Tagged With "Action to Access"
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Mindfulness and Meditation to Become Part of the Curriculum in 370 Schools in England (brightvibes.com)
In 370 schools across England, children will be taught how to meditate, techniques for muscle relaxation, and breathing exercises for mindfulness. The program is being conducted under a mental health study that the British government is running up until 2021. Aside from the increasing number of young children that are showing signs of early onset depression and anxiety , National Health Service (NHS) reports have also indicated that 1-in-8 British children have mental disorders. Despite...
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Next "A Better Normal" community discussion series: Tuesday, April 28, 2020 — Health equity and historical trauma
There are two "Better Normal" community discussions this week, on Tuesday and on Thursday. On Tuesday, Ingrid Cockhren, ACEs Connection community facilitator and DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) expert returns to continue the discussing health equity during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Thursday, Lara Kain will lead another education "Better Normal".
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Privileged Thinking in Education Course Offered for Staff at Learn4Life
Teachers and staff at several northern Los Angeles County Learn4Life Resource Centers recently completed a Professional Development (PD) titled “Privileged Thinking in Education”. At this PD, staff learned that privileged thinking is defined as an imbalance of power, experience, and access to resources that influence our opinions on the actions of others. They also watched an eye-opening video , which showed how much privilege some have, without even realizing it. The staff also analyzed how...
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States Move to Add Native American History to Curriculum (usnews.com)
MINNEAPOLIS—ON THE heels of the National Indian Education Association's conference held in Minneapolis earlier this fall and just in time for Native American Heritage Month , the nearby Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community announced a $5 million philanthropic campaign to fund resources, curriculum, and training on Native American heritage for teachers and administrators across Minnesota , according to the Star Tribune . "We're hoping we can move the needle in the narrative in Minnesota and...
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Tips for Creating an Inclusive Virtual Space (aspeninstitute.org)
The COVID-19 global pandemic has forced many organizations to adapt their content and services for virtual spaces. Unfortunately, much work still needs to be done to mend the digital divide that leaves many people without internet access. However, we can all ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are centered in our digital engagements—our webinars, podcasts, and other digital meetings and convenings. As you develop digital content for your programs, consider the following reminders...
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Why It's Vital for Native Students to Learn With a Culturally Relevant Lens (kqed.org)
Sometimes Armando Ortiz looks back at his life and can hardly believe where he is today. He grew up in White Center, just south of Seattle, and at a pretty early age got involved in gang life and hanging out with people who were getting into trouble. He says much of his early educational life felt like he was being passed along from one grade to the next, no one paying much attention to whether he was learning or not. He decided to attend Highline Big Picture High School in Seattle to get...
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Why We Can't Afford Whitewashed Social-Emotional Learning (ascd.org)
Social-emotional learning (SEL) skills can help us build communities that foster courageous conversations across difference so that our students can confront injustice, hate, and inequity. SEL refers to the life skills that support people in experiencing, managing, and expressing emotions, making sound decisions, and fostering interpersonal relationships. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines five core SEL competencies , including self-awareness,...
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14 Tips For Helping Students With Limited Internet Have Distance Learning (kqed.org)
Schools across the nation are closing in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 and in the scramble to provide at-home learning, a major problem has risen to the forefront: millions of American students don’t have reliable access to the internet. According to recent federal data , approximately 14 percent of U.S. families with school-age children lack high-speed internet. Most of those families are low-income or live in rural areas. While there are plenty of best practice guides availabe...
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9 Ways to Access Your Inner Strength During Traumatic Times (wakeup-world.com)
A traumatic experience is anything that severely threatens your emotional, psychological or physical well-being. Right now in the world, that would be the COVID-19 epidemic. Not only are many of us losing our jobs while being forced into isolation with scarce resources, but our very survival is being challenged. That’s a lot to deal with! Trauma is essentially what happens when we feel totally powerless, and are frozen internally into that state of being. But here’s the liberating truth:...
