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Devereux MA/RI clinician shares remote learning tips during Department of Revenue presentation

Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health Massachusetts and Rhode Island Therapeutic Day School Clinician Jessica Kemp, Ph.D., NCSP, recently offered tips to help parents engage children in remote instruction during a virtual panel discussion hosted by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s Diversity Council.

Kemp was asked to participate in the presentation as a result of her experience helping students, families and caregivers embrace online learning during COVID-19.

“I want to thank the Department of Revenue for the opportunity to participate in this panel discussion,” said Kemp. “I have been hearing from many students and families that they are ‘running on empty.’ I hope this presentation provided validation that they are not in this alone, and offered some go-to tips they can use to ‘reboot’ and more effectively manage some of the stressors associated with learning and working from home.”

Staying focused, motivated

During the presentation, Kemp shared the following strategies to help students stay focused and motivated to complete their schoolwork:

• Adjust expectations: Recognize that during the traditional, in-person school day, students are not working 100 percent of the time – this also applies to remote learning.
• Use “first-then” statements: Motivate children to complete tasks by using statements such as, “First, finish your math class, and then, we can make snacks together and play a game.” Or, “First, finish your reading assignment, and then you can use your tablet.”
• Identify roadblocks: Determine what is preventing a student from completing a task. Are they having trouble understanding a new skill? Are they bored? Do they need to move around?
• Encourage fidgeting: Provide children with putty, playdough or a squishy ball to help them relieve stress or anxiety.
• Set timers: Let students see how much time they have left in class or to complete work.
• Take breaks: Take at least three “brain breaks” per day (e.g., go for a walk; draw/color; play a game) with your child, and encourage him or her to ask for a break, if needed.
• Create a fun, relaxed atmosphere: Help students update their at-home classroom space with items such as aromatherapy diffusers, fun pens, colorful sticky notes or a poster to make the area more inviting.

Facilitating student success

Kemp also discussed ways to promote socialization, while social distancing; cope with changes in school schedules; set boundaries; manage stress; support youth with special needs; and help students adapt to appearing on camera.

“I have always been passionate about capacity building. As a school psychologist, I am often focused on how I can best support families and caregivers, as they are the ones with the children a majority of the time,” Kemp explained. “My goal is to not only build skills with individual students, but to help families establish routines and systems that they can integrate into their daily lives to facilitate their students’ success.”

Learn more about Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health.

Photo caption 1: Devereux Massachusetts and Rhode Island Therapeutic Day School Clinician Jessica Kemp, Ph.D., NCSP, recently offered tips to help parents engage children in remote instruction during a virtual panel discussion hosted by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s Diversity Council.

Hire better with Back Pocket Resources!

Back Pocket Resources is pleased to announce the redesign of its service offerings to better serve small business leaders as their companies grow. Based on numerous conversations with business leaders, we have developed a framework for better hiring with new workshops and training programs in addition to our consulting services.

We believe that there are people behind every business’s success and teach our clients our comprehensive holistic approach to productive hiring. Getting the right people is easily one of the biggest challenges that businesses face, and 99% of people have a horror story of working with the wrong person and know what a negative impact that can have. Hiring a new employee is a sign of growth, and should be cause for celebration, but inefficient and outdated practices can make the process unpleasant for everyone involved. There is a better way, and Back Pocket Resources is ready to help your company learn it.

At Back Pocket Resources, we believe hiring is broken. Our belief is based on almost two decades of staffing and recruiting experience working with some of the biggest brands in the world. Nobody can deny that hiring is the most important thing that a business has to do. The growth and success of the company is tied directly to having the right people in the room.

Hiring is not just about writing a job description and interviewing, but in preparing the path for new employees to be successful. You can hire the perfect person into the wrong team or environment and they will never become productive. We help business leaders stop the frustration of wasting time and money on bad and outdated hiring practices. Instead, we directly impact the bottom line by providing the resources to improve the team’s effectiveness, through improved employee engagement, experience, and retention.

