Psyched About School

I've been a school psychologist for many years now.  In my early years, I remember watching the news about Columbine and trying to figure out how I would help the students at my schools cope with their feelings when the violence made no sense to me. After all of these years, I continue to struggle with this dilemma. Although recent news has brought more of these unspeakable acts to our attention, I also realize that many children are struggling to deal with serious trauma in their own lives. Many of these children are quite young and have not had the opportunity to learn skills to help them cope. Enter Sesame Street.  Sesame Workshop, the program's nonprofit educational division, saw that children needed these strategies to help them deal with unexpected stressful events, such as divorce, abuse, and natural disasters.  The videos teach children how to express emotion and reduce the stress they feel.  They also come with a learning guide to help adults know how to re...

I promise no one grows up dreaming of being a school psychologist.  Well, maybe the children of school psychologists do (we actually have a staff member who can vouch for that) but  I know I certainly didn’t.  Something about a car so full of test kits that you can’t fit your groceries in it doesn’t scream “dream job,” but somehow it is.  So what is school psychology?  I would describe school psychology as the perfect marriage between psychology and education.  School psychologists are trained in mental health, child development, learning styles, behavior, and intervention planning.  Sure, we do a lot of assessment, report writing, and paperwork but, believe it or not, all of those things can be fun.  Assessing a child is like putting together a puzzle of how a kid learns best, helping them see their strengths, and identifying where they struggle.  With that in mind, school psychologists assess for a number of academic and behavior...

As we all know, October is National Bullying Prevention Month.  Each year, we talk about this topic with our students and discuss ways they can help prevent bullying.  As teachers and support staff, most of us view our role as supporting positive behaviors in students.  But have you ever stopped to think about what each one of us can do with our own actions to foster an environment of kindness in our schools?  When I came across this article from weareteachers.com, I started to think about the powerful role models we are to our students and what a tremendous impact we have on their attitudes and actions. This article gives 49 simple ideas for creating a positive environment in our schools. 49 Ways to Create a Tidal Wave of Kindness in Schools