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Resources

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Reach a Crisis Counselor | Crisis Text Line

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Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7 support via text message. Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a trained Crisis Counselor.

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Our advisory board shared ideas for starting discussions the day after the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

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We know that as news of a crisis makes its way into your classroom, both you and your students may need support figuring out how to respond. Here are a few suggestions for navigating a discussion with students as news unfolds.

These recommendations build on the Psychological First Aid (PFA) framework, developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security: " Listen, Protect, Connect-Model & Teach," They also include suggestions from the American School Counselor Association and The Child Mind Institute.

Step 1: Listen.

Do not quiet or dismiss students who want to talk about what's happening. This is an issue of immediate importance, and it will occupy their minds whether you discuss it in class or not. Set aside the time necessary to catch them up on the news available to you, and debrief.

Let students express their feelings, share their experiences and vent. Consider letting them journal, draw or consider their reaction privately, as well. Give students time and space to react if they need it.

Step 2: Protect.

Misinformation always spreads rapidly after a crisis. Encourage a critical eye toward breaking news. If a shooting is involved, there may be fake profiles of the shooter meant to cater to stereotypes. No matter what's happened, there will likely be differing reports. Look for trustworthy sources and remain skeptical. Deal in facts and big ideas; avoid speculation. Don't let students watch nonstop, uninterrupted footage of the crisis.

Do your best to make students feel safe. Be honest, but remain calm. Organize the discussion as you would any discussion: Remember class routine, classroom contracts and community agreements. Keep control, even in this moment of interruption.

And remember to be aware of students who may be managing trauma or those whose lives have been touched by violence. Keep an eye on students, monitor reactions and recognize that trauma can manifest in a variety of behaviors, including anger and disengagement.

Step 3: Model.

Help students translate feelings of hopelessness into opportunities to respond with productive action. Join them in brainstorming ways they could support survivors and families experiencing this trauma.

Step 4: Take care of yourself.

Educators bear a heavy burden in trying to protect and support their students. Check in with your own feelings. And know that we have your back.

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We know that as news of a crisis makes its way into your classroom, both you and your students may need support figuring out how to respond. Here are a few suggestions for navigating a discussion with students as news unfolds. These recommendations build on the Psychological First Aid (PFA) framework, developed by the U.S.

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We‌ ‌hope‌ ‌you‌ ‌will‌ ‌join‌ ‌us‌ ‌in‌ ‌a‌ ‌district-wide‌ ‌virtual‌ ‌book‌ ‌club‌ ‌focused‌ ‌specifically‌ ‌on‌ ‌racial‌ ‌equity‌ ‌through‌ ‌Courageous‌ ‌Conversations‌ ‌About‌ ‌Race:‌ ‌A‌ ‌Field‌ ‌Guide‌ ‌for‌ ‌Achieving‌ ‌Equity‌ ‌in‌ ‌Schools‌.‌  ‌‌Designed‌ ‌to‌ ‌meet‌ ‌participants‌ ‌at‌ ‌whatever‌ ‌their‌ ‌level‌ ‌of‌ ‌experience,‌ ‌Courageous‌ ‌Conversation‌ ‌About‌ ‌Race‌ ‌will‌ ‌enhance‌ ‌any‌ ‌effort‌ ‌to‌ ‌promote‌ ‌racial‌ ‌equity.‌  ‌Participants‌ ‌will‌ ‌have‌ ‌an‌ ‌opportunity‌ ‌to‌ ‌explore‌ ‌the‌ ‌research,‌ ‌protocols‌ ‌and‌ ‌tools‌ ‌offered‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌book,‌ ‌and‌ ‌discuss‌ ‌the‌ ‌application‌ ‌of‌ ‌new‌ ‌learning‌ ‌through‌ ‌the‌ ‌examination‌ ‌of‌ ‌district‌ ‌data,‌ ‌school‌ ‌and‌ ‌classroom‌ ‌practices.‌

‌(View ‌a‌ ‌short‌ ‌video‌ ‌snapshot‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌book‌ ‌from‌ ‌the‌ ‌author:‌ ‌http://bcove.me/r0ce0b6c‌)‌ ‌ ‌

‌

We‌ ‌plan‌ ‌to‌ ‌host‌ ‌90‌ ‌minute‌ ‌book‌ ‌club‌ ‌sessions‌ ‌every‌ ‌few‌ ‌Wednesdays,‌ ‌February‌ ‌-‌ ‌May.‌  ‌Times‌ ‌below.‌ ‌

Participants‌ ‌will‌ ‌receive‌ ‌a‌ ‌copy‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌book‌ ‌and‌ ‌access‌ ‌to‌ ‌join‌ ‌two‌ ‌sessions‌ ‌with‌ ‌‌Courageous‌ ‌Conversation™‌ ‌Academy‌ ‌presenters.‌ ‌ ‌

‌

Please‌ ‌complete‌ ‌this‌ ‌‌Book‌ ‌Club‌ ‌Form‌‌ ‌to‌ ‌participate.‌ ‌ ‌

‌

What‌:‌ ‌District-wide‌ ‌Book‌ ‌Club‌ ‌-‌ ‌‌Courageous‌ ‌Conversations‌ ‌About‌ ‌Race ‌Dates‌:‌‌  ‌Wednesdays‌ ‌(2/17,‌ ‌*‌2/24‌,‌ ‌3/10,‌ ‌3/24,‌ ‌4/7,‌ ‌4/21,‌ ‌5/12,‌ ‌5/19)‌ ‌ ‌Time(s)‌:‌‌ ‌3:15-4:45PM‌  ‌(*Except‌ ‌*‌2/24‌‌ ‌-‌ ‌this‌ ‌is‌ ‌a‌ ‌set‌ ‌time‌ ‌with‌ ‌Courageous‌ ‌Conversation‌ ‌Academy‌ ‌Presenters)‌ ‌*2/24‌ ‌will‌ ‌take‌ ‌place‌ ‌from‌ ‌2:00-4:30PM‌ ‌ ‌Who‌:‌ ‌ ‌Any‌ ‌NPS‌ ‌Staff‌ ‌Member‌ ‌-‌ ‌‌although‌ ‌many‌ ‌discussions‌ ‌will‌ ‌focus‌ ‌on‌ ‌teaching‌ ‌and‌ ‌learning,‌ ‌any‌ ‌active employee ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌Newington‌ ‌Public‌ ‌Schools‌ ‌may‌ ‌participate.‌ ‌

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EmbraceRace supports parents to raise children who are brave, informed and thoughtful about race. Join the movement!

