Social Emotional Learning

As a high school counselor I am very in tune with the problems and issues teens face on a daily basis.  Social media, bullying, drugs and alcohol, and diet are all hot topics in schools around the country.  Another issue, anxiety, is one I have seen escalate over the years.  Anxiety is the most common problem reported by children of all ages.  So many of our kids are feeling anxiety for a variety of reasons, and treatment for this disorder, whether medication or coping skills, is also on the rise. This week our school hosted Dr. Whitney Wheeler from the [...]

Now that summer is over and we’re all back to our “normal” school year routines, I think it’s important to take a moment to examine what these routines are.  Are they beneficial?  Do they help make us the best person/student we can be?  Are they even the most efficient routines? Many of us wake up in the morning, check our phones, take a shower and head off for work or school.  Once we’re at work or school there is likely a routine we follow for much of the day:  same class periods each day, same meetings each week, same teacher [...]

  A few weeks ago my high school hosted a presentation by Dr. Mike Brooks, a highly-regarded psychologist here in Austin.  Dr. Brooks is the founder of the Austin Psychology and Assessment Center, which is one of the main testing centers in town.  In addition to providing psychological services for the Austin community, Dr. Brooks spends much of his time researching the use of technology by kids.  His research dates back to the golden age of video games, and he has written many articles on the subject. The presentation at my school was titled:  Tech Generation: Raising Balanced Kids in [...]

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Texas Psychological Association’s annual convention, an event that I go to every year as part of my ongoing professional development.  There were a few sessions I checked out, but one in particular stood out as especially relevant:  Resilience Starts in Schools:  SEL for Healthy Relationships, which was conducted by Dr. Jeff Temple and Ms. Lauren Scott, both from UT-Medical Branch in Galveston. My last post explained Social/Emotional Learning using the model developed by CASEL and presented its 5 core competencies.  Dr. Temple and Ms. Scott utilized this model throughout their presentation, but [...]