Blog

By Melanie Kletter, School Library Journal, November 3, 2020 The SLJ Summit's “Trauma-informed Teaching and COVID” panel discussed the varying impact of trauma on students and the need to meet children’s needs, create a positive school environment, and remember self-care, especially in this time of crisis. As difficult as it may be to take on trauma-informed teaching, the onus is on educators to take responsibility for this work, according to principal Matthew Portell. “We can’t wait for...

Apologies for the short notice friends, I need to cancel the Better Normal-Education Upended for today, Nov 5th. As a reminder I will be out next week but we will return on November 19th! Until then be gracious with yourselves and take care.

By Cecilia Cruse, THE Journal, November 4, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound and wide-reaching effect on students, from the quality and nature of the instruction they have received to their social and emotional well-being. Whether students are attending school in person or continuing with remote learning, K-12 leaders need to plan for how they will address not only students’ academic needs but their social-emotional needs as well. Many children have been seeing or hearing...

Before the pandemic, Sara Buckley, an 8 th grade science teacher at Park Middle School in Antioch, California, could handle students who were acting out during class. Understanding that trauma lies beneath disruptive behavior, she didn’t send kids to the principal for punishment. Instead, she’d talk with them to find out what was going on at home or outside of school—and then work out a plan for how to respond differently the next time they were triggered. They could visit the school’s...

English: The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , ACEs Connection , and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance have co-created a newly developed resource, “Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in both English and Spanish. This material is intended for Californian families experiencing the severe...

Explore the untold story of how Indigenous women influenced the early suffragists in their fight for freedom and equality. Mohawk Clan Mother Louise Herne and Professor Sally Roesch Wagner shake the foundation of the established history of the women’s rights movement in the US joining forces to shed light on the hidden history of the influence of Haudenosaunee Women on the women’s rights movement. Streaming online from 11.2.20 - 12.1.20 Click here: ...

Join us on Friday November 6, 2020 from noon to 1:00 PST as we come together and join Satya Chandragiri MD, Bonnie O’Hern RN, Denise PNP, & Michael Polacek RN for a discussion around the tender issue of suicide. Together we will discuss ways people and providers can support each other and encourage communities to take action to support one another around suicide prevention, crisis intervention, and the layers of culture and structural barriers to care. A special emphasis will be on...

For folks in CA and WA .... The Stuart Foundation is a family foundation dedicated to improving life outcomes for young people through education. For 35 years, we have contributed to the conditions in which all children can develop into successful and contributing adults. We do our work in California and Washington State . The Foundation’s grantmaking is driven by our aspiration for education systems that improve life outcomes for young people, especially those furthest from opportunity. We...

I was lost for awhile. I had fallen into a deep, dark hole that is Covid-19. If you're a teacher, I know you can relate. It's not a good place to be. It's a scary and overwhelming place to be. I felt like nothing I was doing was good enough for my students. I didn't feel like I was giving them my best. I was crying every single day, sometimes even at school. It's just too much! I hate that there are plexiglass dividers on all of my students' tables. We have to clean them daily, sometimes...

ATN's Executive Director, Julie Hewitt Beem and Parenting Director, Ginger Spackman Healy present a webinar for the NFPA Training Institute: "Getting on the Right PATH: Promoting Attachment and Trauma Healing for Caregivers." https://www.nfpati.org/courses/GettingontheRightPATH This FREE webinar about PATH (Promoting Attachment and Trauma Healing) is a comprehensive framework of education that supports caregivers who are parenting children with known trauma effects and/or attachment ...

Though we cannot fix or heal them, we likely do not even know who many of them are, we can empower them emotionally towards the possibility of their own potential.

In June teenage sisters Nene and Ekene Okolo started an Instagram account called Black in PUSD , where they invited Poway Unified students and alumni of color to share what it was like for them at school. They received 1,200 anonymous submissions, most describing racist incidents Black, Latino and Asian students had endured, including racial slurs and assumptions based on stereotypes. The Black in PUSD account helped spur an anti-racism movement in Poway Unified, which has acknowledged that...