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Overview

This resource is designed to help instructors manage the challenges of difficult classroom dialogue, specifically the way some students block or divert dialogue as a defensive response to perspectives they find uncomfortable or challenging. The "common blockers," authored by Kelly Obear of the Social Justice Training Institute, are listed below with explanations of how they act to block dialogue and suggested responses that you or your students can use to respond and restore dialogue effectively. The section on "Facilitator Considerations" gives further strategies for instructors to approach difficult classroom conversations.

Goals

To give concrete examples and explanations of rhetorical strategies that block dialogue, so students and instructors can better recognize when they or others are prone to use them.

To give examples of how to restore dialogue effectively, so students and instructors are better prepared to manage difficult conversations.

To provide instructors with strategies and considerations that will better equip them for tackling topics that may result in conflict.

Implementation

This list is best reviewed multiple times during outside of the classroom, so you can become more comfortable with how you want to handle challenging discussions in class. Additionally, the "Common Blockers and Effective Responses" list can be shared with students at the beginning of the semester as a way to talk about discussion ground rules and your expectations for how they speak to one another in class.

Challenges

Although these responses and strategies are designed to decrease defensiveness and restore meaningful dialogue, difficult topics that touch on class, gender, race, sexuality, immigration, religion, and other similar topics are often the hardest for both instructors and students to manage, and you will need to be adaptive if a strategy fails. You and your students will stumble, but the more practice you all have, the easier it will become to have meaningful dialogue.

Common Blockers and Effective Responses

This list specifies common dialogue blockers that function rhetorically to silence a perspective or divert the conversation away from a critical insight. Each of these common dialogue blockers is followed by possible responses that redirect the conversation back to the perspective to which the blocker was responding.
'Explain-Aways'
Otherwise known as Perfectly Logical Explanations, explain-aways make appeals to the rationale and authority of dominant narratives as a way to side-step critique without necessarily addressing the key issues at stake.
Restore dialogue with:

"That may be true; here's how I see it... or another way to view it is..."

"There may be a number of factors that contributed to this situation. Another one that have to do with identity might be..."

"You could be right that this one specific time it had nothing to do with prejudice. It feels so similar to so many other times I've experienced/witnessed when this type of thing was rooted in discrimination... it's hard to know."

"Yea, but..."
These blockers avoid engaging with the original perspective entirely, minimizing the importance of the insight the speaker voiced.
Restore dialogue with: "That happens to me/my group, too..."
This blocker attempts to diminish the specificity of the original perspective by stripping it of context and representing it as a universal experience. For example, "Everyone has a hard time catching a cab in New York, so racism has nothing to do with it."
Restore dialogue with:

"This dynamic/situation does happen to other groups, too. The difference might be it happens to them, and it happens to them. For instance: most white people have received bad customer service. It rarely happens to them because of their race, and it probably doesn't happen to them as frequently."

"How does it feel when it happens to you? How often does that happen? Why does it happen to you? Thinking through these situations can help you empathize with someone who experiences this all the time because of identity."

"I know someone who... and they don't agree with you..."
By appealing to the authority of someone else, this type of blocker attempts to undermine the authority of the original speaker, or at the very least attempt to undermine the speaker's identification of a pattern by suggesting that outliers disprove that a pattern exist, reducing systemic issues such as racism to individual experiences.
Restore dialogue with: "That doesn't happen to me... (so it doesn't exist)"
Much like "I know someone who... and they don't agree with you," this blocker attempts to reduce broader issues to individual experiences.
Restore dialogue with: "I don't see it that way... (therefore, it doesn't really happen...)"
Similar to the two blockers above, this blocker attempts to use individual perspective to undermine the recognition of broader observable patterns. It is often spoken by a person of considerable privilege who trusts that if racism, for example, were as big of a problem as the original speaker suggested, they would have known about it by now.
Restore dialogue with:

"You might not have ever recognized this dynamic before or seen it happen. I can remember when I didn't know about this dynamic. After witnessing it happen so many times and not being able to find any other explanation, I now believe that there most often is some prejudice underneath this type of reaction."

"Don't you think that..."
This blocker avoids directly communicating one's perspective by putting pressure on the original speaker. It is often used in the spirit of "playing devil's advocate" or an attempt to make the original speaker stumble on their own position without adopting any risk associated with directly communicating their own position.
Restore dialogue with:

"I'm wondering if you have a statement/perspective behind your question..."

"Do you have a specific example that illustrates what you're trying to ask or say?"

"You're overreacting... you're too sensitive..."
This type of blocker is a form of gas-lighting, suggesting that a speaker's emotions have no rational basis. It suggests that the problem isn't with the thing that caused the offense but with the person who was offended.
Restore dialogue with: "They are a good person... they never meant to do that..."
This appeal to the character of the person whom the original speaker is critiquing emerges from a defensive belief that a critique of someone's behavior is a disparagement of their character and that intent matters more than impact.
Restore dialogue with: "That had nothing to do with __ (an "ism")! It's just their personality!"
Another appeal to character, this blocker functions similarly to the two blockers above. It suggests that no harm was intended, and the person critiquing the behavior is being oversensitive to a person who is just old fashioned, aggressive, a flirt, or particularly brash, etc.
Restore dialogue with:

"That is a very valid perspective. I have observed/experienced this type of situation many times, and have come to see it differently. Here's the way I see it..."

"That was not my intent! You misunderstood me!"
While misunderstanding absolutely happen, and it is reasonable to want to have the chance to clarify intent, this blocker, like the one above, turns the attention away from the impact of what was said or done to the intent behind what was said or done. It can also quickly turn into claims of victimization where the harm done by "misunderstanding" is seen as outweighing the harmful impact of the supposedly misunderstood comment or action.
Restore dialogue with:

"We are very open to hearing your intent; first, I hope you can acknowledge the impact of your comment/actions."

"What was your intent? I hear your intent was..., and I hope you can also realize the impact was different than what you intended."

Facilitator Considerations
In addition to using the above examples to recognize when dialogue is being blocked and to restore dialogue, there are several strategies and considerations that will help instructors manage difficult dialogues in the classroom:

Turn it to the Group: With many of these, a facilitator can ask the group to respond. Examples: What do you all think about this? Who agrees/disagrees?

Panning - Name it and frame it: Identify trends in the group's behavior and name them. Example: I noticed many people's posture change when that last comment was shared. Why?

Refer to Group Guidelines: If your group created guidelines (a.k.a. agreements, groundrules) earlier, these are great to refer back to. Example: I wonder if we could refer back to our guidelines and remember to... when we speak with each other.

