When I was younger, I didn’t entirely know what I wanted to do. I often spent time playing school because I really enjoyed learning. I also loved animals and thought that maybe I might choose a career that involved working with animals. Helping others is something that I learned from my parents and I always sought opportunities where I could help others in any way that I could. 

What led you to the world of education and how long have you been in it?

I recall as a junior at Penn State having an interesting conversation with my guidance counselor. I was a student in the School of Liberal Arts and had taken the required courses and many focused on the French language and culture because that was one of my strong areas. I recall the conversation when my guidance counselor told me it was time to declare a major. I did not have a clue about what I wanted to do. They suggested going into education, because of my interest in helping others. I also have several members in my family who are involved in education and so I dove in without realizing that I might make it a long-term career for myself. I have been teaching since the last century, which is something I like to tell my students and other educators.

What are you hoping your students to “feel” when they walk into your classroom?

I want my students to feel welcome and safe in our learning space and to know that I am there to support them for whatever it is that they need. I want them to be excited about learning and know that I really do care about them and want to do the best for them during the year and beyond. With the way that I design my classroom, I want all students to know that they can come in anytime and that I am there to listen, guide, support and be a mentor for them as they navigate all of the challenges that can come with learning.

What strategies do you recommend for creating a positive and inclusive classroom environment for your students?

In hindsight, the key lies in building relationships. From day one, invest in getting to know your students, their interests, and needs. Engage in meaningful conversations and allow them to get to know you better. Fostering mutual understanding enables the creation of a positive and inclusive space. It’s essential to strike a balance between learning and enjoyment, shared challenges, and celebrate the big and small accomplishments. To achieve this, it is a priority to provide a comfortable learning environment. It’s okay to have fun, laugh together, experience challenges and learn together. 

As the rise of new technology continues to play a significant role in education, how do you strike a balance between digital tools and traditional teaching methods in your classroom?

I always think about what I’m trying to do. What is my purpose for using a specific method or a digital tool in my classroom? Sometimes with the content covered in my class, I know that students need additional examples beyond the ones that I’m providing for them. They need activities that are interactive or provide different ways for them to engage with the content. To do this, I often rely on some digital tools that are very versatile and that provide me with access to information about where students are in the learning process. I also want to use the time that I save by leveraging some of the tools, to spend with students working with them one-on-one, in small groups or as a whole class.

In today’s rapidly changing world, what skills do you believe are most essential for students to develop in order to thrive beyond the classroom, and how do you incorporate these skills into your teaching approach?

I started to realize a couple of years ago that even though I want students to love learning Spanish and maybe even become Spanish teachers or explore careers where they need these skills, I also need to take advantage of opportunities to help prepare them for whatever it is they decide to do in the future. When looking at social-emotional learning (SEL) skills or reviewing the Job Skills Outlook from the World Economic Forum, I look for ways to help students to build these skills in my classroom. I try to provide a variety of opportunities for students to collaborate, communicate, to work through challenges in learning, to connect with others and to leverage some of the different technologies that are available. I have to help prepare them for the different ways they may be engaging in work in the future.  I am always about embracing new ideas and diving into risks in my classroom. I think it’s important to talk with our students about why we are choosing a certain method or a tool and how we think it will impact them. It’s also important to make time to gather feedback from them to understand the impact. Was it positive, or negative and how can we improve from there?

Parents play a crucial role in a student’s education. What strategies do you suggest for fostering a strong teacher-parent partnership throughout the school year?

It is important from the beginning of the year to set up a way for parents to communicate with you. I always recommend using a survey to ask parents what their preferences are when it comes to communication. Do they prefer email, phone calls or a messaging tool for example? Do we have our class materials available on a class website so families can access it? Also, be consistent with providing information to families so they know about the learning that is happening in your classroom. Are there any events or projects coming up, and how can they become more involved in the learning experience of their children? Keeping communication open is essential because we know that the more the families are involved and engaged in learning, it helps to promote student academic achievement.