Hire better with Back Pocket Resources!

E2G Sports Has a Take on Your Favorite Teams

It helps being passionate toward sports. That becomes the basis for following a particular sport or organization and watching them perform on and off the field. Sports talk shows dominate the airwaves locally and nationally discussing what teams should do to improve and measuring fans’ reaction.

For Buddy Andrade, owner of E2G Sports in Pawtucket, there is no greater release to him than talking about sports. He grew up working in the industry and when the opportunity to transition into hosting sports podcasts arose, he jumped into the fray.

“I worked in radio at the former AM790 The Score and WEEI-FM (both located in Providence) with some very knowledgeable people,” said Andrade. “When that ended, I worked for the New England Patriots for several years. I met players and season ticket holders working at the Pro Shop. People were in a happy mood coming in to see what’s happening. For those who only went to one game a year, they loved making an entire weekend of touring Patriot Place.”

Andrade spoke with everyone regarding what they thought would happen in that day’s Patriots game or their season predictions. Many regular visitors invested their time offering their opinions. Andrade concluded many attending games possessed the same passion and commitment to the sport as he did. Andrade also loved hearing what other people said about the topics affecting the team and what could/should be done.

Buddy occasionally met players, who came in to purchase jerseys and other items for their families and friends. He established a good rapport with them as well as the staff, many of whom he still stays connected with.

Andrade said social media helps him keep tabs with them—and with one special family he befriended.

“I helped one family who was a ‘Make-A-Wish’ child. The child wanted to meet Wes Welker and Tom Brady. I helped make that happen. The players were super gracious in donating their time and spent a lot of time with the family. I still connect with the family on Facebook,” he said.

By 2015, Andrade decided to leave the Patriots and begin his own company. He wanted to have a platform in which he could have a say in what was happening in sports…with a twist. Instead of focusing on the well-known players (like Brady, for example), Andrade focuses his attention on lesser-known players. He said they can make an impact on the field, despite not being a household name. While Brady’s story is well documented, others aren’t necessarily on the radar.

Andrade points to one such player who made a permanent impact on the Patriots—and into history.

“Few people knew who Malcolm Butler was when he was on the team,” said Andrade. “He was an undrafted free agent from the University of West Alabama, who was buried on their depth chart. He would get burned on plays during practices. However, he learned from those mistakes. When he was pressed into action toward the end of Super Bowl XLVIIII, Butler made the key interception in the end zone to seal the game.

“Those are the types of players I like to highlight,” he added.

Andrade and his hosts have a wide range of sports topics. His podcasts offer the major sports (football, baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer) plus one for professional wrestling and MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), among other topics. One features a women’s roundtable that is one of the most popular shows they offer. Andrade hopes to add golf, tennis and NASCAR shows in the spring.

Another big event taking place at the end of April is the NFL Draft. It comprises three days of pro teams selecting the best players from college football. It has become big business because of draft pundits forecasting who will play where while colleges and universities begin recruiting future stars.

Andrade is working to hold NFL Draft live podcasts from April 29 to May 1. Because of COVID-19 protocols, he is contacting area restaurants and event centers to coordinate details.

On Saturday, May 1, Andrade will hold one such event. Buddy and his staff will be broadcasting live at R1 Indoor Karting on Higginson Street in Lincoln from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Besides the shows, there will be fun and activities planned that day. For now, roughly 30 people can attend safely due to Covid protocols. Andrade said he hopes that number increases as restrictions are eased.

Other event information will be posted on social media platforms and on his new website at www.e2gsports.com. Andrade praised the work of Guillermo Garcia of Pixeles Digital Marketing in Cranston for creating his new website.

The biggest thrill Andrade has is interacting with other sports fans.

“I love talking with other sports fans about their feelings regarding their favorite teams. There are a lot of smart people who have something to say about the state of their teams. The podcasts are a great forum to express those views and get conversations going,” he said.

For more information about the podcasts, including airtimes and guests, please contact Buddy at 774-473-8824 or visit the website.

