I recently enjoyed watching this 20-minute video on the neuroscience of SEL. In the video, Dr. Richardson Davidson discusses the plasticity of social and emotional skills. Plasticity (in neuroscience) describes the brain’s ability to adapt and change throughout life. Decades
Social Emotional Learning During Breaks
When I go on breaks, Spring Break, Winter Break, etc I genuinely miss my homeroom students. We share each other’s lives on a daily basis and we have true community. So over summer break I struggle with missing my students
The Case for Beautiful Spaces
When I was about thirteen years old, I decided to carve out a corner of the basement to make a rec space. A disbelieving relative told me, “You can’t turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.” While this was
Belief Systems and Social Emotional Learning
As a blogger, I read a lot of other blogs. I love Edutopia and there is a blog post there by Elena Aguilar that really challenged me to think about belief systems and their role in how teachers might approach
About Love
For me, social and emotional learning has always been about love. A teacher’s love for students is similar to a parent’s love for children. Its symptoms are a cheerful disregard for sleep (in the case of teachers, we are working
Presidential Debate Silver Linings
The Silver Lining of Presidential Debates If you’re like me you are ready to be done with the debates, town halls, commercials, and rhetoric but I would like to offer a silver lining. We can talk about how the candidates
Women’s History Month
March is Women’s History Month, and the Library of Congress has a fantastic series of primary source documents that can serve as a springboard for meaningful homeroom discussions. For the main website, go here. In my own homeroom, I’m excited
Mid-Year Check-in 2016
As February turns and we are in the middle of the long stretch between Winter Break and Spring Break it is a good time to take stock of where your homeroom community is. If your community is strong, great. I
Megan at the MN Senate
Recently I had the opportunity to give recommendations at the MN Senate in a hearing with fellow recipients of the MN Teacher of the Year award. See my remarks here: The senators asked some questions, here is the question and
Academic Mindset
This article was recently published in Mathbits December 30, 2015 The word “Mindset” has a nearly automatic association to many educators out there. There are probably no more successful theories put forth in education in the last 10 years than