Not Speaking for Participants: When trying to avoid having a participant put on the spot, we can sometimes speak for them. Although this often results in them not having to engage in an uncomfortable situation, we can sometimes make false assumptions of the participant's perspective or simplify the issue to only being about that one person. Instead, refer to other considerations on this list for ideas.

Use "I Statements": As a facilitator, we can sometimes forget the power of using our own perspective. By using "I statements", we can offer our own experiences, adding needed depth or breadth to the existing conversation.

Be Aware of Your Hot Buttons: Being aware of your own hot buttons (a.k.a. triggers) and how they may show in your non-verbals, will help you avoid unintended impacts. Additionally, it is important to be aware of how any positive emotional reactions may show in your non-verbals for related reasons.

Strive for multipartiality: Try to notice dominant narratives that may arise in the conversation and aim to create an environment where everyone feels safe and included in the deeper exploration of them. Introduce counter narratives as relevant, either through sharing your own experience or asking the group members to share/consider alternate perspectives.

Tone Matters: Said in different tones, any one of these facilitator responses can sound either supportive and challenging, or belittling and punitive. It is important to be aware that tone matters and challenge participants in a way that keeps them engaged and not defensive.

Change up the Structure: Sometimes if a group has been having full-group conversations for a while and challenging participant comments have made it tense/uneasy, it is best to break into pair/triad conversations in order to release some of the tension from the group.

Citations
List of 'Common Blockers' authored by Kathy Obear of the Social Justice Training Institute.

Related Facilitator questions adapted by robbie routenberg of InciteChange! Consulting.

Resource hosted by LSA Inclusive Teaching Initiative, University of Michigan ( http://sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/).

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This resource is designed to help instructors manage the challenges of difficult classroom dialogue, specifically the way some students block or divert dialogue as a defensive response to perspectives they find uncomfortable or challenging.

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Article: How to Help Kids Handle the News About Racism and Violence

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Article: How to Help Kids Handle the News About Racism and Violence

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Talking to Kids About Racism and Violence - Child Mind Institute

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Tips for helping kids process big emotions and tackle hard questions about racism and violence.

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Anti-Racism Resources (Compiled by NEACAC IDEA Committee)

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Anti-Racism Resources (Compiled by NEACAC IDEA Committee)

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Anti-Racism Resources (Compiled by NEACAC IDEA Committee)

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In every classroom, there are students who always have their hand raised to participate, and those who are hesitant to engage. Whether they're introverted, tend to think awhile before they contribute, or are just having a bad day, it can be hard to bring kids into discussions who are reluctant to add their voices.

The challenges of getting students to participate have intensified during remote learning, we've heard from many teachers. Digital platforms can create added communication barriers by making it hard to know when to talk, for example, or how to read subtle but important elements of discourse like a person's body language and facial expressions. Additionally, online discussions are often hindered by variability in students' access to technology and by privacy concerns, and consequently many teachers have had to rely on students' submitting work over isolated channels like email, which can leave back-and-forth between peers (and between students and the teacher) by the wayside.

Getting kids to contribute in virtual classrooms takes some work, it turns out. "We keep calling this generation digital natives as if they are simply whizzes at everything computerized. They aren't," wrote Tim O'Brien on Facebook. "They need personal support, scaffolding, and reassurance that technology does not provide. It is simply a tool, not a teacher."

To find out how to improve student discussions and participation in online learning, we culled through hundreds of comments on social media and followed up with more than 20 educators to see how they tackled the challenge last spring. Teachers offered a range of smart strategies, both synchronous and asynchronous, to integrate the values and the voices of all kids-even the quietest or those with disrupted schedules-into their classes this fall.

Synchronous Strategies

For synchronous learning, some teachers said they translated traditional discussion strategies from the classroom to live video chats, while others found that digital tools helped boost classroom participation.

1. Spider web discussion: During remote learning this spring, students in Shai Klima's high school class led their own discussions over Google Meet. Before the live class, students answered questions independently, and then shared their responses at the start of the meeting as a jumping-off point for a broader class discussion.

While students conversed on video, Klima listened and drew lines on a sheet of paper tracking the flow of the conversation, resulting in a spider web. At the end of the discussion, Klima shared the drawing over video, and then asked students to reflect on the experience and what they learned about who talked, who listened, and who built on the ideas of others.

"It has been successful as a means to get kids to credit their peers with helping them come up with new ideas, which helps build rapport," said Klima, who let students struggling with bandwidth call in to the meetings.

2. Using chat to check for understanding: After giving lessons last spring, Paul France had his third-grade students use the Google Chat feature to ask and answer questions or type in emojis, like a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, to show whether they understood a concept. To create structure around the responses, he guided his students in creating norms around using the chat feature-they decided as a group to use only one emoji at a time, for example. France said the practice helped him check for student understanding and pushed students to engage more with the content.

Kindergarten teacher Ruth Calkins, meanwhile, used Zoom chat when holding live lessons with her kindergarten students. She said they enjoyed typing "T" or "F" for true and false questions while answering math problems in the chat box, and some even attempted to write sentences in response to her questions. Typing responses also provided a lot of keyboard practice for her young students.

3. Flip your classroom to stimulate deeper discussion: Forrest Hinton, a high school math teacher, says he found that a blend of asynchronous and synchronous instruction worked well to stimulate student discussion during remote learning.

First, he taught new content asynchronously through recorded videos and online activities. At the start of his live class, students briefly summarized the concepts they had learned together and then divided into breakout rooms to solve related problems in small groups. Flipping his classroom allowed Hinton to spend less class time in direct instruction-and listening to students at the start of class and in small groups helped him identify, and then address, where his students were struggling. "This has allowed me to clarify concepts in a more targeted way and better assist students," said Hinton.

4. Adapting think-pair-share to Zoom: Ryan Tahmaseb, director of library services, says he found that giving more project-based learning activities to his elementary and middle school students-and allowing them more autonomy over assignments-naturally encouraged richer discussions in virtual learning. "If we give students as much freedom as possible to experiment, research, and pursue interests within our content area, then they inevitably have a lot more to say," said Tahmaseb.

When it came to class discussions, Tahmaseb adapted think-pair-share to Zoom. Students were given a prompt, broken into groups, and then placed into breakout rooms to discuss and record their answers on a shared Google doc, which allowed students to share their thinking in writing or read aloud. Since Tahmaseb wasn't in each breakout room to listen to the conversations, the Google doc kept students accountable. Once they returned to the whole class, volunteers from each group shared their answers with everyone.

5. A new twist on show-and-tell: To get students comfortable with online participation, Brittany Collins, the teaching and learning coordinator at Write the World, a global online writing community for middle and high school students, converted the familiar show-and-tell activity into "think, write, share."