What’s one message you have for fellow school leaders?
My advice is to not be afraid to take some risks with new ideas or new tools. There are so many choices out there that can really help to enhance the learning experience of students but also to keep us learning ourselves. We want our students to not be afraid of challenges in learning and what better way than to show that we are also risk-takers. Dive into learning with them, show them that we are not afraid of making mistakes and how we learn from those mistakes. So if there is a topic that you’ve been interested in but I’ve been hesitant to try, I say this is the perfect time to do it. Involve your students in the process and learn with and from them and enjoy the school year. I am all about getting teachers to dive into AI and not worry about being an expert, we just need enough to get started!

What is your one hope for the future of education?

My hope for the future of education is that educators will be receptive to evolving ideas and technologies. We are in the best position to guide our students into whatever the future brings. I hope that we all realize that we are constantly learning and must keep on learning, making mistakes and pushing ourselves so that we can provide the best for our students.

The post An Education Journey: A Q&A with Rachelle Dené Poth appeared first on Getting Smart.

My principal poked her head into my classroom and said with a wink, “Friendly reminder! You need to make sure your word wall is up by tomorrow morning.” She then moved on to the next classroom to repeat the message. 

I sighed and thought, “Are you kidding me? What a waste of my time.” 

My principal was passionate about making our school beautiful. 

I was passionate about getting my students to pass the New York State Algebra Regents Exam. 

My principal wanted every classroom to have a word wall, where important subject-area concepts would be defined and displayed on colorful paper. She wanted bulletin boards showing student work on creative projects that demonstrated high levels of thinking. She brought in large, beautiful planters that lined the hallways with greenery. She found money to buy new wood-veneer tables for half the school’s classrooms to replace the old-fashioned single desks. 

Meanwhile, I just wanted printer paper, dry-erase markers, and calculator batteries. 

To me, the time and money spent on making our school and classrooms beautiful was just a distraction. Those things don’t help my students learn math. Or do they?

After three years of teaching, I went to graduate school in part to study how resources—from basic supplies to new furniture—affect teachers and students. What my research found surprised me: When teachers had their requests for classroom environment resources (like rugs, seating, or shelving) fulfilled on the crowdfunding platform DonorsChoose, their students did better on standardized tests, and (in new research) the teachers were less likely to leave the teaching profession. 

The small, basic supplies I needed still matter, but they can only help so much. My principal was right. She was creating more than just a beautiful space—she was building a welcoming and positive environment for students to learn and teachers to work. 

Don’t assume that classroom appearances aren’t important when it comes to learning. 

Do help principals and teachers create the schools of their dreams. Volunteer to beautify your school or bring in a plant for an empty windowsill or hallway. Donate to fulfill teachers’ wish lists if you can. Supporting what educators want—not just what they need—can make all the difference. 

With humility and gratitude,

Samantha Keppler is an assistant professor of technology and operations at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Before graduate school, she was a public school math teacher in New York City. Previously published on Character Lab.

The post Style and Substance: Help teachers create the classroom of their dreams appeared first on Getting Smart.

We define proactivity as taking initiative. Why is proactivity so important? 

It’s often harder to get started than to keep going on a task. And the closer you get to achieving a goal, the easier it gets. So you could argue that the hardest part of reaching a goal is getting started. Research shows that there are times when it’s easier to get started—for example, when you feel like it’s the beginning of a new era. “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”—that cliché is actually helpful. If you feel like today is the start of a new time period, you are more motivated to start working toward goals. 

How can parents and teachers help kids get started on projects? 

Saying “just do it” isn’t very useful when you feel overwhelmed. It helps to break things down into smaller steps and tell yourself consciously, “All I’m doing today is getting started on the first step, and I’m not going to worry about the rest. Today is a good day for getting started.” Once you’ve done the first small thing, the next small thing is easier to do. The next day, you can say to yourself, “Today is a good day to get started on step two.” Before you know it, you’ve completed the whole task. 

Sometimes parents see a project due in a week and think their kid should be working on it, but the kid thinks there’s no rush. What’s a good way to talk about deadlines?

