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PURPOSEFUL PLAY: CONNECTING PLAY AND LEARNING IN PRESCHOOLPURPOSEFUL PLAY BOOKPURPOSEFUL PLAY CURRICULUMBENEFITS OF PURPOSEFUL PLAYLEARNING MATHEMATICS THROUGH PLAYPOWER OF PLAY ARTICLE By Molly Breen “Play is serious learning,” quipped Fred Rogers famously. Vivian Gussin Paley devoted a lifetime of teaching and writing to the power of play, describing play as the work of childhood in recognition of its central role in child development. Dozens of other early childhood thought leaders have researched and writtenabout the
IF I COULD CHANGE SOMETHING ABOUT OUR SCHOOLS . . . “If I could change something about our schools, it would be the way in which administrators and teachers communicate with families. We often think that we meet the needs of families, that we answer their questions, that we care for their children, and that we are correct. ADDRESSING MICROAGGRESSIONS: EXPLORING ASSUMPTIONS AND 1. From a presentation by Dr. Derald Wing Sue at the American Psychological Association’s Annual Convention, August 3, 2012. 2. This exercise is a modified version of an activity called “Checking It Out,” from Conflict Resolution in the High School: 36 Lessons by Carol Miller Lieber, with Linda Lantieri and Tom Roderick. Cambridge, MA: Educators for Social Responsibility, 1998. WHAT PRINCIPALS WANT THEIR SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS TOEDUCATION PRINCIPAL JOBSPRINCIPAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS By Andrew Hawk After 18 years of working in classrooms, this fall I started my first year as a principal. I have now worked as a teaching assistant, a classroom teacher, a special education self-contained teacher, and a resource room teacher. In addition, as a parent, I have gone through the special education identification process UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING IN THE EARLY CHILDHOODGOOGLE EDUCATION CLASSROOMPRESCHOOL CLASSROOM DESIGN But the UDL framework provides a unifying force for how early childhood practitioners approach teaching and learning, and it removes some of the guesswork inherent in meeting the diverse needs of all children. UDL isn’t a new approach. Its inception can be traced back to the founding of CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) in1984.
5 WAYS DEPRESSION IN STUDENTS CAN IMPACT LEARNING By Myles L. Cooley, Ph.D., author of A Practical Guide to Mental Health & Learning Disorders for Every Educator: How to Recognize, Understand, and Help Challenged (and Challenging) Students Succeed Depression is more than feeling sad: It is an altered state of mind that also affects a child’s physical functioning. That is becausedepression causes
CONFLICT RESOLUTION FOR STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS Conflicts are an expected part of life. All children need tools to help them resolve the conflicts they experience. The tools teachers use to help students learn this skill will vary based on the needs of the children in their classrooms. A format for helping students with behavior concerns in general is “Prevent, Teach, Reinforce WHAT CHILDREN CAN LEARN FROM A CARDBOARD BOX Cheryl McCarthy is a former vice president of intellectual property development for Hasbro, Inc. She is a 30-year veteran of the world of children’s play, specializing in young children’s storytelling and entertainment. As executive producer, she managed the creative development of properties such as My Little Pony, Candy Land, Mr. Potato Head, and many other beloved children’s icons. ANGER MANAGEMENT FOR KIDS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS Anger, something we all feel and learn to cope with, can be difficult to manage for people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Controlling anger is a complex process of recognizing the feeling of anger and subduing the impulse to act on that feeling. BUILDING INCLUSIVE LIBRARIES THAT REACH UNDERSERVED Countryman, who led the Minneapolis Public Library from 1904 until 1936, would be proud to see contemporary libraries building on the foundation she laid for inclusive library collections and services. I believe that she would be particularly glad to see the growing emphasis on serving underserved populations in ways that go beyondtraditional
PURPOSEFUL PLAY: CONNECTING PLAY AND LEARNING IN PRESCHOOLPURPOSEFUL PLAY BOOKPURPOSEFUL PLAY CURRICULUMBENEFITS OF PURPOSEFUL PLAYLEARNING MATHEMATICS THROUGH PLAYPOWER OF PLAY ARTICLE By Molly Breen “Play is serious learning,” quipped Fred Rogers famously. Vivian Gussin Paley devoted a lifetime of teaching and writing to the power of play, describing play as the work of childhood in recognition of its central role in child development. Dozens of other early childhood thought leaders have researched and writtenabout the
