​Sam Himelstein is a clinical psychologist, trainer and author who has spent most of his career working with incarcerated youth. He has a lot of empathy for the young people he works with because he was an angry kid.  It was in a group home that a skilled mentor put him in a leadership position and sparked a desire in Himelstein to do counseling.

Mindfulness has become a helpful tool for educators and students, but when it comes to practicing mindfulness, how it’s done can make things worse.

Himelstein has worked with teachers who get upset when students don’t want to engage in mindfulness a certain way -- perhaps they don’t want to close their eyes or won’t sit the recommended way. But none of those things are truly about mindfulness, Himelstein said. Forcing students to engage with the practice in prescribed ways may do more harm than good, especially if the student has experienced trauma.

“Calming down is great and it is a skill that youth can get better at. But if we’re talking about mindfulness, at its core, we are just talking about being present with whatever it is.”
​
“You never want to force people to close their eyes,” says Sam Himelstein. That alone can cause trauma for some kids. “The goal is not to turn people into meditation monks. It’s just about learning to turn inwards and practice self-awareness.”
Himelstein also offers these guidelines for teachers using mindfulness:

• Don’t force it
• Don’t focus on the logistics like sitting with eyes closed
• Somatic awareness, like counting breaths, could be a good place to start. “There’s different types of awareness. Sometimes we’re really aware of what’s going on in the mind and sometimes we’re more aware of what’s going on in the body,” Himelstein said.
• Think about the child’s window of tolerance and whether he is already triggered or not. “It’s good to strike when the iron is cold in a lot of these cases,” Himelstein said.
• Build relationships

Article from Mind Shift
Click to learn more

I was part of a meeting yesterday with Dr. Sheila Briggs, Assistant State Superintendent for Academic Excellence, and these were her recommendations and comments in addressing academics during our school building closure:

• Our number one priority should be supporting families and students.
• Learning needs to come second, and learning can take place in a variety of ways, not necessarily through typical curriculum.  The big takeaway-- expectations for students in the last two months of the school year need to be different. Keep students engaged but do not forget our first priority. 
• "However you are doing is okay." Dr. Briggs and DPI are aware that teachers throughout the State are doing amazing work in connecting and supporting our families--pleas continue that effort. And if that means having different expectations, that's what needs to happen. 

How does that fit with our school? The connections being made now will transfer into more engagement when we get our students back in a classroom. Staff everywhere have made great connections and continue to work toward that goal.  And for now, if creating more supportive expectations means cutting the required number of questions, shortening a paper, skipping a lab, requiring fewer courses be completed, then that's what we do.  And without guilt for not doing enough or requiring enough... as Dr. Briggs stated, "However you are doing is okay."  

During tough times, our professionalism and caring show through. We have done well. 
Keep up the good fight!

Feel like you woke up on a totally different planet? Me too.  On this planet my mind if running in circle, while my car doesn't leave the garage.  If over the past two weeks, you've also been involved in building "a school outside of school," let me share these guidelines for parents and student-- how to make "school at home" work for you.
The best to you during this challenging time, and stay safe and well.  

The Character Tree emphasizes positive character behavior through engaging discussion, examples, role modeling and hand-on material... and best of all it's free for the 2019-20 school year.  Just make an account and you are able to access all the materials.

The lessons and materials are geared for 1st and 2nd grade. There are 32 short videos and downloadable materials for each lesson-- perfect for a classroom guidance lesson. 

The cost for future years?  I don't know but will pass that info along later.  For now, enjoy the free stuff!

The Character Tree website:  ​https://charactertree.com/

Article from Educator's Weekly-- last statement is my favorite: "Yes, self-care makes a difference and is a necessary practice for a healthy and happy life—let alone an effective educator. However, it is not another weapon to use against us, to blame us for education's (and society's) problems, or to justify super-human expectations."   Strongly agree with everything Ansley has stated.