The two different viewpoints—feeling a sense of urgency when a task is due in a week or feeling like there’s still a lot of time left—are both totally valid. There’s only a problem if people clash in those views, when one person feels like, “Why are they not working on this? They should be doing things because they only have a week,” and the other person thinks, “It’s not due for a whole week. What’s the rush?” I think the best way to bridge the gap is to talk about the difference in perception and set deadlines you both agree on. You have to be very explicit about what the kid plans to do and when they plan to do it to avoid miscommunication.  

How can parents and teachers help kids manage their time for long-term projects?

It’s possible to shift people’s perception of time—how close or far into the future something feels. If you show the deadline in a very large timeframe like the school year and the assignment is due in a month, it feels a lot closer than if the timeline only spans two months, so the deadline is right in the middle. With little visual tricks, you can shift people into feeling motivated to get working. 

You can also break down the project into smaller steps and set intermediate deadlines. You can ask kids, “What will you do per week?” and establish weekly deadlines so they don’t leave everything to the end.

What’s one easy thing we can do to help kids be more proactive?

Help them practice thinking into the future. My own kids don’t often do that spontaneously, so I have to encourage it. I’ll ask them, “What do you want to happen a year from now? What do you want to do between now and then?” So they practice planning out tasks and steps to reach goals. I’ll also talk to them about fun things, like a trip we will take this summer, and what we have to do beforehand. Do we need to buy luggage? What will we pack? I think this kind of explicit planning is a skill that can transfer over to other areas, like academics. 

What do you think people get wrong about proactivity? 

People believe that some kids are proactive and others aren’t. But they might just see the proactive impulses of one kid more than another. Maybe the other kid is being proactive in ways that aren’t as obvious. Or maybe they just haven’t had the circumstances that push them to show those qualities. 

Everybody can be proactive. Everybody has the potential to be a champion for their ideas and get started on things and be inspiring to others. Proactivity is a quality we all have—it’s just about giving space to it and showing it to the world. Originally published by Character Lab, a nonprofit advancing scientific insights that help kids thrive.

The post Jump Start: How to Encourage Proactivity appeared first on Getting Smart.

In the mornings, as I walked from the train station to the office, I planned my day by making a to-do list in my head: the scientific articles I would read, the data sets I would analyze, and—most urgent of all—the piercing insights into human nature that it was my job to discover.

Each evening, I trudged back to the station, again ticking through my mental checklist, but this time sizing up my performance against the expectations I’d set for myself that morning. Time and again, when comparing my to-do list with my got-done list, I found myself falling short. 

But one day, something very strange happened. At the midpoint in my commute home, without any conscious intent, my thoughts began to shift. Instead of cursing my weaknesses, I thought, and even said aloud sometimes, very softly: I’m a nice person. I’m a nice person. I’m a nice person.

By the time I boarded my train, I was done with my little mantra—until the next day when I walked home. And again, after inventorying my failures, I found myself saying quietly: I’m a nice person. 

What kind of person walks around giving themselves compliments? Was I a narcissist? What was going on? 

It turns out that there’s a technical term for this practice: values affirmation. And what it boils down to is recognizing, and reinforcing, the personal values you hold most dear.

When you affirm a core personal value, you shore up your sense of self-worth. You broaden your perspective: Instead of zooming in on your inadequacies, you switch to a wide-angle view that includes your resources and opportunities. Research also shows that the majority of adults spontaneously engage in some form of values affirmation. And the more people are in the habit of doing so, the happier, healthier, and more hopeful they are. 

Over time, I made progress in my research and learned a lot about what makes most successful people special, including this: Nobody has passion and perseverance unless what they do aligns with their values.

Try values affirmation for yourself. Take a moment and think of a value you hold dear, whether it’s kindness, creativity, gratitude, or integrity. Whatever it is, name it. And then say to yourself: Come what may, I know who I am. Your values are your foundation and your compass, too. Trust them, and they will lead you home.

With grit and gratitude,

Angela

The post Know Thyself: Your Values Are Your Compass appeared first on Getting Smart.

Our choice in what we measure reflects our values, but we must also engage in conversations about how to effectively support what we value. It is not enough to focus solely on the outcomes; we must also consider the processes and support structures that enable learners to thrive.

