We are 'scared, frustrated, and anxious'; Weingarten says this Yale course can help educators

We are 'scared, frustrated, and anxious'; Weingarten says this Yale course can help educators

We are 'scared, frustrated, and anxious'; Weingarten says this Yale course can help educators

NEW HAVEN — The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence has created an online course designed to aid educators battling the anxiety and stress of teaching during the pandemic and, in turn, students.

The course came after a recent YCEI survey “of over 2,500 educators nationwide found that their top emotions were anxious, exhausted, frustrated, stressed, and overwhelmed,” prompting members of the center to strive to “preserve the well-being of the nation’s school staff and their ability to teach and work” through the new educational offering, according to a university statement.

The course, “Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty and Stress,” will offer participants information on “why social and emotional learning is an important component of education” and how to “identify and manage emotions, including how to support their students with their emotions in scientific and culturally responsive ways.”

Participants will use what they’ve learned to fill out weekly plans, which as designed to give them a guide toward lasting change, according to the statement.

“Research shows that school staff who are better at managing their emotions have greater physical health, well-being, and job satisfaction,” said Dr. Marc Brackett, founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and professor in the Child Study Center. “They also create more supportive learning environments for students where there’s more CONTINUE READING: We are 'scared, frustrated, and anxious'; Weingarten says this Yale course can help educators

Schools bring mindfulness to the classroom to help kids right now

Schools bring mindfulness to the classroom to help kids right now

Schools bring mindfulness to the classroom to help kids in the Covid-19 crisis

Mindfulness in schools is increasingly being used to help students with mental health and academic performance, but research on its effectiveness is not yet conclusive

Doug Worthen guided his small class of ninth graders at Middlesex School through an exercise designed to focus their attention. On his screen, he saw the students sitting outside or at desks and lounging across their beds as they joined their weekly mindfulness class online. One by one the students clicked off their cameras, each square became a white and gray icon and Worthen began the meditation.

“Notice where your attention is,” he said, prompting them to guide their attention back to their “home base” — the sounds around them or body sensations — when it drifted.

At the end of the meditation, the students were guided to open their eyes. They turned their screens back on and Worthen posed a question to the group. “I learned that my attention isn’t very stable,” a student said. She estimated that her attention was focused on her home base 14 percent of the time.

In this required 12-week “Introduction to Mindfulness” course taught by Worthen, a full-time mindfulness instructor, students at the private boarding school in Concord, Massachusetts, will learn how to develop awareness of their thoughts and body sensations, sit with difficult CONTINUE READING: Schools bring mindfulness to the classroom to help kids right now

America's teachers are running on empty - Axios

America's teachers are running on empty - Axios

America's teachers are running on empty

School districts nationwide are facing a worsening teacher shortage because of the coronavirus, further complicating the tough decisions about whether to have in-person classes.

Why it matters: When teachers test positive, fall seriously ill or are self-isolating from potential exposure, many districts don't have enough substitutes to keep up.

Where it stands: There's early evidence children and schools are not major vectors of the virus, especially with proper social distancing, ventilation and mask requirements, but the risk for adults at school is not zero.

• Districts in Tennessee, Michigan and Maine and many other parts of the country have dozens of teachers absent at a time and had to close classrooms.
• Since the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, at least 751 Arizona teachers have resigned or quit, according to the Arizona Schools Personnel Administrators Association.
• The risk of infection has also triggered some early retirements and sick-outs.

What they're saying: Teachers have demanded more personal protective equipment and better CONTINUE READING: America's teachers are running on empty - Axios

Teachers Are On A Tightrope With No Safety Net - PopularResistance.Org

Teachers Are On A Tightrope With No Safety Net - PopularResistance.Org

TEACHERS ARE ON A TIGHTROPE WITH NO SAFETY NET

The Hybrid Model Teachers Are Being Thrust Into During The Pandemic Isn’t Sustainable Without More Resources And Support.

