Tagged With "Curbing the Spread"
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A Trauma-Informed Approach to Teaching Through Coronavirus [tolerance.org]
Experts from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network share their recommendations for educators supporting students during the COVID-19 crisis. By TEACHING TOLERANCE STAFF MARCH 23, 2020 L ast week, as schools across the nation closed their doors to slow the spread of the coronavirus, TT reached out to our community to learn what support you needed at this time. Among the most common responses was a call for trauma-informed practices to support students over the coming weeks and months.
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Ordinary Magic-Resiliency Research - The Power of Connection
Resilience and Positive Psychology The message from three decades of research on resilience underscores central themes of the positive psychology movement (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Snyder & Lopez, in press). Psychology has neglected important phenomena in human adaptation and development during periods of focus on risk, problems, pathology, and treatment. Attention to human capabilities and adaptive systems that promote healthy development and functioning have the potential...
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Program to help young students expanding [WTOV9.com - Video and Article]
By Brittany Grego, WTOV 9 Fox, West Virginia August 22, 2016 OHIO COUNTY, W.Va. — School is back in session for Ohio County students and a program is expanding to more elementary schools. Crittenton Services is bringing the TIES program to five more elementary schools this year, including Elm Grove. TIES stands for trauma informed elementary schools. The TIES program is designed to help students in grades pre-K through first grade who show symptoms of chronic stress or trauma in the...
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Creating Trauma Sensitive Schools
Join us in Washington Dc in February, 2018 for the first ever National Conference on Creating Trauma Sensitive Schools. Early Bird Registration is still open. www.creatingtraumasensitiveschools.org/conference A flyer is attached. Please spread the word!
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Curbing the Spread of COVID-19, Anxiety, and Learning Loss for Youth Behind Bars [blogs.edweek.org]
By Sarah D. Sparks, Education Week, May 4, 2020 As educators and leaders juggle remote learning schedules, food distribution, and how to get kindergartners to sit still on Zoom meetings, there's one particularly vulnerable group of students in danger of falling off the education radar: students in the juventile justice system. Coronavirus is spreading rapidly in pre- and post-trial correctional facilities across the United States, and the challenges of social distancing for students in...
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Editorial: Three things California must do for successful K-12 distance learning during coronavirus crisis (sandiegouniontribune.com)
The decision by districts across California to shut K-12 schools last month to slow the spread of coronavirus remains a smart and practical move that aligned with other “social distancing” measures to keep virus deaths at a lower level than in other states — and to allow health-care providers more time to prepare for a projected onslaught of patients. But besides managing the public health crisis, leaders in San Diego and statewide also face another huge challenge: the need to make online...
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How do these pediatricians do ACEs screening? Early adopters tell all.
Last week, three pediatricians — with a combined experience of 15 years integrating ACEs science into their practices — reflected on the urgency they felt several years ago that prompted them to begin screening patients for childhood adversity and resilience when there was practically no guidance at all. Along their journey , they accumulated a list of lessons learned for other pediatricians and family clinics to use. The three pediatricians participated in the ACEs Connection webinar,...
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How It Feels & How We Heal: Parenting with ACEs Chat Quotes (You Tube, Database, PDFs, Links)
Parenting with ACEs is sharing inspiration, information, and expertise from our chat series in 3 formats. Parenting with ACEs: How It Feels & How We Heal Quote Collection (pdf version below as well) Quotes Database (pdf version below as well) Links to Chat Transcripts and before and after-the-chat blog posts. Thanks to everyone who showed up, who shared, and who is doing the important work that is our mission (prevent ACEs, heal trauma, build resilience). We know that work happens...
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How to Talk with Kids About COVID-19 [healthier.stanfordchildrens.org]
By Erin Digitale, Stanford Children's Health, March 10, 2020 As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread, experts at Stanford Children’s Health have advice about how families can prepare their children for the continued news coverage and conversations around the outbreak. Parents and caregivers should communicate in an age-appropriate way that addresses children’s questions without stoking anxiety, says Stanford Children’s Health psychiatrist Victor Carrion, MD , who also directs...
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School Walkout: An Adult Ally Guide (youthempowerment.com)
Amplify their voice, not yours. Broadcast your willingness to be a "helper". Assume competence in youth leadership. Don't assume anything else. The moment news spread that the students of Parkland, Florida were using their voices to speak out against school violence, Rep. Shawn Harrison staffer claimed that the students were paid actors. This reaction isn’t uncommon. Some adults in positions of power are hesitant to include youth voice in the public sphere, and some will use any means...