In one activity, Collins asked middle and high school students to find a photo, painting, or drawing that represented intergenerational connection and independently respond by writing to the following questions from the Making Thinking Visible Framework before discussing them over video as a class: What are we looking at? What makes you say that? What do you notice (see, feel, know)? What more can we uncover? What do you wonder? "It helps to break the ice in a virtual learning setting where unplanned participation can prove challenging for some students," said Collins.

Asynchronous Strategies

Although some teachers-and students-said that synchronous discussions were more engaging because they resembled a traditional classroom, many educators found that asynchronous discussions were more equitable because they opened up participation to students with low bandwidth, who had schedule limitations, or who were uncomfortable engaging with the full class.

6. Online forums create back-and-forth dialogue: Angelina Murphy, a high school English teacher, said she used Google Classroom's question feature to get her class to respond to readings and discussion prompts during remote learning this past spring. When each student commented, Murphy replied with clarifying questions to create a back-and-forth dialogue and also asked every student to respond to at least two of their peers' comments to create a broader base of discussion.

Fifth-grade teacher Raquel Linares said she used Nearpod Collaborate (Apple, Android), a virtual collaboration board, to get students to share images or write a response to show what they had learned about an article they read. To inspire connection and reflection among classmates, Linares also used Flipgrid (Apple, Android), so that students could hear their peers' voices even though they were remote.

7. Seeing and critiquing peer work through virtual gallery walks: Virtual "gallery walks" give students an opportunity to view their classmates' projects while learning from each other, according to Joe Marangell, a high school social studies teacher. After his students presented their own projects through five-minute screencasts, they were then required to give feedback to at least two other students on theirs.

Using Google Sheets, students provided feedback to their peers by answering the following prompts: What's something new I learned about this topic?; What's something that surprised me about this topic?; What's something I liked about this presentation? The online format gave every student the opportunity to see their peers' work and their assessment on theirs for deeper reflection, Marangell said.

8. Moving station brainstorming online: When carousel or station brainstorming activities are conducted in traditional classroom environments, small groups of students rotate around the room to different stations to answer prompts-and view and add to each groups' responses.

To translate this online, Marangell divided his students into groups online and created shared Google docs-or a series of Google slides-for the prompts/questions. Each group left their thoughts under the questions by the assigned date and then followed up by commenting on the other groups' responses the next day. "The strategy still allows them to maintain a sense of classroom community [in a virtual setting]," said Marangell.

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8 Strategies to Improve Participation in Your Virtual Classroom

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In every classroom, there are students who always have their hand raised to participate, and those who are hesitant to engage. Whether they're introverted, tend to think awhile before they contribute, or are just having a bad day, it can be hard to bring kids into discussions who are reluctant to add their voices.

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Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend

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Stress. It makes your heart pound, your breathing quicken and your forehead sweat. But while stress has been made into a public health enemy, new research suggests that stress may only be bad for you if you believe that to be the case.

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Welcome to NEA's Diversity Toolkit and All Its Chapters

This online toolkit provides an introduction to the multiple facets of diversity. It offers basic information, a short list of strategies and tools, and suggestions for how to find out more. Neither the short list of topics in this toolkit nor the content within each topic is meant to be exhaustive. For more in-depth information, please visit the Web links listed under each topic.

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This online toolkit provides an introduction to the multiple facets of diversity. It offers basic information, a short list of strategies and tools, and suggestions for how to find out more. Neither the short list of topics in this toolkit nor the content within each topic is meant to be exhaustive.

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Article: Guidelines for Talking About Tragedies with Children

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Article: Guidelines for Talking About Tragedies with Children

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Website and App. Free trial!

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Your Headspace Mindfulness & Meditation Experts

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We want children to be healthy & happy now & for the rest of their lives. Teach meditation for kids with Headspace, using easy exercises designed for young minds.

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Free App!

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Practice your daily meditation and mindfulness exercises from any device.

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Indigenous Languages Program

We worked with NPY Women's Council to develop a mindfulness program aimed at providing accessible and engaging mental health tools for Aboriginal people of the NPY region. These meditations have been scripted and recorded by senior Anangu women in Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra. Thanks to nib foundation for funding this work.

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Smiling Mind is a unique tool developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to your life. We suggest 10 minutes a day. What are you waiting for?

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Onward: Stories and Resources to Cultivate Emotional Resilience

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Your first stop for resources, inspiration, and guidance on cultivating emotional resilience. The perfect site for anyone who is feeling burned-out and beat-down. Don't just survive. Thrive with Onward.

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Distance Learning Resources

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Article: Empowering Educators Through Cultural Competence

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Article: Empowering Educators Through Cultural Competence

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The act of listening is perhaps the most underrated skill there is in education. As teachers, we are often asked to "do" a lot more than necessary: memorize standards, plan lessons, prepare for various assessments, call homes, provide a warm environment for our students (and visitors), attend faculty meetings with varying effectiveness and relevance, grade mounds of papers, and take what little time we have left to eat and sleep, usually less than we should.

Yet, with the laundry list of things that teachers do, check for, and assess, we might be better off staying still and letting students tell us more about what they need.

This is especially crucial in situations where we may or may not share similar backgrounds with the students we teach. We've known for decades that building relationships is a central part of our work, but this has even larger implications when we work with disadvantaged students. The teacher-student relationship has so many subtle nuances across race, gender, and class lines that opening our eyes to these nuances would make us better educators. Time and again, we see a growing number of educators willing to forgo the need to jump directly into teaching, educators who are more into getting to know the students.

After all, we shouldn't be preparing to teach content or the students we imagine might be there, but rather the students in front of us.

We can do this by taking up some of the skills we wish to impart on our own students. In our classrooms, however, that's not enough. For excellence, we may need to switch the way we talk to and about students. Here are some workable strategies that I've used and observed.

Build Relationships, But as a Teacher First

Everyone has a different approach to classroom management. Some don't smile until December, if ever. Others can't help but smile and laugh throughout the year. Some impart their wisdom with diatribes and speeches, while others know how to quietly move about the room and make their presence felt. The common thread in all of those cases is students understanding that the teacher cares and has a specific way of showing that he or she cares. A few teachers have said, "The student might not be able to read, but they can read you." That's powerful in the context of schools where teachers don't have the same cultural background as the students. When teachers have a passion for the students in front of them, and not just for the subject they're teaching, everyone wins.

