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An aging population, economic decline and generational poverty have contributed to Coos Bay-area housing issues Charles Buki wasn’t in Coos County to placate its residents. “You need to get your shit together,” he told a banquet room full of locals at their highly-anticipated housing summit on April 26. The Virginia-based consultant and his business partner, Thomas Eddington, had just spent the previous hour explaining to the audience that Coos County’s housing crisis hinged, in part, on the...

Update: We have found the teacher who originate the mental health check-in board! Kudos to Erin Castillo for the brilliant idea and for sharing how she's using it to help kids. She is offering a free download of the board as a poster along with instructions for utilizing it on Teachers Pay Teachers. Thanks, Erin! Excellent teachers do so much more than teach. They can be mentors, role models, guides, and even confidants. Sometimes a teacher is one of the only trusted adults in a child's...

Simulation allows educators to experience what many of their students face every day Imagine you’re a single mother trying to support two school-aged children on low wages earned working two jobs. You’ve just paid your car insurance and utility bills, when the transmission on your 1997 sedan gives out, and with it goes your only means of transportation to your graveyard shift cleaning offices. Public transportation in your neighborhood doesn’t run at night. With no money for repairs, you...

Preschool is already too late, if you ask Ian Rowe. The head of Public Prep charter schools in New York City believes that, when it comes to setting students up for academic success, the key is starting earlier. Much, much earlier. That’s why the network has teamed up with a pair of nonprofits to start getting children ready for school when they’re just toddlers — a full two years before even enrolling in pre-K. The unique partnership sends trained mentors to meet with families in their own...

April 23, 2019 9:00 AM 10:00 AM PDT Webinar School Nurses + Pediatricians = Powerful Partners presented by: Dany Levy, MD, FAAP & Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN April 23, 2019 / 9:00-10:00 AM (PT) / 12:00-1:00 PM (ET) Objectives: Discuss the roles of the school nurse & pediatrician in the Pediatric Medical Home Discuss how communication between pediatricians in school nurses can be improved Discuss gaps in coordinating efforts on behalf of children and family Discuss and dispel myths...

A few years ago, Amy Lopes, a veteran fifth-grade teacher in Providence, Rhode Island, learned that teachers at her school could try a mindfulness and yoga training along with their students. Her immediate reaction: “What a bunch of baloney!” “I said, ‘OK, I’ll try it, but it’s not going to work,’ ” recalled Lopes, who teaches at the William D’Abate Elementary School. “But, within a couple weeks, I just let go and became a learner along with my students, and my whole world has changed.” That...

Haile Thomas—activist, health coach, vegan chef, public speaker, and CEO of HAPPY—is on a mission to help young people eat healthier. Haile Thomas is not your typical Gen Z teenager. The 18-year-old activist, health coach, vegan chef, and public speaker became the CEO of her nonprofit organization, Healthy Active Positive Purposeful Youth (HAPPY), when she was just 12 years old, inspired by witnessing her father fight off Type 2 diabetes with healthy eating and exercise. Since then, HAPPY...

A new study from the nonprofit Research for Action highlights “promising models” nationwide and calls on state lawmakers to implement a comprehensive approach in Pennsylvania. “There are two areas where the research is extremely clear. Childhood trauma is an extremely common experience, and traumatic stress can have a wide range of negative consequences for children,” said Rachel Comly, a senior analyst at Research for Action. The study recommends that schools provide professional...

Almost seven years ago, the School District of Philadelphia revised its student discipline policy, instructing schools not to suspend students for certain types of nonviolent behavior such as failing to follow classroom rules or making obscene gestures. To examine what happened after the policy changed, Mathematica’s Johanna Lacoe teamed up with Matthew Steinberg, an education researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. What they found provides the strongest evidence to date that when...

Along with books and backpacks, the teens who walk through the hallways of Washington Preparatory High School in South Los Angeles also carry secrets and fear. Some have seen moms or dads arrested or taken away by immigration agents during early morning raids. They've watched as loved ones and friends were gunned down or stabbed to death on the sidewalks in front of where they live. Others dread going home to an adult who hurts instead of heals. Trauma, depression and anxiety weigh heavily...

In Acacia WoodsChan’s ethnic studies class at Castlemont High School in Oakland, California, students chat with each other in Spanish, Arabic and Mam, a Mayan language from Guatemala. The students have only been in the U.S. for a few weeks or months. Some are from Yemen and many are from countries in Central America — Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Last year, WoodsChan became concerned when she started hearing the Spanish-speaking students laugh when their classmates spoke Mam or...

In an urban elementary school in Kansas, teachers are using Bal-A-Vis-X to help students regulate their bodies and their emotions. In the words of BAVX creator, Bill Hubert, " BAVX enables the mind-body system to experience the symmetrical flow of a pendulum." When students arrive in the Mindful Classroom for a scheduled break, the teachers engage them in a few minutes of partner BAVX exercises. During those few minutes, they are completing hundreds of rhythmic, predictable mid-line...