| By: Committee for Children Breaking Up Is Hard to Do My best friend broke up with me in sixth grade. She had started wearing a bra and putting just the tips of her fingers into her Lee corduroy pockets and jutting her hip to one side the way the popular girls did. She no longer joined me and our two undershirt-wearing friends at our lockers as we created silly writing “assignments” for each other (e.g., The Life History of an Ear). I always felt like she had rejected me, although there was never a fight or moment of truth between us. Clearly, I was just not cool enough for her.Read More
| By: Committee for Children Taking Care of #1: How to Become a Resilient Educator by Tonje Molyneux As one who has chosen to work in a child-serving profession, it’s a given that you’re busy, and very likely that you experience some degree of stress on a daily basis. In fact, it’s likely you could use a moment to de-stress right now. So use the few moments you spend reading this article to also relax by doing a simple breathing exercise. Breathe in slowly through your nose, feel your…Read More
| By: Committee for Children Book Review: The Power of a Teacher by Adam L. SáenzReading Level: Adult According to a survey conducted by the National Teacher of the Year award and the ING financial institution, 88 percent of Americans identified at least one teacher who had a significant, positive impact on their life. Ninety-eight percent believed that a good teacher can change the course of a student’s life. Many teachers start their careers with…Read More
| By: Committee for Children Top 10 Ways to Keep the Joy of Teaching Ever have those days when your students’ behavior can only be blamed on a full moon? If these “full moon” days turns into weeks, maybe it’s time to reflect on our own social-emotional well-being as educators in the classroom. Because when we’re worried about something, stressed out, or not taking care of ourselves, our students know it, feel it, and often react by acting out. And that means more “full moon” days for us.Read More
| By: Committee for Children Second Step Effectiveness in a Large Urban School District A second year has passed since the introduction of the PreK-5 Second Step curriculum, 4th edition into Milwaukee Public Schools. During the first year of implementation (2011–2012), a group of people in my district worked to gather results about the effectiveness of the program, with a primary focus on the early learning and K–5 levels. I shared those results in a blog in early 2013. We learned that songs helped students better remember the social skills, that follow-up and reinforcement beyond the lessons was related to greater student knowledge gains, and that those implementing 88 percent or more of the lessons showed significantly greater student improvements than lower implementers.Read More
| By: Emilie Coulter Good Girl Gone Bad? My almost-eight-year-old daughter is a Good Girl at school. You know what I mean. A joy to have in the classroom. Courteous, fun, friendly, attentive to her work. Don’t get me wrong; Etta can be a disaster at home. All day long she’s steadily squeezing that appropriate behavior out of her system like a new tube of toothpaste, and by 4:30 or 5, she’s got nothing left for us. Then she has her moments, and they can be doozies. Temperamentally, though, she is a kind, generous soul.Read More
| By: Committee for Children Social-emotional goals may be the most important goals of all! Many school districts now encourage student goal-setting conferences in the fall where the child, the parent/caregiver, and the teacher sit down together to establish goals for the student to work on all year long. It is a wonderful time of discussing the child’s strengths and areas to work on academically, socially, and emotionally while teaching the life skill of goal setting.Read More
| By: Committee for Children Empathy and Bullying Recently, a friend told me an endearing story about empathy. It took place the day before Blue Shirt Day last year (October 1st), on which people are encouraged to wear blue shirts to make a commitment to “Stomp Out Bullying”. My friend’s son received a call from his cousin the night before, reminding him to wear his blue shirt. The boy’s cousin was worried that he might forget to wear one and be picked on for being different.Read More
| By: Allison Schumacher Bullying in Kindergarten? Prevention Means Starting Early by Allison Wedell Schumacher When most of us think of bullying, we think of the stories we’ve seen in the news: high school kids being maligned on social media; middle schoolers shunning or teasing each other. So when we see bullying prevention lessons that begin in kindergarten, we might think, “Overkill! Those sweet little five-year-olds wouldn’t hurt a…Read More
| By: Committee for Children Book Review: Maniac Magee Maniac Magee by Jerry SpinelliReading Level: Grades 4-8 Jeffrey Lionel Magee is legendary for so many reasons: he outruns trains, he unravels impossible knots, he outslugs neighborhood baseball stars, and he befriends buffaloes. When it comes right down to it, though, “Maniac” Magee’s most astonishing feat is his ability to connect with people….Read More