IF I COULD CHANGE SOMETHING ABOUT OUR SCHOOLS . . . “If I could change something about our schools, it would be the way in which administrators and teachers communicate with families. We often think that we meet the needs of families, that we answer their questions, that we care for their children, and that we are correct. ADDRESSING MICROAGGRESSIONS: EXPLORING ASSUMPTIONS AND 1. From a presentation by Dr. Derald Wing Sue at the American Psychological Association’s Annual Convention, August 3, 2012. 2. This exercise is a modified version of an activity called “Checking It Out,” from Conflict Resolution in the High School: 36 Lessons by Carol Miller Lieber, with Linda Lantieri and Tom Roderick. Cambridge, MA: Educators for Social Responsibility, 1998. WHAT PRINCIPALS WANT THEIR SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS TOEDUCATION PRINCIPAL JOBSPRINCIPAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS By Andrew Hawk After 18 years of working in classrooms, this fall I started my first year as a principal. I have now worked as a teaching assistant, a classroom teacher, a special education self-contained teacher, and a resource room teacher. In addition, as a parent, I have gone through the special education identification process UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING IN THE EARLY CHILDHOODGOOGLE EDUCATION CLASSROOMPRESCHOOL CLASSROOM DESIGN But the UDL framework provides a unifying force for how early childhood practitioners approach teaching and learning, and it removes some of the guesswork inherent in meeting the diverse needs of all children. UDL isn’t a new approach. Its inception can be traced back to the founding of CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) in1984.
5 WAYS DEPRESSION IN STUDENTS CAN IMPACT LEARNING By Myles L. Cooley, Ph.D., author of A Practical Guide to Mental Health & Learning Disorders for Every Educator: How to Recognize, Understand, and Help Challenged (and Challenging) Students Succeed Depression is more than feeling sad: It is an altered state of mind that also affects a child’s physical functioning. That is becausedepression causes
CONFLICT RESOLUTION FOR STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS Conflicts are an expected part of life. All children need tools to help them resolve the conflicts they experience. The tools teachers use to help students learn this skill will vary based on the needs of the children in their classrooms. A format for helping students with behavior concerns in general is “Prevent, Teach, Reinforce WHAT CHILDREN CAN LEARN FROM A CARDBOARD BOX Cheryl McCarthy is a former vice president of intellectual property development for Hasbro, Inc. She is a 30-year veteran of the world of children’s play, specializing in young children’s storytelling and entertainment. As executive producer, she managed the creative development of properties such as My Little Pony, Candy Land, Mr. Potato Head, and many other beloved children’s icons. ANGER MANAGEMENT FOR KIDS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS Anger, something we all feel and learn to cope with, can be difficult to manage for people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Controlling anger is a complex process of recognizing the feeling of anger and subduing the impulse to act on that feeling. FREE SPIRIT PUBLISHING BLOG By Lydia Bowers, author of We Listen to Our Bodies and Shawn Forster, vice president of Peaceful Schools and artistic director of Peaceful Schools Productions. Started in 1971 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Week of the Young Child® is a springtime celebration of young children and their families. Early childhood (birth through age 8) sets the WIN BOOKS THAT PROMOTE ACCEPTANCE AND INCLUSIVITY! 7 hours ago · In honor of Pride Month we are giving away eight books that promote acceptance and inclusivity. One lucky reader will win: Jamie Is Jamie: A Book About Being Yourself and Playing Your Way Jamie and Bubbie: A Book About People’s Pronouns I'm Like You, You're Like Me: A Book About Understanding and Appreciating Each Other Accept HOW TO BREAK THE HABIT OF USING GENDERED TERMS IN YOUR 1 day ago · Lydia Bowers is a speaker, consultant, and trainer who happily exists in the Venn diagram overlap between early childhood and sex education. After spending almost two decades working directly with children as a classroom teacher and a parent, she is USING ROLE PLAY TO DEVELOP SELF-REGULATION FOR LEARNING ROLE is a structure for helping kids role play. Role playing is taking on the persona of someone else (either real or fictional) to act out a situation or solve a problem. Role playing is used in many situations to develop acting skills, work through difficult situations, or build self-confidence by “practicing by doing.”. FREE SPIRIT PUBLISHING BLOG Isaiah Moore is an eighth-grade English teacher in Virginia Beach who’s had the pleasure of speaking to crowds of over 1,000 but still becomes nervous when conducting a 45 minute session for 30 students. (Don’t worry, he doesn’t show it.) An Albert Einstein quote guides his life: “Try not to become a man of success, but rather a man ofvalue.”