Be Wise and Plan for YOUR Financial Future

If the events of the past 12 months have taught the world anything, then the message should have been to leave absolutely nothing to chance. Life has a funny (and not so funny) way of changing instantly. Adapting to those problems can make the difference between either getting away unscathed or being buried beneath the rubble. The pandemic has given everyone a valuable resource to consider planning ahead in their lives, be it on a professional, personal, or any other level.

That extends to the future. While few people possess a crystal ball and can correctly predict with any certainty, the coronavirus has proven to be a catalyst for change. Financial wellness went to the forefront of the discussion because of the pandemic. People who may not have a clue about their retirement accounts or what other benefits they are eligible for were suddenly forced to take action. In many cases, the public may have been unaware of services available to help navigate them through this path. For those who may be lost in the woods, there is a beacon of light in the form of a nonprofit organization that helps those needing a financial life raft.

The Foundation for Financial Education (F3E) serves to help people with money-related issues and concerns. The Foundation offers virtual seminars that are easy to implement and attendees can gain access to no-cost, high-value financial education training.

Nicholas Pacheco, who serves as the Rhode Island Director of Operations for F3E, said there is a lot of financial information out there that may easily confuse most people. As an educator, Pacheco’s job is to provide people with financial education in simple terms so they can make informed decisions impacting their day-to-day finances and beyond.

“We specialize in helping any type of business—big, small, or in between—that has questions or concerns about various financial topics that impact their lives,” Pacheco said. “As an accredited 501c(3) organization, the Foundation helps to improve employee productivity and morale, reduce HR costs, and provide unbiased financial education and guidance. There is no cost to either the employer or to the employee to either host or attend any of our seminars. They are mostly done virtually to adhere to social distancing rules.”

There are numerous topics for companies to become more immersed with. Such courses range from advanced Social Security planning, asset preservation workshops, maximizing one’s investments post-pandemic, benefits for federal employees, and addressing risks like identity theft and taxation. All of these and the other seminars offer either company-wide or one-to-one support, Pacheco said.

Some other topics taught by Pacheco and the Foundation include:

• 10 Steps to Financial Freedom…among the topics in this portal are creating a budget, getting out of debt, and finding your “money view.”
• Estate Planning…dealing with death and estate taxes, preparing wills and trust, and learning about probate and its relationship with your estate.
• Planned Giving…learning the differences between a one-time gift and an ongoing gift, the tax ramifications to a family and the estate, and using a charitable trust or charitable strategies for planned giving.

These are several of the dozens of seminars and subjects the Foundation provides information about. The programs can be tailored to fit any specific needs or concerns, said Pacheco.

“The Foundation looks to be an educational resource for all things that affect the health and well-being of the people we serve,” he said. “This is a Foundation that services businesses and individuals across the country, so their network of national resources is very strong. In this industry, there are not many opportunities to give back. This is one of those chances to do that and make a difference.”

Pacheco said his involvement with the Foundation spans several years but he has been serving people for twenty years. He cites his wanting to “pay it forward” and having other people learn from his knowledge within the industry are intangible rewards for participating in this endeavor.

As with many of the hot topics concerning money and financial stability, Pacheco invites anyone who is interested to attend a no-cost seminar on “Maximizing Social Security in Uncertain Times,” on Wednesday, March 24, beginning at 6:30 pm. This event will help attendees with claiming strategies, discuss how to maximize their pension including claiming strategies, the impact of IRA withdrawals, and taxation of benefits. Details for the event may be found by emailing him at the address below.

The Foundation for Financial Education is a non-profit organization dedicated to spreading financial literacy by providing free educational resources directly to the public. Founded as a result of an urgent need to eliminate financial illiteracy, F3E has helped thousands of individuals become more fiscally fit by understanding financial pitfalls that they may encounter in their everyday lives.

For additional information about the project or to schedule a meeting with Nicholas Pacheco, please contact him either by email at nicholas@f3eonline.org or call him at 401-314-4100