Blogs on Teacher Development

Early in the school year, Mr. Spriggs asked me to sit in on a conference with his most challenging student. Jon rarely participated appropriately in class, instead drawing attention to himself by "accidentally" dropping books, suddenly having coughing spells and loudly expelling air from either end. It was considered a relative victory when his disinterest expressed itself more quietly through slouched shoulders, bored yawns and feigned sleep.

There is resistance in life to many great ideas, and resistance to social, emotional and character development (SECD) in schools is one of them. Let's make 2013 the year you break through whatever resistance you are finding in your educational setting. Here's how.

It has been one week. The surreal string of heart-wrenching funeral services is winding down. The Sandy Hook children who survived have been placed in another school, and they will return in January. There is the facade of movement and activity in Newtown, Connecticut, but down deep, there is deep-seated grief and the inextinguishable memories of the 26 wonderful human beings gone too soon. It will be a long while before the families and educators will feel anything close to right again. But there are ways we can help and hasten the day when it hurts a little less.

For Your Eyes Only

It is a little known fact that Santa has an entire division of elves who focus on educators. They are known as ELFS (Elves Love Following Schoolteachers). These ELFS spend their days tracking down educators to make sure they are being nice. When a teacher is naughty or nice, they make note of it and send it to the ELFS database for the computers to sort out. Another little known fact: Google’s algorithm for searches is based on the ELFS computer system at the North Pole.