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Shootings & Suicides Past the Tipping-Point: ACEs Epidemic & Declining Lifespans in US
Re: Building community by facing collective trauma with hope I am writing from Broward county, Florida, the school district in which the MSD school shooting occurred and that gave rise to the March for Our Lives Movement sparked by our students. Mankind has developed solutions to deal with self-perpetuating waves and EPIDEMICS of BEHAVIORALLY TRANSMITTED Neuro-Toxic Stress, CPTSD Trauma & ACEs that cause FIXED-MINDSET reactive black and white Scarcity-based thinking to increase and...
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Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study; Expert on ACEs Science
Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...
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Students with influence over peers reduce school bullying by 30 percent [ScienceDaily.com]
Curbing school bullying has been a focal point for educators, administrators, policymakers and parents, but the answer may not lie within rules set by adults, according to new research led by Princeton University. Instead, the solution might actually be to have the students themselves, particularly those most connected to their peers, promote conflict resolution in school. A team of researchers from Princeton, Rutgers University and Yale University engaged groups of influential students in...
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Teen Replaces School Bathroom Mirror With a Message to Teach Girls a Lesson They’ll NEVER Forget (faithit.com)
Sabrina Astle is a student at Laguna Beach High School. She told ABC News that she “wanted to find a way to make a difference through our Kindness Club on campus.” The school had a spirit week titled “What if…Week,” which is designed to bring students across campus together. Each day of the week has a different message, and Thursday’s was “What if we showed more love?” The 17-year-old had the idea of replacing mirrors in the bathrooms with positive signs of affirmation. So she got to work...
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National Education Association (NEA) action gives traumatized student education a big boost
NEA President Lily Eskelsen García and Robert Hull, member of the Maryland NEA delegation Delegations to the National Education Association (NEA) Repres entative Assembly s ummer meeting from California and Maryland combined forces to secure approval last week of a new business item on educating traumatized students. Approximately 7,000 delegates participated in the Boston meeting. Robert Hull from Maryland and a group from California put the new business item forward for consideration.
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New Resource Guide for Child Sexual Abuse/Exploitation Prevention
Greetings, ACN Community! I wanted to share this fantastic new resource guide developed by one of the work groups from the Georgia Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force. This guide provides background on best practice, principles of prevention, identifying resources for the classroom, developing a prevention plan, age appropriate teaching suggestions, analysis of specific programs, and guidelines for implementation and evaluation. It is really quite thorough and is full of excellent ideas...
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Now available: recording of Chris Blodgett's talk on trauma-informed communities
Dr. Chris Blodgett spoke on Thursday, Nov 3rd at the Anchorage Loussac Library to a room of nearly 140 people and 60 more online. His talk "From ACEs to Action: How Communities Can Improve Well-Being and Resilience" was approximately two hours long. Access the webinar video, audio file, and slides here.
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Cherokee Point Youth Leaders learn about Child Abuse Prevention month
Some days at work are better than others. Yesterday was one of the best days I've had in awhile! I had the chance to speak to a small group of youth leaders from Cherokee Point Elementary School on Wednesday. As a representative of the Chadwick Center for Children & Families, I came to talk with them about Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) month, which is coming up in April. We are collaborating with Cherokee Point in an effort to bring awareness to the community about CAP month, resilience,...
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Knowledge & Awareness of ACE's itself AS the Most Powerful Therapeutic Healing Agent
Thesis; ACE's Knowledge and Awareness is a POWERFUL Therapy that delivers proven effective Therapeutic Healing in and of Itself. Simply knowing of ACE's and of one's own score is healing above any therapeutic intervention currently in use, to the best of my knowledge - odd as this might sound to those whose livings are made providing such therapies - not that these are not also beneficial - but the numbers speak for themselves I think. Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris has published some crude data on...
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Making Good Ideas Go Viral (ssir.org)
A less-traveled path to education reform: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is catalyzing three social forces to create an epidemic of best practice . Ashoka founder and CEO Bill Drayton recently wrote about his vision for a “changemaker world”—a place where problems can’t outrun solutions. He told a story about Ali Raza Khan, an entrepreneur in Pakistan, who tasked 6,000 poor students with starting successful ventures. He explains how, with little more than hearty encouragement, the...