Teachers are not to blame for experiencing burnout
By Brandi Ansley
February 25, 2020
My career began with mental healthcare and shifted into an eight-year run as a special education teacher. In mental healthcare settings, I taught self-care strategies to clients receiving individual therapy or participating in community-based stress management classes. As a special educator, regardless of subjects or setting, I taught self-care strategies to students. It's safe to say I'm well-versed in self-care. Despite my professional training and expertise, I personally experienced burnout at least once each school year.
In the mainstream, self-care's popularity has spiked in recent years. Consumption of self-care related products and services has made it a thriving commercial industry. This trend reflects surging levels of stress and burnout across all American workers.
For educators, these aren't new concepts, but the packaging is. Mindfulness, yoga, and other school-based initiatives targeting educators have gained prominence. There are now even conferences dedicated to this cause. As an education professor whose research and professional development focuses on educator empowerment and well-being, I'm excited to see increased ridership on the self-care train. However, this topic has been misconstrued and needs clarification. In particular, three self-care misconceptions perpetuate unfair expectations of educators.
1. Limiting the definition of self-care: The term seems self-explanatory, but what exactly does it mean? There is no universal definition. Exercise is often a recommended form of self-care, as are mindfulness meditation and relaxation techniques. Some report soaking in warm baths, reading for pleasure, and snuggling puppies. Regardless, my point is that self-care is often defined as specific health-promoting activities or products.
To be clear, self-care doesn't always need to be overtly healthy. Some educators have told me their self-care includes self-soothing behaviors like binging on brownies or sipping on spirits. Others push back with suggestions that self-care must be healthy—otherwise, it is self-damage.
Recently, I attended a conference and heard an engaging speaker declare that self-care is not bringing M&Ms or other chocolates into the workplace to share with co-workers. So, the next day, I brought Almond Joys to share. As these contain two superfoods—almonds and coconut—that meant I was promoting self-care, right? All joking aside, my humble opinion is that self-care may not always constitute a health-promoting behavior. If small indulgences generate positive mental and emotional gains, why frown upon them? The catch, though, is knowing the line between beneficial indulgence and detrimental debauchery. This varies individually and is not universally defined.
Self-care is also not limited to specific activities. In our focus on evidence-based practices, we have greatly underestimated the intangible aspects of our well-being. For example, another form of self-care is setting boundaries on our time and availability. By ending our workday at a certain hour and including downtime on our agenda, we promote a work-life balance necessary for our health.
We also can care for ourselves by being choosy with our commitments. Saying "yes" to everything invites more expectation and less appreciation.
In addition to boundaries, the benefits of positive reciprocal human connections need no explanation. Do the people in your life enhance it or drain it? How about vice versa, and how you treat others? Self-care works in conjunction with—not in isolation from—community care. Overall, we need social networks that support the best versions of ourselves and therefore, the best we offer others.
.2. Blaming burnout on educators: The self-care literature often concludes by proclaiming the benefits of self-care and ways to do it. Some use this to argue that educators who burn out did not care for themselves adequately. Don't get me wrong—educators have an ethical duty to maintain their capacity to perform. Though overlooked and underprioritized, self-care and effective coping are necessary skillsets of an educator and requisite to effective instruction and behavior management. Nevertheless, the ethical responsibility of educator self-care does not diminish the importance of effective school leadership, parental involvement, reasonable salaries and benefits, and most notably student accountability.
We all have a shared responsibility in education. Administrators, parents/families, and policymakers cannot continue holding teachers responsible for students' entire existence while compensating them so poorly that they either must marry into a decent standard of living or struggle to pay basic bills. We can't expect educators to save the world under such conditions through the miracle of self-care alone. It is merely a piece of a complex puzzle that involves other integral conditions, including excellent leadership, positive collegial relationships, access to adequate resources, parent and family involvement, and especially student participation.
3. Expecting a super-human educator: You often hear stories about someone's second-cousin's best friend's third-cousin's ex-spouse who was a teacher. That person taught classes of 40 or more students, all of whom had disabilities and experienced childhood trauma. Thanks to this amazing teacher, the students excelled on their standardized assessments, exhibited exemplary behavior, and all went on to become physicians, engineers, and CEOs. In addition to amazing teacher abilities, super-teacher was a hardworking single parent (clearly without the third-cousin's involvement—how convenient), with no financial support or family members. Said teacher was always happy, never complained, and never needed self-care, instead finding joy in self-sacrifice and devotion to others.
Critics will constantly compare us to these beyond-human educators they allegedly know, and we will inevitably fall short. Please also understand these stories are either immense exaggerations or outright lies. Educators are human beings, and we all have our strengths and challenges. Yes, self-care makes a difference and is a necessary practice for a healthy and happy life—let alone an effective educator. However, it is not another weapon to use against us, to blame us for education's (and society's) problems, or to justify super-human expectations.
Brandi Ansley is currently an assistant professor of special education at Central Michigan University. Her career includes a combined 20 years of experience in the mental health and education fields, with an emphasis on teacher and school personnel empowerment.