This also means, simultaneously, that teachers shouldn't seek to create friendships in the normal sense. Many of my students would shake their heads at other teachers who tried to create friendships with them, saying they wanted a teacher, not another friend. While this might seem counterintuitive to progressive education (whatever that means), we must recognize that many students find comfort in having someone who provides stability and structure. Speaking of which. . .

Create a Fair and Equitable Environment

Currently, we've seen a surge of research that shows how real the school-to-prison pipeline has gotten. Black girls, for instance, face suspension at three times the rate of white girls, and black boys face suspension at six times the rate of white boys in NYC and Boston schools. With harsher systemic punishment doled out in our most vulnerable places, we need to recognize that classrooms are often the first place where students see inequity, and it's usually not in the resources but in their treatment. We can create rules with students and believe in restorative justice, but until we reflect on the ways that we interact with students in their weakest moments, we will continue to perpetuate inequity.

For instance, when a student comes in late, do we first ask why they're late or do we yell and banter about their lateness? Do we address individual students' weaknesses in front of the entire class or seek to have private conversations first? Do we try to build a community of learners or do we harshly deny student agency? There are ways to be strict without being inhumane, but too often, some of us think quiet is the ultimate goal by any means necessary. Instead, we should strive to understand the students individually and develop a common sense of purpose for them collectively.

Ask Questions as a Form of Disarming

Too often, we come into situation with inherent biases that we might not recognize. Works from Peggy McIntosh, such as "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack (PDF 18KB), and Project Implicit underline the need to work against some of our deeply-held beliefs. In the classroom, we need to recognize the privileges we bring and ask better questions. Humility in some aspects can make us more attuned to the needs of all students, but especially underserved students. When we ask good, honest questions of our students in the moments when we as teachers don't understand something, we seem more genuine.

Earlier in my career, for example, I thought I knew all about my students, so when I saw someone sleeping in class, I would attribute that to laziness or apathy. One day, we called his parent into school to find out what was going on and why this student couldn't pay attention. As it turned out, his mother worked weird factory shifts, from 3PM to midnight, often leaving him with little supervision. One night, he accidentally left his keys inside his apartment, which meant he was locked out until she got home. Every teacher needs that sort of humility, even if we share a cultural background, because it can be easy to forget that we teach students.

After that experience, I tend to ask more than I assume, which should be a general rule of thumb for all teachers. Those with even less information about the students should ask more questions. Some of our most intelligent civil rights organizations recently joined forces to make recommendations to President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about the future of education. The one that stuck out the most for me was the idea of cultural competence as professional competence. In many circles, this matters more than our current debates on testing, Common Core, and school funding. For our students, the person who they see as the beacon of hope or the agent of their oppression (and everything in between) is their teacher. Excellent educators embrace this for themselves and for all of their students.

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Empowering Educators Through Cultural Competence | Edutopia

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The act of listening is perhaps the most underrated skill there is in education. As teachers, we are often asked to "do" a lot more than necessary: memorize standards, plan lessons, prepare for various assessments, call homes, provide a warm environment for our students (and visitors), attend faculty meetings with varying effectiveness and relevance, grade mounds of papers, and take what little time we have left to eat and sleep, usually less than we should.

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CASEL competencies explained with strategies for each.

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5 Keys to Social and Emotional Learning Success

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Guidelines for keeping your students and yourself healthy - physically and mentally - from trusted sources, including NEA Member Benefits.

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Race and Culture in Schools: Resource Guide

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Race and Culture in Schools: Resource Guide

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Covid-19 Impact on Student's Academic and Mental Well Being

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Covid-19 Impact on Student's Academic and Mental Well Being

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The pandemic has shone a spotlight on inequality in America: School closures and social isolation have affected all students, but particularly those living in poverty. Adding to the damage to their learning, a mental health crisis is emerging as many students have lost access to services that were offered by schools.

No matter what form school takes when the new year begins-whether students and teachers are back in the school building together or still at home-teachers will face a pressing issue: How can they help students recover and stay on track throughout the year even as their lives are likely to continue to be disrupted by the pandemic?

New research provides insights about the scope of the problem-as well as potential solutions.

The Achievement Gap Is Likely to Widen

A new study suggests that the coronavirus will undo months of academic gains, leaving many students behind. The study authors project that students will start the new school year with an average of 66 percent of the learning gains in reading and 44 percent of the learning gains in math, relative to the gains for a typical school year. But the situation is worse on the reading front, as the researchers also predict that the top third of students will make gains, possibly because they're likely to continue reading with their families while schools are closed, thus widening the achievement gap.

To make matters worse, "few school systems provide plans to support students who need accommodations or other special populations," the researchers point out in the study, potentially impacting students with special needs and English language learners.

Of course, the idea that over the summer students forget some of what they learned in school isn't new. But there's a big difference between summer learning loss and pandemic-related learning loss: During the summer, formal schooling stops, and learning loss happens at roughly the same rate for all students, the researchers point out. But instruction has been uneven during the pandemic, as some students have been able to participate fully in online learning while others have faced obstacles-such as lack of internet access-that have hindered their progress.

In the study, researchers analyzed a national sample of 5 million students in grades 3-8 who took the MAP Growth test, a tool schools use to assess students' reading and math growth throughout the school year. The researchers compared typical growth in a standard-length school year to projections based on students being out of school from mid-March on. To make those projections, they looked at research on the summer slide, weather- and disaster-related closures (such as New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina), and absenteeism.

The researchers predict that, on average, students will experience substantial drops in reading and math, losing roughly three months' worth of gains in reading and five months' worth of gains in math. For Megan Kuhfeld, the lead author of the study, the biggest takeaway isn't that learning loss will happen-that's a given by this point-but that students will come back to school having declined at vastly different rates.

"We might be facing unprecedented levels of variability come fall," Kuhfeld told me. "Especially in school districts that serve families with lots of different needs and resources. Instead of having students reading at a grade level above or below in their classroom, teachers might have kids who slipped back a lot versus kids who have moved forward."

Disproportionate Impact on Students Living in Poverty and Students of Color

Horace Mann once referred to schools as the "great equalizers," yet the pandemic threatens to expose the underlying inequities of remote learning. According to a 2015 Pew Research Center analysis, 17 percent of teenagers have difficulty completing homework assignments because they do not have reliable access to a computer or internet connection. For Black students, the number spikes to 25 percent.

"There are many reasons to believe the Covid-19 impacts might be larger for children in poverty and children of color," Kuhfeld wrote in the study. Their families suffer higher rates of infection, and the economic burden disproportionately falls on Black and Hispanic parents, who are less likely to be able to work from home during the pandemic.

Although children are less likely to become infected with Covid-19, the adult mortality rates, coupled with the devastating economic consequences of the pandemic, will likely have an indelible impact on their well-being.