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The National Council for Behavioral Health - 2018-2019 Trauma-Sensitive Schools Learning Community
The National Council for Behavioral Health is pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the 2018-2019 Trauma-Sensitive Schools Learning Community. This one-of-akind opportunity connects leadership from schools from across the nation as they implement, sustain and spread trauma-sensitive approaches to promote a fundamental change in education culture. Throughout this year-long initiative, National Council trauma experts will help you develop and implement a...
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The Relentless School Nurse: A Back to School Message From Your School's Chief Wellness Officer - The School Nurse
The school nurse is your child’s Chief Wellness Officer! So first things first: be sure your school has a school nurse in your child’s building every day. If not, there are 55 million reasons to have one. School nurses have access to 95% of our nation’s 55 million children every day, all day. We are the dedicated, licensed health professionals in your school community, whose eyes and ears are an extension of yours. The history of school nursing goes back more than 100 years, to the tenements...
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The Relentless School Nurse: Candida Rodriguez is Creating Community Through the Power of Conversations That Matter
Candida Rodriguez is my mentor, while she may disagree with that statement and say it is the opposite, it is the absolute truth. My respect, admiration, and amazement at the depth of her knowledge, talent, and compassion astound me every time we work together. Candida serves her complex and ever-changing community with dedication, skill and a relentless pursuit of coordinating care for her students and families. We are partners in the Community Cafe Initiative that began in 2015 after I...
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The School Where Only Addicts Roam the Hallways (nationswell.com)
The school, Raymond J. Lesniak Experience, Strength and Hope Recovery High School, only has seven students. It’s one of just 38 so-called “recovery” schools across the country, says Sasha McLean, a Houston educator who sits on the Association of Recovery Schools’s board of directors. After the failure of the War on Drugs and the spread of addiction into whiter suburbs, new ways of treating addiction view recovery as a long-term, cyclical process that includes relapses and requires new peer...
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Safe ways to get emotions out
I wanted to share a few ideas I've used in the classroom that have really helped my ACEs students (mostly middle school, but could be tweaked to use for younger kids): 1. Write the event/name of person upsetting them on an index card. Have them slowly tear the paper and put the pieces in a trash can while calmly repeating, "you are not worth my anger." Write the event/name again on another index card. Tear up the card and throw away the pieces while calmly repeating, "I control myself."...
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School District of Philadelphia Open Position: Director Trauma Informed Practices
Please help to spread the word about this vital opening in our city's school district. https://ats4.searchsoft.net/ats/job_board_form?op=view&JOB_ID=4600169492&REPRESENTATIVE_COMPANY_ID=00002581&COMPANY_ID=00002581
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Re: Essentials for an ACEs, trauma-informed, resilience-building school system
Thank you for posting this! A large part of my job is working with staff at out private special education school/ residential treatment facility to implement trauma-informed care with fidelity. My long term goal is to see it spread from our campus into the local public schools and community. I'm constantly looking for resources and this is a great outline to reference.
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Trauma-sensitive education summit for Kansas City schools
From Beth Sarver at Truman Medical Center's Resilience Incubator for a summit June 8-12, 2015: TMC’s Resilience Incubator invites Schools from all over the KC Metro area to attend their Inaugural Resilient Schools Facilitator Summit....
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What do you think, is a 6th SEL core competency needed?
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines five core SEL competencies , including (1)self-awareness, (2)social awareness, (3)self-management, (4)relationship skills, and (5)responsible decision making. The CASEL Five SEL competencies ARE NOT sufficient to achieve that which they were created to accomplish and which CASEL itself was created to accomplish. There are 6 core competencies, not five, and the 6th is the one that is by far the most important.
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When Teachers Get Mindfulness Training, Students Win (mindful.org)
A new study from the University of Virginia provides strong evidence that mindfulness training for teachers can help them cope better with stress on the job while also making the classroom environment more productive for learning. Two hundred and twenty-four teachers from 36 urban elementary schools in New York City with primarily low-income/high-risk students were randomly assigned to receive instruction via a program called Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education ( CARE ), a...
