Teachers suffer too: School violence is a daily reality
(The Hill)
The American Psychological Association brought together school violence and education experts to form a National Task Force to examine issues related to violence directed against teachers. This Task Force, the first and only of its kind, has raised awareness and understanding of teacher-directed violence globally.
How to teach replicability
(APA’s Monitor on Psychology)
Students intuitively embrace open science and transparent research principles. Here’s how to help the next generation of psychologists put those principles into practice.
The mental health crisis on campus and how colleges can fix it
(The Conversation)
As a researcher who examines problems faced by college students in distress, I see a way to better support students’ mental health. In addition to offering individual counseling, colleges should also focus on what we in the mental health field refer to as population health and prevention.
3 secrets to doing well in school include being smart, hardworking, and one other factor
(CandyMag.com)
A recent study published in the Psychological Bulletin says that emotional intelligence also affects academic performance. Emotional intelligence, according to Psychology Today, involves three skills: emotional awareness, ability to relate those emotions to tasks like problem solving, and ability to manage and regulate their own emotions as well as help peers do the same.
What to do when cliques form
(Psychology Today)
You can also teach your child skills for handling confrontations with members of the clique. For instance, suggest that your child walk away if someone is bullying her, or tell the other child, “You are being rude.” If your child faces daily altercations with a clique at school, contact your school for help. The professionals can monitor the situation and intervene to support your child.
School start times
(Bangor Daily News)
Only a third of American teenagers reported getting eight hours of sleep every night, according to the American Medical Association, which is less than the 8½ to 9½ hours they need. Plus, teenagers biologically are likely to go to bed and wake up later than children who haven’t hit puberty. So when schools move to later start times, students get more sleep, the American Psychological Association has found.
It’s time for schools to provide mental health education
(The Mighty)
Providing proper mental health education to children in schools would help them better understand the problems they may experience, and it would provide strategies for how to cope with such issues. Only three states currently mandate mental health education at the K-12 level in schools — Virginia, New York, and Florida (Hood 2019).
Digital solutions can address the problem of student mental health
(US News and World Report)
Apps, teletherapy and other digital tools should be used to help tackle the problems of student mental health.
How to choose the right way to study for you: advice for students
(The Learning Scientists)
There are a plethora of apps, games, and study tips for students ranging from well meaning advice from other students to flashy games from tech companies. How can you tell what is and is not worth your time? There are no hard and fast rules, but I do have some advice for students who want to take control of their learning and use the right study tools for them.
Teach your kids to fail
(New York Times)
As I dug into the research, I was persuaded. It all goes back to something called “growth mindset.” The term was popularized and developed by Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford, and it’s the notion that you can change your abilities through effort and strategy. The alternative to a growth mindset is a “fixed mindset” — the idea that your abilities are innate and can’t be changed.
Back to basics: universities are now offering ‘adulting’ classes
(Minneapolis Star Tribune)
Students are lining up for classes that teach life skills: “I need to learn how to get this adult thing down and manage life.”
What should schools do when a second-grader makes a threat?
(STLtoday.com)
Often, children who make threats do so out of anger or frustration that may have been caused by other factors in their life, such as troubles at home or in their communities, said Mark Reinecke, child and adolescent psychologist and clinical director of the Child Mind Institute in San Francisco. Threats can be a youth’s attempt to control what’s happening around them, Reinecke said.
‘At-Promise’? Can a new term for ‘at-risk’ change a student’s trajectory?
(Education Week – Subscription Required, Free Trial)
Ivory Toldson, a professor of counseling psychology at Howard University and the editor-in-chief of The Journal of Negro Education, wrote an essay in January 2019 criticizing the use of at-risk, but noting that at-promise may not be much better.
Have they learnt something?
(3-Star Learning Experiences)
We want people to learn better. To this end schools are implementing new curricula, lesson plans, learning management systems and so forth. Companies are delivering new trainings, using virtual reality, or coaching trajectories. And researchers are carrying out cutting edge research where children or adults discuss more, think more deeply, or whatever. And now what? Were these interventions worth their weight in gold or in dung? And how do we even answer that question? The ‘normal’ answer could be: We measure whether they’ve learnt, but… we all know it’s not that simple.
Making SEL culturally competent
(Edutopia)
Teaching students about oppression and critical consciousness is a vital component of social-emotional learning.
How to introduce meditation to the high school classroom
(Edutopia)
Setting aside time for reflection and introspection helps students focus.
The problem of self-care in higher education
(Inside Higher Ed)
Students struggle to care for themselves in higher education, writes Douglas Dowland, and so do faculty.
Safeguarding the mental health of teachers
(KQED – Mind/Shift)
Teachers tell their students that mindset matters. Yet teachers do not always allow themselves space to receive those same messages of reflection and self-care.
A teacher’s new year’s resolution: stop fixating on the data
(The Chronicle of Higher Education)
But the problem with educators’ focusing only on what we can objectively measure isn’t just that we risk measuring the wrong things — it’s that every choice we make sends signals to our students.
Three practices to avoid in the classroom
(Effortful Educator)
There are a few practices many teachers use in their classrooms to drive their instruction that evidence would advise they not do. Unfortunately, they are quite popular among professional development opportunities (especially in the US) and are proliferated quite often on social media by a host of major education outfits and teachers/presenters/consultants. These practices have gained popularity and have a hold on how teachers think about and instruct their students.
Going goal-free during formative assessment
(Effortful Educator)
I’m making a simple modification to some of my formative assessment this semester. I’m incorporating the goal free effect. The concept behind this effect isn’t very tricky at all.
Digital solutions can address the problem of student mental health
(US News)
Apps, teletherapy and other digital tools should be used to help tackle the problems of student mental health.
How to choose the right way to study for you: advice for students
(The Learning Scientists)
There are a plethora of apps, games, and study tips for students ranging from well meaning advice from other students to flashy games from tech companies. How can you tell what is and is not worth your time? There are no hard and fast rules, but I do have some advice for students who want to take control of their learning and use the right study tools for them.
My thoughts on the work-life balance of a school psychologist
(The Calm Corner)
I wanted to share how I have developed a pretty good balance for being a School Psychologist and working mom. But first, I want to say a few things.
Harness the power of emotions to help your students learn
(Faculty Focus)
I’ve been thinking a lot about emotional presence in our online and face-to-face classes. There seems to be an enduring sense that emotions have no place in the lofty halls of academia. Our pursuit of knowledge should be rational, detached, unaffected by such trivialities as our emotions.
