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Infographic: How to set work boundaries to avoid burnout
Pia De Los Reyes Mental HealthcareWith remote work being the new professional normal, it can be especially challenging to stay productive and separate job stress from our personal lives. When stress is high and maintained over a period of time, it can lead to burnout or a type of work-related stress that can have a myriad of negative effects on your health and productivity. Those experiencing burnout can suffer from fatigue and mental exhaustion, and it can also lower work performance and cause job dissatisfaction. Over time, burnout can increase your vulnerability to disease and even potentially cost you lost income because of unpaid sick leave or a missed promotion.
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More pieces to the STEM diversity puzzle
Sheilamary Koch EducationMonths back, the University of California, Berkeley's College of Engineering posted a newly created assistant dean of equity and inclusion position to impact the climate and culture of the college and help it carry out its stated mission of educating an inclusive group of leaders. It wasn’t so surprising that a major university was seeking to be more inclusive in a demographically skewed course of study. Women are 47% of the overall workforce yet occupy only 15% of engineering jobs while Blacks make up 11% of the nation’s workforce but hold 5% of engineering jobs, according to a Pew Research analysis of federal employment and education data. While one in four students is Hispanic and this group represents 17% of the workforce, only 8% hold science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) positions.
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Celebrate the end of the school year with fun closing activities
Savanna Flakes EducationYou made it! We all made it! What a year! Though my articles usually provide instructional strategies to support diverse learners, as this school year wraps up, it is only fitting that everyone stop and play the song "Celebrate" by Earth, Wind, and Fire. Please take a special moment to celebrate yourself, students, and our community of families. This school year was no ordinary year, full of unprecedented events and more. Before the school year wraps up, provide yourself and students opportunities to celebrate, appreciate the great times, and close with optimism.
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Encouraging mental health awareness in the classroom
Ginger Abbot EducationEducators teach students about more than math and science. They also establish spaces where kids develop their social skills and learn more about themselves. It's a critical place for introducing topics surrounding mental health, but that might be tricky to integrate into lesson plans. If you're wondering how to encourage mental health awareness in the classroom, try these tips.
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What should I do? I think my child struggles with reading.
Howard Margolis and Gary G. Brannigan EducationAs students start returning to school, many will face the Herculean task of becoming proficient readers. Some will be first-graders, some fourth-graders, and so on. And many of them, as their parents and guardians suspect, will face enormous struggles. If you're one of these parents or guardians who suspect that your child will struggle with reading, now is the time for action. Action alone, however, will not be enough. It's critical that you know what to request and what to avoid. This article focuses on one aspect of what's critical: Getting a comprehensive reading evaluation.
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How to help students with reading and L2 acquisition
Douglas Magrath EducationReading needs to be a part of any language course and is an important part of L2 acquisition. The more students have access to interesting reading material outside of the textbooks, the faster L2 acquisition will take place. Group work is especially helpful. In the case of online learning, students may feel isolated, but with the internet they can work together in small groups. Additionally, vocabulary is key to reading. A good way to help learners is to connect the new words to words they already know.
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The secrets of an effective school leader
Brian Stack EducationI know a lot of great school principals who are very modest when it comes to talking about how their effectiveness as leaders correlates with the success of their schools, but let’s be honest — school principals play an incredibly large role in the success (or failure) of their schools. In an April 2021 Educational Leadership article, entitled "What Great Principals Really Do," researchers and authors Jason Grissom, Anna Egalite, and Constance Lindsay completed a meta-analysis of six major research studies on principal effectiveness and concluded the following: "The quality of a school's principal is a big determinant of student achievement."
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Bridging the gap between school safety and emotional wellness during a…
Lynn Scott and Kiera Anderson EducationSchools seeking assessment for the purpose of evaluating and improving family and community connection can earn a family-friendly school designation by the Department of Education. The recognition is the result of an assessment process centered around surveys of school staff, parents, and students. The Family Friendly School program addresses not only academic, but physical, emotional and social needs of students. Schools earn distinction by providing evidentiary documentation addressing the components of the program.
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What’s the BIG Idea? Episode 2: Steve Jurash on leading through crisis
Hank Boyer Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementIn this video, Hank Boyer visits with Steve Jurash, president of the 5,000-plus member Manufacturing Alliance of Philadelphia (MAP). MAP represents several hundred thousand manufacturing employees. In March 2020, Jurash led MAP through an incredibly challenging period of dealing with the COVID-19 crisis, an event that brought manufacturing everywhere to a sudden halt. With several hundred thousand employees' lives affected by his decision-making, Jurash faced one of his most challenging periods of leadership. He shares more than 20 best practices effective leaders use to navigate during periods of crisis.
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Bridging the gap between school safety and emotional wellness during a…
Lynn Scott and Kiera Anderson EducationThe National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments defines emotional safety as experiences in which one feels safe to express emotions, confidence to take risks, and feels challenged and excited to try something new. They conclude emotionally safe learning environments can be achieved by making social-emotional learning (SEL) an essential part of education. Emotional and physical safety allows the brain to be in a prepared state to learn. Now more than ever, schools have an indispensable obligation to seize the opportunity, evaluate past practices, and adopt new methods to bridge the gap between physical safety and emotional wellness.
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