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March 13, 2019
In School Leadership, , Suicide

5 Steps for Developing Protective Factors against Teen Suicide

Tylor blamed herself for everything wrong in her life and saw no hope for her future. She’d never been in trouble before, but she’d just gotten caught bringing marijuana to school and was suspended. As a result, she felt like everyone was disappointed in her, and she felt like she had irrevocably ruined all her dreams and plans for the future. She sat in suspension alone in her pain, seeing no way to recover. She blamed herself for everything wrong in her life. When she left school that day, she went into her basement and took her life. Protective factors could have made a difference in her story, and they can make a difference in your teens’ too.

Tylor’s story is not unique. Every day teenagers across the nation die by suicide, teens who should have lived and prospered, teens who deserved to be happy. Their deaths, these tragedies, impact families and communities forever. And whether anyone in your school has taken their life or not, you can be sure that suicide has had some impact on your teens one way or another. Continue Reading

March 2, 2019
In Classroom Resources, Implementing SEL,

Creating an environment of empathy: 6 classroom strategies you can implement today

On July 9, 2017, a group of five Florida teens, aged fourteen to nineteen, watched a man drown. They did not call for help. They did not try and assist him. In fact, the teens recorded the man’s final moments, taunted and mocked him as he struggled to stay afloat, and then posted the video of his death on YouTube. (CNN reported on the story.) And though this story speaks to many issues, one thing is certain. These teens lacked empathy. Continue Reading

December 31, 2018
In Refusal Skills

Refusal Skills: Teaching Teens What to Say When No Isn’t Enough

Have you ever had someone ask if you could make something for a bake sale or volunteer to coordinate a fundraiser for your child’s school? Did you ever just say no without explanation or follow-up? Probably not. That’s because in general people don’t like to say no. And certainly not without some kind of excuse to go along with it. It’s true most of the time, but it’s even harder to say no when someone we care about asks us to do something. Learning how to say no means building up your refusal skills. Continue Reading

December 14, 2018
In PBIS

3 Considerations for a Successful PBIS Implementation

Let’s chat about 3 key considerations when implementing a PBIS solution. We’ll start with habits. Habits do not exist in a vacuum. This is true for good habits (like brushing your teeth every morning) as well as bad habits (like eating an entire bag of chips in front of the TV). In fact, habits come from a predictable sequence of events, also known as a behavior chain. The events in this chain are trigger, thought, action, consequence. When it comes to successfully implementing PBIS strategies in your school, it helps to look at each point in the behavior chain. Continue Reading