Blog

By Gina Caneva, Photo: Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times, Chicago Sun-Times, March 13, 2022 A few weeks ago, a colleague of mine stepped into our suburban high school’s library, sat down and took a deep breath before slumping her shoulders and opening up her laptop. I could tell that something was bothering her. I know the look of helplessness mixed with defeat all too well. Eighteen years ago, when I was a teacher at Corliss High School on Chicago’s South Side, I had that same look as I stood in the...

By John MacPhee, Photo: Getty Images, The 74 Million, March 14, 2022 P resident Joe Biden recently gave his first State of the Union address , highlighting the urgent need to address the youth mental health crisis exacerbated by the pandemic and providing recommendations for how the various institutions that serve and surround young people can do so. Perhaps the most important of these institutions is the one where teens and young adults spend most of their time: their schools. Although...

By Mavis Sanders, Photo: Unsplash, Child Trends, March 17, 2022 In Spring 2020, when schools abruptly closed due to COVID-19, millions of children in low-income communities lost access to free and reduced-price meals . Food insecurity and the risk of hunger subsequently increased for these children and their families. Full-service community schools (FSCSs)—schools that integrate social and health services, extended learning opportunities, family and community engagement, and collaborative...

There's a stigma around teachers taking time off People still tell me on a regular basis how lucky I am to have summers off. When I recently told someone that I don't generally take the full summer off — last summer I spent two full weeks away taking courses, another few weeks lesson planning, and yet more time preparing for the coming year — they said they didn't think that was the norm. The data tells a different story: About one in six teachers work second (or third) jobs during the...

Trauma in schools is real and has been worsened by the pandemic. This has not spared Kenyan schools. There is need to create mental health awareness by introducing Trauma Informed practices and create trauma sensitive schools. Teachers in Kenya have experienced burn out, fatigue and attrition well known as compassion fatigue or secondary trauma. Kenya education has lots of challenges; in 2013 the presidential aspirant then Mwai Kibaki promised free primary school education. After he became...

By Lily Bohlke, Photo: Teran/Adobe Stock, Public News Service, March 8, 2022 A program in Massachusetts aims to provide training on trauma-informed care for early educators. It's called Readying Educators and Developing Young Children for Great Outcomes (READYGO). The first cohort of early educators enrolled in the program is in the midst of the second of two courses on creating trauma-informed learning environments and behavioral-management skills. Joe Diamond, executive director of the...

Amid a crush of heavy news from around the world, who couldn't use some sage advice right now? Call a new hotline, and you'll get just that — encouraging words from a resilient group of kindergartners. Kids' voices will prompt you with a menu of options: If you're feeling mad, frustrated or nervous, press 1. If you need words of encouragement and life advice, press 2. If you need a pep talk from kindergartners, press 3. If you need to hear kids laughing with delight, press 4. For...

Has the pandemic stressed you out? Would you like to learn the self-soothing skills of Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience directly from the author, Dr. Carolyn Curtis? Good news! The Dibble Institute has received generous funding for scholarships to the online, full 12-lesson series , Mind Matters Now . The course helps teachers, social workers, medical professionals, and others manage their stress by building resilience skills and practices for mental wellbeing.

By Matt Barnum, Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images, Chalkbeat, March 1, 2022 President Joe Biden has a message to Americans: Consider becoming a tutor or serving as a mentor at your local school. “The American Rescue Plan gave schools money to hire teachers and help students make up for lost learning,” Biden said during the State of the Union address Tuesday. “I urge every parent to make sure your school does just that. They have the money. We can all play a part: sign up to...

Read about this Zoom workshop (from the School Crisis Recovery & Renewal Project) on their Event page HERE . The School Crisis Recovery & Renewal Project (SCRR) presents their free workshop where participants will explore the impacts of loss on the brain, body, and behavior, as well as actionable strategies for using this knowledge to scaffold learning environments and assignments that are grief-responsive and examine interpersonal, environmental, and curricular aspects of...

By Hannah Zwiebel and Lindsay A. Thompson, Illustration: From article, JAMA Pediatrics, February 28, 2022 Schools provide health care in many ways, from nurses’ offices for routine health needs to professionally equipped school-based health clinics staffed by trained medical professionals. More and more schools are offering these school-based health clinics to students. Because regular physician’s offices may only be open during school or work hours, parents may be forced to choose between...

By Anne Branigin, Photo: Bill Kalina/The York Dispatch, The Washington Post, February 24, 2022 Edha Gupta can count on her fingers the number of times she’s learned about Asian Americans in history class — lessons so meager she refers to them as “slivers.” “It was mostly to do with the California gold rush,” recalls Gupta, a senior at Central York High School in Pennsylvania. She didn’t learn about how India’s history intersected with the United States' until AP World History, and even then,...