Impacts on Students' Mental Health

That impact on well-being may be magnified by another effect of school closures: Schools are "the de facto mental health system for many children and adolescents," providing mental health services to 57 percent of adolescents who need care, according to the authors of a recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics. School closures may be especially disruptive for children from lower-income families, who are disproportionately likely to receive mental health services exclusively from schools.

"The Covid-19 pandemic may worsen existing mental health problems and lead to more cases among children and adolescents because of the unique combination of the public health crisis, social isolation, and economic recession," write the authors of that study.

A major concern the researchers point to: Since most mental health disorders begin in childhood, it is essential that any mental health issues be identified early and treated. Left untreated, they can lead to serious health and emotional problems. In the short term, video conferencing may be an effective way to deliver mental health services to children.

Mental health and academic achievement are linked, research shows. Chronic stress changes the chemical and physical structure of the brain, impairing cognitive skills like attention, concentration, memory, and creativity. "You see deficits in your ability to regulate emotions in adaptive ways as a result of stress," said Cara Wellman, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University in a 2014 interview. In her research, Wellman discovered that chronic stress causes the connections between brain cells to shrink in mice, leading to cognitive deficiencies in the prefrontal cortex.

While trauma-informed practices were widely used before the pandemic, they're likely to be even more integral as students experience economic hardships and grieve the loss of family and friends. Teachers can look to schools like Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville, Tennessee, as a model for trauma-informed practices.

3 Ways Teachers Can Prepare

When schools reopen, many students may be behind, compared to a typical school year, so teachers will need to be very methodical about checking in on their students-not just academically but also emotionally. Some may feel prepared to tackle the new school year head-on, but others will still be recovering from the pandemic and may still be reeling from trauma, grief, and anxiety.

Here are a few strategies teachers can prioritize when the new school year begins:

Focus on relationships first. Fear and anxiety about the pandemic-coupled with uncertainty about the future-can be disruptive to a student's ability to come to school ready to learn. Teachers can act as a powerful buffer against the adverse effects of trauma by helping to establish a safe and supportive environment for learning. From morning meetings to regular check-ins with students, strategies that center around relationship-building will be needed in the fall.

Strengthen diagnostic testing. Educators should prepare for a greater range of variability in student learning than they would expect in a typical school year. Low-stakes assessments such as exit tickets and quizzes can help teachers gauge how much extra support students will need, how much time should be spent reviewing last year's material, and what new topics can be covered.

Differentiate instruction-particularly for vulnerable students. For the vast majority of schools, the abrupt transition to online learning left little time to plan a strategy that could adequately meet every student's needs-in a recent survey by the Education Trust, only 24 percent of parents said that their child's school was providing materials and other resources to support students with disabilities, and a quarter of non-English-speaking students were unable to obtain materials in their own language. Teachers can work to ensure that the students on the margins get the support they need by taking stock of students' knowledge and skills, and differentiating instruction by giving them choices, connecting the curriculum to their interests, and providing them multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning.

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Covid-19's Impact on Students' Academic and Mental Well-Being

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The pandemic has revealed-and exacerbated-inequities that hold many students back. Here's how teachers can help.

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Free Resources on topics related to mental health disorders, prevention, and health topics.

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Free Resources on topics related to mental health disorders, prevention, and health topics.

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CT Clearinghouse is a comprehensive resource center providing information on substance use and mental health disorders, prevention and health promotion, treatment and recovery, wellness and other related topics. In addition to our online database of up-to-date information, we also offer materials for distribution such as posters and pamphlets, and lend books, DVDs and other media from our specialized library. These resources are available for all Connecticut families, teachers, students, professionals, communities and children.
Search Our Library Order Pamphlets & Posters

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CT Clearinghouse | A Wheeler Clinic Program | Plainville, CT

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CT Clearinghouse is a comprehensive resource center providing information on substance use and mental health disorders, prevention and health promotion, treatment and recovery, wellness and other related topics. In addition to our online database of up-to-date information, we also offer materials for distribution such as posters and pamphlets, and lend books, DVDs and other media from our specialized library.

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NASP (National Association of School Psychologists) COVID-19 Resource Center

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NASP (National Association of School Psychologists) COVID-19 Resource Center

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National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)

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NASP is committed to providing our members and the public with information, guidelines, and resources to help support the learning and well-being of students, their families and others in the school community during the COVID-19 crisis. We will continue to develop and update resources as new information becomes available.

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NASP is committed to providing our members and the public with information, guidelines, and resources to help support the learning and well-being of students, their families and others in the school community during the COVID-19 crisis. We will continue to develop and update resources as new information becomes available.

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Free Resources on Diversity, Equity, Racism, Injustice

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Free Resources on Diversity, Equity, Racism, Injustice

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Understanding how school discipline policies can contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline is essential for educators and families. Harsh punishments, automatic out-of-class time and police involvement for discipline can push young people out of classrooms and into the criminal legal system. But educators, parents and caregivers can help to change this harmful system by advocating for and implementing practices that prioritize mental health and well-being.

We offer this new resource page that highlights LFJ articles and content to open dialogue, shift practices and foster change to benefit all young people.

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Learning for Justice | Education Resources

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Learning for Justice provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

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Parenting Article: Tips for talking about Racism, Diversity, Social Injustice

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Parenting Article: Tips for talking about Racism, Diversity, Social Injustice

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Parents of Black and brown kids know that instilling their kids with a sense of racial identity and talking about how racism will inevitably affect their lives -- and possibly even their safety -- are essential life lessons. Parents of White kids, on the other hand, often don't feel the same pressure. But as racist violence continues to erupt, discussing race, racism, and the history of racial oppression in the United States and the world is just as essential for White families. These are not easy conversations to have, but movies, TV, and books -- as well as other media and tech -- can be powerful tools to help you get started. Remember, media makes a big impression on kids. But the messages you send -- from the media you choose, to the conversations you initiate -- are what kids will hold in their hearts and minds long after the final credits.

Here are 10 ideas for how to use media to start and continue conversations about race and racism with your kids. This list is not exhaustive, so if you have other ideas, please add them to the comments.

Diversify your bookshelf

If you grew up reading Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie, you can still share these classics with your kids. But don't stop there: Look for stories featuring and written by people of color. Here are some places to start:

It can be easy to let stereotypes fly by when watching the minstrel-show crows in or exaggerated accents in The Goonies. But by pointing out when something is racist, you're helping your kid develop critical-thinking skills. These skills will allow conversations about race and stereotypes to deepen as kids get older.

