Blog

By Rick Nauert, PsychCentral, January 31, 2020 New research finds that children are more likely to control their immediate impulses when they and a peer rely on each other to get a reward than when they’re left to their own willpower. Investigators say their experiments are the first to show that children are more willing to delay gratification for cooperative reasons than for individual goals. In the study, researchers used a modified version of the “marshmallow test,” a classic...

By Mihir Zaveri, The New York Times, February 3, 2020 Some children lost a stable home when a parent succumbed to opioid addiction. Others were forced to stay in hotels after hurricanes or fires destroyed their homes. Still others fled abuse or neglect. More than 1.5 million public school students nationwide said they were homeless at some point during the 2017-18 school year, the most recent data available, according to a report from the National Center for Homeless Education released last...

https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/02/how-to-challenge-the-school-to-prison-pipeline/ There is an abundance of research that has been focusing on the "pipeline to prison" pathway. Policymakers need a clearer understanding of how historical and cultural trauma directly impacts generations of indigenous communities. I applaud Senator Dela Cruz as he is a champion for the cause, but we need more lawmakers to understand that we need to travel "further upstream" of ACEs to address the impact of toxic...

By Megan Ruge, Education Week, January 29, 2020 In 2014, New York City launched a $52 million effort to launch 45 "community schools," part of a nationwide movement to transform schools into neighborhood hubs offering a range of social and health services to students and their families. That investment, which eventually grew to more than 200 schools, is starting to be paying off, according to an independent evaluation of the schools released this week by the RAND Corporation. The evaluation...

Improve Classroom Climate with Dynamic Mindfulness January 2020 We know that challenges with toxic stress and trauma amongst our educators and the youth they serve affect learning readiness, school classroom climate, and teacher burnout. What can we do about it? Many educators are struggling with this question and searching for answers. Niroga Institute's Dynamic Mindfulness (DMind) programs should be considered as a comprehensive solution. Dynamic Mindfulness is a combination of movement,...

Hi Team! I just wanted to share a link to part 1 of 3 webinars directed to educators entitled: Trauma-Informed Practices in Schools and Beyond. It is co-hosted by my company Dovetail Learning and Aperture Education . The first webinar which you can watch here called Trauma 101 : Participants learn the history and context of the science behind Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and the biological/neurobiological effects of toxic stress on children and adults. Feel free to register for the...

I came across this webpage and wanted to share with my parent and caregiver small groups. My intern typed it up into a handout. Feel free to share.

By Susan Abram, The Chronicle of Social Change, January 6, 2020 As a 10th grader at Sacramento’s Luther Burbank High School, Stephanie Lopez remembers when she saw a school resource officer treat her brother like a criminal. Her brother had bumped into the officer and apologized, Lopez said. But the officer proceeded to question him and asked him for his ID. “It was all new to me,” said Lopez, now 17 and a senior, of the aggressive approach the officer used with her brother. “When I was...

If you are not familiar with the Trauma Informed Educators Network Podcast I hope you check it out. I'm speaking to a diverse group of trauma-informed practitioners from around the globe to share their knowledge, ideas, and experiences to support those in the work. Episode 7 was released today! I had an amazing time chatting with Dr. Bruce Perry who discussed the Neurosequential Model amongst many other things! You can now access the podcast from many different platforms! (SoundCloud,...

Welcome back friends! If you have not already done so please take a moment to respond to our survey. As curator of our education community site, I am seeking input from the community on what we would like the future of the ACEs in Education site to be. I would like to first understand how you currently use the site and then get feedback on your vision for ways to maximize its usefulness. Please take a moment to fill out this brief survey and help guide our shared learning forward! You need...

Working in a school is hard. It doesn’t matter if you work in a suburban, urban, or rural area. It doesn’t matter if you work with 5 year-olds on building empathy, teach 11 year-olds about symbiosis, coach teachers in aligning curriculum, or help high school seniors choose their postsecondary pathways. It is hard work. From the cacophony of lockers closing at dismissal, to the challenge of getting 25 sets of 8 year-old eyes looking at you in synchrony, schools are a special kind of organized...

At the Hiidenkivi Comprehensive School near Helsinki, Finland, students don’t spend all their time learning what other people have discovered. They set out to discover new things on their own. The students do this through nine-week long, interdisciplinary projects that the Finnish call “phenomenon-based learning,” a term coined by the country’s National Agency for Education. Phenomenon-based learning is a lot like project-based learning, a more familiar term in the United States. Both...