The headline: Pittsburgh to transform climate in 23 schools That alone is an impressive statement to read! We may be approaching a cultural shift in the way schools think about their responsibility to build healing relationships for the children and adults in their buildings.
It was powerful, I watched the five minute speech 6 times in a row. There is just so much to it- it's like he wrote a dissertation and a manifesto and somehow managed to tuck it all into a 5 minute spoken word poem! Talent, to say the least!
I wrote an article for Our Parenting Spot on the issue of Child Safety in Schools. I did research on what kind of standards the education system has that assures parents about safety in schools from threats such as fire or bullying. The way we handle these two dangers indicates that although we talk a great deal about bullying, we do not really treat it as a danger. This becomes strange and problematic when we look at the stats on injury and death by fire versus injury and death by bullying.
I'm not sure if this has already made the rounds, but it's such good news, it's definitely worth a repost! "Oakland Unified school board voted unanimously Wednesday night to eliminate willful defiance as a reason to suspend any student and to invest at least $2.3 million to expand restorative justice practices in its schools". What a beautiful commitment to the child, to meeting their actual needs rather than just sending them away with their needs unmet. The funding of RJ practices is huge,...
This week, Dallas Independent School District trustee Miguel Solis proposed a new disciplinary approach that would all but eliminate suspension as a punishment for the elementary grades. He’s right to do so. Suspension rates in Dallas and around the state are much too high, especially for black students. However, for this culture shift to succeed, it is imperative that the trustees give new supports to teachers, administrators and students to better handle difficult situations. Solis’s...
A research team in Chicago has spent a year studying whether students who are taught to be in touch with their emotions do better academically. And they say the initial results are promising. Perhaps counterintuitively, when kids take a break from a classroom lesson on the solar system to spend a quiet moment alone watching a three-minute nature video, or participate in a teacher-guided breathing exercise with their class after lunch, they seem to become better overall students. That’s...
When a child is acting out or not paying attention in school, it might not be because he or she is misbehaving. It might be because a parent was arrested the previous night. Teachers don't always know about the traumatic events a child experiences at home, but a new program being organized in Mercer County could give teachers notice when one of their students need to be handled with care. Andrea Darr, director of the West Virginia Center for Children's Justice spoke May 6 at Mercer County...
It’s Mental Health Month. Check Out These Schools That Are Making Mental Health Services a Priority It’s Mental Health Month. Check Out These Schools That Are Making Mental Health Services a Priority Statistics say that 50 percent of students battling mental health issues drop out of school. That’s why more and more schools and districts are recognizing the very real need to improve the kinds of mental health services offered to students in need. Massachusetts District Embarks on Journey to...
On Friday morning, the Obama administration issued a "Dear Colleagues" letter to the nation's school districts spelling out what they can do to safeguard the civil rights of students at K-12 schools and colleges, based on their gender identity. The administration argues that Title IX, which outlaws sex discrimination for any school receiving federal funding, covers gender identity. The letter does not change any existing laws, but provides what is called "significant guidance." It explains...
School suspension rates have risen in recent years. And since the punishment is linked to more severe problems later in life, such as dropping out of school or ending up in prison, researchers at Stanford University have been looking for ways to prevent it. Researchers asked one group of math teachers to complete a 45-minute online activity about how important it is to respect and humanize students. Meanwhile, another group of math teachers read about how to use technology in the classroom.
It’s long been known that meditation helps children feel calmer, but new research is helping quantify its benefits for elementary school-age children. A 2015 study found that fourth- and fifth-grade students who participated in a four-month meditation program showed improvements in executive functions like cognitive control, working memory, cognitive flexibility — and better math grades. A study published recently in the journal Mindfulness found similar improvements in mathematics in fifth...
Glen's Village , a series and documentary illustrating the struggles and success of Philadelphia student Glen Casey in coping with childhood trauma to succeed in school and college, won first prize in its category in the Education Writers Association annual awards contest. The judges cited the work, written by Paul Jablow and directed by Dorian Geiger, as "a compelling view of the effect of adverse experiences and stress on a young person and a close look at the interventions and supports in...
Cristo Rey faculty get one full day a week to collaborate and strategize about how to meet the specific needs of individual students. (Bas Slabbers/for WHYY) By Kevin McCorry School counselor Pam Turner-Bunyon had been warned: This new, incoming student had a dark profile and was prone to very erratic behavior. "When he first came to us, he ran out of the building, the first day — the very first day — instead of coming in, he ran," she said. Turner-Bunyon learned what happened and...
Before she became a neuroscientist, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang was a seventh-grade science teacher at a school outside Boston. One year, during a period of significant racial and ethnic tension at the school, she struggled to engage her students in a unit on human evolution. After days of apathy and outright resistance to Ms. Immordino-Yang’s teaching, a student finally asked the question that altered her teaching — and her career path — forever: “Why are early hominids always shown with dark...
This story is based on my dear friend Opal Fleming born in 1931. I promised her before she died that I would get her story published. She wanted children to know about the schools for the Deaf and how American Sign Language became a well-known language today by being passed on by other Deaf people. Opal was taken to the Oklahoma School for the Deaf by her father after he had learned about the school from a young Deaf man he had met on a train. The young man explained how he learned to read...