Stephanie Malia Krauss’s book, “Whole Child, Whole Life: 10 Ways to Help Kids Live, Learn, and Thrive” addresses the concern of kids giving up or burning out before reaching adulthood. Krauss, who has experience as a classroom teacher, school leader, and national leader on education issues, explores the importance of understanding and addressing the holistic needs of children in order to promote their overall well-being.

Whole Child Portraits: Moving beyond demographics and determinants, Krauss challenges the traditional approach of profiling children based solely on academic and demographic factors. Instead, she advocates for a broader perspective that considers a child’s individuality, health and developmental milestones, and the context in which they exist.  

“At its worst, profiling dehumanizes children. It depicts them without dimensions and details, leaving us to sort, group, assume, and judge. At its best, profiles are a jumping-off point – a collection of data and insights that begin to tell us who a kid is and what they need to thrive.”

By turning profiles into portraits, educators, and caregivers can gain a deeper understanding of each child’s unique strengths, struggles, and needs.  

10 Whole Life Practices 

1. Meet basic needs
2. Prioritize mental health
3. Invest in personal interests
4. Nurture healthy relationships
5. Build community and belonging
6. Embrace identities and culture
7. Attend to the past and the present
8. Act with a 100 year mindset
9. Be a force for good
10. Seek awe and wonder

Whole Life Practices: Above are ten proven practices to support young people’s well-being throughout their lives. These practices extend beyond academic and cognitive development to encompass physical and mental health, personal interests, spiritual development, and more. By considering and addressing these aspects in unison, educators and caregivers can support children’s overall growth and development.  

It is important to note that Krauss emphasizes the significance of adults attending to their own growth in this process as well as the need for cross-training among educators and caregivers to ensure they have a comprehensive understanding of health-related issues that may impact children’s learning and overall well-being.

Aim for Wholeness: Assessing well-being involves recognizing when children are thriving and understanding which indicators to look for. Krauss encourages the use of developmental growth charts that extend beyond academic milestones, encompassing social-emotional and physical progress. By having a comprehensive grasp of a child’s well-being, educators and caregivers can provide targeted support and interventions when necessary.

Stephanie Malia Krauss provides valuable insights and practical strategies to ensure children thrive in all aspects of their lives. Understanding the whole child is crucial for their success, both now and certainly in the future.

For more information on Whole Child, Whole Life you can visit the book website at WholeChildWholeLife.com. Images in this blog are taken directly from the book and created by Manuel Herrera.  

The post Districts Must Consider The Portrait of a Whole Child appeared first on Getting Smart.

At Challenge Success, we partner with school communities to elevate student voice and implement research-based, equity-centered strategies to improve student well-being, engagement, and belonging. We know from our research and the work of others in the field that these three elements of the student experience are intrinsically linked. Through a series of blogs for the Getting Smart community this summer, we look forward to unpacking well-being, engagement, and belonging with you and diving into what that looks like in the school communities where we have worked over the past 20 years.

How is well-being defined?

Experiencing a sense of well-being is a broad concept that encompasses the physical, economic, emotional, and social aspects of wellness. Even though one’s safety, financial security, and physical health are important factors of well-being, for the purposes of this blog, we focus on the aspects of well-being that can be nurtured in classrooms and schools across departments, disciplines, and activities. In our student survey (also known as the Challenge Success-Stanford Survey of School Experiences) we track several indicators that can help us understand trends in student well-being including sleep, stress, and support.  Informed by the data we have collected from our partner schools*, as well as other researchers in the field, we have learned some best practices to support student well-being that we are eager to share with the Getting Smart community.

*Challenge Success survey data referenced in this blog were collected from over 15,000 high school students and 4,000 middle school students across the United States from January-May 2023.

Creating the Conditions for Well-Being in Schools

Reduce Unhealthy Stress

While it is natural for students to experience some level of stress as they are attending to their studies, work, family obligations, and relationships, we hope to avoid chronic stress that has an unhealthy impact on students. In our surveys,  we ask students to list their major sources of stress, and the answers are consistently grades/tests, workload, and lack of sleep. These are often good places to start when addressing key levers within the school setting to reduce undue stress.

