March 2023 – Happy Schools

The ‘Happy’ Tonic – Your Free Antidote to Stress

March 30, 2023

AAGHH!!! – stress, frustration, anxiety, feeling overwhelmed….you know the feeling, especially at this time of the year? Stress and anxiety increase your levels of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol, within your body. In excess, these hormones dampen your immune system, leaving you exhausted and reducing your capacity to think clearly. Not a great combination! So, what can you do to combat the detrimental effects of an overload of stress in today’s busy world? The answer lies in the ‘Happy’ tonic! The three, simple, proven ‘Mind tools’, to lower your stress levels, increase your longevity and increase your inner happiness are: 1. STOP and Breathe (Try not to breathe! – it doesn’t work very well does it?) Next time you are…

Can Kids Count on You?

March 23, 2023

Stevef

Communication

Do you have the trust of those you teach? The bottom line and absolute truth is that humans — whether adults or children — don’t learn if we don’t trust. Children easily vibe when adults lack trust with each other and they aren’t blind to the hypocrisy of those same adults telling them to trust their teachers and fellow students.That said, trust is not a given. It has to be earned. According to educational consultant and author of Trust Matters, Megan Tschannen-Moran, in a hierarchal relationship, those in power — teachers, in the case of the classroom — are responsible for building trust. Keep it Real Sure, mix it up and add a few new slogans to your repertoire of…

Efficient Email

March 16, 2023

Stevef

Communication

Email is meant to make our lives easier and improve our communication by being fast, easy to use and ‘stockpiling’ messages for when WE are ready to read them. However, we are all too aware of the downsides of email as well. Email creates a sense of urgency and immediacy. We assume that other people have read our email almost as soon as it has been sent. We expect a quick reply and become frustrated when we don’t receive a timely response. As well as this feeling of frustration, this immediacy can also hijack our predetermined priorities. An incoming email is not just another task added to our ‘To Do’ list, it becomes THE task that I need to do…

Find Your Marigolds

March 9, 2023

Stevef

Teamwork

Working in schools can be challenging, especially for new graduates. I recently came across a brilliant article by Jenn Gonzalez on her website Cult of Pedagogy titled, Find Your Marigold: The One Essential Rule For New Teachers. The article, highlights the importance of surrounding yourself with good people. By finding the positive, supportive, energetic teachers in your school and sticking close to them, you can improve your job satisfaction more than with any other strategy and your chances of excelling in this field will skyrocket. Just like a young seedling growing in a garden, thriving in your first year depends largely on who you plant yourself next to. THE MARIGOLD EFFECT Many experienced gardeners follow a concept called companion planting:…

Are they Attention Seeking Or Connection Seeking?

March 2, 2023

Stevef

Effectiveness

The next time you call a kid “attention-seeking”, change it to “connection-seeking” and see how your perspective changes. The people who need connection the most are often the hardest ones to give it to on any given day. Kids are hardwired to turn it up louder and louder until we meet their needs and assist them in making sense of the world. Author of the great book, “Kids These Days”, Dr Jody Carrington explains that behind every mad is a sad. She says she has never met an angry, cranky child who is mad with the world, who wasn’t sad. She says there is always a sense of loss, a sense of something that is not okay and they are…