PRIDE MONTH
By Afsaneh Moradian, author of Jamie and Bubbie: A Book About People’s Pronouns It’s surprising to realize how much gender is a part of parenting, even before weLEARN FROM HOME
By Andrew Hawk In my career as an educator, I have experienced medical scares including bird flu, swine flu, SARS, and Ebola. The area in which I taught was hit hard by the bird flu during the 2009–2010school year.
UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING IN THE EARLY CHILDHOOD But the UDL framework provides a unifying force for how early childhood practitioners approach teaching and learning, and it removes some of the guesswork inherent in meeting the diverse needs of all children. UDL isn’t a new approach. Its inception can be traced back to the founding of CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) in1984.
THAT’S NOT FAIR! TEACHING KIDS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAIR By Barbara Gruener You’ve probably heard cries of, “That’s not fair!” a time or two in the recent past. Let’s face it: Life doesn’t always seem fair, especially to our young people. Once they adjust their thinking, however, and can understand and appreciate the simple fact that fair doesn’t always mean equal, it doesn’t seemas
DECISIONS, DECISIONS: HELPING STUDENTS MAKE GOOD CHOICES By Richard M. Cash, Ed.D., author of Self-Regulation in the Classroom: Helping Students Learn How to Learn Part of our Cash in on Learning series by Richard M. Cash, Ed.D. Click to read other Cash in on Learning posts. As a child of the ’60s and ’70s, I had three television stations to watch (ABC, FREE SPIRIT PUBLISHING BLOG An idea exchange for kids' educationSkip to content
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HOW PARENTS CAN CHALLENGE THEIR GENDER STEREOTYPES Posted on June 3, 2021 by Free Spirit Author _By Afsaneh Moradian, author of_ Jamie and Bubbie: A Book AboutPeople’s Pronouns
It’s surprising
to realize how much gender is a part of parenting, even before we welcome our little ones into our lives. From gender reveal parties to gendered baby showers to pink or blue balloons in the birthing room, ideas and decisions based on gender are present. What clothes the baby wears, do they wear a baseball cap or a headband to clarify their gender to strangers, what toys they see and touch, what images are on the way, what figures are on the mobile—all of these decisions tend to be influenced by gender stereotypes and what each gender is supposed to have and wear. We define gender in so many ways for our children before they are able to talk and share with us who they are. Without meaning to, we’re teaching our young children that their gender is a defining trait. In some cases, we let gender stereotypes guide how we expect children to think and act. For example, many adults expect girls to sit quietly and boys to be restless. This reaches a whole new level once kids start playing. For example, we expect girls to play princess and house while boys play superheroes. Of course, girls and boys have more options for play and can choose to play anything they like. While, as parents, we encourage and facilitate that, we still have to push gender stereotypes out of minds that creep up in the form of concern or worry. Do we get concerned if a girl shows no interest in dolls or if a boy does? While we encourage young girls to be athletic, do we worry when boys don’t want to be? Does a girl have to wear a dress? Is it a problem if a boywants to wear one?