Watch hard stuff

As kids get older, expose them to the harsh realities of racism throughout history and through the current day. That doesn't mean nonstop cable news replaying gruesome details of violence but carefully chosen films like or McFarland, USA. You can also watch footage of protests to kick off conversations about anger, fear, oppression, and power. Be explicit about racism and discrimination being hurtful, damaging, and wrong.

Seek out media created by people of color

As you choose your family movie night pick or browse online for books, specifically look for authors and directors of color. Aim for stories that include people of color in lead roles and as fully developed characters. With older kids, take an audit of how many movies or books you've recently watched or read that were created by people of color. Discuss the reasons for any imbalance and the importance of a variety of perspectives.

Broaden your own perspectives

Follow and read Black and brown voices and media outlets. Use what you learn to inform conversations with your kids. Some places to start (and by no means a complete list):

Discuss hate speech and harassment online

Ask kids if they've seen racist language in YouTube videos or comments. For social media-using kids, talk about racist memes. Ask them to show you examples and aim to develop empathy without shaming them. Help them understand how following or sharing racist accounts helps spread hate. Brainstorm ways they can safely and responsibly speak out against racist imagery and messages online. Adapt this lesson on countering hate speech for your conversations.

Understand the online landscape

Read this account of a White mom parenting through her son's exposure to online white supremacy. And read the son's perspective. Learn more about places where White racist groups congregate and how they recruit, and keep discussions open and honest with kids who socialize on sites like Discord and Reddit.

Explore the power of tech tools

Use recent examples of how phones, video recordings, and editing tools affect our understanding of race and racism. Discuss how the release of video evidence can spur action, like in the case of Ahmaud Arbery. Explore together how photos and videos can both reveal truth and hide it -- especially when context is edited out.

Build news literacy

Besides sharing news articles from different perspectives with your kids, use opportunities like protests in Minneapolis to discuss how news is presented. What kinds of stories get the most attention? How are language and images used differently to depict people and incidents depending on the news outlet, the people involved, and the topic? Look at news coverage of incidents where White people commit acts of violence and compare to when people of color do.

Teach your kid to be an ally

Learn about how White people can support people of color by being allies and then integrate these ideas into your conversations and actions with your kids. Talk through scenarios your kid might encounter online and discuss (and model) when it might be best to just listen, to call someone out, to amplify someone's voice, to share resources, etc. Share mistakes you've made around talking about race and racism -- in person or online -- with your kids so they know it's OK to not be perfect or have all the answers.

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How White Parents Can Use Media to Raise Anti-Racist Kids

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Parents of Black and brown kids know that instilling their kids with a sense of racial identity and talking about how racism will inevitably affect their lives -- and possibly even their safety -- are essential life lessons. Parents of White kids, on the other hand, often don't feel the same pressure.

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Free Resources: Activity Calendars, Posters, Lesson Activities

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Free Resources: Activity Calendars, Posters, Lesson Activities

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Prioritising happiness and kindness influences how we approach everything - including our personal lives, families, communities, schools and workplaces. It also shapes our views on public policy and helps us to consider the wellbeing of future generations too.
We have no religious, political or commercial affiliations and welcome people of all faiths (or none) and all parts of society. Our members make a simple pledge: to create more happiness and less unhappiness in the world.

Our patron is The Dalai Lama.

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Action for Happiness is a charity that promotes a happier and more caring society. We promote how to be happy, kindness, connection & wellbeing

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(800) 275-3327

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This is a great 15 minute TED Talk about how childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime.

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童年創傷如何影響一生健康

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童年創傷不是一件長大就能解決的事。兒科醫生娜汀‧哈里斯 (Nadine Burke Harris) 解釋虐待、忽視、和父母精神健康不良或有藥物或飲酒問題，都會影響兒童的大腦發展。童年經歷影響終身，在高壓環境下長大的兒童比他人得到心肺疾病的比例高三倍。這是一位慷慨激昂的兒科醫生祈求眾人面對、預防和治療心理創傷的演講。

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This is a 7 and a half minute video about why every child needs a champion and the power of human connection.

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Every kid needs a champion | Rita Pierson | TED

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Brene shares her research on vulnerability and the positive impacts of being vulnerable.

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Brene Brown estuda a conexão humana, nossa habilidade de sentir empatia, pertencer, amar. Em uma palestra comovente e divertida no TEDxHouston, ela compartilha uma percepção profunda de sua pesquisa, que a levou a uma busca pessoal para conhecer a si mesma e entender a humanidade. Uma palestra para compartilhar.

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Editorial Reviews

A heartbreaking, world-shaking, revolutionary book. In The Deepest Well, Nadine Burke Harris uncovers the once-hidden story of why we are the way we are. And she offers a new set of tools, based in science, that can help each of us heal ourselves, our children, and our world." - Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed "This ultra-smart and compassionate book delivers revelations about what is really going on-in our bodies, in our families, in our communities-as a result of childhood toxic stress, as well as targeted solutions for individual healing. My adverse childhood experience (ACE) test result is a nine out of ten. When I needed it, one person extended the hand of hope and help to me. It saved me. This book has the power to extend that hand to countless others." - Ashley Judd, author of All That Is Bitter and Sweet " The Deepest Well is a rousing wake-up call, challenging us to reimagine pressing questions of racial and social justice as matters of public health. The research and stories shared in this highly engaging, provocative book prove beyond a reasonable doubt that millions of lives depend on us finally coming to terms with the long-term consequences of childhood adversity and toxic stress." - Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow " The Deepest Well is a heartbreaking, beautiful book about what might be the most important single issue facing our country's disadvantaged populations: the prevalence of childhood trauma. Relying on her work as a compassionate physician and first-class scientist, Burke Harris weaves together groundbreaking research with touching personal stories. The result is a gripping book that should convince everyone that we have a serious problem, and that unless we address it, the losers will be our nation's children." - J. D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy "This powerful book brilliantly exposes and explores one of the most critical health issues we face today. Dr. Burke Harris combines a scientist's rigor with a compassionate doctor's heart to paint an unforgettable picture of what is at the center of what ails so many of our communities. Anyone who cares about people who sometimes struggle should read this book." - Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy "A pediatrician's battle against the toxic effects of childhood adversity. In 2007, after opening a community clinic in a low-income neighborhood of San Francisco, Harris soon suspected that an underlying medical issue must be at work in the lives of many of her patients, who often experienced both poor health outcomes (asthma, slow growth, etc.) and the overwhelming adversity of trauma (parental incarcerations, abuse, foster-care placements, etc.). What was the connection? She found her answer several years later in a medical article that changed her medical practice, 'The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study,' in which scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente described the strong relationship between childhood trauma and many leading causes of death in adults. In this powerful debut, the author describes the medical research and recalls her own frontline experiences as a pioneer in the treatment of toxic stress as CEO of San Francisco's Center for Youth Wellness, which offers multidisciplinary care for children suffering from trauma. 'The body remembers,' she writes. 'Twenty years of medical research has shown that childhood adversity literally gets under our skin, changing people in ways that can endure in their bodies for decades.' Indeed, adversity 'can dramatically increase the risk for heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes-even Alzheimer's.' In a winning conversational style, Harris explains how adversity 'harms development and regulation of the immune system throughout someone's life' and the ways in which doctors now screen for and treat childhood trauma-sleep, mental health, healthy relationships, exercise, nutrition, and meditation. She notes that adverse childhood experiences affect people of all socioeconomic levels (they are often disguised out of secrecy and shame), and their harmful effects can be passed on from one generation to another. The author's work has won wide attention through a New Yorker article and a TED talk. This important and compassionate book further sounds the alarm over childhood trauma-and what can be done to remedy its effects." - Kirkus Reviews, starred review

