Blog

Live Oak Charter School in Petaluma hosted the Schoolbox Project to help train and support parents and educators in responding to the crisis in our community. Key messages include: Our local wildfires happened in the context of many other recent world events that were already troubling our residents. Our disaster was not just a short event that ended after a few hours or a day, this is a longer term crisis that is taking a toll on our ability to cope. Our recovery is likely to take weeks,...

When the clouds darken and rain starts pouring down, many Houston-area elementary school students get nervous and start to sob — a sign of the long-lasting effects of watching the water levels rise during and after Hurricane Harvey. For Donna Wotkyns, a licensed social worker in Houston, that reaction shows exactly why ramping up resources for long-term mental health services for Texas students is necessary. “I’m a big believer in … support groups, getting together multiple children or youth...

When Emerie Lukas was hired to develop and teach a STEM Foundations course to middle school students at the Dayton Regional STEM School , she was starting from scratch. The stated goal of the course was to prepare students for more rigorous work in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) classes in high school, but Lukas knew that meant far more than academic preparation. She needed to teach her students how to give and take effective feedback, how to solve conflicts, how to...

After stepping down from her position as principal at Science Hill High School in May, Melanie Riden-Bacon set out to transform what was once known as the Alternative Center into what is now Topper Academy. Riden-Bacon, now the Topper Academy director, said in July that it was time for a “culture shift.” Part of that shift involved instituting trauma care training and rewarding good behavior and academic achievement, rather than using the center as a “punitive” place for students struggling...

When considering implementing trauma-informed practices in your school, you might find yourself asking: How do I know which students have experienced trauma, so I can teach those students in a trauma-informed way? While it’s important to identify students in need of extra support, we can use trauma-informed practices with every single student because they benefit them all. Think of a wheelchair-accessible ramp to a building: Not every single person needs it, but it significantly removes...

The idea behind public education is simple: A community pays into a system that aims to create a bright future for the next generation. Years pass, and those kids grow up. They pay into the same system, yielding the same dividends. Repeat. But things aren’t always that simple. As this week’s episode explains, the policies that shape public education can be subject to influences – ideological and financial. We begin with a profile of President Donald Trump’s Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos.

Deadline: Nov. 1, 2017 The Attachment & Trauma Network, Inc. (ATN) is hosting this National Conference for Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools at the Washington Hilton Washington, DC, February 19-20, 2018, to give all educators — teachers, administrators and school personnel — as well as other child-serving professionals, community leaders and parents an opportunity to explore the importance of trauma-informed care for in schools and other child-serving environments. Through the ACE...

The schools in Puerto Rico are facing massive challenges. All the public schools are without electricity, and more than half don't have water. More than 100 are still functioning as shelters. But Puerto Rico's secretary of education, Julia Keleher, tells us that the schools that are open are serving as connection points for communities. They've become a place where children and their families can eat a hot meal and get some emotional support, too. [For more on this story by MERRIT KENNEDY,...

In 2013, Trisha Prabhu read a news story that broke her heart - a 12-year-old girl had taken her life after experiencing cyberbullying. Prabhu was only 13 at the time and couldn't understand someone younger than her taking her own life. However, instead of processing her shock and moving on, she decided to do something about it. The inner workings of the brain had always fascinated Prabhu, so she decided to research adolescent behavior as it relates to cyberbullying for a science fair. What...

Teens sneak a peek at the internet every chance they get. In fact, the average U.S. teenager spends almost nine hours a day on digital devices. Much of that time is on social media, such as Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook. The sites have become important places for students to interact. But sometimes these connections lead to disconnections. Depending on whether people notice your posts — and how positively they respond — your online interactions may be quite positive. Or not. Social media...

The life of a military family comes with a powerful sense of patriotism and pride, but also definite, daily challenges. Personnel are typically transferred every two to three years, which means their children may attend as many as nine schools during their lives. Add to that the stress these students suffer when parents are deployed overseas, are sent into combat or return home wounded. Military-connected students—compared to civilian classmates—have moderately elevated rates of just about...

The world of education is alive with buzzwords like innovation, inclusion, and mindfulness; another term gaining traction is restorative practices, also called restorative justice. Restorative practices are a burgeoning alternative to traditional punitive justice such as suspensions (both in school and out of school) and other exclusionary forms of discipline. Many states are legislating a movement away from prescribed punitive justice for misbehavior in schools, and restorative practices...