1. Rethink Assessment: Grades, tests, midterms and final exams can be particularly stressful for students who believe the stakes are high and who often don’t know what to expect, how best to prepare, or how to show what they know on time-bound, traditional kinds of assessments. We often work with schools to consider changes to their overall assessment practices to allow for more transparency, scaffolding, and flexibility. For instance, we ask teachers to increase their use of performance-based assessments where students can choose different ways to demonstrate what they’ve learned. Teachers can offer opportunities for ungraded assignments, revision and redemption, and self-assessments. Try letting your students decide which assignments to grade or giving quizzes to check for learning without recording points. There are a whole host of ways to reduce student stress when it comes to grades and assessments, and even small shifts can go a long way in putting students at ease (Schrader, 2023).
2. Balance High Expectations with Care: While we don’t want to cause undue stress, we certainly still aim for students to engage deeply with their learning. In the search for the “zone of proximal development” (Vygotsky, 1978) – we want to nudge students past their comfort zone, holding them to high expectations, while offering encouragement, support, and scaffolding to help them reach mastery. Teachers can hold students accountable for completing their schoolwork while also explicitly showing that they believe in their abilities and respect and value them as individuals. Try co-creating expectations and agreements, and reminding students that the goal is to focus on learning and improvement rather than grades. Schools might consider doing away with class rankings and publishing college acceptance lists. This helps to let students know that their inherent value is in who they are, not what they produce and that we believe in their potential (O’Reilly, 2018).

Help Students Get the Sleep They Need

It will come as no surprise to anyone who interacts with young people that they are not getting enough sleep. In fact, although teens need 8-10 hours of sleep per night, 43% of high school students in our surveys are getting less than 6.5 hours per night, and the data is only slightly better for middle schoolers.

Lack of sleep (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, 2022) has profound effects on the human experience and is linked to physical and mental health problems, injuries, reduced learning and focus, and difficulty judging and reacting to other people’s emotions. Children who are sleep deficient might be overly active, have trouble paying attention, and struggle to meet expectations at school.

In our survey, 70% of high schoolers report feeling exhausted in the last month. While as educators we can’t make teens go to bed earlier, there are some ways we can support their rest:

1. Reduce Homework: Research shows that middle school and high school students who self-reported higher workloads in school tended to also report more symptoms of exhaustion and lower rates of sleep (Galloway, Conner, & Pope, 2013). As an individual teacher, reducing the amount of homework you assign may be one of  the quickest ways to create more time for sleep in your students’ lives. In addition, for students to reap any benefits from homework, they need to see its value and purpose. Ideally, the assignments should be interesting and engaging, and should encourage students to apply their learning as opposed to practice rote skills (Challenge Success, 2020). Finally, consider having homework-free weekends and holiday breaks so that students can truly rest.2
2. Host a Sleep Campaign: Of course, students may not necessarily take advantage of this extra homework-free time by going to bed earlier. So we urge educators to pair a reduction in workload with explicit lessons on the value of getting more sleep.  Educating students and families on the importance of sleep and the effects of using electronic devices before bedtime can have a big impact on how students prioritize their time outside of school. We find these campaigns to be particularly effective when they are student-led. Download our Sleep Campaign Resources here.
3. Start the School Day Later: California was the first state to implement a mandatory later start time (De Leon, 2022) for middle (8 a.m.) and high schools (8:30 a.m.), a change that many other states are now also exploring. While a state-wide mandate is helpful in establishing universal guidelines, districts – and sometimes individual schools – don’t have to wait for a mandate, and should consider the viability of moving the start time later. Even a 30-minute change once or twice a week can have a significant impact for students.

Provide Emotional Support

A great deal of what we naturally do as educators is rooted in caring deeply for our students. We strive to know them, to understand their strengths, and to support their growth. That being said, the past few years have been incredibly difficult for students and educators alike, and we weren’t surprised to see that students are often missing school for health or emotional reasons. In fact, 42% of high school students and 38% of middle school students missed school for a health or emotional reason in the month prior to taking our survey this past winter or spring. Moreover, our data show that most students do not have a high level of confidence in their ability to cope with stress, and many believe their teachers don’t care whether or not they come to school.