From the Publisher

...for the true science nerd who also craves a page turner...Burke Harris tells the stories of her patients carefully and sometimes humorously, and the studies she cites, showing how early exposure to stress hormones can plague a person for years, are both disturbing and fascinating.

The New York Times Book Review - Judith Newman

09/01/2017
Founder and CEO of the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco and a TED talker whose "I Was Thinking Too Small" has been viewed 2.5 million times, Burke Harris was inspired by a young male patient who stopped growing after sexual trauma to investigate the long-term impact of childhood adversity. A survey of 17,000 adult patients found that the higher the incidence of experiences such as divorce and parental substance abuse, the worse the adult's health. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal

Read More

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The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity|Paperback

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A heartbreaking, world-shaking, revolutionary book. In The Deepest Well, Nadine Burke Harris uncovers the once-hidden story of why we are the way we are. And she offers a new set of tools, based in science, that can help each of us heal ourselves, our children, and our world."

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Free book and activities: Gizmos' Guide to Mental Health. A child friendly book discussing mental health. 

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Free book and activities: Gizmos' Guide to Mental Health. A child friendly book discussing mental health. 

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Gizmo's Pawesome Guide to Mental Health Guide (Copyright © 2017 All rights reserved.) takes an upstream approach to support the mental health and wellness of youth. It is data-driven and evidence-informed. The Guide seeks to introduce mental health and wellness, and how to care for one's mental health in a nonthreatening way that encourages the self-identification of warning signs and when to apply the use of internal and external healthy coping strategies to help reduce risk. It introduces the characteristics of trusted adults, who may be one, how to practice talking with a trusted adult, and promotes proactive communication. It gives youth the opportunity to create a personal mental health plan (of action) that they can use daily, and in a time of need that can help them avert crisis.

The Guide's message is child-friendly and is presented by Gizmo, a 3.5 Miki dog who lives in Manchester, CT. He is a K-9 First Responder and Therapy Dog who is the mascot for the Connecticut Suicide Prevention Campaign: 1 Word, 1 Voice, 1 Life...Be the One to Start the Conversation. Their website is http://www.preventsuicidect.org/.
Please read more about the development of the Guide and its accompanying curriculum...
Gizmo's Pawesome Guide to Mental Health (Guide) was developed and released the summer of 2017 under the Connecticut Networks of Care for Suicide Prevention (NCSP) Initiative (SM62916), a 2015-2020 Garrett Lee Smith youth suicide prevention grant awarded to the CT Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) for 10-24 year-olds funded by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The NCSP grant is co-directed by DMHAS, and the CT Departments of Children and Families (DCF) and Public Health. The Guide was printed with funding from the NCSP and the CT Children's Mental Health Block Grant under DCF.

The purpose of the NCSP is to develop, enhance, implement, and integrate sustainable, comprehensive, culturally competent, evidence-based/-informed youth suicide prevention strategies statewide to reduce non-fatal suicide attempts and suicide deaths among at risk youth and young adults age 10-24 in CT.

The Guide was developed to respond to a critical youth suicide prevention and mental health promotion education and service gap evidenced by the CT data, and to support youth mental health literacy and social emotional learning. Utilizing the evidence-based Safety Plan (Stanley and Brown, 2012) as the framework, the Guide introduces mental health and wellness knowledge and skills to youth at an early age with the hope that they may keep and apply what they learn for a lifetime to help them stay healthy and safe.

These include:

1. What is mental health;

2. Mental health is equally as important as physical health;

3. Daily activities that support mental health wellness;

4. How to identify when mental health needs attention;

5. Internal and external healthy coping strategies that support mental health;

6. How to identify and connect with trusted adults; and

7. Resources to share with trusted adults.

Gizmo, the mascot for the CT suicide prevention campaign- "1 WORD, 1 VOICE, 1 LIFE...Be the 1 to start the conversation," and his fellow therapy dog and K9 First Responder friends use a warm and fuzzy approach to introduce youth to what can be a challenging subject for adults to discuss and for youth to understand. This approach makes the Guide engaging, memorable, and not only easy to use, but fun as well. As Dr. Lezine's testimonial reads on the back cover,

"This book is a delightful new resource that can be used by kids to help themselves, and by parents or provider to help kids. Not only is the portrayal of Gizmo the therapy dog as a mental health coach a cute concept, it sets up potentially productive dialogues. The doggies model practical steps even little people can use to cope with emotional challenges. Elements of an evidence-based approach to handling distress with adults have been thoughtfully transferred to this kid-friendly format."

The Guide's accompanying curriculum was developed by the NCSP in 2017-18 in response to the overwhelmingly positive feedback we received internationally, as Gizmo has over 170,000 Facebook Friends-Gizmo's Frens, from parents, grandparents, caregivers, teachers, school administrators, medical and mental health providers, librarians, youth service providers, mobile crisis services, law enforcement, etc. all looking for ways to bring the book to life for the youth (and young at heart) they care about.

The curriculum is flexible and uses activities that strive to help youth, their trusted adults, and the settings in which they live support their mental health and create a greater sense of individual and community connectedness thereby strengthening their mental wellness and reducing their risk of many negative health outcomes, but most importantly poor mental health and suicide.

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Gizmo's Pawesome Guide to Mental Health Guide (Copyright © 2017 All rights reserved.) takes an upstream approach to support the mental health and wellness of youth. It is data-driven and evidence-informed.

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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51152447-caste

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Read 18.2k reviews from the world's largest community for readers. The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the ...