Blog

A mom walked her child in to school at an Oklahoma City Public School last week and the child candidly shared that they'd slept in their car and that is why he was late. This isn't a made for television movie or something that only happens in other cities ... this really happened and happens quite often in our schools. More than 3,000 Oklahoma City Public Schools students identified as homeless last year. Homelessness causes children to be tardy, absent, hungry and suffering from anxiety and...

Alexandria, VA - In recognition of the challenges a new school year presents for children and adolescents, Mental Health America (MHA) is providing new resources on student mental health ( http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/back-school ), with an emphasis on web-based tools that can be easily shared across social media platforms. This year, MHA has developed tools and resources to help increase understanding of how traumatic events can trigger mental health issues and is providing materials...

As teachers, I think it is a safe assumption that we all want what is best for our students and families. What we know is that not all students are successful in school, even life. Some students make us so frustrated, we can hardly stand them. We want them to succeed, why don’t they want to succeed, too? Fortunately, we are learning much about how stressors early in life and throughout development can change the way a person’s brain forms, which can significantly change the way she interacts...

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1 in 20, or 2.6 million, U.S. children ages 6 to 17 had current anxiety or depression diagnosed by a health care provider in 2011-12. School nurses in Illinois say the increase is evident in the students from elementary to high school who enter their offices each day, requiring not only bandages and ice packs but also a quiet space to break from stress. Nurses now have to schedule meetings with parents about their child’s...

Whether I'm teaching across the core subjects for 2nd grade or focused on 10th grade science ''(and I've done both), stories are at the root of my teaching. My first introduction of myself to new students involves a short story about me in middle school: chubby, hiding behind my hair, and terrified of the teacher calling on me because I constantly turned bright red. I can see the nervousness evaporate as my students realize I won't put them on the spot that day. My vulnerability helps...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Kids who faced daunting barriers to success in the classroom had a clear message for University at Buffalo researchers who asked them as young adults to look back on their experiences with maltreatment, homelessness and their time in school: Adults can do better. “It’s as though they’re asking us as adults not to give up on them, to stick with them,” says Annette Semanchin Jones, an assistant professor in UB’s School of Social Work (SSW) and lead author of the paper with...

Basketball superstar LeBron James continues to make offseason headlines. This time, it's for something that even 76ers fans can agree on. James' I Promise School model recognizes that a child's environment plays an important role in his or her success. A high IQ and personal initiative don't mean students will excel in the classroom, especially if they don't have support at home, don't know where their next meal is coming from or don't feel safe in their own neighborhood. James has opened...

A new movement was born out of a Tweet from a colleague that I have never met. The Empty Desk Project is the unofficial working name and our hashtag is #NoMoreEmptyDesks. We have a name, a plan to begin, and a vision for what we want to accomplish - all from a Tweet. Here is the message that began this new movement: I read and re-read Kendrea's message and my mind jumped to involving students in painting desks to symbolize students who have been lost to gun violence. I thought of an art...

“Play has become a four-letter word.” So says Kathy Hirsh-Pasek , a psychologist at Temple University and one of the authors of a new paper about the importance of play in children’s lives. The clinical report , published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommends that pediatricians write a “prescription for play” at doctor visits in the first two years of life. Years of research have shown that play is an important part of a child’s development, assisting in cognition, memory, social...

The challenge of the fast pace and the strain of living in the 21 st century is the chronic stress of keeping up with volume of information, expectations and adverse experiences that leads to stressors of daily living. Adults have become good at adjusting to and compartmentalizing these stressors. Children and adolescents however are struggling to keep up and are in fact caving under the weight of the stresses. In addition, many children lack adequate nurturing and supports needed to give...

The Center for American Progress (CAP) has a long history of advocating for test-driven, market-driven school reforms. I doubt that the CAP is ready to abandon its belief that better instruction, leadership, data-driven accountability, and choice can drive systemic improvement in the highest-poverty schools, but a recent panel discussion, which was aired on CSPAN , indicates that it is open to social and cognitive science research which argues for a more holistic approach to school...

There’s been heightened awareness and activism in recent years surrounding the discipline gap, or the occurrence that minorities — black males in particular — are disproportionately suspended or expelled relative to other racial and gender subgroups. But what’s received less attention are some of the other surprising trends embedded deep in data out of California. Black males in California public schools are suspended at a rate 3.6 times greater than the statewide average for all students,...