Healthy School News
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Emotional Intelligence from a Teenage Perspective
Maximillian Park speaks as a vulnerable teen to the necessity to have emotional intelligence classes in schools. He addresses the needs that young people have for the skills that come along with a high EQ. He discusses his experience with emotional intelligence, the...
Free lesson plan: Autobiography in 5 short chapters
There’s a Hole in My Sidewalk: Autobiography in Five Short Chapters I. I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost…. I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It takes me forever to find a way out. II. I walk down the same street. There...
Podcast: Tanya Talaga’s Seven Truths
Tanya Talaga’s Seven Truths highlights the fight for human rights among First Nations peoples. The basis for the Audible.ca podcast Seven Truths comes from the Seven Grandfather Teachings that guide Anishinaabe life - humility, love, honesty, bravery respect, wisdom...
Why it’s time to feel less guilty about screen time
Instead of obsessing over the hours children spend using devices, experts now suggest considering how kids are using them. Some key points from an article by Dave McGinn, Globe and Mail, January 16, 2021 - Why it’s time to feel less guilty about screen time during...
We are our Choices
French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre wrote some of his most influential work including a theatrical drama about Christmas while he spent nine months as a prisoner of war in Stalag 12 in Nice and acknowledged, possibly for the first time, the full meaning and broader...
Resilience is not a DIY endeavour
Put down the self-help books. Resilience is not a DIY endeavour! Michael Ungar is the Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience, a professor of social work at Dalhousie University and a family therapist. He is the author of more than a dozen...
“Teens and Transition” Guides – ReachOut Australia
ReachOut Australia has more than 20 years’ experience of delivering digital mental health and wellbeing programs backed by their own in-house digital team. A strengths-based prevention and early intervention model is used. ReachOut is trusted by and able to...
Sex Education for Parents!
Watch this 5 minute hilarious video of a parent trying to explain the ‘facts of life’ to his son… Is this where things are now in the field of sex ed? Talk about changes to the role of parents when discussing this topic! What if grandparents, aunties, uncles are asked...
Relationships in Kids’ Lives
Developmental Assets from the Search Institute are the key part in Teens and Transition - A Parent Guide. The Search Institute bridges research and practice to help young people become their best selves. Search Institute has compiled decades of research from young...
How solitude and isolation can affect your social skills
Recommended article: How solitude and isolation can affect your social skills by Zaria Borvett An excerpt from the article: According to Ty Tashiro, a psychologist and the author of Awkward: The Science of Why We're Socially Awkward and Why That's Awesome, it seems...
What Other Cultures can Teach us About Forgiveness
Recommended article: What Other Cultures can Teach us about Forgiveness by William Park on the BBC website From the article: Forgiving someone else can have a positive effect on your life, but exactly how you forgive someone depends on where in the world you are from....
Is There A Link Between Teen Suicide and Social Media?
Suicide rates for teens have risen between 2010 and 2015 after a nearly two decade decline according to data from the US federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Why the rates went up isn’t known but the rates among US teens occurred at the same time...
10 Tips for Teaching Your Kids Mindfulness
EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique or ’Tapping’) is a powerful modality, with lots of research, that helps with all kinds of conditions/situations. In this example it is anxiety and fear. Nick Ortner provides a simple tool that is taught to kids in many schools. All...
The 2020 Back-to-School List for Teens’ Emotional Well-Being
This article by psychologist Lisa Damour offers helpful tips for students going back to school in times of Covid-19. The 2020 Back-to-School List for Teens’ Emotional Well-Being A free account may be needed to read this New York Times piece. Can parents help...
Staying Focused in Times of Distraction
Tech distractions may harm your concentration, but you can reverse it, says psychologist Originally aired March 15, 2020 Designing for dependence: How your devices and apps are built to get you hooked. Stefan Van der Stigchel, a cognitive psychologist and author of...
Your Healthiest Self: Wellness Toolkits
The National Institute of Health website has all sorts of valuable health information. Of particular interest are the Wellness Toolkits. Each person’s “healthiest self” is different. We have different bodies, minds, living situations, and people influencing our lives....
What is an Indigenous medicine wheel?
Bob Joseph, President of Indigenous Corporate Training Inc., has written the informative article What is an Indigenous Medicine Wheel?. The Wellness Wheel centrepiece in “Wellness: A Question of Balance” and the Indigenous Medicine Wheel demonstrate similar...
Mindfulness for kids
Back to school means lots of change this year. While this year is going to be a challenge for parents and teachers out there, kids may be the ones who need the most support in building their capacity to be resilient, adaptable, and grounded. There are a variety of...
Is Unschooling the Way to Decolonize Education?
As the ongoing pandemic brings into sharp focus the ways kids are learning (or not), Next City looks at self-directed education, which respects each student’s passions, encourages self-sufficiency and turns the city into a classroom. The story about the United States...
Social Distancing is Hurting the Mental Health of Young People
The medical journal The Lancet has examined the impact of social distancing on adolescents. The summary points out that young people between the ages of 10 and 24 need to interact face-to-face with their peers to develop fully, both behaviourally and neurologically....
Reopen schools with a ‘golden age of play’
This article is a good reminder to focus kids' activities on play, physical exercise, the arts (music, drama, art, movement, etc.) as therapeutic outlets. Reopen schools with a 'golden age of play' Excerpt: When the novel coronavirus is no longer as great a threat and...
Music to Start Conversations With Teens
Lean on Me - ArtistsCAN You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry & the Pacemakers High School Dropout - Neon Dreams Spirits - Strumbellas Why I Refuse to Let Technology Control Me - Prince Ea
Sleep is Your Superpower
Sleep is your life-support system and Mother Nature's best effort yet at immortality, says sleep scientist Matt Walker. In this deep dive into the science of slumber, Walker shares the wonderfully good things that happen when you get sleep -- and the alarmingly bad...
The Great Realization
This video offers a whimsical and hopeful look at how future generations will, hopefully, remember what the world has gone through with the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw5KQMXDiM4
More information and less meaning
“We live in a world where there is more and more information and less and less meaning." - French sociologist, philosopher and cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard in his book Simulacra and Simulation. Baudrillard points to contemporary media and the mechanisms of Late...
Increase in online predators since COVID-19
It's "Fishing Season" for online predators. Child protection organizations are seeing a ’significant uptick” in predators using COVID-19 as an opportunity to exploit online. Sexual predators are ready to take advantage of increased screen time during COVID-19...
The Science of a Meaningful Life
Bring science of a "meaningful life" out of the lab. The University of California Berkeley website Greater Good Magazine bridges science and practice for school districts to investigate. The Greater Good Science Center studies the psychology, sociology, and...
When “I” is Replaced by “We”
When "I" is replaced by "we," even "illness" becomes "wellness." - Malcolm X From a window in Boston, posted by an RN named Judean. Words to remember now and always. It must be "we." (Source: Illinois Family Physicians on Twitter)
Nine Things all Children Need to be Resilient
How do you help your child be resilient? Researcher Dr. Michael Ungar of Dalhousie University has outlined the nine things that all children and teens need to be resilient and the strategies to help them grow. Structure Consequences Parent-child connections Lots and...
Essential Conditions for Taking a Comprehensive School Health Approach
Comprehensive school health is an internationally recognized framework for supporting improvements in students' educational outcomes while addressing school health in a planned, integrated and holistic way. Dr. Kate Storey, a researcher from the University of Alberta,...