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ACEs Science in Education: The Next Big Challenge is Systems Change #ACEsCon2018
One of the first sessions of the 2018 ACEs Conference: Action to Access discussed the barriers and opportunities for increasing access in the field of education. The main question was: "How can one achieve systematic changes within the field of education?" The session was moderated by Michelle Flowers, a passionate advocate, and the principal of Kinney High in Rancho Cordova, CA, which is part of the Folsom Cordova Unified School District. It included a dynamic and diverse panel of education...
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Announcing a New Resource for Educators: Greater Good in Education (greatergood.berkeley.edu)
Find research-based practices for kinder, happier schools on our new Greater Good in Education website. The fields of social-emotional learning (SEL), mindfulness, ethical development, and other prosocially oriented forms of education have emerged to help support and guide teachers’ efforts to transform education. We here at the Greater Good Science Center’s Education Program would like to offer our support as well with the launch of our new website, Greater Good in Education (GGIE). GGIE...
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Black Minds Matter (teachingtolerance.org)
Black people, including youth, are less likely to receive adequate care for mental health issues for a number of reasons: disparities in access to care, stigma about mental illness and lack of culturally competent mental health practitioners. According to a study published in the International Journal of Health Services , black children are about half as likely as white children to get mental health treatment. As the CBC task force, mental health experts and policy makers mull over ideas to...
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Blended Learning Built on Teacher Expertise (edutopia.org)
An inside look at a teacher-designed instructional model that combines blended learning, student self-pacing, and mastery-based grading. DEVISING A NEW TEACHING MODEL In an effort to redesign my classroom around my students’ diverse needs, I developed a scalable instructional model built around three core principles. 1. Blended instruction: Most blended learning models involve outsourcing the creation of digital content. In the model I developed and then shared with other teachers at my...
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Controlled Burn: A Story of Growth (ascd.org)
My nephew Max (a pseudonym) started skipping school when he was a high school freshman. He did enough to get by, coming home with C 's and D 's on his report cards, but he continued to skip school no matter what anyone did to try to get him to be a "better" student. He not only skipped classes on a regular basis, he skipped studying. He certainly didn't do his homework. His teachers pushed and prodded, his family begged and scolded. If you ask him now, Max says that to him, school seemed...
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Distance Learning During Coronavirus Worsens Race, Class Inequality in Education (teenvogue.com)
Abruptly shifting much of the U.S. education system online in the middle of a pandemic was never going to be easy. But for students of color at some of the country’s largest school districts, the practical, technical, and emotional challenges are far more acute. Their lack of reliable internet access and technology is only the tip of the iceberg. Students told Teen Vogue they’re growing anxious as relatives are laid off and bills mount. Mixed-status families are being left out of relief...
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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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Expert Resource for Future of Education After COVID-19 [prnewswire.com]
By Learn4Life, PR Newswire, April 13, 2020 How will education forever be changed after COVID-19? Dr. Caprice Young , national superintendent of schools for Learn4Life , is available to discuss how this disruption to education may be a good time to examine inadequate policies and practices that have been largely unchallenged – and that often hurt disadvantaged students. Learn4Life is a nonprofit network of schools that serves at-risk high school students and former dropouts through a flexible...
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Guide - Creating Trauma-Informed Policies: A Practice Guide for School and Mental Health Leadership
Author, Leora Wolf-Prusan, EdD, School Mental Health lead for SAMHSA's Mental Health Technology Center Pacific Southwest http://mhttcnetwork.org/mhttc/mhttc-psw.html Creating compassionate policies is a cornerstone strategy of educational leadership. This guide provides a deep dive into developing, implementing, and evaluating trauma-informed and compassionate school policies. It highlights four "choice points" for education and mental health leadership: Choice Point 1: Names &...
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Trauma-Sensitive Remote Learning: Maintaining Predictability, Consistency and Belonging (traumasensitiveschools.org)
Trauma-sensitive educators told us that no matter how the remote learning is taking place across the district, (from direct instruction online as a class group, to remote learning with no face-to-face contact with a teacher or peers, etc.), having a regular time several times a week set aside for students to talk with their teachers —whether it be face to face, on a device or voice only on a phone— is critically important to buffer the traumatic impact of the current situation. Being able to...
