Blog

The so-called restorative circles aim to build trust and understanding and reduce misbehavior. They’re popping up in schools all over the county, in part from the efforts of agencies like Restorative Resources and the Sonoma County Office of Education, which have trained educators on these practices. The Santa Rosa nonprofit last year received $100,000 from the county to launch the alternative justice program. It was one of the recommendations issued by the Community and Local Law...

Challenging students aren’t that way because they are inherently bad kids or intentionally creating difficulties in the classroom. To borrow a phrase from Ross Greene, “kids do well if they can,” and if they aren’t doing well, it’s because there’s something getting in the way. When I step back and consider the obstacles in my students’ lives — poverty, trauma, chronic stress — it makes total sense that they are struggling to communicate, regulate their emotions and make progress on learning.

The Educating Traumatized Children Summit had Ross Greene, Ph.D. as the keynote. He was interviewed by Julie Beem of the Attachment Trauma Network (ATN). Dr. Greene is the author of The Explosive Child and Lost at School, Lost & Found and Raising Human Beings . He's the originator of the Collaborative and Pro-Active Solutions (CPS) model . I’d heard his name from some of the teachers in my life, but I’d never heard him speak. I’ve summarized, paraphrased and quoted a few of the things he...

In US public schools, 51% of students in public schools come from low-income families. Decades of research show that children from low-income homes start kindergarten trailing one to three years behind their more economically advantaged peers. More recently, researchers have demonstrated the relationship between family income and brain structures, with the largest influence observed among the most disadvantaged children. Yet, many schools succeed with students from poverty. Here are three...

The National Women’s Law Center’s 2017 Let Her Learn Survey2 of 1,003 girls ages 14-18 shows that being called a racial slur is a common experience shared by all girls of color, with one third to more than two in five of them saying they have had this experience (Asian and Pacific Islander girls reported the highest rates), compared to just over one eighth of white girls.3 The Let Her Learn Survey also reveals that more than 1 in 5 girls (21 percent) have been sexually assaulted,4 with LGBTQ...

Go to THIS LINK to find the recent Family and Children's Trust (FACT) Fund issue brief on Trauma-Informed Schools. The TICN Schools Committee is highlighted!

I'm thrilled to announce our NEW Live Chat series!!! Starting in May, once a month, we will have a live Chat Event. It will take online in the Parenting with ACEs Group the second Tuesday of the month at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST). We'll learn from our featured guests (below) about ACE-related issues. We'll have discussions and share experiences, stories, and resources with each other. Here is who and what we have scheduled for 2017. 2017 Monthly Chat Schedule / Time is Always: @ 10 AM PST (1...

Carla Denner shared an experience with us from the Petaluma City School Board Meeting in March. The topic of discussion was schools being a safe place for all students and those facing immigration issues. She shared with us that she was happy to hear ACES discussed as part of this conversation. Also the wonderful work that Nikki (ACEs fellow) is doing with the Petaluma Schools. Petaluma is an example of a compassionate education system that is working to educate their staff about ACES and...

In California, AB 254 authored by Assemblymember Tony Thurmond (D-Richmond) will ensure access to health and mental health services for all students. The bill passed the Assembly Health Committee this afternoon. “We cannot continue to allow children that suffer from health conditions to fall behind in school and slip between the cracks,” said Thurmond. “All students, regardless of economic circumstances, deserve an opportunity to pursue an education and get the healthcare they need to remain...

As a teacher and teacher-educator for more than a decade, I have had the privilege of working with thousands of educators. Now, in my current capacity as the director of education at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence , part of my job is supporting educators from all over the nation in learning, living, and teaching social and emotional learning (SEL), a set of life skills that support people in experiencing, managing, and expressing their emotions effectively and in fostering...

Grit is an easy concept to fall in love with because it represents hope and perseverance, and conjures up images of working-class individuals living the “American dream.” However, treating grit as an appealing and simple fix detracts attention from the larger structural inequities in schools, while simultaneously romanticizing notions of poverty . Perhaps this idea of grit resonates with so many people who believe in the popular American adage that if you work hard and pull yourself up by...

Rarely do the worlds of medicine and education directly collide in the lives of students, but school start times are a notable exception. Despite compelling scientific evidence that starting school too early in the morning conflicts with the biological shift in teens’ sleep patterns, delaying school start times remains challenging for many districts. Recognizing that early start times are a key, modifiable factor contributing to the public health epidemic of teen sleep deprivation, the...