| By: Committee for Children Talking About Tough Topics with Tweens: Part 2 of 2 We’ve also been talking about the difference between unsafe and unwanted touch. When I asked nine-year-old Etta to give me an example of unsafe touch, my witty child walked over to Amos and slugged him. “Correct!” I crowed. Amos remarked drily, “It was unwanted, too.” Read More
| By: Committee for Children Talking About Tough Topics with Tweens: Part 1 of 2 Talking about tough topics, in addition to being an excellent tongue-twister, is a skill every parent needs to master, or at least muddle through. As someone who once found the perfect moment to talk about sex with her five and eight year old children after hearing an NPR story about drive-up windows for boar semen (“What are they even talking about, Mom?”), I am a big fan of seizing natural opportunities. Of course, sometimes those opportunities don’t come soon enough, and we need to nudge them along.Read More
| By: Committee for Children Integrating Social-Emotional Strategies into Content Areas: Second Part – Math! When we educators reflect on this notion of how we “feel” about math, I’ve noticed we often go back to memories where others labeled us “good” at math or “not good” at math. We must think about these moments and make sure we don’t do the same in our own teaching.Read More
| By: Committee for Children Integrating Social-Emotional Strategies into Content Areas: First Part – Art! I taught a lesson last week to second and third graders about Vincent Van Gogh. We began by reading a story about Van Gogh—the most “tragic” artist in art history, according to the book. We talked about how what he painted changed with his moods. We talked about our moods and how when our moods change what we do at the moment is affected. For example, when we are happy we often do our best job, and when we are grumpy or upset about something we rarely do our best jobRead More
| By: Committee for Children Look How Far We Have Come! In honor of National Bullying Prevention Month, I thought it would be nice to highlight all the progress that has been made in bullying prevention over the past 15 years.Read More
| By: Committee for Children Book review: Talk About Touch by Sandra Kleven. Illustrated by Patrick Minock Reading Level: Preschool–Grade 2 Set in a traditional Alaska Native village, Talk About Touch is an exceptionally gentle, caring story about children and parents talking about personal safety and, in particular, sexual abuse. Eric is a young boy whose father, while working with him on their snowmobile, broaches… Read More
| By: Committee for Children Train Your Staff, Protect Your Students By Tonje Molyneux & Matt Pearsall Awareness about the issue of child abuse and neglect is on the rise, both among educators and the general public. This increase in awareness is good news for children who may be suffering from abuse or neglect. State and local governments across the United States are drafting new laws to help protect children. Many of these initiatives—such as Read More
| By: Committee for Children Include Parents in Social and Emotional Strategies What if all parents focused just as much on their kids’ social and emotional growth as the number on their report cards? What if understanding emotions and being able to communicate them was as high a priority as knowing basic math facts? What if along with reading to your child every night your classroom teacher expected you to brainstorm five different ways your child could make a new friend the next day?Read More
| By: Committee for Children Our Stance on Corporal Punishment There’s a nationwide conversation happening about how we discipline our kids. Recent Read More
| By: Committee for Children Two Cs Competition vs. Collaboration Our children are exposed to competition enough in sports and outside of school. Even the workforce these days is longing for people who can work collaboratively. Top CEOs of companies will tell you they are looking for team players. Yet time and time again I see a competitive classroom environment that fosters just the opposite. How are you fostering collaboration in your classroom?Read More