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For Parents

Robin Glenn
In Classroom Resources, For Educators and Parents, For Parents, Implementing SEL, Remote Learning,

3 Indicators That You’re in Need of an SEL Solution

Many school professionals have cited learning gaps, staff shortages, testing, and COVID-related issues as their many stressors that weigh heavily on a daily basis.  This list is not exhaustive, and it doesn’t include the very real pressure and responsibility of taking on student mental health challenges which continue to soar at epic proportions.

Most people admit that they expected the fall 2021 start to the school year to be closer to “normal” than it turned out to be.  If you’re barely getting by and your plate is full, rest assured, you’re not alone.

Many children’s hospitals have declared a state of emergency, seeing skyrocketing rates of self-injurious behaviors and suicide attempts.  Only two years ago, if a child under the age of 13 showed up in an emergency department for a suicide attempt, it was considered a rare event.  Today, children as young as seven years of age are attempting to take their own lives.  These wounded youngsters are walking through your doors and the need for mental health supports are paramount.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures:

“State standards determine what SEL looks like in each state. Every state has comprehensive, free-standing standards for SEL with developmental benchmarks in preschool, however, just eight states have standards for SEL development for early elementary students and eight more expand their standards to K-12 grades.” 

This leaves blanks for teachers to fill as they grasp for resources. 

So how can you know when it’s time to implement social-emotional learning?

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Robin Glenn
In For Educators and Parents, For Parents,

How to Help Your Kids’ Emotional Development During a Pandemic

Originally posted on Family Education on February 3rd, 2021.

With social and emotional needs on the rise and the methods of incorporation low or inconsistent, how can families provide the skills needed to foster emotional learning at home? Here are some tips for adults and caregivers.

Kids worldwide aren’t just missing out on birthdays and social events, they’re also missing key developmental experiences. With social interactions at an all-time low, kids have less exposure to their friends, teachers, and in some cases, their loved ones, including parents.

Most skills for social and emotional learning are now taught in schools, but during the pandemic, a time when kids need it most, teachers and administrators are striving to provide the basics of core academics. Educators are being faced with many challenges including online and hybrid models, accessing struggling students, and locating students who are simply missing from school altogether.

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Bryan
In For Parents, School Leadership,

9 Tips for Working with “Difficult” Populations

“Troubled”, “High Risk”, “Difficult”, these are just some of the names that we label our students. With displays of symptoms of underlying problems, we often see behavior that can involve aggression towards self or others, extreme “attention-seeking”, low self-esteem or disproportionately inflated sense of arrogance, substance use, general disrespect towards authority figures, and more.  Admittedly, these kids are not always the easiest to work with. It takes endless amounts of patience, training, experience, and compassion to work with many “at-risk” students. That said if you are in a leadership role (teacher, coach, counselor, etc.) you can be a role model and show behaviors they may have not been exposed to before. While it may seem obvious that as a leader you will display compassion, authenticity, and patience, these youth may have never seen an adult act in this way before. In addition, it can be difficult to dig deep and find your own stride as you roll with their behaviors.
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Bryan
In For Parents, Suicide

World Mental Health Day 2019: Advocacy at All Levels

World Mental Health Day 2019
World Mental Health Day is coming up on October 10th. The theme this year is suicide prevention. When we lose a friend, a neighbor, a family member to suicide we can feel helpless. Alone. Unsure of what we could have done differently to prevent this. The World Health Organization notes that we lose one person to suicide every 40 seconds worldwide. With these staggering numbers, the W.H.O. is honoring those we have lost by encouraging people to have “40 seconds of action”. As taken from their website, they state that, “Everyone can take part in whichever way makes most sense. Your activity may be private, for example, initiating a conversation with someone you are worried about or sharing a message of hope with someone who is struggling; or it may be public, for example posting a video message for local or national authorities about action you would like them to take on this issue.”
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Bryan
In For Parents

10 ways to not have a before-school melt down in the summer heat

We know. We can hardly believe it either. With weeks before the return to school we have to start shifting gears back to routine, education, and after-school activities. “Already?! But we haven’t done all the fun summer things yet!” you may cry out, incredulously. Yes, it is indeed that time already. Time to get moving, that is! A smooth transition back to school begins with about a month’s worth of preparation. Of course, this doesn’t need to be drudgery, math drills, and rushing to complete that summer reading assignment. Here are 10 tips to make the process of returning to academia a little smoother! Continue Reading
Bryan
In For Parents, Substance Abuse

Tough Talk on Marijuana

Talking about drugs can be difficult for parents.  Talking about marijuana can bring an entirely new level of challenges. Due to layers of controversy, the topic of marijuana, i.e. hemp, THC, CBD, concentrates, and medicinal advantages can place anyone at a loss for words when speaking with our youth. The question of how to talk to teens about marijuana can be an even greater challenge. Many parents also find that between increasing legalization of marijuana and their own experimentation at younger ages, conversations about marijuana are at the very least uncomfortable and, in many cases, can feel downright hypocritical. But as with diaper changes and other unpleasant parenting tasks, some that are necessary are more difficult to accomplish. Talking about marijuana may be one such task, but knowing how to be effective can be key in having an informed and productive talk about marijuana with your teen. Continue Reading
Bryan
In For Parents, Substance Abuse

Four Ways Adults Can Help Teens Stay Safe in a Drug-Exposed World

Babysitting can be dangerous for teens, but not the kind of babysitting you might be thinking of. “Babysitting” is a term used to describe kids looking after or “babysitting” friends when those friends have over-indulged in drugs or alcohol.  At first, babysitting may seem like a good idea. Kids are thinking of someone else. They are concerned about their friend’s welfare, but overall, it’s a decision that can change lives forever, and not for the best. Most of the time, babysitting ends up ok, that is nothing terrible happens. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. When we see babysitting go wrong, it ruins lives forever. Continue Reading

Bryan
In For Parents, School Leadership,

What is SEL?

SEL, or social and emotional learning, is essential, but its definition may not be easy to pinpoint. In the past, education centered around academic achievement – give students information and expect them to remember it. But times have changed. Our understanding of human beings has changed. And as a result, what we teach in school has, and still needs to, change. Enter Social Emotional Learning.

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Bryan
In Bullying, For Parents

8 Ways Adults can Help in a Bullying Situation

Teenagers needing support with mental health

Picture a bullying situation. See the place where it is happening, the people involved, what is being said and done. Now, here’s a question – how many people are there? Is it just the one doing the bullying and the victim? Does the one doing the bullying have a gang of friends standing around helping?

Sometimes our image of bullying is too limited. While the person doing the bullying, the victim, and even their friends are all playing a part in the bullying situation you might have imagined, they aren’t the complete story. To understand how bullying really works and, ultimately, how to stop it, we need to look at ALL the roles in a given situation.

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