Blog

By Annie Gowen, Photo: Maddie McGarvey/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, February 9, 2022 Dozens of suburban moms from around the country dialed into an Ohio-based Zoom training session last month with the same goal — to learn how to combat the increasingly vitriolic rhetoric from parents whose protests over mask mandates and diversity education have turned school board meeting rooms into battlegrounds. The lessons: Show up at meetings with fact-based speeches ready and create text...

For School Mental Health Practitioners, Education Leaders, and Anyone Interested in Grief Sensitivity! » MHTTC Network’s Grief Sensitivity Virtual Learning Institute February 23 and 24, 2022 This two-day institute hosted by the MHTTC Network is for those supporting individuals (general mental health and school mental health populations) experiencing grief and loss through COVID 19 and beyond. Also, stay tuned for our soon-to-be-released companion resource, Fostering Grief-Ready Workplaces: A...

Miss Kendra Programs Teachers’ Support Group: A Bi-Weekly Discussion with Dr. Hadar Lubin and Erinn Webb When : Bi-weekly on Thursdays at 4-5PM EST via Zoom, starting soon! Join Dr. Hadar Lubin, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Miss Kendra Programs and Co-Director of the Post Traumatic Stress Center, and Erinn Webb, MA, RDT, Director of Primary Education Programs, on a journey exploring how stress is affecting your job as a teacher/educator. Previous participants are welcome back! This program...

By Fontana News Room, Photo: Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times, Fontana News Room, February 7, 2022 When I conjure the image of a typical public school — the bright fluorescent lighting, the hard, unyielding plastic desk chairs and the shrill bells that announce the beginning and end of class — the word “calming” doesn’t exactly come to mind. Combine that with the frenetic energy that comes with 15 to 30 students crammed into a relatively small room all day, and you’ve got a recipe for...

By Joel Knudson and Jennifer O'Day, Photo: Liv Ames/EdSource, EdSource, February 7, 2022 A s 2022 begins, educators, students, families and communities continue to navigate a state of prolonged and volatile crisis. The persistent spread of Covid-19 has compounded the challenge of ensuring safe and healthy learning environments. Meanwhile, too many students continue to suffer from the ongoing effects of the pandemic — academically, socially, emotionally and mentally. Community schools may...

By Mary Ann Wolf and Elizabeth DeKonty, Photo: Pexels, EdNC, February 7, 2022 As we continue our focus on the whole child and student mental health, it is important for us to consider how a child’s experiences affect their brain and their behavior. When I think back to teaching two decades ago, the research about Adverse Childhood Experiences had not yet come out. I remember some of the behavioral challenges, in particular, about my students; and I often wonder about how I may have been able...

By Anton C. Bizzell, Photo: Unsplash, Psychology Today, January 26, 2022 The COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a toll on individuals and groups around the world, from frontline health care professionals to service workers to the elderly to entire families decimated by the virus. However, there is a large, traumatized cohort that requires more attention : our youth. How do we help young people cope with the upheaval in their lives due to the coronavirus , on top of the many other traumas...

By John Fensterwald, Photo: Allison Shelley/Eduimages, EdSource, January 31, 2022 I n coming weeks, California will embark on a massive undertaking to convert several thousand schools in low-income neighborhoods into centers of community life and providers of vital services for families as well as students. Known as community schools, they will be established over the next seven years. New York and Maryland are among states that are investing in community schools, but California’s $3 billion...

By Jessica Nunez, Photo: Diego Cervo/iStock, California Health Report, January 11, 2022 For the past two years, student life has been different. The university I attend, UCLA, transitioned to virtual learning, which meant students couldn’t see a single professor or classmate in person. For students from low-income families, like me, this change was extremely challenging. More than 70 percent of students attended school remotely during the first year of the pandemic, statistics show . This...

When Grace Berbig was 7 years old, her mom was diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer of the body’s blood-forming tissues. Being so young, Grace didn’t know what cancer was or why her mother was suddenly living in the hospital. But she did know this: that while her mom was in the hospital, she would always be assured that her family was thinking of her, supporting her and loving her every step of her journey. Nearly every day, Grace and her two younger sisters would hand-make cards and fill them...

By Carolyn Jones, Photo: Alison Yin/EdSource, EdSource, January 25, 2022 N early everyone has experienced a degree of anxiety or depression due to the pandemic. But for young Black people also confronting persistent racism and ever-widening inequities, the current moment has led to an acute crisis in mental health. The suicide rate among Black youth, which for years trailed that of Asian and white students, has doubled since 2014 is now twice the statewide average, far exceeding all other...

By Adam Gabbat, Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters, The Guardian, January 24, 2022 Conservative groups across the US, often linked to deep-pocketed rightwing donors, are carrying out a campaign to ban books from school libraries, often focused on works that address race, LGBTQ issues or marginalized communities. Literature has already been removed from schools in Texas, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming. Librarians and teachers warn the trend is on the increase, as groups backed by...