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Talking to Young Children About Scary Things
Listen Many of us are frightened or overwhelmed right now, and children know that. It isn’t a matter of “if” they notice, but a matter of “when”. Teachers and parents alike have struggled with talking to their children about big, overwhelming topics since the dawn of time. It’s not new,...
Remote Learning Idea #3: Do-able Poetry Intro or Review
Listen How can 6 little letters elicit such fear, dread, anxiety, and memories of failure and defeat? And, that’s just for the teachers! Many of us literature nerds love poetry. You probably remember how excited you were building your poetry packet your first year teaching ELAR. The other teachers on...
5 Pro Tips for Working From Home
Listen Many teachers have suddenly found themselves teaching from the most unexpected place: home. Although you may have lots of new colleagues (your family members and pets), access to a refrigerator and pantry, and plenty of comfortable places to work from, the challenge to adjust to working in that environment...
Resource Roundup: ELAR and Administration Books for the Pandemic
Listen As more and more schools are extending breaks and/or turning to online instruction in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more teachers and administrators find themselves going a little stir crazy. It’s been impressive and truly beautiful to see various educational resources, publishers, instructional platforms, internet providers, school...
Resource Roundup: PD for the Pandemic
Listen With states and districts closing schools suddenly due to the pandemic, some teachers are finding themselves with two weeks of “early summer”, extended spring break, or even voluntary time at home otherwise avoiding illness. If you’re faced with seemingly endless hours with little to do (after you’re tired of...
Student-Mentoring Programs
Listen Teachers have always had to find creative ways to help students without much family support: a single parent who has to work multiple jobs, a family distracted by crisis, or children removed from an abusive situation. These issues date as far back as any form of civilization, much less...
Tips for Combating Student Anxiety
Listen Childhood has always been filled with stressors, but recent studies show that childhood anxiety is on the rise. The Child Mind Institute says that 30% of children now experience significant anxiety, although many of these children never receive treatment. The CDC says that the number of diagnoses increased from...
Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD)
Listen What Is ODD? Oppositional Defiance Disorder is a behavioral disorder. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms include persistent angry or irritable moods, extreme defiance for authority figures, frequent need to argue, and vindictiveness. Students with ODD most often deal with other disorders simultaneously and in addition to ODD. Frequent...
Tips for Coping with Personal Mental Illness
Listen According to NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness), on average, 1 in 5 Americans in the general population experience mental illness at some point in their adult life. 1 in 25 experience severe or chronic mental illnesses. It comes as no surprise that teachers are not an exception...
How Do I Deal with Conflict at School?
Listen Conflict at the workplace is stressful in any traditional business, but teaching is such a personal career, and having a team that cannot coalesce can be exhausting and demoralizing. Team planning meetings, lunchtime, PLC’s, and hallway bantering may be too much to handle when palpable tension is present. While...
Police Officers on School Campuses
Listen While some find it unsettling or unfortunate to walk onto a school campus and see armed police officers walking around, a better understanding of the roles of School Resource Officers (or SROs) reveals that they are more than just stern defenders looking for bad guys. SROs devote much...
Self-Care for Worn Out Educators
Listen Have you ever noticed that the only movies that are made about us are either movies where the teacher is a terrible human who takes complete advantage of the “easy paycheck” (which we all know is not realistic) or those who have no personal boundaries and are terrible humans...