TL;DR: Playing and moving around have loads of benefits for physical and mental health. Are we sucking the fun out of sport when we focus on competing? How can we use physical education to address the social-emotional wellbeing of students? Exercise and the Outdoors Exercise and time outdoors in nature are shown over and over again to be beneficial for … Read More
Revel in the Small Wins – Strategies for Self-Care
TL;DR: Keep the little notes students write you in a file for when you need a smile. Focus on the small sparks of joy you get throughout each day. Write down the great things that happen to you! Keeper File Over the holidays, I received a handwritten card in the mail from one of my 2nd-grade students, Abby. It was … Read More
Kintsugi: Embrace Imperfections
TL;DR: Instead of a New Year’s resolution, think of selecting a word for the year. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold, silver, or platinum to create beauty in imperfections. How can we apply kintsugi as we learn and grow in 2022? Embrace imperfections, flaws, and mistakes this year. You are spectacular as you are! One … Read More
A Heart in the Write Place
TL;DR: This article is an interview with Dennis Mathew—an author, innovator, and speech-language pathologist in Oklahoma. We can’t ignore racism and things that are not right in the world, but we can bring the light. Dennis makes sure healing is infused into all of his works and that they can easily be used in the classroom setting. Self-discovery is a … Read More
Building Professional Connections in Your Network
TL;DR: Having a professional network and people to connect with is valuable. Even though reaching out can be difficult for some, find ways to connect to people in your school. Make connections with other professionals outside of school, even non-educators. Let’s just be real here for a moment. Having friends definitely makes work —and life, for that matter— better. We … Read More