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ACEs Connection launches Cooperative of Communities
The ACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities launches today. We want to continue to contribute to the ACEs movement for as long as it takes to create a worldwide healing-centered culture based on ACEs science. We want that to take hold in this world in the same way electricity has — we only notice it if it isn’t there.
First, a clarification: Nothing on ACEsConnection.com changes! Membership remains free! Everything our current 300+ communities use stays free, and remains free for new ones.
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Partnership with HBCUs Helps At-risk Students Realize Their Dreams of Higher Education (learn4life.org)
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are known for helping students of color and opportunity youth access an affordable and quality higher education. Realizing that high SAT scores and GPAs aren’t necessarily indicators of student success in college, HBCUs instead focus on developing learners through personalized learning and support. Learn4Life and FLEX High serve at-risk students and share this approach to recover dropouts, and promote college access, readiness and...
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How We’re Helping Underserved Students with On-site Healthcare (learn4life.org)
Among the challenges low-income families face, access to healthcare is just as much a concern as receiving a quality education. We are working to improve healthcare access for our at-risk students through a new partnership that co-locates a clinic at a learning center. “We do everything we can to make wraparound services available so our students can concentrate on earning their diploma,” explained Shellie Hanes, area superintendent. “Most of our teens do not have access to healthcare, so...
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How Parents Can Support Children With Special Needs During Distance Learning (greatergood.berkeley.edu)
Parenting a child with additional learning, attention, social-emotional, or behavioral needs has never been easy—and it’s not exactly getting easier. Distance learning and hybrid learning have created a whole new layer of challenge for the approximately 7.1 million children who receive special education services in American schools. Here are the three most common challenges I have been seeing for children with special needs—and what parents can do when they see these challenges at home. “My...
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New Resource: Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic One-Pager (English & Spanish!)
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...
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The Pandemic Is Raging. Here's How to Support Your Grieving Students [edweek.org]
By Brittany R. Collins, Education Week, November 12, 2020 Over the past few decades, trauma-informed teaching has gained ground in the United States, yet rarely is grief included in the conversation. In the midst of a global pandemic, with teachers and students confronting loss in and outside the classroom in new and myriad ways, it is more critical than ever to apply a grief-sensitive lens to our conversations about curricula and trauma in the school system. We are not the people we were a...
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Holiday Message from Doc Childre, HeartMath Institute's Founder (heartmath.org)
The holidays can magnify our care, kindness, and connection… yet they can also magnify energies of separation, like blame, chaos, and emotional instability. It’s helpful to make heart-firm commitments to add compassion, kindness, patience, and latitude as we interact with others and with ourselves. Practicing these heart qualities during the holiday period (or any time) can prevent much stress and lift our spirit for increased clarity, discernment, and intuitive guidance for our highest...
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A Guide to Practicing Self-Care with Mindfulness (mindful.org)
The History of Self-Care The “radical” concept of self-care was born during the civil rights era, a time when brave individuals were fighting the relentless enemies of prejudice and discrimination. These American heroes created the first real communities of care, standing strong together in the face of seemingly impossible challenges and unspeakable treatment. It can’t be lost on us that one of the concepts they were fighting for was (and remains) the basic human right to self-care. People...
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A Quiet And 'Unsettling' Pandemic Toll: Students Who've Fallen Off The Grid [NPR.org]
For American families and their children, school is more than just a building. It's a social life and a community, an athletic center and a place to get meals that aren't available at home. The pandemic has disrupted — and continues to disrupt — the lives of U.S. students in profound ways. Many kids haven't set foot in their schools since March, when most in-person schooling shut down across the country. Teachers are working tirelessly to educate their students online, but they are growing...
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Black Lives Matter 13 Guiding Principles (DC Area Educators for Social Justice)
1. Restorative Justice We are committed to collectively, lovingly and courageously working vigorously for freedom and justice for Black people and, by extension all people. As we forge our path, we intentionally build and nurture a beloved community that is bonded together through a beautiful struggle that is restorative, not depleting. 2. Empathy We are committed to practicing empathy; we engage comrades with the intent to learn about and connect with their contexts. 3. Loving Engagement We...