What if we didn’t emphasize gender so much from the beginning and what if we just let children develop without any connection to gender? What if we focused on who are children are as people, rather than holding them up to other girls or boys their age? Finding out who your child is as a person is far more important than whether or not they fit an idea of what it means to be their gender. There are many ways to do this, but here are a few: * Give your child a choice of two outfits to find out what they want to wear. Remember, girls don’t have to wear dresses and boys mightlike to.
* Pay attention to which toys your child likes to play with at home, child care or preschool, and at other people’s homes so you know how better to set up your child’s play area. * Giving your child room to make choices in as many areas of their life as possible is empowering and makes children feel confident inthemselves.
* Ask lots of questions to find out more about how your child thinks and what their preferences are. Creating a gender-neutral environment in your home where colors, clothes, book, and toys are for everyone plays an important role in the child developing with any constraints or expectations rooted in gender stereotypes. Here are more ideas for creating a gender-neutralplay area
.
Becoming aware of the gender stereotypes we’ve internalized is key to creating space for our children to be themselves without feeling they are disappointing or upsetting us. This is especially true for children who, in fact, are not the gender listed on their birth certificate. Gender is commonly thought of as a spectrum and, as children grow, many will realize that they are transgender, nonbinary, or a different gender identity. As parents, we’ve got to let go of the gender stereotypes we were taught so that our children feel loved and celebrated for who they are. We still have a lot of work to do to create inclusive spaces in our society, but we can make our homes places where our children feelaccepted 100%.
Afsaneh Moradian
has loved
writing stories, poetry, and plays since childhood. After receiving her master’s in education, she took her love of writing into the classroom where she began teaching children how to channel their creativity. Her passion for teaching has lasted for over fifteen years. Afsaneh now guides students and teachers (and her young daughter) in the art of writing. She lives in New York City. FREE SPIRIT BOOKS BY AFSANEH MORADIAN: ------------------------- _We welcome your comments and suggestions. Share your comments, stories, and ideas below, or contact us.All comments will
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HOW RESPECTING PERSONAL PRONOUNS IS PART OF RESPECTING BOUNDARIES Posted on June 1, 2021 by Free Spirit Author _By Lydia Bowers, author of_ We Listen to Our Bodies I have one of those names that gets mixed up frequently. Leah and Linda are frequently *misused* names for Lydia. And when someone gets my name wrong accidentally, or because they genuinely misheard it, I tend to brush off the mistake. When it happens repeatedly, though, I’m likely to say, “Excuse me, my name is Lydia.” Names are important to us, as people, and they are an important part of our identities. I want to be referred to correctly, and I’m sure you do,as well.
WHAT ABOUT PRONOUNS? Grammatically, a pronoun takes the place of a noun. Pronouns are placeholders for our names and deserve the same respect. Just as I want people to respect my name, I expect them to respect my pronouns. It is rude to intentionally call someone by a name that’s not theirs, and the same goes for their pronouns. My name and my pronouns are part of my identity. When we don’t respect someone’s pronouns, we send the message that “I don’t care who you are; I only consider you on my terms.” Pronouns don’t have to reflect what the doctor said when someone was born; they are part of how a person expresses themself to the world.TALK WITH CHILDREN:
Create opportunities to talk about which pronouns feel right to us during read-aloud stories. For example, in _We Listen to Our Bodies_, the classroom teacher asks the children to find an object they like. Deja picks up a smooth stone that makes her feel calm and happy when she holds it. Harrison likes the “tap-tap-tap” of dress-up shoes. He says they make his feet “feel happy.” But Deja says the dress-up shoes make her feet say, “No way.” Talk about how, just like the stone feels right to Deja and the shoes feel right to Harrison, our pronouns should feel right to us. Ask, “Do the pronouns that replace your name feel right to you?” WHAT ABOUT PERSONAL BOUNDARIES? Personal boundaries are the limits and rules we set for our interactions with others. Many of us would feel that our boundaries had been violated if someone intentionally used the wrong name for us. Our pronouns, as a part of who we are, are also a personal boundary. When we respect and use someone’s pronouns, we send the message that we respect that boundary. It shows that “I acknowledge that who you are as a person is not about how I see you, but about who you know youare.”