In our work, we see relationship-building as the primary way to create a safety net of emotional support around students. While it would be wonderful to increase the number of counselors and other support staff in schools, that isn’t always possible, nor is it wise to infer that counselors alone are the solution. Instead, we encourage all faculty and staff to find ways to connect with students. From small moments of kindness to listening when a student has a personal problem, there are many ways schools can offer students emotional support.

1. Make Time for Relationship Building: Scheduling time for advisory, clubs, and other less-structured activities allows teachers to form authentic relationships with students. Several of our partner schools have adopted four-year advisory programs where the advisor stays with the same 15 to 25 students for their entire high school career. Meeting times may vary from advisories that meet daily to those that meet once or twice a week for 15 to 40 minutes, but most have found that the consistency across the weeks and years is really what drives the positive student-teacher and student-student relationships.
2. Model and Teach SEL Skills:   In the past several years, we have heard from many schools that students need more time to practice social-emotional skills such as understanding their own emotions, identities, values, and goals (Hoffman, et al 2020), regulating their own emotions and behaviors (Gross, 2015), empathizing and feeling compassion for others, and collaborating and communicating effectively with others (Jagers, Rivas-Drake, & Williams, 2019). Many educators are incorporating practices such as mindfulness, movement, and breathing exercises into their classroom routines. We especially appreciate the resources offered by CASEL and IFSEL for concrete lesson plans and tips for helping students learn these vital SEL skills.

Well-being  ≠ being happy all (or even most) of the time

Adolescent psychologist, Lisa Damour, Ph.D., emphasizes in her work that one of the ways we can best support teens is by helping them to see that well-being doesn’t mean being in a state of perpetual happiness. Rather, being well is having the resilience to move through a difficult emotion and reflect on it from the other side. We may not be able to shield students from all of the ups and downs of adolescence, but we can certainly take some intentional steps to focus on the protective factors that we know will make a difference for their well-being in the long term. We invite all educators and decision-makers in schools to consider these research-based strategies for improving student well-being in school settings.

Sarah Miles, Ph.D., M.S.W., is the Director of Research at Challenge Success.

Denise Pope, Ph.D., is the Senior Lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education and Co-Founder/Strategic Advisor at Challenge Success.

The post What Is Student Well-Being, and How Do We Create the Conditions to Support It in Our Schools? appeared first on Getting Smart.

Earlier this year, I was so excited to get together with my youngest brother and his family for the first time since the pandemic—and to meet my new nephew. So when we settled into the living room to catch up, I couldn’t understand why I suddenly wanted to flee. My brother and I have a close relationship, and I love his wife.

As this fear washed over me, I realized I hadn’t shared extended time in person with anyone outside my household in over three years. I’m prone to social anxiety in this kind of situation, and it had grown since I’d been out of practice facing it.

It turns out, my reaction was exactly what research would predict. In a classic three-phase study, participants were shown pictures, some of which were followed by an “annoying but not painful” electric shock. Not surprisingly, the participants developed a fear response to the shock-paired pictures.

Next, participants were shown the same pictures without any shocks, and their fear responses went way down. In the absence of harm, they learned not to be afraid.

What happened in the final phase, when participants were tested again without being shocked? You might expect that they would show little fear since they had learned that the pictures don’t mean they’re about to get an annoying zap. But that’s not what happened. Instead, their fear returned.

When you face what you’re afraid of and nothing bad happens, you feel less afraid. But that doesn’t mean your anxieties are erased, never to return. When you haven’t confronted a fear in a while, your brain defaults to the safest assumption—which means being on guard for danger.

Don’t react to others’ unexpected fear with criticism, such as “I thought you were over this already!”

Do face your fears consistently and in multiple contexts, which minimizes an anxious response—and help the young people in your life do the same. Conquering fear doesn’t mean getting rid of it once and for all. It means deciding to face it as often as you need to so nothing gets in the way of living the life you want.

With courage and gratitude,

Seth

Seth J. Gillihan is a clinical psychologist and the author, most recently, of Mindful Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Simple Path to Healing, Hope, and Peace.

The post Echoes of Fear: Consistent Exposure Keeps Anxiety at Bay appeared first on Getting Smart.

