Blog

If you've seen the documentary Paper Tigers , you may remember the stress target -- or color wheel -- in Lincoln High School Principal Jim Sporleder's office. Now you can have one, too! The steering group members of the Yolo Resilience Network in Yolo County, CA, (you can find them on the Yolo County ACEs Connection group) realized the needed to have some tools that they could give to local educators for whom they did presentations about ACEs and trauma-informed practices. "We'd see people...

As I read the article “TPS board considers contracts for consultants” (Feb. 2) I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. As Tulsa Public Schools seeks to address the discipline problems in their classrooms it appears that a consultant experienced in mental health was not considered. Certainly, experts in education like Kimberly Lewis and Tisha Edwards mentioned in the article are of paramount importance to these matters. However, as a child and adolescent...

Washington State Teacher of the Year Nate Gibbs-Bowling made waves in the education world recently with his essay, “ The Conversation I’m Tired of Not Having .” Gibbs-Bowling bluntly called out the lack of political will and urgency around educational equity, writing up front, “I want to tell you a secret: America really doesn’t care what happens to poor people and most black people.” He’s right — but goes on to draw an incomplete...

The Educational Purchase License of 'Paper Tigers' will be available to ship starting on March 15th, 2016 for K-12, University, and Public Library institutions. This license will allow your institution to keep Paper Tigers and host multiple screenings of it in the future.  CLICK HERE to learn more. --If you'd like to host your screening in the first two week of March, please contact us at edu@tugginc.com and we'll discuss how to ensure it arrives on time. --The Educational Purchase...

California schools get hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the state to identify and assist disabled children who have mental health problems. But we don’t know how the money is spent or if it is helping the kids perform better in school. That’s the main finding of a recent report by the California State Auditor, and it will be on the agenda Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate’s mental health committee. “It appears we give all this money to the schools,...

On Jim Sporleder’s first day as principal at Walla Walla’s alternative high school in 2009, he didn’t exactly get the red carpet treatment.  Lincoln High School, then called the Paine School, was something of a dumping ground for kids who weren’t making it in the city’s mainstream high school. At the alternative school, the atmosphere was tense and unpredictable. F-bombs flew freely.  “On my first day at Paine, my jaw was glued to my...

"We're committed to lifting up the work around healing, belonging and inclusion," said Joey Bravo, program associate at The California Endowment (TCE).  Joey and his colleagues with TCE's Center for Healthy Communities supported the creation of a series of videos that capture the groundbreaking efforts of the San Diego Unified School District's campaign to create trauma-informed schools.  In this series of videos, SDUSD's transformation of their discipline policies...

LONG BEACH, Calif.—What are the school colors? Is the whole school free? What happens if you miss a class? Is there detention? How many books are there in the library? These were just some of the questions eager Long Beach Unified School District 9- and 10-year-olds tossed during their Long Beach City College tour last spring. Their student tour guide, Ashley Martinez-Munoz, a graduate of Long Beach schools herself, took each question from the Madison Elementary School students...

Walking to class one day, one of us (Laura) saw a young student crying and waiting for his mother to arrive—he had split his chin while playing. When Laura got to class, the other students were very upset and afraid for their friend, full of questions about what would happen to him. Laura decided to ask the class how they could help him. “Caring practice!” exclaimed one of the children—and they all sat in a circle offering support and well wishes. The children...

As one single example of one key complexity (there are many others), children in our Public School classrooms have massive rates of trauma, described by a U.S. Department of Justice report as an “epidemic” and by past Surgeon Generals as “national crisis.” The Center for Disease Control(CDC) says it is critical to understan

Chico Unified School District is taking a different approach to behavioral problems in the classroom by training its staff to recognize students who have experienced trauma using the “trauma-informed” approach. In a traditional setting, if a student is acting out or not paying attention, a teacher might reprimand the student, or in some cases address them sharply, Chico Unified director of secondary education David McKay said. Using the trauma-informed approach, a teacher will...

On Monday night, January 25th, a collaborative group of child-serving organizations in Helena, Montana hosted a public screening of Paper Tiger's. Not really knowing what the response might be, we anticipated a fair attendance. Using our various databases of connections, and setting up a Facebook page, we were happily surprised that we filled the 1,000-seat auditorium almost to capacity! We've calculated that perhaps almost 800 people showed up and were incredibly inspired by the film!