount of things she wanted to say a...

01/11/2022

Bo***ge, Dominance, Submission…let’s talk about that! Today, Molly and Angela delve into B**M—but not exactly in the way you might expect. We aren’t talking about s*x, baby! This episode is all about understanding how the structure and practices within B**M can support us individually as wel...

30/10/2022

Educators with growth mindset are my heroes, says Rebecca Learn Play Grow with Rebecca A Weiner, M.Ed.

She shares about how Carol Dweck talks about this fixed mindset where things are predetermined, they are what they are, they will not change.

And then this growth mindset where we sit with compassionate curiosity, and we re examine and we move in different directions.

LISTEN NOW on your fave podcast app!

29/10/2022

It's okay to realize that what you were doing is not what you like, and you want to change direction. And you don't owe anybody an explanation for that.

Because it's your choice to change your mind. And you're allowed to do that.

I feel like that's just a life lesson across the board, like, you are a different person, every moment of every day because you've experienced something new.

And that is influencing how you act and respond to things. You're gonna change your mind. Because you've learned something new.

And you were using that, to now better understand and use critical thinking and problem solve that scenario.

28/10/2022

It’s easy to play the blame game and we are all here knowing the harm that can happen within a system that is broken—and the system is broken.

With so many teachers who have their own lived experience involving trauma, without understanding the concepts of self-regulation and co-regulation, how are they going to honor the humanity of the kids when their own humanity feels dismissed by this broken system?

And don’t forget about the parents in all of this. Parents also have their own experiences that contribute to their ability to trust and communicate with the school and their children’s teachers.

Angela reminds us that it is important to look at all of this through an intersectional lens—“we need to provide a psychologically safe space so parents feel that they can share” (55:06).

27/10/2022

Rebecca ( Learn Play Grow with Rebecca A Weiner, M.Ed. here planting seeds of change so families and teachers, who have been talked out of their intuition and their inner knowing, can trust themselves and each other to do what is in the best interest of our children.

Listen to all the nuggets of knowledge and great strategies she shares for parents, teachers, and humans alike!

(Rebecca's fan club showed up for the LIVE recording of the episode and it was amazing to see how much of a postive impact she has on everyone!)

26/10/2022

This week we're talking all about education, neurodivergence, and our tiny humans who are just freaking amazing!

A lot of times as parents we forget that our littles are learning from how we ACT--which means we have to demonstrate these skills to them.

BUT we also have to normalize the human experience--like getting dysregulated from all the sounds, touches, and whatever else is making you want to scream!

Listen to this week's episode to get the whole scoop!