Tag: Mental Health
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The Case for Collaborative Grading: Empowering Students and Reducing Stress
Introduction In the pursuit of creating a more inclusive and student-centered learning environment, I adopted a collaborative grading practice in my English classes this year. The approach involved engaging in discussions with students to determine their midterm and final grades, essentially, I ditched the traditional “teacher knows best” approach and adopted a collaborative grading practice…
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Creating Dynamic Content
Creating dynamic, interactive content is about more than looks or fun – it’s about good pedagogy. Using dynamic and interactive content promotes social-emotional learning, increases engagement, decreases cognitive load, and learning science supports these assertions. Social-Emotional Learning Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the…
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A Multi-pronged Approach to SEL
Starting a new school year always prompts me to reflect on previous years. What can I do better? What do I need to implement? What do I want to continue? What’s different this year that needs to be addressed in a distinct way? One thing that I keep coming back to as a paramount need…
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Bringing a Fruit Roll-Up to a Knife Fight
I was not expecting to talk about fruit roll-ups and knife fights, but who knew how impactful and informative that would be? I had the pleasure of attending a Symposium on Teacher Wellness hosted by the Ontario Teachers Federation a little while ago and am still reflecting back on the learning that took place. I…
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The Stress Kettle
Stress is kind of like a tea kettle.The water is our resources. The heat is stress. There are many days where the heat never even gets turned on and our well of resources remains stable. Some days the heat is on low and only for a short time – pretty easy to handle.Other days the…
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“X” Marks the Spot
I began writing this series a year and a half ago to explore the many considerations we need to contemplate regarding the changes that will occur in the next decade and what our students will need to be successful in that time-frame and beyond. Access, happiness, mental well-being, reflection, patience, social-emotional learning, and mindset are…
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U is for Unhappy? Not Anymore…
I recently attended a book launch open house where my friend Rob Dunlop celebrated the culmination of four years of work on his book STRIVE for Happiness in Education. Rob is totally on the right track with this book. In a time of such significant upheaval on multiple fronts, his book serves as a balm.…
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P is for Patience
“If we want to live wider and deeper lives, not just faster ones, we have to practice patience — patience with ourselves, with other people, and with the big and small circumstances of life itself.” M. J. Ryan Have you ever felt frustrated? Exasperated? I think those are pretty natural feelings to experience occasionally but…
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J is for Jawbreakers and the Jabberwock
My tongue was a different colour every other day for more than two weeks that summer. The day I saw that jawbreaker I knew I had to get it. It was HUGE! Talk about bang for your buck or quarter as the case may be. I was so excited when Mom let me get it.…
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The Class of 2030, What Skills Will They Need?
The biggest challenges students in kindergarten right now will face when they graduate is a rapidly changing work environment so being flexible is essential, and flexibility requires confidence. Confidence is the by-product of strong emotional intelligence and it will be necessary to successfully navigate the work-world of the future. Social-emotional intelligence ensures students are self…