After more than a month into New York City’s experiment with reopening schools in a hybrid format that has students alternating between classrooms and their homes, teacher Sapphira Hendrix still finds herself working until 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning, planning lessons and responding to students. One night, in particular, she recounts, when finishing up a lesson plan for one of her classes, she glanced at the clock and noticed it was 4:30 a.m. “I realized I had just finished my work for the night at about the same time I normally would be getting up to start my day.”

Hendrix says this was one of the moments she finally was struck with the absurdity of what educators in her community, and in many school districts across America, are doing to carry their work in a pandemic. “This isn’t healthy or sustainable,” she says.

When New York City schools opened their doors with a plan for students to cycle in and out of classrooms and learn remotely the rest of the time, many doubted this big city would pull it off. Educators, parents, and students had questions about the logistics of an undertaking so enormous by a Department of Education that has struggled for years, even without a pandemic.

Hudson High School of Learning Technologies in Manhattan, where Hendrix works, seems like a great example of a school that’s doing hybrid learning right. CONTINUE READING: Teachers Are On A Tightrope With No Safety Net - PopularResistance.Org

What Might The Results Of This Presidential Election Suggest That Teachers (& Others) Should Do Going Forward? | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

What Might The Results Of This Presidential Election Suggest That Teachers (& Others) Should Do Going Forward? | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

WHAT MIGHT THE RESULTS OF THIS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SUGGEST THAT TEACHERS (& OTHERS) SHOULD DO GOING FORWARD?

It’s early Wednesday afternoon and, despite President Trump’s authoritarian declaration of victory, the final results of our Presidential election are still in doubt.

Earlier this week, I published Ideas & Resources About What & How To Teach The Day After The Election – Please Share Your Own Advice & Plans, which shared a variety of suggestions of how we teachers could handle this and other election scenarios in the classroom.

Today’s post is NOT a repeat of those strategies.

Instead, I want to talk about what I think we teachers, our unions, and others should consider as broader policy actions in response to this election, no matter what its final outcome.

This election shows us is that nearly half of the voters in our country support a man who has implemented almost countless racist policies, relentlessly attacked the rights of workers, and devastated environmental protections. He has worked to undermine public education and, of course, led a disastrous policy responding CONTINUE READING: What Might The Results Of This Presidential Election Suggest That Teachers (& Others) Should Do Going Forward? | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Minnesota teachers at 'breaking point' over pandemic stress - StarTribune.com

Minnesota teachers at 'breaking point' over pandemic stress - StarTribune.com

Minnesota teachers juggling online, in-person classes fight stress in pandemic

Erika Jagiella wakes up at night fretting about lesson plans she needs to create and deliver to kids in person and in a socially distanced way. Then, she remembers: There's online coursework to craft, too.

The crush of daily workload demands has been so great that Jagiella, a special education teacher for the White Bear Lake Area Schools, only recently finished rewriting the individual education plans required for her students. "My brain just can't slow down," she said. "I'm constantly thinking about my students, my work and the work ahead of me."

Teachers across Minnesota are frazzled trying to navigate pandemic-related combinations of in-person and online instruction — so much so that nearly one-third responding to a recent statewide survey said they were thinking of quitting. Many work extra hours on nights and weekends as they juggle students in multiple formats, forcing union leaders to press for relief from school and district administrators.

The hybrid model of learning is designed to give students and teachers at least a couple of days of face-to-face time each week and to give students access to in-person supports around mental health and other concerns. Still, there is the distance learning component to contend with, too, and in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, for example, that has pushed elementary teachers to the "breaking point," according to a petition signed by more than 1,350 people.

Teachers presented the petition to school board members on Sept. 28, imploring district leaders to let them focus on one set of students at a time. Looking in via Zoom were 183 district teachers.

Jim Skelly, a district spokesman, said last week that the state's largest district now is providing recorded video lessons in math and reading for CONTINUE READING: Minnesota teachers at 'breaking point' over pandemic stress - StarTribune.com