Category: Building Community

The Social/Emotional Environment

7/16/2016

Learning is serious, but that doesn't mean it has to be grim!

A new school year is about to begin (in many countries). Despite the ongoing problems which plague education, educators are preparing, anticipating that this will be the best year yet in their classroom, on their campus or in their school district.

While most agree that the purpose of schooling is for students to acquire academic content, we contend that schools have a greater purpose, which includes the academic. We agree with John Dewey, who said that school is . .

“a place to gain content knowledge, but also a place to learn how to live. In his eyes, the purpose of education should not revolve around the acquisition of a pre-determined set of skills, but rather the realization of one's full potential and the ability to use those skills for the greater good.”[i]

Before we jump straight to focusing on the academics, we must prepare the learning environment. This includes the physical environment - from facilities, to how we arrange classrooms, to schoolyards. Next, we must intentionally design the social/emotional environment. Then, we are ready to prepare the academic environment - and that starts with high expectations.

This post will provide you with many tips on how to create the optimum social/emotional environment - starting with what to do on the first day of school! Enjoy, and please add your ideas below!

Another excellent resource for the new year is this post, How daily meditation improves behavior - and increases creativity.

Click here to find your tips on creating the optimal social/emotional environment!

[1] John Dewey, Wikipedia

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The Happy Secret to Better Work (and School)

10/23/2015

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This TED Talk by Shawn Achor and his book, The Happiness Advantage, has excellent tips for how be happier, which is turn increases productivity, energy, creativity, innovation and learning. The book is packed with research-based data. I recommend this video for students, educators, parents, and business and community leaders!

An excerpt from this TED Talk, including some specific actions I would incorporate into my class. You don't NOT have the time!

If you can raise somebody's level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage, which is your brain at positive performs significantly better than at negative, neutral or stressed. Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise. In fact, we've found that every single business outcome improves. Your brain at positive is 31% m ore productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed. You're 37% better at sales. Doctors are 19 percent faster, more accurate at coming up with the correct diagnosis when positive instead of negative, neutral or stressed. . . . . .

* Write down three new things that they're grateful for for 21 days in a row, three new things each day. And at the end of that, their brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world not for the negative, but for the positive first.

* Journaling about one positive experience you've had over the past 24 hours allows your brain to relive it. Exercise teaches your brain that your behavior matters.

* We find that meditation allows your brain to get over the cultural ADHD that we've been creating by trying to do multiple tasks at once and allows our brains to focus on the task at hand.

* And finally, random acts of kindness are conscious acts of kindness. We get people, when they open up their inbox, to write one positive email praising or thanking somebody in their support network.

And by doing these activities and by training your brain just like we train our bodies, what we've found is we can reverse the formula for happiness and success, and in doing so, not only create ripples of positivity, but a real revolution.

Please see a related post in this blog on Meditation in School - completely amazing!

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Back to School: A Surefire Strategy for Building Classroom Community

8/12/2014

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It is an honor to know that my article, originally entitled "Take What You Need!", has been republished on Edutopia!
This is the best back to school, community-building strategy for your classroom!

Read it here on Edutopia.

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Exploring the Possibilities!

The Social/Emotional Environment

Learning is serious, but that doesn't mean it has to be grim!

The Happy Secret to Better Work (and School)

Back to School: A Surefire Strategy for Building Classroom Community

Categories

Archives

Exploring the Possibilities!

The Social/Emotional Environment

​Learning is serious, but that doesn't mean it has to be grim!

The Happy Secret to Better Work (and School)

Back to School: A Surefire Strategy for Building Classroom Community

Categories

Archives

Learning is serious, but that doesn't mean it has to be grim!