Today, I’ve asked Cassie Holmes to share her Tip of the Week.

Ashley and I have been friends since we were 12 years old. When we find a way to schedule a dinner for just the two of us, away from kids and work and endless to-do lists, it’s a special treat.

As we sat down, Ashley placed her phone face down on the table. “Aren’t you proud of me? This way I won’t be distracted.”

Though I applauded her intentions, research finds that friends who dine with their phones on the table feel less engaged and enjoy their dining experience less compared with those whose phones are kept out of sight. Seeing a phone serves as a reminder (to everyone) of all the other tasks they could and “should” be doing at that moment.

Yet this was a moment worth paying attention to. My research shows that ordinary experiences—like a meal shared with a loved one—can produce as much happiness as extraordinary experiences, such as vacations to Belize or Paris. But this is only true for those who recognize their time as precious. Whether due to age or even a simple reminder that life is finite, people become more likely to notice and savor simple joys: the sky changing color as the sun goes down, the laughter of family at the dinner table, a kiss on the forehead to say goodnight.

At the restaurant, I asked my friend whether she wouldn’t mind putting her phone in her purse. Laughing about my nerdy commitment to happiness, she obliged and actually seemed grateful for the nudge. Then, we easily settled into our groove, excitedly chatting and truly catching up.

Don’t think it’s enough to turn over your phone to avoid being distracted by it.

Do pay attention to the joy in the everyday. Protect your happiest activities from distraction by designating these times as “no phone zones,” say at dinners with friends or family, and explain to kids the reasons why. Putting your phones out of sight puts your other to-dos out of mind—and allows you and your loved ones to actually enjoy each other and what you’re doing.

With joy and gratitude,

Cassie

Cassie Holmes is a professor at UCLA Anderson and the author of Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most.

The post Center of Attention: Noticing Joy in the Everyday appeared first on Getting Smart.

“I think the geometry track is the way to go.”

“But I’m really worried about putting too much pressure on him.”

When our 11-year-old son, Henry, was entering middle school, his mom and I were torn about whether it would be too stressful for him to join the most accelerated math track. That track devotes twice as much daily class time to math, setting kids up to take more advanced courses in high school.

Succeeding in that accelerated track would open many doors for Henry academically down the road. But there has been an alarming rise in stress-related mental health problems among adolescents in this country in recent years—even before the pandemic. We don’t want our son to succeed academically at the cost of his happiness and mental health.

What can parents do? Help kids think about stress with synergistic mindsets.

Synergistic mindsets combine two ideas. First, when you’re learning something new, struggle and frustration don’t mean you’ve reached your limits—they’re signs that you’re expanding those limits.

Second, the uncomfortable feelings you have under intense stress—tightness in the stomach, a pounding heart, heavy breathing—are not signs that you’re headed for failure. That’s your brain recognizing you’re facing a major challenge and marshaling your body’s resources to give you the boost you need to succeed. That pounding heart and heavy breathing, for example, are helping deliver an extra liter of oxygen-rich blood each minute to your brain and muscles to help them perform at peak levels.

Research finds that when adolescents learn how to interpret difficulty and stress in this way, they experience fewer depressive and anxiety symptoms under stress. Their bodies also show the physiological hallmarks of a person thriving, rather than foundering, under intense stress.

Adolescence is a stressful stage of life. Treating stress like the enemy steers teens away from the challenges they need to help them mature into capable, independent young adults.

In the end, Henry decided to pursue the challenging path, and so far, he’s loving it. When he struggles with a difficult math problem or feels a little overwhelmed by the workload, we remind him of these synergistic-mindset insights to help him feel resolve rather than discouragement. These insights also help him see mistakes for what they are: a valuable part of the learning process; not a humiliating sign that he doesn’t have what it takes to succeed.

Don’t think stress is always a bad thing. Although rest is important, and each person must decide how hard to push themselves in pursuit of ambitious goals, stress is often an opportunity for personal growth.

Do explain the benefit of synergistic mindsets. A deeper appreciation of the valuable role stress plays in our lives can help adolescents to pursue the big, ambitious dreams they have for themselves without sacrificing their mental health and well-being.

