Blog

There’s something magical about giving power to students to resolve peer conflicts. No longer is it an adult who is steering the conversation, giving consequences, and perhaps even making judgements on a student’s decision-making ability. Instead, it’s a peer who is nonjudgmentally listening to both sides of a situation and helping to brainstorm solutions.  Peer mediation is like having good friends help two students work out a problem when they’re not getting along. …

Work-life balance. What if it’s not what we think it is? I used to think it meant schoolwork could be contained within the school day. Ideally, I would have energy and time left over to do non-school-related activities in the evenings and on the weekends. But, using this definition, I still haven’t reached a work-life balance. Schoolwork often spills out of my school day and into other parts of my life.    Fortunately, I have great news! I found a new definition. Accor …

Most of us can remember feeling dread in the moments before taking a test, and the fears, self-doubts, and what ifs that flourish in those moments: What if I get stuck on a question? What if I don’t know the answer? What if I freeze and forget everything? Today’s students have the same fears and doubts. But they also experience those emotions more frequently and sometimes more intensely. Why? Because in addition to their classroom tests, there has been a steady rise in the nu …

“I’ll start my diet on Monday. I’ll start my diet this summer. I’ll start my diet in 2025…” Sound familiar? The start of a new year is always buzzing with excitement, full of promises of new beginnings. It's that time when we give ourselves permission to start fresh, set big goals, and dive into resolutions with a “clean slate.” We tell ourselves this will finally be the year we check off all those things we’ve been putting off: reading that book, organizing the garage, clearing out the junk …