TALK WITH CHILDREN:
Talk with children about personal boundaries. Share that our boundaries are about how we like other people to interact with us—from our physical boundaries to how people talk to us to what we like to be called. Ask, “What does your body tell you about your boundaries? Do you like hugs? Is there a nickname that fits you? What about your pronouns?” Tell children, “Other people have boundaries as well, and it’s important that we respect their boundaries, just like we want them to respect ours.” In _Jamie and Bubbie _by
Afsaneh Moradian, Jamie’s mother reminds us that “sometimes people change their names or pronouns or both. So make sure you call someone by the name and pronouns they want to be called.” For more ideas on how to talk with children about personal pronouns, check out these articles from Free Spirit author Afsaneh Moradian(_Jamie Is Jamie_
and _Jamie and Bubbie_) on how misusing pronouns can be harmful and tips on asking for someone’s pronouns.
Lydia Bowers is a speaker, consultant, and trainer who happily exists in the Venn diagram overlap between early childhood and sex education. After spending almost two decades working directly with children as a classroom teacher and a parent, she is passionate about reframing sexuality conversations. Lydia now teaches families and educators how to talk to children about subjects like gender, reproduction, and abuse. When she’s not traveling around the country for conferences and speaking engagements, she lives in Cincinnati with her husband and two children and adds to her growing collection of children’s book character tattoos as often as she can. Follow her on TikTok @lydiatalksconsent and Instagram @lydiambowers . LYDIA is the author of _We Listento Our Bodies_
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------------------------- _We welcome your comments and suggestions. Share your comments, stories, and ideas below, or contact us.All comments will
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ON MEMORIAL DAY
Posted on May 31, 2021 by Free Spirit Publishing Wherever this Memorial Day finds you, we wish you gorgeous sunny weather. However you celebrate Memorial Day this year, may your day be relaxing and reflective. If you do find yourself stuck inside, though, take an hour to watch one of our free on-demand webinars at freespirit.com/webinar.
The Free Spirit office is closed today, but we’ll be back tomorrow on the blog to kick off Pride Month. ------------------------- _We welcome your comments and suggestions. Share your comments, stories, and ideas below, or contact us.All comments will
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NATURE-BASED PLAY AND OUTDOOR LEARNING FOR MENTAL WELL-BEING Posted on May 27, 2021 by Free Spirit Publishing_By Molly Breen_
Nature-based play is not a new thing. We know that getting kids outside for open-ended play and exploration is good for physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being. Environmental inequality is not a new thing either. Depending on where we live or go to school, we will or will not have access to natural settings. And where we live or go to school is often socioeconomicallydriven.
But for the sake of this post, let’s imagine that we can all find some “wild” space near our teaching environments. Maybe this is a public park, a grove of trees on a sloping boulevard, or just a preschool outdoor playscape. Our outdoor spaces—whatever forms they take—are important classrooms for exploration and learning. Now, perhaps more than ever, we must find ways to immerse ourselves and our students in natural environments for a felt sense of well-being. You know how drinking water is usually the answer to almost everything that ails us? Well, outdoor and nature-based play is often the answer for many childhood developmental challenges, including trauma. For the past year, during the pandemic, our program has been spending upwards of 70 percent of our time outdoors. In ALL weather. We have always valued outdoor play and learning, but during this very unusual time, when maintaining health and well-being has been a difficult task to balance with development and relationships, outdoor play and learning have became the MOST valuable thing. Our setting is urban and residential, but we are near a university campus and several city parks that make for great outdoor classrooms. Our teachers and families reprioritized outdoor learning and, through some trial and error, we figured out how to layer up for long days in a variety of conditions in Minnesota—including very cold temps and snow . . .lots of snow.