With gratitude,

Chris

Christopher J. Bryan is an assistant professor of business, government, and society at the University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business.

The post Tough New Growth: A Combination Mindset that Can Build Resilience appeared first on Getting Smart.

I know I’m not the only one who feels more anxious these days. I would not call myself an anxious person in any way, but the feeling settled in and seems permanent there. Should I be concerned? And, what about those around me? They also report higher levels of anxiety and emotional distress. It’s not just adults either.

Children are reporting unprecedented levels of anxiety in their day-to-day lives. In fact, researchers from the Health Resources and Services Administration found anxiety and depression among children ages 3-17 increased in the last five years and by 2020, 5.6 million children had been diagnosed with anxiety problems.

As a school psychologist, I have been taught to look at things that are different from the average. I become concerned when the assessments I use tell me a student is “clinically significant” – their scores are very different than the average. But, what happens when most of the population is struggling? Does knowing the past “average” even help anymore? Are we ALL clinically significant? We can’t be, right?

I think we might have anxiety all wrong. Let’s take a minute and reexamine its function and how to ride out this anxiety wave.

Productive vs. Unproductive Anxiety

Anxiety is not inherently bad; let’s think of it more in terms of productive vs. unproductive. As a sense of worry or unease, it can be an alert system. Sometimes it can prompt us to take action to alleviate it. I often think of the seniors I’ve worked with who were very anxious about leaving high school. Anxiety often prompted them to make a plan, get questions answered, and make some decisions. Or the kindergarteners who had so few experiences that small changes in routine would require 20 minutes of preparation and explanation. These are healthy expressions of anxiety. Our lizard brains need a way to make sense of the changes we experience as a normal part of growth. We need to know we aren’t in any danger.

Anxiety can also be unproductive. Generally, anxiety becomes problematic when it is no longer rooted in realistic concerns or when the level of anxiety is not proportional to the size of the concern. When a daily quiz or having to put their phone away prompts panic, there is likely a need to look closer.

Redefining Anxiety

Clearly, not all anxiety is the same. When we hear about the rise in anxiety, we never hear about what type of anxiety is on the rise – productive or unproductive. I feel like that is a pretty important distinction. The last 2 years have been full of uncertainty, changes, frustrations, and worries. It’s very possible the rise in anxiety is actually going to get us back to “normal.” It’s our way of identifying what isn’t working – what is unproductive. And, if we are all feeling this way, there is no clinical significance. Our “norm” has shifted. To honor this shift, we need to heed its alert. We need to embrace the lesson it’s trying to teach us; things aren’t going to just fix themselves.

What Can Schools Do?

All any of us can do is take that first step of running a mile. Some school systems are ready to take that step, and some are halfway through their mile but the road has suddenly changed. How can we all get going in the right direction again?

Dig in.

Let’s not assume that all reports of rising anxiety are unproductive anxiety. We need to engage in conversations and counseling to find out what function anxiety is serving our students.

Use a systematic, data-based approach.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been in professional development about “data-based decision making” … and yet, it matters. When talking about shifting norms, it’s impossible to know what type of support our students need without some quantitative measurement. If I don’t test their reading, I won’t know their strengths and weaknesses. And yet, most students aren’t evaluated against social and emotional benchmarks in order to get the same data.

Make plans to address the missing needs.

Recent interactions with some upper elementary students highlighted to me that they had some very specific worries. Things that were mostly born out of “returning” to a routine they have not had in years. A few group sessions on social skills reestablished the social norms for them and alleviated concerns. On the flip side, conversations with some middle schoolers revealed at least one student’s significant unproductive anxiety.

Start wherever you can.

It’s much more important to start doing SOMETHING to address this rise in anxiety, rather than the perfect thing.

Students are looking to us, the adults, to show them how to deal with the feelings they are having. Many of us are having our own issues, which makes it all feel even more stressful. It comes down to modeling. Let’s show our students how to think about anxiety, let’s focus on addressing their very real feelings, let’s use this unfortunate time in human history to promote mental health, and let’s invest in what we care about…our students.

Stephanie Taylor, Ed.S, NCSP is the vice president of clinical innovation at Presence.

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