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White House convenes federal, state, and local leaders to address trauma-informed approaches in schools
With just four months remaining in the Obama presidency, the White House assembled leaders from 14 states and the District of Columbia and key administration officials for a day-long conference, “ Trauma Informed Approaches in Schools: Supporting Girls of Color and Rethinking Discipline.” Last summer’s White House meeting, titled “Rethink School Discipline,” covered issues related to the CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study and trauma, but transforming schools through trauma-informed approaches...
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Why I believe Gregory Williams, and his book, Shattered By The Darkness, will help save lives and revolutionize healthcare.
When you first hear about it, it sounds unlikely, fact that something that happened to someone in utero, at the age of two months, or four years, or any time in childhood, is what is killing them as an adult, or making them want to die, or making them want to hurt themselves or others. Yet the connection between childhood trauma and adult disease, mental illness, addiction, suicide, violence – most all of society’s ills – is as irrefutable as the myriad truths revealed about it in the...
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Why Intentionally Building Empathy Is More Important Now Than Ever (kqed.org)
Those in helping professions like teaching, social work, or medicine can buffer themselves from burnout and “compassion fatigue” with self-care strategies, including meditation and social support . A study of nurses in acute mental health settings found staff support groups helped buffer the nurses, but only if they were structured to minimize negative communication and focused on talking about challenges in constructive ways. English Professor Cris Beam also studies empathy and wrote a book...
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YBRS survey and report from Monroe County, New York
Elizabeth Meeker, an ACEs Connection member from Monroe County, New York shared that her county schools added ACEs questions to their Youth Behavioral Risk Survey (YBRS) in 2015, which is administered to students in schools. They were kind enough to share the instrument as well as a summary report of findings (both attached here). Elizabeth has indicated that she is available to answer questions that you all may have about the implementation of the survey. Thank you Elizabeth, for sharing!
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Re: Why We Can't Afford Whitewashed Social-Emotional Learning (ascd.org)
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines five core SEL competencies , including (1)self-awareness, (2)social awareness, (3)self-management, (4)relationship skills, and (5)responsible decision making. The CASEL Five SEL competencies ARE NOT sufficient to achieve that which they were created to accomplish and which CASEL itself was created to accomplish. There are 6 core competencies, not five, and the 6th is the one that is by far the most important.
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Antiracism in Social-Emotional Learning: Why It’s Not Enough to Talk the Talk [edsurge.com]
By Tony Weaver, Jr. Jun 16, 2020 If there’s one thing Americans are doing right now, it’s talking. Talking even more than usual when schools are out and many are still working from home. Every day, new stories of discrimination and violence emerge that prompt new conversations. The moment our country faces weighs heavily on the mind of an adult. But one must wonder: What does it do to the mind of a child? Black students around the country are faced with a reality where they are isolated...
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Teachers Are Not Okay
In less than a month, school is supposed to start. The starting date has been pushed back until after Labor Day by our governor. This week, the state school board will vote on whether or not to uphold the governor's decision.(Why that's even a thing, I have no idea) With all of the uncertainty created by Covid, this will look different all across the United States, actually even district by district. Right now, it is really difficult to be a teacher. I have had to step away from reading...
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Reopening K-12 Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic [jamanetwork.com]
By Kenne A. Dibner, Heidi A. Schweingruber, Dimitri A. Christakis, JAMA Network, July 29, 2020 The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges to the nation’s kindergarten-grade 12 education system. 1 The rush to respond to the pandemic led to closures of school buildings across the country, with little time to ensure continuity of instruction or to create a framework for deciding when and how to reopen schools. States and school districts are now...
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Overwhelmed, Stressed, Scared: School Nurses Brace for the Fall Semester [kqed.org]
By Clare Lombardo Aug 1 In any ordinary school year, school nurses are busy. This year, that's an understatement. "Our role has expanded tenfold," says Eileen Gavin, who co-leads a team of nurses for Middletown Township Public Schools in New Jersey. She and school nurses across the country face an unenviable and unprecedented task: caring for students and staff during a global pandemic. "We were at the front line of COVID-19 before the stay at home orders were put into place," says Gloria...
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Back-to-School in a Pandemic? Questions, Concerns, and Discussion with School Nurse, Robin Cogan
Robin is a brilliant, passionate, and vocal school nurse with almost two decades of experience as a New Jersey school nurse in the Camden City School District. She is the Legislative Co-Chair for the New Jersey State School Nurses Association and she joined us last week for A Better Normal community discussion about back-to-school (or not) plans families are facing this school year. Robin serves as faculty in the School Nurse Certificate Program at Rutgers University-Camden School of Nursing...
