The bell is about to ring. You’re standing in the doorway, offering each student a high-five. You enter your classroom and crouch down at a student’s desk for a quick individual check-in. You offer an encouraging smile and a quick side-hug. As you start class, your alarm goes off. You wake up, panicked. It was another one of those dreams. One where you remember all the magical moments of relations...
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The cries of “Wagons Ho!” echoed through the morning air. It was just another day in her family’s long journey west along the Oregon Trail in 1850. Her oxen trudged along the 2,000-mile trail, following the predictable ruts left by other wagon wheels – in some places up to 5 feet deep. Traveling life in a “rut” can be efficient and convenient. But 2020 dropped an enormous boulder on yo...
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In the stone age tribe (circa 10,000 B.C.) of Bedrock, Fred and Wilma Flintstone lived with ‘modern-day’ amenities such as foot-driven cars, gimmicky kitchen appliances, and suspect telephones. Those wacky, colliding worlds made the show a beloved cartoon. Yet, there’s another juxtaposition playing out daily in your brain in the year 2020. How you respond has a lasting impact on your health ...
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It’s a deafening roar: 35,000 screaming spectators have waited all year for this event. No, it is not baseball or football. It is an epic, old-school tug-of-war across the 2nd longest river in the U.S.A. Every August, a half-mile of rope (9 football fields) is stretched across the Mississippi River, between Illinois and Iowa. Even if you’ve never actually “played” or watche...
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How Culturally Responsive Teaching Re-Draws the Boundaries of the “In” Crowd Why is it that so many kids crave to be part of the “in” crowd? What do they hope to gain? Regardless of what they’re looking for, being a part of the “in” crowd is a healthy desire. We’re not talking popularity status. We’re talking about the astounding evidence that shows how students in the “in-group” and “out-group...
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For most educators, stress levels slowly ramp up over the first couple of months of school. The word on the street is many of you already feel like you’ve gone from 0 to 60 on a stress-o-meter! Yes, this school year brings unprecedented challenges. Every September we help you rise to the challenge. This post’s self-care issue might be the most important ever because …
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Ensuring students and staff are physically safe is a top concern these days. But there is another, often overlooked, component of safety that schools must plan for as well. Ignore this and students might be physically safe in school, but learn little. Focus in on this and students’ capacity to learn opens up. What’s the big “THIS”? The Research Creating a safe learning environment for ...
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Now that you’re working more from home, do you find yourself distracted or scattered? Are you struggling to focus and finish a task? Your brain’s attentional system is being exposed to new challenges, both visible (looming house projects) and invisible (a global virus). With the right tools, you CAN foster skills to lock-in your attention and be highly productive. Here is what every educator worki...
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When it comes to testing, you might feel like your students experience some bizarre memory loss and forget all they have learned. Or, perhaps you question if they ever learned it in the first place? Either way, it can be frustrating for them and you. Supporting students’ brains to be at peak performance for an assessment IS possible. This post focuses on three key approaches to build high-pe...
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Why is it that we feel so much comfort when someone says, “I feel your pain,” “I get it,” “I know what that is like,” or “I’ve been there. I know it’s hard.” These phrases transform our perception from ‘I am suffering alone’ to ‘Someone who cares about me understands this pain.’ Empathy is a dying trait and one the world desperately needs to have come back. How did we get here? And how do we bring...
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