I’ve read much of the research on the benefits of outdoor play and learning, but after this year I can anecdotally share that the differences in our setting are measurable when we prioritize outdoor learning. Challenging behavior is less frequent and more diffuse now; focus and concentration have expanded; stamina, resilience, and curiosity have grown in physical, cognitive, and emotional capacities. I don’t think we will ever go back to relegating outdoor time to a planned period of the day. While open-ended experiences are primary on my list of beloved outdoor activities, planned and guided experiences have positive impacts too. Here are a few ways to get started with outdoor learning.OBSERVATION
Put together enough clipboards for everyone in your group and attach a pencil or marker to the board with string. (An alternative is to provide everyone with a notebook or hard-bound journal.) Begin with a walk and plan to find a scenic place to sit. Ask the children to draw something that they see. It can be a blade of grass, an ant, a tree—anything! You can either share the observations together as a group or have the children bring their observations over to you. For younger children, I take dictation and write in their journals or on their paper; for older children, I encourage them to write down a single word that falls within their developmentalability.
Make this a daily practice to develop observation skills, increase focus, and improve fine-motor, language, and literacy abilities.EXPLORATION
Who doesn’t love a good treasure hunt? One of our favorite things to do this year has been to hunt for items on our walks and during our outdoor play. Sometimes we draw maps and look for specific items, and other times our hunting is a bit more open-ended. (We have a basic rule of _observe, don’t disturb_, so kids mostly remember not to uproot living plants or to pull leavesfrom branches.)
* Find something pointy or poky * Find something soft * Find something round * Find something wet Being outside is inherently sensory and has a calming effect on the nervous system. This activity helps connect some conceptual understanding of shape, form, and texture to our wandering in a park.CREATION
Using natural materials to make something is meaningful and therapeutic. When children have their hands on natural materials, they strengthen their sense of place and attachment to their environment. Natural materials are also sense-stimulating and can improve motor functions and general physical awareness. Bring boxes or other small containers along for children to create bug or worm habitats. Make sure that all critters are safely returned to their natural homes. Use embroidery thread and a blunt quilter’s needle to make a leafcrown.
Demonstrate safe whittling using vegetable peelersand let
kids sharpen sticks on their own after they practice with you. As you become more comfortable with outdoor play and learning, you can use these three categories as a frame for your planning: what will we observe, explore, and create today? No matter where you are in the world, there are opportunities to learn, play, grow, and restore ourselves outdoors. Molly Breen, M.A., E.C.E., has worked with kids and families for nearly two decades as an educator. A believer in lifelong learning, her heart is in early childhood, where the seeds of curiosity, character, and community are planted. Through her work with children as a practitioner in the classroom, Molly has developed broad expertise in curriculum development and instruction, behavior guidance, and social and emotional learning. In her role as a program director, she has created innovative approaches to professional and program development, family engagement, and community outreach. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her husband and three kids. ------------------------- _We welcome your comments and suggestions. Share your comments, stories, and ideas below, or contact us.All comments will
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8 WAYS SCHOOL LEADERS CAN MANAGE THEIR MENTAL HEALTH Posted on May 25, 2021 by Free Spirit Publishing_By Andrew Hawk_
When a person is in charge, it is easy to get so caught up in taking care of everyone else that they might forget to take care of themself. School leaders need to be especially aware of this potential danger, because as we move higher up the chain of command it becomes more difficult to find substitutes if someone needs to take time off. No matter how experienced a school staff may be, the school runs more smoothly when its leader is present and ready to face the challenges of the day. Here are eight ideas my fellow school leaders can use to help manage their own mental health. 1. LEARN TO SELF-ASSESS Knowledge is power, and the first step to finding a solution is identifying the problem clearly. Have you been lacking interest in hobbies? Have your sleeping and eating habits recently changed? What about your energy level? If you are not sure where to start when it comes to self-assessing your own mental health, you can find lots of resources online. Be honest and reflect on the results.2. SET BOUNDARIES
I know how big the job of a school leader is, and I know that sometimes we all work at home. However, it’s essential to establish—and observe—some portion of the day when you do not think about school. Whether it is during dinner, when you are playing with your kids, when you are watching television with your spouse, or when you’re settling down with a book or another pastime, find time not to be a school leader and focus solely on the other parts of yourlife.
3. LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE CLOSE TO YOU Does your spouse, a good friend, your administrative assistant, or someone else close to you keep asking you if you are “all right?” It is easy for school leaders to get tunnel vision with work as the focus. Often, those close to us are as aware of our mental strife as we are, if not more so. Do not shrug off those close to you if they are concerned about your well-being. Take their worries seriously and reflect on what may need to change. 4. RESEARCH AVAILABLE RESOURCES My superintendent has worked this year with one of our local mental health agencies to arrange for no-cost therapy sessions for school employees. We will start this next year. Find out if your school organization does something similar. If you have a resource such as this at your disposal, take advantage of it. In an effort to support mental health, your community may also do something like this. Look into what’s out there and share information about these resources with the people around you. Having this information at your fingertips ahead of time will make it easier to access in times of stress. 5. IDENTIFY WHAT YOU CAN AND CANNOT CONTROL The fact that the majority of things in our students’ lives are out of our control is something with which school leaders and personnel throughout our country have to grapple. In the process of trying to help students, it is hard to accept when you have done everything you can do. It is easy for both leaders and other staff members to become stressed out worrying about factors that are out of their control. When you face a situation such as this, reflect on what you can and cannot control. Recognizing that you have done everything in your power is not a cop-out. It is normal to wish you could do more to help students, but knowing where the limits are is something all school leaders have to learn. 6. DO SOMETHING ROUTINE YET RELAXING After you have spent an entire day concentrating, completing a task that takes little or no concentration can be quite refreshing. Personally, I can clear my mind quickly by mowing my grass or doing the dishes. I have one colleague who feels this way about baking and another colleague who folds laundry. Completing simple household activities offers people a way to rest their minds and also gain tangible rewards like a fresh loaf of bread or a tidy living space.7. EXERCISE
Let the dopamine and endorphins flow! While these feel-good chemicals are being released, stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol are also being reduced. It is no secret that exercise is great for both physical and mental health. If I am being honest, I personally find it challenging to find both the time and motivation to exercise regularly, but this is something I continue to work to improve. If you can set aside the time and identify an activity you enjoy the benefitswill be worth it.
8. NETWORK
I often highlight the importance of building and maintaining a network of colleagues, for a wide variety of reasons. Your mental health is yet another aspect of your life that benefits greatly from having a well-established network. If you are struggling with something, chances are good that someone else is too. There is much comfort to be found in sharing thoughts and feelings with other people, as has been proven by the success of numerous support groups. If you and your network could use a support group that doesn’t currently exist, you could form your own—and you do not even have to call it a support group if you don’t like labels. By gathering to talk honestly and offer nonjudgmental support and care to one another, you and your colleagues will bolster each other and safeguard your mental health—something we all need from time to time. Stay healthy everyone! ANDREW HAWK has worked in public education for 18 years. He started as a teaching assistant in a special education classroom. He completed his bachelor’s degree in elementary education at Indiana University East in Richmond, Indiana. Andrew has taught first, second, and fifth grades as a classroom teacher. In 2011, he earned his master’s degree in special education from Western Governor’s University. Andrew has worked as a resource room teacher and also has taught in a self-contained classroom for students on the autism spectrum. In 2017, he earned a master’s degree in educational leadership, also from Western Governor’s University. This is Andrew’s first year as a building principal. He is the principal of an elementary school that houses kindergarten through fifth grades. When Andrew is not preparing for school, he enjoys spending time with this wife and two daughters. ------------------------- _We welcome your comments and suggestions. Share your comments, stories, and ideas below, or contact us.All comments will
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