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The Relentless School Nurse: After the Bell, the School Bubble Bursts
When the last school bell rings at the end of the day, the bubbles we have created at school burst. The effort to keep our students and staff safe in schools across the country is negated when the adults in our students’ lives continue to make unsafe choices after school. It is disheartening, to say the least, to see the surge of the coronavirus when we did not have to get here. We recognize it is complicated. We all want our kids to have some normalcy, but casual gatherings after school and...
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The parental burnout crisis has reached a tipping point (vox.com)
Millions of parents were already burned out by the demands of pandemic child-rearing in April . Summer , with school out and many camps closed, brought no relief. Then came fall, with many parents juggling the ins and outs of remote learning — and a staggering 865,000 women , many of them moms, dropping out of the workforce. Now it’s December, and parents are still in the same situation they were thrust into nine months ago: trying to balance work, child care, education, and keeping their...
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Grounded Learning: Education's Recovery PLan
If you would have asked me in 2008, when I realized we were misdiagnosing trauma as learning disabilities, if I would have been writing this book, I wouldn't have been able to conceive it. Grounded Learning captures the observation, research, and insights gained over the last 12 years on this justice journey. It's a book about stories, stories interrupted. " Trauma unaddressed impacts student learning, multiplied across millions effects a system, unattended into adulthood influences cities...
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Grounded Learning: Education's Recovery Plan
If you would have asked me in 2008, when I realized we were misdiagnosing trauma as learning disabilities, if I would have been writing this book, I wouldn't have been able to conceive it. Grounded Learning captures the observation, research, and insights gained over the last 12 years on this justice journey. It's a book about stories, stories interrupted. " Trauma unaddressed impacts student learning, multiplied across millions effects a system, unattended into adulthood influences cities...
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Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice (zinnedproject.org)
Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Denisha Jones and Jesse Hagopian. 2020. This collection of writings offers lessons from successful challenges to institutional racism that have been won through the grassroots Black Lives Matter at School movement. Black Lives Matter at School offers the wisdom of lessons learned through the Black Lives Matter at School movement, which began at one school in 2016 and has since spread to hundreds of schools across the country. This book will inspire many hundreds...
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Seeking Middle School and High School Students to Raise Awareness Around ACEs
We are looking for Middle School and High School student leaders for two new student-led initiatives with the 16 Strong Project. The 16 Strong Project is dedicated to empowering resilience to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) through educational workshops, school partnerships, student-led initiatives, and community outreach. By educating youth to be more trauma-informed in their actions and intent, we take a proactive approach to adolescent mental health. We aim to raise awareness and...
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New micro-scholarships in San Jose build bank accounts and mindsets for college [edsource.org]
By John Fensterwald, EdSource, April 16, 2021 Typically, many scholarships and accolades come at the end of the senior year to recognize outstanding performance of top students. Imagine instead a series of “micro-scholarships” for a different purpose targeted toward students at low-income high schools. Spread out like bread crumbs over four years, they would build students’ confidence, their resumés and plans for the future, and would end at graduation with as much as $5,000 in the bank for...
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Building a Restorative Restart to School in the Fall
As we look towards the reopening of in-person instruction in the fall, planning and reimagining for a restorative restart to our school systems that emphasizes student and educator mental health is a priority. In addition, there is a windfall of one-time funding coming to districts from federal and local funds for just this purpose. Recently a wise educator said to me, ‘you know, if you want to get to the hearts and minds of school leaders to make changes for the fall you need to do so by...
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Educators share strategies to help students, staff heal from pandemic trauma
The stress, fear, grief and loneliness of the pandemic has weighed hard on school-aged children. A teacher, a parent and a school administrator offer strategies for moving beyond loss to healing.
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This young woman turned heartbreak into a lifelong mission to spread love and kindness (upworthy.com)
When Grace Berbig was 7 years old, her mom was diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer of the body’s blood-forming tissues. Being so young, Grace didn’t know what cancer was or why her mother was suddenly living in the hospital. But she did know this: that while her mom was in the hospital, she would always be assured that her family was thinking of her, supporting her and loving her every step of her journey. Nearly every day, Grace and her two younger sisters would hand-make cards and fill them...