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COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (cdc.gov)
Why are some racial and ethnic minority groups disproportionately affected by COVID-19? Introduction Risk of Exposure to COVID-19 Risk of Severe Illness or Death from COVID-19 Disparities in COVID-19 Illness Disparities in COVID-19-Associated Hospitalizations Disparities in COVID-19 Deaths Unintended Consequences of COVID-19 Mitigation Strategies What We Can Do to Move Towards Health Equity Click each link above to learn about underlying health and social inequities that put many racial and...
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Why Covid School Schedules Are Better For Some Students (forbes.com)
Prior to Covid, the majority of K-12 schools were running on schedules that didn’t serve students well. In the latter half of the 20th century, school start and end times were designed around bus schedules. To use the same fleet of buses for all students, schools in suburban areas created schedules with high school students as the first arrivals. Yet study after study shows that early school starts don’t work best for adolescent sleep needs. Data supports the fact that later start times...
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Dear Parents: A digital well-being resource from teens to parents (communityschools.caboces.org)
Together, we can do better. All students, school districts, families and communities have equitable access to rich resources to improve student learning, strengthen families and create healthier communities. School and community partnerships are empowered and connected in meaningful ways, problems are solved and resources are used effectively. To view the 12-page digital well-being resource from Community Schools, please click here.
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Recording Available: Trauma-Responsive Practices During Distance Learning
The February workshop recording from last week is available now for Trauma-Responsive Practices During Distance Learning! You can watch it by clicking here . Learn more about Rise to Resilience on the website by clicking here and access our additional social media links here .
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Depression, anxiety 'extremely high' among new mothers since start of social distancing [healio.com]
By Joe Gramigna, Healio News, February 19, 2021 Prevalence rates of clinically relevant depression and anxiety have been “extremely high” among postnatal women during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to study results published in Journal of Psychiatric Research. “There had been no data published examining mental health in new mothers during COVID-19 at the time of study,” Victoria Fallon, FHEA, CPsychol , of the department of psychology at the University of Liverpool in the UK, told Healio...
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SNAP Supports Health and Boosts the Economy (rwfj.org)
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has provided billions of dollars in additional funding to prevent hunger and help ensure that children and families have access to healthy, affordable food. Part of the emergency funding is dedicated to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides short-term financial support to low-income individuals and families who struggle to afford food. This brief describes the purpose of SNAP and who it serves,...
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More Comprehensive State Guidance Can Support the Whole Child during COVID-19 (ChildTrends.org)
As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, students continue to face significant challenges to their mental and physical health . In an April 2020 survey from Active Minds, 60 percent of high school students reported that their mental health has worsened during the pandemic. Pandemic-related school closures have also caused many students to lose access to necessary school-based health services . Students with disabilities and special health care needs, who may heavily rely on services typically...
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New Resource: Strategies for Trauma-Informed School Communities
The California Essentials for Childhood Initiative is excited to share a newly developed attached, “Strategies for Trauma-Informed School Communities: Practices to Improve Resiliency in School-Aged Children and Address Adverse Childhood Experiences”. This new resource is intended to assist state and local public health programs, child-serving systems, non-profits, and philanthropic organizations in their efforts to educate about the need for trauma-informed school policies and practices that...
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How Schools Can Help Kids Heal After A Year Of 'Crisis And Uncertainty' (npr.org)
This pandemic has been stressful for millions of children like Kai. Some have lost a loved one to COVID-19, and many families have lost jobs, their homes and even reliable access to food. If that stress isn't buffered by caring adults, it can have lifelong consequences. "Kids have had extended exposure to chaos, crisis and uncertainty," says Matt Biel, a child psychiatrist at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. "If kids don't return to school and get a lot of attention paid to security,...
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Free Mindfulness Apps Worthy of Your Attention (mindful.org)
There’s no shortage of mindfulness and meditation apps these days, promising to help you combat anxiety, sleep better , hone your focus, and more. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reports that more than 2,000 new meditation apps launched between 2015 and 2018, and offerings have only increased as a result of higher demand during the pandemic—according to the New York Times , mindfulness apps surged in 2020. We took the overwhelm out of finding the most valuable and easy-to-use mindfulness...