Self awareness is good, it give us power, but it turns out our typical ways of becoming self aware are flawed.  Case in point-- the more introspective we are, often the more depressed we often become. Tasha Eurich says that's because we are doing it wrong. Take 17 minutes and learn how you can go from thought patterns that trap us  to ones that move us forward.  This is definitely worth your time!

For road map in becoming self aware, read her book, Insight; Why we're not as self-aware as we think and how seeing ourselves clearly helps us succeed at work and in life.  Eurich's work is relate-able, insightful, and her book is engaging. Definitely worth your time, you'll want everyone you work with to read it. 

Nigella Lawson is internationally known for celebrating the home cook through cooking shows and cookbooks.  In a recent interview on NPR she talked about cooking with her children.  Through this shared activity, Nigella said she gave her children attention with a small 'a'-- combining a physical activity with conversation lifted some of the intensity. Her children talked freely without feeling pressured and conversations flowed.

It reminded me that children often feel uncomfortable with adults or questions that are in their face-- attention with a capital 'A.'  They become silent, look for ways to put distance between them and the questioner.  The intensity is too great. 

How often as parents have we had our best conversations with our children while driving home from a late night game, or while taking a walk, any routine task done together. 

Adult attention is important for development of healthy humans, but it might be good to back off on the intensity.  As a parent or an adult who works with children, giving them the small 'a' they need may also have a positive affect on your own stress level-- relieving the expectation that everything should be done with a capital letter. 

DPI and UW Madison have just launched a free system of online survey tools to help schools and teachers see how they can improve social emotional learning, teaching, and professional development at your school. 

The three surveys can monitor students, teachers and staff, and classrooms in emotional development, self-concept, and social competence. Each survey can be taken or given up to four times a year to track progress. 

I've checked out the surveys and here are the good points:

• The teacher/staff survey can be done anonymously, the information comes back to you. Even with school-level reports, they state, "Note that all personal information will be de-identified in the school-level report."  Taking it gave me insight into how I can respond better without fear of the information being used against me. 
• Just by the nature of answering the questions, you are led toward ways to improve.  And it also validates what you are doing that has value.
• The survey questions are applicable to any setting-- rural, urban, poverty, upper income, or minority.
• You can track progress of your students, yourself, and your classroom. 
• Customized school reports can give valuable information, again, to aid in improvement or finger pointing. See the figure below for an example of reported information on student surveys.
• It's free, with no complicated sign up system.

Limitations: 

• Survey questions for teachers of lower grades-- 4K and Kindergarten-- may find some of the questions of teachers that are above students' developmental abilities to reason or process.  
• The survey uses a likert scale where "always" is the highest response.  Even on my best days as an educator I don't feel I "always" do things right... but I guess that gives me a goal. 

In a profession of increased initiatives and decreased supports, this is support that is useful. It gives feedback without the fear of punitive oversight, just valuable information we can use to improve our practice. 
Check it out: https://selwisconsin.wisc.edu/

Sarah Breckley, 2017 Wisconsin High School Teacher of the Year, knows how to get a message out.  And the message is right on target. 

The beginning of the school year... new notebooks, new clothes, new teachers, new initiatives!  Because it wouldn't be a new year without a new program or practice, rolled out in a shiny new package. And while this might be the best plan since plans began (I may even be the one cheering it on), the addition of one more program already drains me of energy. Is it because I didn't get enough rest over the summer? Not enough quality time?  No, it's more likely initiative fatigue. 

​There actually is The Law of Initiative Fatigue. It states, "when the number of initiatives increases while time, resources, and emotional energy are constant, then each new initiative—no matter how well conceived or well intentioned—will receive fewer minutes, dollars, and ounces of emotional energy than its predecessors."  (Thank you Douglas B. Reeves)

In short, three things are at play: resources (money), time, and emotional energy.  Money is not typically ours to control, so that leaves us with time and emotional energy. Time is fixed.  Add a new  initiative and you will have fewer minutes for last years new plan (do we even remember the acronym for the program five years ago?). And emotional energy?  As Reeves states it, "Emotional energy is variable but has limits that are exhausted quickly by school leaders who ignore the reality that even the most dedicated employee can be resilient but will refuse to be an eternal Bobo doll, rising from each punch to endure another blow."

Emotional energy is fueled by choice and passion. When I feel connected to a priority or program because it aligns with my values, my energy seems endless and almost infectious. I choose to expend my energy to make a difference. But when a dictated initiative is not inline with my values, I struggle to get onboard. 

In the words of Jane Austen, "Nothing ever fatigues me but doing what I do not like."