The Blog

As we return to school after the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we soon realize that there is a long stretch of cold and dark days ahead of us. Our dreams of a white Christmas are on hold until next December and the dirty slushy roads feel more dreary than magical. In anticipation of what might be referred to as the winter blues, we can create a plan to build fun, connection, and play into our days! What are the Winter Blues? Less sunshine, colder temperatures, and

Employability skills are a set of skills outside of technical or academic competencies that are considered imperative to being a successful employee and team member. In an effort to ensure these skills are integrated into academic settings, the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) has arranged these competencies into four categories: mindsets, work ethic, learning strategies, and social emotional learning.

Employability skills are a set of skills outside of technical or academic competencies that are desired by potential employers and considered imperative to being a successful employee and team member. This set of skills might include things like: communication, teamwork, initiative, problem solving, planning and organizing, self-management, and more. You may have heard them referred to as “soft-skills.”

By William Reed Right now, teaching, and basically any job in education, can seem overwhelming. There are so many things we could be doing. It is very easy to lose sight of the big picture and not see the forest for the trees. One of the best ways to keep everything in perspective is to self-evaluate and set goals.    You need to write some Professional Goals and some Personal Goals . Yes, it is important to have both professional and personal goals. Professional goals impro

My guess is if I ask teachers who have taught for more than one year, they can name a student they know who will come to class without any materials like a pen, pencil, paper, or book. Teachers can name a student they know who will ask to go to their locker or use the restroom during class. I’m also willing to bet teachers can name a student who will stay silent when they are asked to answer any questions in class. Knowing teachers can name students who do these actions, I as

This past year has certainly been traumatic for some and I think it’s safe to say that it has been stressful for most. It has me wondering how might this global experience and its many layers affect us as we reach this one-year anniversary? I posed this question to a group of teachers recently. Upon reflection, they discovered they were holding frustration, grief, resentment, and ongoing uncertainty in their minds as well as in their bodies.

We are living through an incredible time of physical and emotional disconnection. Despite technological advances created to keep us connected, we seem to be moving in the opposite direction. We’ve seen it happening for years as smartphones become the focus at dinners, video games trump family game nights, texting takes the place of phone calls, and emojis replace the use of words.

School faculty members know a range of techniques for helping to support the educational needs of their students, but what about the social-emotional needs? Far too many students are struggling with social-emotional needs, yet teachers are unaware or uncertain of how to handle them. Often, these students can be severely withdrawn from their peers or they can have a hard time following the rules and procedures of the classroom. So how can we identify and support students with