by Lynea Gillen | Mar 5, 2016 | Families, Social-Emotional Learning
Ask a kid what it takes to make a good friendship, and they can tell you: But that doesn’t necessarily mean they know how to make friends, how to translate their head knowledge into action. Though you see kids make friendships very quickly in their earliest years, by...
by Lynea Gillen | Feb 28, 2016 | ADHD, Behavior
When I first began working as a school counselor, I sometimes got frustrated with children who didn’t seem to apply the social/emotional lessons I taught them. “Why don’t they get it?” I asked my colleague Anne Bagwell, a counselor and an amazing mentor. “I explain...
by Lynea Gillen | Feb 20, 2016 | Anxiety, Stress, Tips
Another year, another testing season…though now with some welcome (if long-overdue) gestures toward “right-sizing” testing, most notably the Every Student Succeeds Act. This legislation, wrote Laura Moser earlier this month on Slate, seriously dialed back the emphasis...
by Lynea Gillen | Feb 13, 2016 | Mindfulness
There’s a simple reason you keep seeing more schools establishing mindfulness programs: They work. As Kim Rempel summed up in her 2012 review of the literature, The potential benefits of integrating mindfulness-based training into school settings are significant in...
by Lynea Gillen | Feb 6, 2016 | Families
One day when our granddaughter Anna was feeling sick with a cold, she sang a little song that went like this. “When you’re sick, rest is best, rest is best.” She told us that if she rested, she would get well faster. Then came other songs – one about being a big help...