| By: Committee for Children The Principal’s Role As I’ve gone through my principal internship these last few weeks, I continue to think about the important role of social-emotional learning. I think in everything we do and everything we communicate as educators we must make sure we are thinking of all kids and their “whole” selves, not just their academic growth.Read More
| By: Committee for Children Integrating Social-Emotional Strategies in Content Areas: Third Part – Science! Science is a great subject to integrate with social-emotional skills. Like in other subjects, feelings and emotions are alive and well in the area of science.Read More
| By: Committee for Children Our Work at the Local Level: Massachusetts This was an important summer for the kids of Massachusetts. In August, Governor Deval Patrick made history as he signed Safe and Supportive Schools provisions into law. With the enactment of these provisions, Massachusetts becomes a national leader in supporting schools and districts to create the whole-school safe and supportive…Read More
| By: Committee for Children Our Work in Federal Policy Committee for Children took a much more active role in federal policy this year, and we plan to continue our work in this area in the years ahead. One of our key legislative victories this year was the inclusion of social- emotional learning as an identified area of focus for federal education research. Our Executive Director, Joan Duffell, wrote a letter to Congressional leaders in support of this provision, and we were pleased when the language was…Read More
| By: Committee for Children Renton schools taking a new look at bullying prevention https://mail.cfchildren.org/OWA/redir.aspx?C=U5r6BaWv5U-YZR10QSmIbmo_zcMk4dEI29y0h8-gzlixFmIz39uQ4hoxlSidbNfa2OqvdZ5m8FY.&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.rentonreporter.com%2fnews%2f284037171.htmlRead More
| By: Committee for Children Coping with Life’s Challenges Coping with the demands of everyday life can sometimes be difficult. I am reminded of that when I think about the experiences of my friends and colleagues just in the past month: death of a loved one, loss of a job, car problems, job interview, illness, selling a house, and a divorce. Such challenges can be especially trying without healthy coping mechanisms. Virginia Satir once communicated this when she said, “Problems are not the problem. Coping is the problem.”Read More
| By: Committee for Children Teen girls combat bullying on World Kindness Day http://sammamishreview.com/2014/11/25/teen-girls-combat-bullying-on-world-kindness-dayRead More
| By: Committee for Children Talking About Tough Topics with Tweens: Part 2 of 2 We’ve also been talking about the difference between unsafe and unwanted touch. When I asked nine-year-old Etta to give me an example of unsafe touch, my witty child walked over to Amos and slugged him. “Correct!” I crowed. Amos remarked drily, “It was unwanted, too.” Read More
| By: Committee for Children Talking About Tough Topics with Tweens: Part 1 of 2 Talking about tough topics, in addition to being an excellent tongue-twister, is a skill every parent needs to master, or at least muddle through. As someone who once found the perfect moment to talk about sex with her five and eight year old children after hearing an NPR story about drive-up windows for boar semen (“What are they even talking about, Mom?”), I am a big fan of seizing natural opportunities. Of course, sometimes those opportunities don’t come soon enough, and we need to nudge them along.Read More
| By: Committee for Children Integrating Social-Emotional Strategies into Content Areas: Second Part – Math! When we educators reflect on this notion of how we “feel” about math, I’ve noticed we often go back to memories where others labeled us “good” at math or “not good” at math. We must think about these moments and make sure we don’t do the same in our own teaching.Read More