3 Ways Schools Can Be Supportive of Students’ Mental Health

About one in five children in the United States shows signs of a mental health disorder — anything from ADHD to eating disorders to suicide. More than ever, "it takes a village" to raise a healthy child. And make no mistake about it, schools are one part of that village. In this article from the MindShift blog, Meg Anderson describes one model for how schools can come to the aid of children who suffer from mental health struggles.

https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/09/20/3-ways-schools-can-be-supportive-of-students-mental-health/

Cell Phones and Classrooms

Cellphones and laptops can be distracting for students in classrooms. And new research also shows that using electronic devices can even lower students’ grades. Scientists who studied the effects of divided attention in people know that when attention is divided between two tasks, fewer items regarding those tasks may be recalled later -- a concept called “retention” in psychology. This article from the ABC News website reports on the latest research led by Dr. Arnold Glass of Rutgers University on the ill effects of electronic devices on attention and classroom learning.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/cellphones-classrooms-contribute-failing-grades-study/story?id=56837614

As Teen Stress Increases, Teachers Look for Answers

Seventy percent of teens say stress is a major problem. This lengthy article from the Edutopia blog explores the many variables that cause stress among teens and provides suggestions for how teachers (and parents) can help students choose suitable coping mechanisms to alleviate stress and reduce the negative behaviors caused by stress.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/teen-stress-increases-teachers-look-answers

‘It’s OK to not be OK:’ How One High School Saved Lives with a 34-Question Survey

Giving high school students an honest survey on mental health and wellness may seem like risky business. Resources must be available to help students who report thoughts of an attempts at suicice. And the inability to reach such students in time may put the school in a liable position. But this high school in Colorado valued students' mental health as being more important than the inconvenience of providing help and the liability risk of not being able to. What they found out was both surprising and a catalyst for providing help to many students who were at risk for self-harm. Learn how they responded to student answers and what they learned as the result of their efforts at ...

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/53780/its-ok-to-not-be-ok-how-one-high-school-saved-lives-with-a-34-question-survey

Creating a Learning Environment Where All Kids Feel Valued

This article from the Edutopia blog discusses a five-step exercise on identity and belonging that helps students appreciate differences in themselves and in their peers. If you are looking for ways to improve the learning environment in your classroom, insuring that all students feel valued and safe, then consider this teacher's strategy for doing so. Visit ...

https://www.edutopia.org/article/creating-learning-environment-where-all-kids-feel-valued

How to Reach the Unreachable

Nathan Maynard manages the Behavior Flip blog (among other duties ... like being the Dean of Culture at an inner-city Indiana school and the co-author of a best-selling book titled Hacking School Discipline). Maynard's specialty is studying the behavior of and working with hard-to-reach school children. He has popularized an approach known as restorative justice. His educational training in Behavioral Neuroscience and his experience with at-risk children qualifies him to offer advice about how to reach the difficult-to-reach student.

In this blog article, Maynard offers advice on how to communicate to children who are in crisis mode. Being able to recognize what a student in crisis mode looks like is discussed and the reason that processing does not work with such students is explained. Ways to help the in-crisis student calm down, feel safe, and reach the state of being able to process with reasoning are given. Maynard distinguishes between three mental states, each of which correlates with a region of the brain - the Neocortex (reasoning), the Limbic System (emotions), and the Reptilian Complex (instincts). Maynard advices that adults should never attempt to process and event until the student in-crisis has reached the Neocortex mental state. Learn more about how to reach the unreachable at ...

https://blog.behaviorflip.com/how-to-reach-the-unreachable/

How to Build a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom Where All Learners Feel Safe

In the United States, 34 million children have had at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE) -- ranging from abuse or neglect to parental incarceration or addiction. Children living in poverty are more likely to have multiple ACEs, compounding the effects of economic insecurity. In addition, the current opioid epidemic is devastating familiesand overwhelming the foster care system, and many school populations include refugee childrenwho have fled dangerous conditions. Many classrooms in America are touched by trauma. 

So what are we to do about it?This article from the MindShift blog addresses he dilemma and offers solutions as to how teachers can design classrooms where trauma-affected children can feel safe and devote themselves to learning. Learn more at …

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/52566/how-to-build-a-trauma-sensitive-classroom-where-all-learners-feel-safe

How to Stay Organized: Start the New Year with this Equation

We came across this article this past August on motivation and productivity. It was written by former-science teacher-turned-ADHD-specialist Gary Abud. We are familiar with Gary’s work and character from his previous devotion to high school science teaching so the article piqued our interest. As noted in the graph, the motivations of both student and teacher follows a natural roller coaster curve. And at the moment, we are sitting at a precariously low location. The article does an outstanding job attributing rising and falling motivation levels to a lack of learned skills for organizing and planning. As Gary notes in the article, the lagging motivation of students is not so much a lack of will power (as we often credit it to) but rather a lack of skill power. Gary describes it this way: “Whether it is assignment completion, classroom behavior, or giving students timely and useful feedback on their learning, issues of productivity in school come down to a set of skills for thinking, focusing, and taking action. Children are not born with these skills, they're developed. But when we see the results of a lack of these skills in schoolkids, it often gets the student labeled as lazy or unmotivated.” We will leave the rest of the article for you to enjoy. You will find it at … 

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_leader_voices/2018/08/how_to_stay_organized_start_th.html