Blog
12 blog posts in 2022
In Order to Improve. . . Schools Need to Understand HOW to Improve
New Blog discusses ten principles needed to guide school improvement and change—both internally from the Leaders within, and externally for those working as consultants from the outside. These princip...
Read Full ArticleWhy School Shootings are Extreme SEL Events at the Far End of the Social-Emotional Learning Continuum
This Blog emphasizes that school shootings are extreme events at the far end of the social-emotional learning continuum that often occur due to a combination of incomplete preventative practices and i...
Read Full ArticleHow Many More Children Need to be Gunned Down in our Schools and on our Streets?
Blog discusses the recent school shooting in Uvalde, TX, and why both gun control and mental health services are needed to decrease the possibility of similar, future events. An emotional plea is made...
Read Full ArticleReconceptualizing Professional Development for the Coming School Year
Many school improvement initiatives fail because of their approach to professional development. This Blog describes the three interdependent goals and components of effective professional development,...
Read Full ArticleUsing Effective Practices to Screen and Validate Students’ Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Status (Part II)
New article (Part II of a two-part Series) discusses five primary ways to collect information within a school’s screening-to-services process when students have SEL challenges: Reviewing, Interviewing...
Read Full ArticleSchools Must Use Effective Practices to Screen and then Validate Students’ Mental Health Status (Part I)
In the face of schools training teachers to screen and recognize the "early warning" indicators of students' social-emotional and mental health problems, this Blog discusses the ten necessary screenin...
Read Full ArticleStudents Understand Social “Reality” Only When They Can Socially Analyze Multiple Realities
Using a recent episode of Survivor where a transgender cast member “came out,” this Blog discusses the importance to teaching students media and social media skills to differentiate between fact, fict...
Read Full ArticleFitting Social Skills Instruction into the School Day: Necessity, Priority, Fidelity, and the Secondary School Advisory Period
To address students' current social skills gaps, this Blog described the characteristics of effective social skills programs; when and how classroom teachers can schedule and teach the social skills c...
Read Full ArticleThe SEL Secret to Success: You Need to “Stop & Think” and “Make Good Choices”
After describing Counselors' perspectives on the most pressing social, emotional, or behavioral student, staff, and school needs, this Blog describes the SEL outcomes when students are taught emotiona...
Read Full ArticleWhy Do They Keep Trying to “Validate” Restorative Practices with Lousy (or Worse) Data?
New Blog critically analyzes (a) a new “research” report that inaccurately attempts to use a large-scale student survey to show that restorative practices “effectively” decrease disproportionate disci...
Read Full Article(Pandemic-Related?) Behavioral Challenges and Student Violence in Our Schools Today
Given the increasing number of social, emotional, and behavioral challenges exhibited by students in schools across the country this school year, this Blog encourages schools to avoid “crisis-oriented...
Read Full ArticleEducators Need to Deal with Reality by Facing, Analyzing, and then Changing Reality
With all of the polarized political, Pandemic, and pressurized issues and challenges facing education right now, this Blog encourages districts and schools to analyze, prioritize, strategize, and reco...
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