Julie Hasson looks into how teachers benefit from regular reflection on changes, challenges and celebrations to better understand experiences, choices, and consequences. Along with regulating, relating and reframing, reflection can help us recharge and build greater resilience.
By developing the skill of reframing, teachers can navigate challenges with greater ease, foster a more positive mindset, and build resilience that benefits us and our students. Tools for changing our perspective include pausing, pondering, and persisting, writes Julie Hasson.
“Life Skills for All Learners” by A.S.F. Amir and Thomas Guskey offers a comprehensive exploration into crucial life skills education and shows how to integrate the skills into lessons. Melinda Stewart says the book is both insightful and a practical guide to skill-building.
Educators tend to think of building strong relationships as something we do to impact others, but we are also helping ourselves. Taking into account the challenges of relationships, Julie Schmidt Hasson looks into how connections with adults and students help us grow stronger.
Effectively managing resilience has never been more important for educators. In the first of her five-part series, teacher educator Julie Schmidt Hasson shares what she has learned about the need to manage our educator batteries and sets the stage for a battery management plan.
All students can learn how to pick up the pieces after they face adversity, disappointment, loss, or trauma and go on. They need our guidance to find healthy ways to move forward. Debbie Silver offers six strategies educators can use to create classrooms that foster resiliency.
Lauren Buell’s 8th grade ELA team works with students on a comprehensive unit that helps all participants develop speaking, listening, writing, reading and life skills as they prepare end-of-year TED-style talks. She shares the unit’s impact once students enter high school.
Book Reviews / Social & Emotional Learning
by MiddleWeb · Published 09/14/2023 · Last modified 11/02/2023
The new edition of Amber Chandler’s “The Flexible SEL Classroom” keeps its promise to provide practical ways to build social emotional learning, writes Anne Anderson. Chandler supports teachers with fresh ideas as they personalize learning for today’s post-pandemic students.
Adolescent Development / Book Reviews
by MiddleWeb · Published 08/10/2023 · Last modified 06/23/2024
Phyllis Fagell’s Middle School Superpowers offers parents and educators productive ways to help tweens deal with change, social missteps, missed opportunities and disappointment as they encounter adolescent challenges. A must read, says consultant Anne Anderson.
Intentionally introducing humor, curiosity, enthusiasm, and optimism into each class is a low-tech, high-impact method to build resilience and attention. Stephanie Farley shares ways she’s engaged middle schoolers with elements like (live!) rolling mice and kid-made symbols.
