Crisis Response

Every school administrator must be prepared to respond to a crisis. We deal extensively with this topic in EDLD 6352 … but here are some additional resources that might prove helpful (see below).

ASCD compiled this list in the wake of the horrendous school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. It may prove helpful should your community experience such an unthinkable tragedy. However, many of these resources would also be useful for dealing with other crises (like tornadoes, floods, and hurricanes), or even student deaths due to suicide or accidents.

Supporting Educators to Rise Stronger After a Traumatic Event: Administrators must be ready to reprioritize and address the effects of loss, grief, and change that educators experience.

Guiding Students and Families Through Grief: How can school staff help students process deep emotional stress and send them on the path of restoration and healing?

For School Leaders, a Time of Vigilance and Caring: A recent survey shows that gun violence has become one of principals’ biggest concerns. But are we taking the right steps to ensure schools are safe?

How Schools Should Really Talk About Safety: Moving beyond gut reactions to tragedies toward a more comprehensive approach for safeguarding students.

Why Social Bonding Is a School-Safety Priority: In enhancing school security, school leaders should not overlook the importance of connection.

Can SEL Reduce School Violence?: A researcher says teaching empathy, problem solving, and self-control could lead to safer schools.

WEBINAR: Equipping Educators with Effective Violence Prevention and Crisis Response Strategies: School safety concerns have tragically been thrust to the forefront of a national discussion, but too much of the talk has been at schools and educators rather than with them.

Meeting Student Needs

Here’s a great article that shares stories from teachers who adjusted their curriculum based on student responses. It’s an insightful validation of our core philosophy of “student-centered” learning, and I strongly encourage you to share it with your teachers and staff.

Please note that #3 meshes nicely with the homework section in this Blog. That includes a sample homework policy that reflects the latest research on homework, as well as specific recommendations from educational organizations that have given serious study to this issue (National Education Association, National Parent Teacher Association, etc.).

Again, meeting student needs is what it’s all about … and this article offers some excellent examples!


When Times Get Tough

This week has been extremely frustrating. Without going into too much detail, our state recently passed a law that will require a significant amount of extra work for many teachers. This law doesn’t address a widespread problem (there was only a single misunderstood incident in one school), but a few partisan legislators jumped on it, blowing it all out of proportion to pander to their base … and the end result was this new unnecessary law. Grrrrrr!

I was venting about this a bit to my old mentor, who today is an endowed chair at a major university. He’s had a lifetime of experience in multiple settings (including top leadership positions in Texas and Pennsylvania), and has served as a consultant to hundreds of school systems in more than forty states. Simply put, he’s “been there and done that” too many times to count. He’s always been a fount of wisdom and I truly value his input.

After we discussed this situation back and forth for a while, he offered this comment that was so insightful I just had to share it: “Forget about trying to influence the system.  Focus on working with individual students, individual teachers, and individual schools and you will make a meaningful difference. And occasionally, you may even get the chance to influence policy on a broader scale.”

Wow, just wow! I hope this encouragement to “refocus” helps you as much as it did me, especially in these “interesting” times.

Note: Just to be clear, this post is only my personal opinion. It in no way represents an official position by my department, my college, or my university.

More on SEL …

In previous posts, we’ve discussed Social Emotion Learning (SEL) and the positive impact it can have on student learning. There’s now over a decade of data supporting SEL implementation, and many districts have found ways to sustain and even expand SEL … despite ongoing leadership and budget challenges.*

In 2011, eight large school districts formed a network to share ideas on how to apply SEL research to real-life, districtwide practices. This article shares the lessons they learned from that process, and provides inspiration for schools and districts wanting to emulate their success.

*See previous posts about nationwide concerns in these areas.